Botanical Garden, Part 2: The Whimsy
The Bellevue Botanical Garden is divided into different sections. There are the actual, manicured and well maintained gardens and then there is the botanical reserve which is full of trees and the wild. When in the wild, one never knows what they may see...deer, wolves, banana slugs, squirrels, mountain lions, birds and....gnomes!
Someone had fun turning nooks and crannies in the botanical reserve into delightful and whimsical gnome homes. Most people associate gnomes as the cute pointy hated little men that people have garden statues for. But here is an interesting historical tidbit about gnomes. Alexander Pope wrote a story called 'The Rape of Lock' in which gnomes appear. In his story, gnomes are reincarnations of prudish women. The gnomes spend the rest of their eternity looking after other prudes to make sure they are unharmed by danger and that their prudish nature is rewarded by safety. One thing all gnomes have in common is that they are little people. Originally, they lived underground, rather than in flower gardens. They could move through the soil, rocks and other elements of 'ground' as if it were air.
Here are more photos from the botanical reserve.
What do you call a mystical, bearded elf-like person with great intelligence?
A Knowme!
Source for information about gnomes:
"Gnome." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 07 Sept. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome>
Someone had fun turning nooks and crannies in the botanical reserve into delightful and whimsical gnome homes. Most people associate gnomes as the cute pointy hated little men that people have garden statues for. But here is an interesting historical tidbit about gnomes. Alexander Pope wrote a story called 'The Rape of Lock' in which gnomes appear. In his story, gnomes are reincarnations of prudish women. The gnomes spend the rest of their eternity looking after other prudes to make sure they are unharmed by danger and that their prudish nature is rewarded by safety. One thing all gnomes have in common is that they are little people. Originally, they lived underground, rather than in flower gardens. They could move through the soil, rocks and other elements of 'ground' as if it were air.
Here are more photos from the botanical reserve.
What do you call a mystical, bearded elf-like person with great intelligence?
A Knowme!
Source for information about gnomes:
"Gnome." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 07 Sept. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome>