Wonderful world of whimsy

I’ve known for some time that a wonderfully whimsical man on the island spent a lot of time creating a fabulous grotto on his property to delight kids of all ages. And I’ve been meaning to go have a look ever since I heard about it. Did I go? No, I did not.

That lovely man is moving off island and on the weekend posted a message on the community Facebook page to say the grotto was about to be dismantled to facilitate the sale of his property. (Apparently its existence has failed to delight potential buyers.) So yesterday I finally went for a look.

It is amazing. What a shame it will soon be lost to us kids of all ages.

I took dozens of photos. I couldn’t possibly post them all, but I’m going to give you quite a few.

Because I wanted the sign at the top of the drive to be legible you’re missing out on all the teapots and teacups dangling from branches on this tree.

Not far in there’s Mr Sasquatch.

The only slightly scary thing to be found.

There are things on tress.

Overhead there are some wonderful wooden birds like this eagle with strings you can pull to make their wings move.

There’s a tribute to tree huggers.

Not sure how she managed to climb a tree in those shoes.

There are puppies.

There are chickens – including old Foghorn Leghorn.

There are fairies.

There are, of course, gnomes.

And then there are the bears. Oh, my!

A bear in the air – with a string you can pull to make him swing.

Bears on bikes.

Bearback riders.

A “trapped” bear.

Bears at home.

Bears at play.

And, of course, lots of bears picnicking.

I cannot imagine how long it took this wonderfully whimsical man to collect all these delights. It must be heart breaking for him to have to dismantle it all.

Joe also decided to have a wander round yesterday, although he wasn’t there with me. We talked about it afterwards, wishing there was some possible way to transport the whole thing to a different location. Sadly, I doubt there is. The whimsy police (who can’t do anything about a grotto on private land) would be up in arms.

It’s a crying shame.