Garden mystery

The weekend before last Greg and I decided to walk to one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants, Buster's, for beer and burgers (and what a great selection of beers they have, let me tell ya!) While walking through the alley behind our house we notice that one of our neighbors had three large garbage bags filled with some sort of greenery sitting by the trash can. They turned out to contain these:


I was baffled! Who would just toss these beautiful hostas out with the trash?? Of course, we promptly grabbed all three bags and tossed them in our backyard for future planting, which I finally got around to doing this past weekend:


I think they make a nice addition. And I still have 1 bag left! I think I'll deposit that with my sister because lord knows I don't need any more hostas in my gardens!

As I came around the far left edge of that border I ran into some grass that had started growing into the bed, so I set about digging it up. Suddenly I hit something hard - a rock? Well, that's what I thought at first, so I dug a little more. "Geez," I thought, "this is one big rock!" And then, as is the case most of the time, my curiosity got the best of me and two hours later I uncovered this:

At first I thought it might be an old base for the clothesline, but the diameter of the hole is about 7-8 inches wide. I dug down as far as my arm would reach hoping to maybe find some sort of buried artifact (I think I've been watching way too many episodes of "Cash and Treasures" !). All I came up with were 4 3-inch long rusty nails that had bits of decomposed wood fragments still attached. I found them in this little space:

You see that dark rectangle towards the top? After I cleared out some small roots I noticed that I could fit my finger into either side of that little compartment. It was almost as if some sort of drainage system had been cut through the interior of the ring. I have no earthly idea what the heck this thing is!! Greg thinks it might have something to do with an early septic system but I have my doubts, what with it being only two inches below the surface. Perhaps a well? I really don't know! So now I'm relying on you housebloggers out there - any ideas? The curiosity is killing me!

Time flies...

Wow! I never thought an entire month would go by before I got to my next post. Geez, where does the time go? I guess being sick, having family visiting from out of town and spending as much time I can outside has left me little time, or desire, to get back in front of the computer. Although I've still managed to find time for little projects around the house, like this:

That would be the new coat of paint I slapped on the porch trim on one of the days I was home sick (I don't do sick very well. Believe me, I felt awful. I just get antsy!). Don't look too closely as I still haven't finished touching it up (i.e. try to ignore the blue painters tape). At any rate, it's a much needed improvement over this:

The dark green just wasn't doing it for me. Plus, the new color really brightens up the porch; makes it feel a lot bigger. Yeehaw for small projects that reap big benefits!