RHYS on Gnomes

 RHYS BOWEN: I've posted before about being a female Peter Pan and still liking to play. Well, I also confess that I have a soft spot for stuffed toys. I talk to them sometimes. When I was recovering from knee surgery last month I had companionship:

My office has to have a couple of friends to talk to.  Here in Arizona it's Eliot, my elephant. He is wise and understanding, listens to me when I'm stuck and gives good advice, although he does often suggest that I find the body in the trunk.

Knowing my strange habits my family tends to give me appropriate gifts and this year it was gnomes. I love them! I expect I'll get more next year. And if you look closely at the Christmas tree you'll see all the stuffed mice I made this year.

I don't know why gnomes have suddenly become so popular. They are originally Scandinavian in origin... little men who bring the Christmas presents thus giving Santa a day off there. But now they are taking over here. You wait, in a few years there will be Christmas movies about the gnomes coming down from Norway because it's too cold and taking over from Santa at Macy's department store.

But they are now so popular that I found this St Patrick's gnome:  

I used him for the launch of our new Molly Murphy mystery last week. I asked my Facebook followers to name him/her and our own Joan Greenwood suggested Paddy, which I thought was a good choice as it could be male or female. I had considered Phil-gnomina.

And today look what I found! Easter gnomes!! What's next? Fourth of July gnomes? Election gnomes in the shape of Trump and Biden? The world waits.

So who else has started a gnome collection?