The Diary of Sigmund Gnome 12/25/06...

Dear Diary,

It was a gray Christmas morning, one that followed a gray month of December, and the first time they had ever been alone together on that holiday. I watched them from a distance, not wanting to intrude the business of gnomes into their peaceful domesticity. After all, thirty-four is a lot of get-up-early-to-celebrate-that-Santa-came mornings.

She made her coffee, he made his Postum, and they had their usual repartee around the relative merits of the two drinks, laughingly agreeing that chocolate hazelnut biscotti taste good no matter what they’re dunked in. I was still sitting on a stump and sipping my mead when they emerged from the house.

“Good morning, Sigmund!” she called out. “We’re going for a walk in the woods before I have to start cooking for tonight,” and with that, they waved and headed up the path into the forest.

He often takes an axe for clearing downed trees from the woods roads, but today he just took her – and of course, she took her camera.

It was my day off, so I decided to go into the woods too, but I took a different path, and reaching Flower’s house, I found him still up and about after his night of foraging for food. When he heard she was coming with her camera he groaned a “not again” and decided – as usual – that he would not be a model on Christmas day. The Jay family heard him grumbling and flew off to alert the other animals, so that by the time the Wizened Wizard was deep in the forest, the only creatures to be seen were a pair of ruffed grouse who flew away with wings beating loudly (and were gone before she could even point her lens). Flower, being good at heart, left her a note on his message board.

After seeing this message and not seeing Flower, the Wiz'd Wizard apparently decided to see if Bucky and Simone d'Beavoir might be interested in a family portrait, but finding the shades drawn and the door closed at their house, she finally turned for home. I ran into Bambi and we chatted briefly, then I followed.

Of course, you just never know what that wizard will point her camera at, and so it wasn't too surprising to find her gleefully circling a puddle at the edge of the woods, angling and clicking. How anyone - much less a wizard - can get excited over some cold water and ice is hard to fathom, but I guess that's what makes her wizened. Later, at home, she would excitedly consider, crop, then drag all who would look to see the latest photographic wonder.

>

And you know, it's amazing how nice a cold puddle can look when she captures it! I like that picture, but my favorite is the picture she took of me a few minutes later.

It was just another day in the life of a gnome.