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The Real Gnomes' Home
and The Gnome Home
It all began one morning not too long ago. Knarf and Adnil were getting ready to go mushroom hunting with Befana. Edda and Ivaldi were going to go for a walk and would catch up later to go mushroom hunting. Ivaldi was a little slow moving, especially on cold mornings..
Suddenly they were all startled. They heard a noise from the edge of the forest.
Sometimes Fritz, the big black cat, would stalk them, and they certainly didn't want to get in his way this beautiful fall morning.
But it wasn't Fritz. It was that young man, Joe who lived in the big house. The gnomes stood very still and stayed very quiet.
They knew that Joe was a nice young man. He was very respectful of the forest, but nevertheless, they were not ready to attract attention, so they remained as if they were frozen.
Humans rarely see gnomes. There are several reasons for this. Mainly because most humans don't believe in them, so they don't look for them. And if they do get a glimpse of a gnome, they usually credit their sighting to a mouse, a moving leaf, or something like that.
But they knew Joe was different. His family knew and believed that gnomes existed. In fact, they knew he walked the forest often in search of gnomes.
The gnomes were hoping that Joe would walk past them and not see them.
Joe was heading right toward the tree that the gnomes had been living in all summer.
Befana was on her way to meet Knarf and Adnil when she saw Joe heading right toward her. She quickly scampered toward the gnomes, hoping she wouldn't be seen, and hoping she wouldn't get stepped on!
Knarf whispered, "Don't move and maybe he will walk right past us."
"Whew! He didn't see us!" But Knarf cautioned, "Don't move yet, he is a very keen young man."
Knarf was right. Joe was very keen and aware, especially when it came to matters of nature and laws of the forest.
Not too far from the gnomes' home was a large tree with strange markings. Joe saw it from a distance. Perhaps that is what got Joe's attention and prevented him from seeing the gnomes!
As Joe got closer he recognized the marks. It was a gnome calendar! He knew the marks on the tree were made by gnomes.
Now he knew his long search for gnomes had not been a waste of time. Indeed, there were gnomes in the forest just as his grandfather and mother and father had told him for years!
He circled around the big tree and was ready to go back to his house and tell his folks about his magnificent find in the forest!
The gnomes and Befana had been quickly circling the tree and staying out of Joe's sight until now, but somehow he unexpectedly came around the tree to where the gnomes were hiding.
Once again the gnomes and Befana became very still.
But Knarf's bright red hat caught Joe's eye.
"Hey, its gnomes! Don't be frightened. You must be the forest gnomes my grandfather told me about. I live in the big house with my family. My name is..."
Joe didn't finish his sentence when Adnil chimed in, "Joe. We know who you are. We've been living here a lot longer than you! And we are not forest gnomes! We are woodshed gnomes!"
"Well then why are you living in the forest?" asked Joe.
Joe reached down to shake hands with Befana and the Gnomes.
Knarf explained why they were not living under the woodshed.
"When your mother put "The Gnome Home" sign up near the woodshed, we figured it was time to leave. We didn't need to have everyone know where we lived! We know it is important for humans to know where everyone is and have addresses, especially with 911, but we have been happy living without advertising our whereabouts for thousands of years! We gnomes know where to go and when to go when it is necessary without big signs!"
Joe laughed, "That's not why she put that sign there. My mother calls her little shop, "The Gnome Home". It wasn't for your home under the woodshed, but the little cabin next to the woodshed. That's her shop. Come, and I will show you!"
Knarf, Adnil and Befana agreed to follow Joe back to The Gnome Home and their gnomes' home under the woodshed and see for themselves that "The Gnome Home" sign was not intended for them, but for the little cabin, where Joe's mother had her little shop.
Knarf leads the way! He cautioned Joe to walk slow as they must take about 12 steps to one of his short steps!
Knarf slid down the crevice in the tree and Adnil and Befana followed him.
Edda decided for herself and Ivaldi that they would join the adventure, even though Ivaldi was just getting comfortable. Now that the others would not be going mushroom hunting, he thought it would be nice to just "hang out" on that beautiful fall morning. It wasn't often he could catch the few sunbeams that streamed their way down to the forest floor. He missed living under the woodshed. There he could climb up on the room and get all the sun he needed. He told the others he was beginning to feel like a mushroom, since he had to live underground! But after he thought about the woodshed for a moment or so, he agreed to follow along, bearing in mind, that he would stop at the woodshed!.
Joe told the gnomes and Befana, who is a kitchen witch, that he was studying to become a magician.
Knarf stopped and asked Joe if he wanted to see some real magic. With a little help from Befana and Adnil, Knarf made a rainbow appear around them.
He told Joe that he has only shown this to a few humans and that Joe's grandfather was one. He explained that once you saw one of these special rainbows you would have Good Luck and your magical power would improve.
It was a long walk for the gnomes.
Joe offered to get the wheelbarrow, but the gnomes and Befana told him to be patient and that the exercise was good.
Befana found a few mushrooms along the way, but decided to pick them on the way back.
They finally emerged from the forest and saw their old home under the woodshed. They could not, with the exception of Befana, who always lived in the forest, help but feel a tinge of "homesickness".
Joe could see it in their faces and told them that they should consider moving back under the woodshed. It would be a lot nicer and more comfortable. He told them that they should move back before winter, and it gets too cold.
"Hm-m-m, first we have to see what this sign and the shop is all about. We don't want to have an audience of people all of the time, but let me think about it for a bit."
It was obvious to Joe that Knarf was the spokesman for the group.
However, Adnil and Edda convinced Knarf and Ivaldi to first visit their old home. Knarf was afraid of that. He knew that once he went back, it would be very difficult to have to leave the old homestead.
After all he spent over 75 years in that very spot!
Ivaldi quickly climbed to the roof where he "hung out" for years getting the sun. Oh, how he missed the warmth of the sun!
The forest was a great place, but there was no place like their gnomes' home!
Joe asked them if they would like to see his mother's shop. He assured them once they knew what it was, they would have no fear of returning back to their old gnomes' home under the woodshed.
So the five of them followed Joe to "The Gnome Home".
Knarf commented on the sign. He suggested that it be moved a bit closer to the shop and a bit further away from the old woodshed.
"No problem. I am sure I can do that in a jiffy." And Joe did just that.
Knarf was pleased with the sign's new location. But was still curious and asked Joe a lot of questions.
Knarf was very careful how he asked Joe questions. What he really wanted to be sure of was that Joe's mother had absolutely no plans for advertising that the gnomes lived under the woodshed, and he wanted to make absolutely sure that she was not selling "real gnomes"! He heard that there had been reports around the world that this had happened!
After talking to Joe, Knarf began to feel a little more assured. Knarf asked Joe if he could meet his mother and father and then he would decide whether or not they would move back under the woodshed.
Knowing how much his mother loved gnomes, Joe was certain he could bring his mother over to meet Knarf, and he was sure his father would come too!
Knarf and Adnil are impressed. They liked the small front porch of "The Gnome Home". Of course it looked very large to them. They tried to figure out who the concrete statue on the porch was. They wondered if it was in honor of a certain gnome.
They asked Joe the significance of a concrete gnome. But Joe had no idea, other than his mother had a few of the concrete garden gnomes and that she had them for a very long time. Joe told Knarf to ask his mother when he speaks to her.
Knarf found that very interesting, a human having a concrete gnome. Gnomes never made statues of themselves, and wondered why humans would do such a thing!
"But then again," he thought out loud, "anyone who would call a shop "The Gnome Home" must be a little strange."
Joe, not thinking like a gnome, asked Knarf, "Why?"
"Do humans also have shops called "The Human Home" where they sell humans? What do you sell from a gnome home - gnomes, I hope not?"
"Well, no, ah yes, but not real gnomes. My mother and some of her friends use their imagination an make gnomes and sell them."
"Concrete, like the statue?"
"No, well not out concrete, but out of fabrics and sculpty and different materials."
"So do humans have The Human Shop and sell make believe humans?"
All the gnomes and Befana laughed. Befana laughed the loudest as she replied, "Don't mind Knarf, he doesn't get around like I do. He hasn't a clue about dolls and doll shops! You know I see a lot of them at Christmas."
Joe realized who that little witch was. She wasn't just a kitchen witch, but the old witch that helps bring gifts to children in Italy at Christmastime. He didn't ask, but wondered why in the world was she living in the forest in his back yard!
Joe went to get is mother and father and was back with them in minutes. They could hardly believe their eyes when they saw the gnomes!
As soon as Knarf met Frank and Linda, Joe's parents, it was love at first sight. He knew he could trust the family and that he and his family would be safe and happy living in their old gnomes' home under the woodshed.
Joe and his father, Frank agreed that they would help the gnomes move their belongings back to the woodshed, and so they did.
In the meantime, Knarf wondered if Linda, Joe's mother would make a gnome that would look like him. So she got her camera and began to take pictures of Knarf.
At first only Knarf wanted to pose for Linda. After an hour or so, Adnil then decided she too would like to have Linda make a gnome that looked like her, so she posed for pictures, too.
By the time that all of their belongings were back in their gnome home, everyone wanted a gnome designed to look like them. In fact, Knarf sent out the "word" to all of his friends and relatives and before long, everyday, Linda had another gnome to make that was modeled after a "real gnome". Soon the gnomes decided that they would reveal themselves to some of Linda's friends who are also artists and pose for them too. Linda has been selling these handmade gnomes from her shop "The Gnome Home" for the past few months. You can check them out at - "The Gnome Home"!
Everyday Joe spends a little time with his friends. He listens to the tales and history of the gnomes from Knarf and some of his older relatives and friends. Sometimes he remembers that he had heard the same stories from his grandfather years before. Joe's grandfather's father came from Finland, the original home of the gnomes.
He has been keeping a journal and from time-to-time will post some of his pages from his writings on the internet so you can also learn what he has learned from the gnomes. He learned that the gnomes in his backyard came over from Finland to America with his great-grandfather sometime around 1900!
The gnome community on Peekamoose Road has grown quite a bit since that day. Once the gnomes knew that this was indeed the one of the most peaceful place on earth, their cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and friends have made their homes here in the forest and under the barn.
Joe bought the house next door to his parents, and it too has three out buildings, where the gnomes have made their homes. Several families have moved into the basements of the houses, and best of all 6 families now live under the shop. "The Gnome Home" has become a real gnomes' home and everyone is once again living happily ever after!