A brilliant use of gnomes was devised by the Orange Alternative, an anti-government movement in Poland in the 1980’s. Armed with spray paint, the group peacefully protested the government’s censorship of free speech and public gatherings during the period of martial law by defacing communist propaganda with paintings of mischievous little gnomes. “It was a terrible, dangerous time. You couldn’t go out on the streets at night and there were tanks and soldiers in the main square,” reported a Polish journalist. “The dwarfs gave us something to laugh at, and that was the whole idea: to show how absurd the situation was and encourage people not to be afraid.”   The Orange Alternative organized a gathering in 1988, also known as the Revolution of Dwarfs which attracted more than 10,000 people who marched through the city center in Wrocław wearing orange dwarf hats.  A number of marchers were arrested and the press had a field day capitalizing on the humor of policemen arresting dwarfs which brought national attention to their cause.  Who’s to say if these gnomes had anything to do with the final demise of the communist government but it sounds to me as if they certainly had a hand in it, albeit a little one.
Fast forward to the new millennia.  The city of Wroclaw had a gnome statue erected to honor the legacy of the Orange Alternative.  The statue proved so popular that in 2005 the city commissioned a local artist to create more gnomes.  Enterprising local businesses quickly got in on it and contracted other artists to produce even more.  Very quickly gnome statues proliferated around the city and now number more than 400.  They have proven to be quite a tourist draw which has boosted the town’s economy.
My final tale about these creatures concerns the quaint fad of taking gnome statues on trips and posing them in front of iconic scenes like the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal. The concept of the traveling gnome started fifty years ago when an Australian photographed his own garden gnomes, Harry and Charlie, while he was traveling around Antarctica.  It reminds me of the Flat Stanley I took with me on vacation for my great-nephew.  Ideas often spark other ideas. The vacation gnome devolved into the not so quaint practice of swiping a gnome statue, taking it on a trip, and returning it with a photo album of his vacation. The earliest prank involving a traveling gnome also comes from the Australia.  The Sydney Morning Herald reported in 1986 that a suburban gnome-owner was distressed when she discovered her gnome had been stolen.  A note was found in its place: 'Dear Mum, couldn't stand the solitude any longer. Gone off to see the world. Don't be worried, I'll be back soon. Love Bilbo xxx.”

A special thanks to gnome-owners Janie Clark and Linda Douville :-)

This blog is a little unusual so let me tell you of its evolution.  While waiting for 'Meet the Member' stories from the GGC crowd, I went through my garden photos looking for inspiration and was thrilled with where it led me.   I had taken lot of pictures of whimsical garden statues including this jolly guy who guards Janie Clark's garden 24/7.  I started to do a little research about garden gnomes and dwarfs which resulted in so much strange and interesting information that I have written my first two-part blog. 
The allure of having quiet helpers in the garden dates back to the second century AD when the Roman emperor Hadrian had hermits living throughout his villa’s garden. This idea caught on again in 18th-century England when wealthy landowners would hire a person to be an “ornamental hermit” in their garden.  They were required to live in rustic outbuildings (or hermitages), wear disheveled clothes and grow beards. Having a hermit living in your garden became fashionable in Georgian England. Some historians believe that this garden hermit fad paved the road for garden gnome popularity in Britain.
Once the hermitages and their hermits fell out of favor, ceramic garden gnomes were offered as a less expensive and more humane garden décor.  As early as the 1600s, garden statuary in Europe had evolved to include a key figure known as gobbi which isItalian for “dwarf.” In 19th-century Germany, these diminutive men with pointed hats, round bellies, and white beards became known as Gartenzwerge (garden gnomes).
In 1847 English baronet Sir Charles Edmund Isham bought twenty-one terra cotta garden gnomes from a German manufacturer to decorate his rockery.  After Sir Charles passed away, his ungrateful daughters had all of them removed.  One gnome was in a secluded spot and managed to elude his captors. He wasn’t found until 1940 when he became famous as the oldest garden gnome in the world.  He was nicknamed Lampy after the luxurious Lamport Hall where he now lives indoors given his age and value.  He is insured for £1 million.
Next Friday's blog also includes a story about living dwarfs--stay tuned....