You: Is that a duck? Is that bird? Is that goose? What the heck is that?

Me: It’s a yard goose. Lol.

If you’ve spent any time with me, you know that I love to tell stories. And while the name ‘Abbots Lane’ doesn’t have a meaning other than me wanting to be first in the alphabet (A,B), well… neither does the yard goose. There’s no deeper meaning, just some random events that came together to tell a story.

I’m always out looking for stuff at flea markets – antiques, objects that I can incorporate into images that fit one of my couples and give them a unique memory of their day. About three years back, I was walking through a flea market when I stumbled upon a whole bunch of yard geese. (Later, I found out they were actually old hunting decoys.) I made the mistake of turning around and going back to the geese, and I even picked one up. The woman selling them said: “Oh, do you like those? Are you interested? I’ll make you a deal you can’t refuse.”

As I stood there, looking at more than 30 yard geese of different shapes and sizes, priced anywhere from $5-25 each, I was thinking: “Yeah, this deal isn’t gonna be that good. There are over $300 of yard geese, here.” So, I said: “Sure. What’s the deal?”

She said: “For $20, you take them all.” Apparently, her husband had bought them a year earlier, and she was sick of lugging them around. By that point, she hated them (come to find out, my wife felt the same way. Like, “Why the heck did you buy those?” Oops.)

Anyway, I said: “$20 for all of them? Sure!” So, there I was, walking out of the flea market with an armful of yard geese, getting some strange looks as I left.

 

A lot of the props I buy don’t get used frequently, and the yard geese were no exception – they were put to fantastic use at one wedding and then retired. However, there always seems to be one hanging around the studio for some reason. One day I decided I should draw him up and put him on a koozie to give away. Believe it or not, we still have a lot of those! So, if you’re ever in the studio, I have a yard geese koozie for you!

That said, you probably won’t find any yard geese at future Abbots Lane weddings. They’ve been relegated to t-shirts, koozies, and of course, stories.