surprise

We've been having amazingly beautiful weather here this week and it's gotten me itching to work outside. I've always had dreams of a berry garden and had scoped out our yard and found that there is one raised flower bed that is positioned perfectly and is one of the few spots in our yard that gets enough sunlight to sustain a fruit or veggie garden.

So, this afternoon, I got out there to clean out the residual fall leaves and start breaking up the dirt a bit. I didn't get far before I discovered some metal hardware cloth buried an inch or so under the dirt. One thing led to another and I ended up pulling out:
- lots of metal garden fencing
- two very large iron railing sections (one approx 3', one 6', the kind used on porches)
- a Ford hubcap
- a terra cotta saucer emblazoned with "Happy Valentine's Day 1988"
- unidentified twisty metal piping that looks like something from underneath a car
- a broken sundial
- lots of old (read: likely laced with arsenic preservative) lumber
- a shallow aluminum bucket
- an entire package of plastic cutlery
- an old-fashioned canister vacuum, complete with plug, that looked like it had originally been a shade of mint green

Aah, the joys of home ownership :). Needless to say, the dirt all that sat in for who-knows-how-long would not be ideal for a blackberry patch. Pooh.

On the lighter side of things, though, it was five years ago today that Jon and I met in person for the first time. Wow! And what an amazing five years :)