"Camouflaging" (Fixing) an "INJURED" (Or broken-hearted) Ornament

In all of my cyber venues (Blogger, tumblr, FB, Pinterest and here on HT), I have often made references to the whimsical characters which visit my home throughout the year.
Many of them spend time in the succulent garden which I have in my kitchen, and where Santa is now standing atop a pencil cactus as he surveys the situation re the remaining days of Christmas (as seen in picture one of today's HT entry).

For we are only in the fourth day of Christmas and he still has time to see who is naughty or nice! Today he is assessing the fruits and vegetables that have come to my succulent garden.

It is Santa's first year on the job in my garden, but the fruits and veggies have been coming to visit me since 2011. For that is the time a group of characters dressed as fruits and veggies visited me, including one who called herself Lady Parker Orange. (She can be seen in the second image of today's HT entry).

I'm told that she took the name Lady Parker Orange in honor of Sarah Jessica Parker, because she admired the shoes the actress wore, which is a fact that you might surmise from the third image in this entry (which was included in a post on TLLG's Blogger pages where her shoes are highlighted).

In any event, in the aforementioned Blogger entry, one of the subjects covered was Lady Parker's interactions with "Mizz" Apple Of Your Eye (who can be seen in picture four) when they argued about the expression "apples 'n oranges."

Since that time, "Mizz" Apple Of Your Eye has gone to a northwest suburb of Chicago to live with my sister, who is a teacher. While "Mizz" Apple loved the fact that her type of fruit is a NYC symbol (The Big Apple), she loved being associated with education, and since my sister is a teacher, "Mizz" Apple felt a calling to move there.

Moreover, "Mizz" Apple was weary from her squabbles with Lady Parker who will go to great lengths to make her point, even if it means injuring herself in the process, which she did last year when she broke her hand while gesturing to make her point.

After this incident is when Lady Parker began to carry a muffler as seen in picture five. It was loaned to her by one of my vino bottles who made an appearance in a prior HT post (@ http://www.hometalk.com/diy/cheers-hats-n-scarves-for-vino-liquor-liqueur-bottles-2642530) where the image in placeholder six was included.

AND who said chivalry is dead? In any event, I highly recommend "using" a vino muffler or something similar to disguise a broken ornament or figurine, especially if you are like yours truly and not handy with DIY repairs.

Moreover, I highly recommend permitting figurines dressed as fruits and vegetables to visit your home because, besides the nutrients they represent, all of them have taught me many interesting facts.

For instance, my other two fruit visitors, Mademoiselle Lime and Madam Prickly Pear are very well read. Mlle. Lime arrived in December of 2011 (image seven) and shortly after the 2012 new year began she started quoting Kipling and she stated: ‎"Have it jest as you've in mind to, but I've proved it time and time; if you want to change her nature you have got to give her lime!"*

However, a few days ago, upon Mlle. Lime's viewing a 2013 group photo-op taken in my succulent garden (seen in placeholder eight in an image you may recognize from my 12-26-13 HT entry**), she quickly moved to another part of my home (image nine), for she felt she was it close to certain cocktails that sometimes call for lime and she realized the Kipling quotation — if realized — might mean the end of her!

And my visiting prickly pear (seen in picture ten) is also an avid reader. One of her favorite authors is T.S. Eliot, which is a fact she mentioned when she arrived for the 2011-2012 Christmas season (picture eleven) and stated the following stanza from his work "The Hollow Men":

"Here we go round the prickly pear,
Prickly pear, prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear,
At five o'clock in the morning."

For even though the stanza is far from joyous, my visiting prickly pear has always been thrilled to have been referenced by T.S. Eliot (as evidenced @ http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/2012/01/m-y-succulents-are-having-great-time.html.)
Meanwhile, my visiting fruits are not the only literary minded visitors in my succulent garden.

The veggie-visitors are well read too! For example, in 2011, my eggplant visitor (seen in picture twelve) informed me that someone named Ursula K. Le Guin once said, "I doubt the imagination can be suppressed. If you truly eradicated it in a child, he would grow up to be an eggplant."

My innocent eggplant was so upset by this reference to her veggie comrades that she asked me to blog about it, which I did in 2011, when I first heard the eggplant express her feelings.

[The post can be found @ http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/2011/12/monday-musings-its-boxing-day-among.html

I'm thankful to say that since the time that I advocated for her, she has gained more confidence and has returned annually to visit me during the entire Christmas season. She even agreed to pose for readers so that they could have a full appreciation of her beauty (which can be seen in pictures thirteen through fifteen).

My eggplant was not the only veggie-character whose feelings needed to be eased by yours truly, for my artichoke was quite taken aback by something Tad Dorgan reportedly said which is this: "Life is like eating artichokes, you have to go through so much to get so little."

She can be seen — as she looks today hanging out — in my succulent garden within the picture in placeholder number sixteen, which is an image I shared with the humorous HT gardening expert, Douglas Hunt @ http://www.hometalk.com/o0ocpyc5gb.

In the aforementioned image, she can be seen alighting upon my passiflora (to Humpty Dumpty's right). But in 2011, when she was saddened by Dorgan's quotation, she was not as outgoing as you might surmise from image seventeen, an image that appeared both on TLLG's FB Page and in a post on Blogger, where I delved into the consequences of Dorgan's quote on artichokes.

[BTW, the links to TLLG's aforementioned venues are @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=362281877154525&set=pb.247917655257615.-2207520000.1388243115.&type=3&theater. (FB) AS WELL AS @ http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/2011/12/life-is-like-eating-artichokes-you-have.html. (BLOGGER).]

My hot red pepper visitor is not as thin skinned about remarks that folks have made about her type of vegetable, but she is also a bit more vain then they tend to be, for she has been coming here for the Christmas season of holidays ever since 2011* and I've never seen her without a mirror in her hand!

This is evidenced in the photo-op of her in piace-holder eighteen (from the 2011-12 season) and in picture nineteen, taken a few days ago featuring her visiting Santa (who you met in the first photo-op of today's entry) in my succulent garden without letting go of her mirror!

And there you have it, dear reader, a mini saga on the vibrancy that fruit and vegetable figurines can bring to your home, particularly to your succulent garden.

Moreover you now have a way to heal any physical wounds they sustain by using a muffler and you have ways to help them cope with psychological issues they may have as a result of the implications of famous quotations.

And, since we are only in the fourth of twelve days of Christmas, there is plenty of time to implement these suggestions for the well being of our fruit and vegetable friends who provide us with good nourishment.

BTW, BTW, most of the holiday characters (figurines) featured in the images accompanying this entry are from Steve Mohr's store, which is also where most of the whimsical holiday characters (figurines) that I've discussed in previous HT entries can be found. As I've stated in the past, Steve can be reached at 212-580-8404.

REFERENCES:

* Mlle. Lime's info is @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=362642857118427&set=pb.247917655257615.-2207520000.1388246918.&type=3&theater

** HT The post where image first appeared is @ http://www.hometalk.com/diy/celebrating-boxing-day-or-the-2nd-day-of-christmas-in-the-garden-2769420

*** Ms. HOT PEPPER INTRO POST is @http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/2012/01/if-its-tuesday-it-must-be-tumblr-week_10.html