Ornaments for the yard
FTLComm - Tisdale and Regina - Wednesday, May 12, 2004
This is one of those stories that really has no definable beginning and is not going to end here. I have for many years been confused about the use of ornaments. Those things we put about our homes and in some cases utterly encrust everything with them. Long ago I realised that this was something far beyond my understanding and I have just left the topic as one of those remarkable unknowns. However, I know from experience and psychological theory that "all behaviour is meaningful" so perhaps someday I will be struck with this great awareness of what links a person or a group of people to the things that they use to decorate their environment. By the way this curiousity has put me in hot water more than once. I was visiting adult university students as a counsellor and in my report I noted the wonderful decorative appearance of the student's home, especially the use of cultural artifacts that I felt tied that individual to their home, far away. A very pointed document was produced by the student attacking the writer of some form of racial or ethnic prejudice. I shrugged then and still feel confused about the whole business of ornaments. Two weeks ago we were at a garage sale and several fellow browsers were discussing the theft of lawn ornaments in their neighbourhood. This seemed odd to me and yet I remember my father-in-law last summer in Swift Current having someone steal his bird bath and another Tisdale reside one day showing me how she had anchored her gnomes in her yard. Then last Friday morning Mrs. Woolsey at her garage sale showed me the mushrooms she had made from plans and directions she had found on the internet. (above) The cement was mixed with sand and peat so that when watered and when growing conditions occur these mushrooms will get a coat of moss. Later that day I went into Tisdale's Beeland Co-op and they were setting up a display of fountains and other things to put in one's yard and this once again made me wonder what are we saying about ourselves by the things we select to place on display or to enhance our yards. On Saturday we went into the garden centre at a Regina Peavy Mart and the place was a vast market place for these ornaments.
Timothy W. Shire
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