Fall Chores

Yesterday Husband and I had a brilliant idea at the same time. (Actually, he told me that he'd had the idea a day earlier -- I wondered why he was so cooperative.) We have a large forsythia bush (you know, those yellow bushes that come out early in the spring) that is overgrown, a tangle of stems and branches. Since there is a walnut tree across the walk from it. it collects walnuts -- which may or may not sprout in spring. One thing we don't need is another walnut tree. I suggested pruning the forsythia -- Husband grabbed the pruners. I manned the extra large wheel barrel.

He whacked -- I collected the whackings.

Now, the people who had lived here for many years, perhaps back as far as 1840, had a rather strange philosophy. They returned everything to earth. metal especially. Look under any bush and you are libel to find strange things. We long ago discovered that there was a long piece of iron under the forsythia. Long, complicated, obviously heavy. Roots had ground around it, through it. What a mess! It's heavy. It's rusty. And we have no idea what it is. It looks at one end as though it is a vice.

So it's lying in the yard, waiting for the roots and dirt wedged into its gaps, nooks and crannies to dry out so we can get a better look -- which may or may not tell us what it is. We may just put it in a prominent place as lawn art.