Saturday, April 07, 2007

Buried Treasure



Yesterday I heard lots of stories.Fran was full of stories of her Grandparents, and parents. My fav story involved a piggery. One Cunning pig managed to escape and made a run for freedom. He ran to where the park is now and found his way into Frans grandads garden, and began to eat all his veg and flowers!


Fran recalled a friend who found a gold broach in some soil, shaped like a sea horse. Someone elses garden was built on the site of an old glass factory. As they dug up the soil they kept finding glass marbles.I wandered if we would find any treasures yesterday.


Its amazing the stories behind the land we garden, the people who have worked with the soil. The treasures we unearth, from previous occupants, or things that have been lost. It pleases me to find stuff occasionally.
Gardening is timeless. We can read books from throughout history, and see the passion, the love for growing flowers, plants, and tree's. Making our own garden of Eden.

Fran found a Half Penny dated from 1964. It was well covered in mud. Fourty three years since it was made. They ceased to be legal tender in 1984. It was lost, and waited for us to dig the soil before finding it. Its worth twenty pence I read, but its the serendipity of unearthing it on a sunny day, making the front garden border beautiful.

The talking, the coffee for me, the people looking over the fence. It felt like a sunday, with music playing. People outside their houses, a few people were out gardening. Doing as people have done for years when its sunny and pleasant to be outside. Especially after the cold and wet weather...


This is a clearer image of the buried treasure. The sailing ship on it. Fran is cleaning the coin we found up, and i guess it will be kept somewhere.From a good gardening day:)
Have you ever found buried items in your garden? Did you find remnants in a garden shed from previous owners? Found items that were beneath six foot of weeds and had to be released from them?
Want to know what people have found in their gardens.

5 comments:

Georgina said...

The ring you lost in my Finchley garden is going to be found one day too. I was thinking about that the other day. I wonder who'll find it and under what circumstances?

Unknown said...

I keep finding shards of glass--old Mason jars, mostly, judging from the raised lettering on them. I also found a 1970's-era action figure (the head of it only), a roughly 6in by 8in chunk of flat marble with lines carved in it, 2 marbles, and a rusted crowbar (seriously!) about 18in long. Sometimes I feel like I'm not just a gardener but an urban excavator!

David (Snappy) said...

Hi Jaws (My baby sister) thanks for reminding me.Lol I was doing the garden and digging the borders when my wedding ring slipped off. Someday someone will find it and wander who lost a gold ring!!
Thanks Blackswamp girl, you are the only person who has told me about what you have found.It sounds interesting marble, mason jars, and Marbles too.I used to collect it, and keep it.Garden treasure :)

Anonymous said...

When we were breaking up the concrete to remodel our pool last summer, I found a piece of it that had a little hand print in it and underneath the hand it said, "Valerie - age 12". It must have belonged to a girl who lived in my home during the 1960's, because that's when the original pool was built. I asked the pool builder to please not break the piece, but to preserve it as a stepping stone. I now have the stone, which I'll be placing in my garden as a tribute to the history of the place.

David (Snappy) said...

Thanks Kristi for your comment.I wander where she is now Valerie?At least you have the Piece as a reminder of the history.Finding buried stuff makes you aware of the past.Little relics of people left behind, that connects us with them.Its fun imagining what they were like, and how the things became lost.I can imagine her being excited at the pool being built, and for being good casting her nad print in setting cement, like a Hollywood Boulevard film star!Thanks for sharing it :)