A Garden Gnome's Advice Service

Many, many years ago, at the very dawn of this blog, I featured the Garden Gnome Liberation Front, a loose organization who famously stole garden gnomes, took them on holiday and very occasionally returned them to their garden domicile. Ah, those were far more innocent times, but perhaps we need the garden gnome far more now with his wholesome world view, his apple-cheeked smile, long white beard and distinctive red hat. The group showcases a wonderful variety of artwork by illustrators such as Tony Wolf, Cornelia Haendleer, Marie Laure Viriot, Mili Weber Polina Tsymbalova, Heinrich Schlitt, Margaret Winnifred Tarrant and Linda Lammers as well as an anonymous artist or two (who certainly deserve to have been remembered) featuring gnomes and fairies at work and play. One highlight is Italian artist Antonio Lupatelli's Tarot of Gnomes and Fairies, which is beautifully conceived. There is also a selection of photographs showing off gnome statues, as they can be viewed in the Polish city, Wrocław, doing everyday things such as playing cards or enjoying an ice cream. The city has over 800 gnome figures in total. If nothing else, the merry, whimsical nature of the gnome serves as an antidote to the doom and gloom permeating current world affairs. 

Members: 17.4k, at the time of writing

Trigger Warnings: None

Go here to visit or join.

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Garden Gnome Liberation Front

Have you heard about the case of the disappearing garden gnome? The activities of the Garden Gnome Liberation Front is yet another phenomenon birth by the cyber-era. Through a website and the Facebook group, those who sympathize with the plight of garden gnomes mobilize to liberate their friends. Threads on the discussion board include 'Gnome Sanctuary', 'What can I do to help?', 'does anyone know the total world population of garden gnomes is?' and 'Where will freed gnomes be safe?' In the gallery you can spot some liberated gnomes living it up in all sorts of exotic locations.

What's great about this group: It introduces the practice of 'gnoming'.

Update (24 October 2023)

There is still a Facebook Group for the Garden Gnome Liberation Front and it has 3,000 members. Additionally, I also discovered a Facebook Page for the Garden Gnome Liberation Front, with  1,300 followers. Neither community is particularly active, but it's good to know they are still around. Go here to visit or join the Facebook Group and here to like the page. 

Physics doesn't exist, its all gnomes

This is fun. I'm telling you. Take any theory of science you have had to learn through painstaking effort. String theory. Relativity theory. Chaos Theory. What about how things actually work? Digital cameras, for instance, or fireworks. And while we are at it, let us look at psychology and global warming. While we are at it, why stick to what is, when we could move on to what could be? Dark matter and time travel might well be possible in the near future. All we need to do, is to bring in the gnomes. Discussion on this group is centred mainly around what gnomes do for us, have done for us and could do for us. A sampling of threads include 'Gnomes in my bloodstream', 'black hole gnomonics', 'www.gnomopedia.comli.com', 'Eco-Gnome', 'Alcohol gnomes (hic) and their connection to food. All booze gnomes are the same' and The Universe is a Hologram...produced by G(n)omes?' If you think science is way too serious and stuffy, join the group's 66,000 plus members in the fun.

What's great about the group: It represents a fun alternative view of the world as we know it.

Click here to go directly to 'Physics doesn't exist, its all gnomes'.