Flamingo flamenco

HockeyMom’s having a contest – guess her age (brave woman!) before midnight EDT, August 1, and you could win a “yummy prize.”

Er, I didn’t mean to start a Christmas panic with my post yesterday… I just hate to rush at the last minute. The half-done “clown vomit socks” are also for a Christmas present. (Oh, come on, I bet clown vomit socks are at the top of your Christmas list!)


Onward – today, it’s all about flamingos. Yeah, I know, flamingos aren’t a native Minnesota bird, but they sure are fun, aren’t they?

I’ve mentioned the house on West Lake of the Isles Drive that has flamingos wandering through the front lawn during the summer. Here are some past configurations – the first is from May 2006. I wonder what happened to those big dark pink flamingos and the tiny light pink ones?

June 23, 2008

July 6, 2008

July 11, 2008…

A random lawn (October 2006)

You simply must embiggen this picture, which was taken (using actual film!) at the 1998 Powderhorn Festival of the Arts. Somewhere I have a t-shirt with a very similar picture – everything is black and white, except for the hot pink flamingos. Hmm. I wonder where that t-shirt went…

Another film picture, from Sante Fe in 2002

An artistic flamingo and friend from a lawn near Lake of the Isles

Some guardians that don’t exactly look like flamingos – Jeanne and I decided they were the ever so rare and dangerous flamingo raptors.

Real flamingos from the Minnesota Zoo! Ok, ok, you caught me – I did a bit of color tweaking.

And a tiny flamingo from my own living room.

“That’s just lame, Mom. Here I thought you’d been hiding a tasty bird from us, but it’s nothing but a cheap plastic fake stuck in the grape ivy! Hmph.” -Mayhem

33 thoughts on “Flamingo flamenco”

  1. Heh. What is it with people and putting pink flamingos on their lawns? But it’s kitchy in a 70’s kind of way!

    How is it your ivy looks so good!?

  2. you know there’s a compnay around town that will go and put xx number of pink flamingos on someone’s yard for their birthdays don’t you? oh – and, don’t do it for me – but I think jeanne may be up for that kind of surprise. Mwah ha ha ha ha!

  3. Yeah May, that flamingo in your grape ivy is probably as untasty as the fake but life size plastic dove my Mom tried to fool us with. Plastic – ick (unless it’s a piece of crunchy plastic)
    ~Ruby~

  4. Flamingo madness!!! Some people are just loving the lawn flamingoes. I love the picture a few days ago of the house panther in the laundry. My cats love the warm laundry, well actually they love the dirty laundry too.

  5. My local knitting group did our own “secret pal” swap last spring. My spoilee mentioned that she liked flamingoes, so I sent her a pair of the lawn variety. I thought it was a clever joke–until she revealed that she LOVED them (and was even planning to knit clothes for them!).

  6. I LOVE flamingos. I remember one time my mum and I were driving down the road and there was this huge sign in front of a house announcing someone’s fortieth birthday. And there were forty flamingos on the lawn with party hats on…we nearly died laughing. I think of her when I see them on the lawn.

  7. Um, Jingles the Clown apologizes for what he did to your knitting – the Tequila really snuck up on him….

    A few years ago one of our friends did the Eastern Onion thing to us – except instead of Flamingos we got penguins.

  8. I live in fear (should I be publicizing this?) of getting flamingoed for my 40th birthday. I wouldn’t mind one or two….but 40 is probably more than my heart could take.

  9. There was a weekend at my college called Mayfest (hey, Mayhem should come!), in which certain factions of the student body were known to do even more drugs than normal. One year, a few of us straightlaced types got a bunch of flamingos and put them all over campus, just to mess with people’s already-affected heads. That was fun.

  10. Chris- Up here, we have neighbors that have them out all year, and they wear little scarves and earmuffs in the winter.

    it’s just this side of the tacky barrier…

  11. Love the flamingos. I think the flamingo-raptors are actually supposed to be pelicans (without full beaks). Anyway, they look like some I saw in an exhibit about bird symbolism—but I can’t remember what pelicans symbolized…

    May is grouchy today. Probably needs a session with the MWGT or some tuna.

  12. We used to have some of these, but alas… they went on walkabout. Don’t fret May, I’m sure Mom will placate you with a real juicy morsel.

  13. That reminds me of some sheep that were on a hillside near me a while ago… the house owner had painted sheep, and would paint words on them. It was so much fun! I’ll have to see if I can find a link somewhere to the story.

  14. Flamingos! Pink ones! I love them!
    (and I have no idea why)
    But obviously, so do you, or you’d not have so many photos of them! Kitzchy art!
    (((hugs)))

  15. I love the random lawn (Oct) and Flamingo Raptor. We used to have some plastic flamingos. I think they flew off to join their brethren in Fl. Or maybe the Flamingo Raptor ate them. Does it hunt by night?

  16. Hmmm, do the owners keep moving them around? Kind of fun and funny, but I can’t even get the stuff done I need to get done, no less amuse my neighbors with plastic flamingos! Oh well, I’m sure they’re having fun or they wouldn’t keep doing it.

  17. Wicked cool flamingos! And the horse is pretty cool too. I recently saw neon flamingos for the yard, they were interesting. And I have an old mirror from my grandmother that has flamingos on it, you can see it a bit here, http://knitnzu.com/?p=77

  18. I didn’t realize flamingos were so popular in Minnesota. I kind of like the flamingo raptors and all of those flamingos in the lake.

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