Gnome Gets a Facelift

On this blustery day in April we woke up to discover a completely blank space on the calendar next to the number ten.  The house was freezing cold, the wind was blowing and a wet snow was coming down so it was nice to know we didn’t have to venture out into that nonsense.

Around nine in the morning we noticed a new orange cat huddled on a plant shelf next to the hot tub.  He seemed happy enough and out of the wind and in no hurry to go anywhere.  Like home, wherever that might be.  He has been there now for over twelve hours, sleeping, grooming himself, staring off into space and doing whatever else it is cats do when they decide to drive you nuts by appearing to be doing nothing at all.  Perhaps he thinks he’s found an orange cat refuge and is going to wait us out to see if we’ll break down and feed him.  I expect he’ll be gone in the morning.  He has too much white on his chest to truly belong, although that would be a big plus for me to be able to recognize at least one of these beasts on sight.

So what do you do on a cold spring day?

You round up a couple of weathered lawn ornaments and get out your paints.  The deer required only a new coat and some sprucing up, but the reclining gnome was obviously more of a challenge.  He came this close to being tossed in the trash.  Good thing the weather stayed rotten.  We also painted a box and some little bird houses but these two took up the bulk of our afternoon.

No real change in the deer except for looking a bit more alert, but the gnome is unrecognizable as his former self.

He’s almost cute!  As far as garden gnomes go.  Now he can peek out from underneath the bushes and not scare people to death.  Or maybe that’s hoping for too much.

Of course the rest of the day was quite anticlimactic after the gnome painting concluded.  We ate dinner and watched a movie and checked on the strange cat AGAIN.  Even tried to frighten it away but it just stares and stretches and turns the other way on the shelf and resumes it’s marathon nap.

I’m not sure how tomorrow could possibly be more exciting than today.  There are a number of things jotted down on the calendar for the 11th and not one of them involves dealing with flower bed decorations of any sort.  And so far, no mention of finding a new home for a wandering cat either.  Once he sees the gnome he’ll no doubt head off on his own.