I like to think Gilda and I are ahead of the curve on many trends, important and not, nonsensical and thoughtful (don’t ask me to identify any; just take my word).
My reverie about trends was stimulated by a Washington Post story on the latest kitsch item to appear on porches—plaster or cement geese (https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2025/04/29/dressed-up-geese-statues-porch-trend/).
Our goose, sans any clothing, took up guard duty on our porch next to a teeny pair of metal chipmunks a few years ago. He joined a menagerie of kitschy animals and people spaced strategically throughout Gilda’s garden: lots of rabbits, ducks, a donkey, a weathervane horse, a fox, a bear, two statues of young girls, two dragonflies, a grasshopper, a cat Buddha in the lotus position, a realistic meditating Buddha, and a Chinese general standing watch next to a three level pagoda.
In a few weeks’ time, when the garden will mostly be in full bloom, many of our backyard residents will be obscured by flowers. Till then I will find whimsical pleasure contemplating their simple, peaceful coexistence with the very much alive rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, birds and even the occasional deer that inhabit or traverse our property.
