June 11th, 2019

Windsock, geegaws, whirlygigs, knickknacks, doodahs, gimcracks, tchotchkes, trinkets, twirlies, or yard decorations. Whatever you want to call them, I love 'em.   You see a lot of them here. They range from artsy to awful, from elegant to cheesy and  I love them all.  Which is why it's strange that I do not have any.  None.  Awwwwww.  Kind of sad really.

Well now wait a minute, I guess I sort of do.  I bought something to hang on the wall in the courtyard.  Maybe that counts?  Or maybe it doesn't.

I have had a few in the past.  Once upon a time, middle son and his wife gave me the most beautiful gazing ball.  It looked like those astronaut photos of earth from out in space.  The Big Blue Marble!  I placed it "just so" in my garden in Colorado.  It looked beautiful out there and everyone who saw it admired it greatly.  And then one day, when I was at work, we had a terrible hail storm.  When I finally got home, I anxiously ran to check on it outside and there amongst all of the huge icey balls of hail in the garden, surrounded by shredded flowers and plants, were the smashed remainders of my beautiful glass gazing ball. I was devastated.

I briefly had a cheap little twirly that I bought that the Dollar Store here.  I really liked it a lot.  It was just that one little eye catching fun thing by the entrance to the courtyard.  It made people smile when they saw it.  But it faded very quickly and fell apart shortly thereafter.  Hey, sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

So I spent a wee bit more (not a lot) and bought some of those things that you blow on and they spin...what are they called?  Pinwheels!  That's it!  They were slightly larger than the hand held ones but not out of control big.  I put them along the circular driveway.  Other people have lights. We had pinwheels.  And they were very fun and pretty until the big wind storm whirled them out of the ground and far away.  I imagine little fishes under the sea playing with my pinwheels now.  So that's no to pinwheels as yard decorations.

I'm contemplating what, if anything, to try next.  What to do, what to do.... Hmmmm
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 I know the first thing that comes to your mind is the ubiquitous, Pink Plastic Flamingos but you would be wrong.  I have seen exactly ONE house here on the island that has two pink plastic flamingos in it's yard.  One.  And it's such a pretty yard, all clean and green and trimmed and cared for that I can only assume that the flamingos in question are either there ironically or maybe they was a gift from someone whose feelings they don't want to hurt.  Or who knows?  Maybe they just like Flamingos!

The wind sock at the top of the page is in front of a house we drive by with fair frequency.  It's not far from here on Casey Key.  There are some amazingly gorgeous houses on that road, all of which have water either in front (the gulf) or behind (the bay) and sometimes both!  This one house has a wind sock flying almost every day.  On Memorial Day however we noticed they had, instead, an American Flag, and at Christmas Time it was something else..I cannot recall what...a Santa maybe? or a Christmas Tree?  But most days it's this windsock.  I look for it when we drive down that road. It makes me smile every time.

There is a house right around the corner from us that has a very cool, fool the eye kind of geegaw in their yard.  It's good sized too.  I believe it is referred to as Kenetic Art.  Okay, kenetic art then.  It's very cool regardless of what it is called. I am greatly envious.  It isn't like this exactly, but similar, just more doo-dah on it.  Snazzier.

At any rate, it's on my list of things I would like to one day have.  Some sort of whirly gig, gee gaw, knickknack, doodad, gimcrack, tchotchke, trinket, spinner, windsock, twirly or yard decoration somewhere in my yard.  You can call it kenetic art if you want to. I won't mind at all.  I, however, will call it nifty.