Garden schlock lives. In any country. It’s a comfort to know we can travel the world and find a similar, yet customized, variety of large and small creatures that dot the yard and garden landscape. In Costa Rica, our garden critters tend to be cement. Large, heavy beasts of some sort. Then there’s the shrines and fountains, but that’s another story. This cute little elephant that Coco adored while waiting in the car for me as I sought out that wonderful coconut water for Addison was priced at about $170.00 Who in Costa Rica can afford that? With most Tico salaries coming in at about $400 to $600 a month, extra socks are hard to come by.

Garden beasts and goblins must be an extension of some deep instinctual need to either rekindle the bond with animals we once had - OR - it’s really just another way of pissing on our territory like the dog or the deer or cougar when they stumble upon a tree in their neighborhood: This is my territory. Just letting you know. Sniff if you like, but head on out after you’re through. This spread is MINE.

Even over at the little soda that sells coconut water, papaya, and watermelon, the old man who tends the till had a tiny version of schlock. In the pile of coins, a little pig snout looked up at me. I too have my animals strewn about the garden and looking back at me as I type. I take comfort in my ceramic critters. In fact, I’ve read that some of them bring on luck. I could sure use a shot of that. And it’s a lot better than pissing in the yard. What would the neighbors think?