Thursday, April 9, 2009

Buried Treasure in the back yard...

...of course, the fact that I was the one who buried it didn't lessen my excitement at the new idea it inspired. The above pieces are from an old English china pitcher that I picked up God knows where, with the intention of selling it in E-bay. Well once cleaned up, I realized that it had too much crazing to be worth anything, but rather than throw it away, I left it sitting in the yard where I had washed it, pending some thought as to what to do with it. It WAS very pretty, all delicate roses and little white something-or-others ( I told you, gardening's not really my forte).

Anyway, fast forward a couple of years, during which time it got moved over to a remote corner of the yard along with some old paint cans and the radiator that came out of PJ's car (why such things are still in the yard at all remains a mystery I cannot solve) and was put into some sort of plastic bin which eventually filled up with rainwater. Funny thing about this china, if you soak it long enough it breaks and separates into layers. I don't know how long that process actually takes, as I said it was there for a couple of years. And today I was halfheartedly attempting some yard work, and there it was. Broken. And of course I thought, wow! Jewelry! Cause that's how my mind works. Heaven forbid I should just throw anything away (THANKS DAD!!!!) So I brought the pieces in the house and nibbled away at them with pliers until they were of a manageable size. I have a picture in my mind of how they're going to magically morph into pendants and earrings, but that's a project for tomorrow because I think maybe they need to dry out some first.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

It's That Time Again.....

...that's right, time to start planning the garden. I realize that some people (you know who you are, Buffy) never STOP planning their gardens, but some of us can only take just so much disappointment in one year and then, like childbirth, it's a pain we forget and so that leads us, once again, to this point.

It arrived just after Christmas, just like it does every year; the Burpee's catalog. The Burpee's catalog, for you sane people who don't feel moved to go play in the dirt, is just porn for gardeners. That's all it is. Page after page of full-color, airbrushed photos in which everything looks unbelieveably big and firm and juicy...all designed to make you think you can actually make this happen at home. But really, you just have to look at them and think, much like you might with some other magazines, that those just can't possibly be real.

Nevertheless, hope does tend to spring eternal, and I placed my order (we're talking plants now, just in case I lost you in the last paragraph) and I'm going to pretend that last year's garden was just a bad dream. My neighbor has already generously dumped a load of something magical in our garden, courtesy of the 3 bulls that will no doubt stand and snicker among themselves as we attempt to get our little patch of land to produce something edible besides cucumbers. I'm not even planting them this year, but I have the uneasy feeling that they'll be back anyway.