I’ve always yearned for a garden statue. I’ve included many in designs for my clients; scantily clad maidens, figure heads, animals, birds and still more.
But I’ve never found something that’s right for me and our small back garden.
Less is certainly always more as far as I’m concerned, so compact and bijou were the initial requirements. Secondly the subject. Decapitated heads and female nudes looking for their lost clothes were a ‘no thank you’! Also high on the ‘not for me’ list were elves, fairies and goblins (there’s enough of some of those categories flitting through our front door)! Cherubs, angels, Buddhas and most definately gnomes were also ‘not put through to boot camp.
And then at this years Chelsea Flow show, I stumbled (literally) across ‘Puck’, the shrewd and knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow from Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ circa 1596, one of the most popular characters in English folklore.
Puck is seated on a low circular plinth with the inscription “I’ll put a girdle round about the earth in 40 minutes” around the perimeter.
He ticks all of the boxes and adds a real charm to our back garden.
MIKE THE GARDENER 