Found Objects
So I ordered the bulbs I mentioned here before, and on Saturday, I purchased three Lenten roses and a great little tree called Rhamnus "Fine Line", shown below.
I planted it in front of a light-colored wall, so it should stand out nicely. Anyway, while I was planting my newly purchased stuff, I dug up pieces of pottery. Usually I dig up pieces of things when I plant stuff. Pieces of Blue Willow plates, blue and brown glass, so this wasn't suprising, but I couldn't figure out what it was that I dug up. It was a weird shape and was part rose colored with a cobalt blue edge. It must have been a planter or something. Maybe a weird little garden gnome. It definitely didn't look like a dish or bowl or anything. I wondered why I found it where I did. Was my house built on an old farm dump or something. Who dumps glass and broken pottery right outside their door? Strange. When I used to do more field work, I came across old farm dumps all the time. Usually they were way out in the woods and I could spend an hour sifting through the remains of life long ago. Old blue Milk of Magnesia Bottles, glass doorknobs, old perfum bottles, Noxema jars, old tiny bottles, blue tinged canning jars. Even old pickle jars and ketchup bottles are pretty. I have tons of these in the house and in the garage. In the summer I cut flowers and bring them in and display them in these funky old 'found' jars. My husband is a bit of a scavenger also. He has a bunch of those old colored glass insulators that they used to use on overhead electric lines. He finds them along the railroad tracks. And when we used to go to Ocracoke, we would kayak to this great spot near the harbor entrance where we could spend hours scouring the rocky beach and picking out beach glass and pieces of pottery. I have old jars full of beach glass in my bathroom, each labeled with the year and where it was found. I love stumbling on cool old things like that. Thinking about where it has been before and who has touched it and how long it took for it to travel from the last person to me.
I planted it in front of a light-colored wall, so it should stand out nicely. Anyway, while I was planting my newly purchased stuff, I dug up pieces of pottery. Usually I dig up pieces of things when I plant stuff. Pieces of Blue Willow plates, blue and brown glass, so this wasn't suprising, but I couldn't figure out what it was that I dug up. It was a weird shape and was part rose colored with a cobalt blue edge. It must have been a planter or something. Maybe a weird little garden gnome. It definitely didn't look like a dish or bowl or anything. I wondered why I found it where I did. Was my house built on an old farm dump or something. Who dumps glass and broken pottery right outside their door? Strange. When I used to do more field work, I came across old farm dumps all the time. Usually they were way out in the woods and I could spend an hour sifting through the remains of life long ago. Old blue Milk of Magnesia Bottles, glass doorknobs, old perfum bottles, Noxema jars, old tiny bottles, blue tinged canning jars. Even old pickle jars and ketchup bottles are pretty. I have tons of these in the house and in the garage. In the summer I cut flowers and bring them in and display them in these funky old 'found' jars. My husband is a bit of a scavenger also. He has a bunch of those old colored glass insulators that they used to use on overhead electric lines. He finds them along the railroad tracks. And when we used to go to Ocracoke, we would kayak to this great spot near the harbor entrance where we could spend hours scouring the rocky beach and picking out beach glass and pieces of pottery. I have old jars full of beach glass in my bathroom, each labeled with the year and where it was found. I love stumbling on cool old things like that. Thinking about where it has been before and who has touched it and how long it took for it to travel from the last person to me.
posted by meresy_g at Monday, September 26, 2005
3 Comments:
I've had the same experience ever since living in old houses. In the garden of our london flat we actually dug up an old fireplace mantle. In our brooklyn garden we have tons of glass. i think people used it as a dump. we've also found subway tiles. throughout our house there's ancient, brittle newspaper stuffed behind wood trim in certain places. some of our neighbors have dug up the original flagstone (or slate) used in their garden. oh and we also found a cool old green bottle underneath floor boards that, like you, we use for flowers.
almost forgot. on the downside one of our brooklyn neighbors also dug up a gun in their garden.
Oh, you dig up way cooler stuff than I ever have. A Mantle? That's awesome. I think I'd be digging holes all over my yard if I thought I could dig up a mantle or a gun. I could sit for hours pondering exactly why that gun was buried and what could have gone on beforehand. Why would you bury a mantle though? That's strange.
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