Having felt intrigued by this thread regarding Garden Art and their stories, here is a tale of 'Old Walden' I must explain quietly out of his hearing that I have never been one for having ordinary Gnomes in a garden, I therefore don't think of Walden as I call him as being ordinary in any sense.
A few of you may have gathered through some of my posts that I like old things and history in general, especially WWII aviation history. About 25 years ago I was out at an old WWII airfield photographing the remains of Little Walden Airfield in the north of my county, among the now grown up woodland and thick undergrowth are the remains of wartime brick Crew huts, latrines, cookhouses and a plethora of utility buildings mouldering and succumbing to then 55 years of disuse and neglect. In one of the huts, marked on my set of airfields construction plans as a Recreation Room, and where the roof had partly fallen in I found a 1940's vintage 8 Ball from a Pool table. It now lives on my Computer desk. excuse me, I digress... Back to Walden..
A little later in the day while talking to the farmer who owns the land, he said 'did you find the old hut where the flowers and shrubs still grow?' these were planted by airmen from the USAAF back in 1943, they still flower and grow wild around the forlorn heap of brick and rusted through corrugated iron roofing that was once according to the airfield plans as a dining hall. So I set out to find it and sure enough there was this amazing patch of flowering shrubs and flower bulbs that had run wild and covered a large area next to this old building.... And that is where I found 'Walden' still playing his flute maybe still waiting for those airmen that would never return. Knowing that the site was eventually going to be bulldozed for a new warehouse I bought him home for safety. Folklore says these chaps bring luck when you touch them, and you should never pay heed to them in daylight, but in the night time when they stir... Not that I believe all that nonsense, but I did wait for the night to fall before nipping outside to take his photo with the phone ...........
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