Irises, Snowballs and Poppies - oh my!

The weather has turned warm again. Please stay this way,  I do not want  the cold to return.

My flowers are blooming earlier than usual,  because of the extra warm spring we had. I am thankful most have survived the cold we've had lately.

 I love snowball bushes. They bring back  fond memories of Grandma. She had a bush in her yard and every June we'd all gather in front of it and take pictures. Wish I had all my cousins out here, we could strike a pose and make more memories.

The only thing I do not like about snowball bushes is that the big white flowers don't stay with us long enough. I wish I could  enjoy them all summer.

Okay, this last find is not blooming. But it made me smile when I found it a few days ago. I will add this tiny arrowhead to my collection. You can't tell  in the picture,but the color of it has the prettiest kiss of pink on the surface of it.

You can go here and look at my other posts about Indian artifacts I've found.

 

 What's blooming in your yard?

Posted by Janet F. Smart at Writing in the Blackberry Patch.
©Janet F. Smart

Ancient Artifacts

Ancient artifacts, West Virginia style.

We moved where we live now in November 1980. We were a young married couple with a newly built house, a 7 1/2 month old son and ancient artifacts beneath our soil. Our land was flat, which is unusual for West Virginia. They had to bulldoze our land a little so there would be a gradual slope away from the house. We kinda smoothed out our little acre and planted grass seed. This was in early November, so we never really had much grass until the following spring.

When walking around in our yard we started finding Indian points here and there. But by the following year our yard was covered with grass and we no longer were able to make  any finds.

We planted a garden and that is where most of these were found. Every spring, after plowing and tilling, the artifacts would show up in the soil. You had to have a keen eye and be on the lookout, though, because most people wouldn't even notice them.

  

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Here are a few more 

I find chips of flint all the time

I found these just this week, while walking through our garden spot. Our neighbors probably think I am  crazy as they watch me slowly walk through the garden with my head down. But, that's okay. I'm prospecting.

I once had a comment on one of my blog posts about these. The commenter said I have an Ashtabula point dating at least 4000 yrs old and an Adena point around 1800 years old. He said that the notched points, with a flared out base separated by two notches are from the Archaic period which dates from 10,000 to 3000 B.P.. The points with the straight stem or base that narrows are from the Woodland period,which dates from 3000-1300 B.P.

He said that when you see a lot of flakes, it is not only possible that they knapped the arrowheads there, but they could have also processed game there. The flakes being a result of resharpening to give a sharper cutting edge to cut fat, bone and the like.

One of the best times to look for them is right after a rain.
Flint chips are interesting to me and I pick them up every time I see them, no matter how small they are.

Last summer I found quite a few points and lots and lots of flint chips!

Have you ever found any ancient artifacts?
Check out your plowed garden spot this spring and summer, and  I bet you just might find some.

Go here to see my other posts about my finds.

Posted by Janet Smart at Writing in the Blackberry Patch
©Janet F. Smart

Garden Surprises

We had a small gully washer yesterday. The rain did not last for a long time, but it fell hard and fast.

This morning I ventured out to the garden to take a look-see at everything and I found a couple of surprises.

I am used to seeing little green tomatoes. . .

 

I am used to seeing little green peppers. . 

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But, I am not used to seeing little green things on top of my potato plants.  I took a second and third look to make sure a tomato plant had not made its way into my potato patch.

They green potato ‘fruit’ looks like little green tomatoes.

I looked it up on the internet and it seems that this does happen, just not very often. We planted Yukon gold potatoes and it said that it happens with them more frequently than the other varieties of potatoes. They are not harmful to the plant, but they are poisonous to humans.

Well, I guess you are never too old to learn. This is my first time at seeing these cute little potato fruits. It really surprised me.

I came across another surprise in the garden when I looked down and saw this jutting out of the damp ground. Most people would not even notice it as anything unusual. But, the color of it told me to investigate a little further.

A beautiful arrowhead, right next to the cucumber plants. I'll just have to add this one to my collection.

After a rain is one of the best times to look for artifacts in your garden. They get washed off and washed up out of the dirt. Flint is very hard and smooth to the touch and can easily be distinguished from rock or coal.

Wednesday - June 29th - I just found another arrowhead in my garden. It seems to be a good year for cultivating flint!

Have you found any surprises in your garden?

Took a Walk

It's been raining again this week. So you're thinking, what else is new? Right?

Well, we've had new carpet put in our bedroom, so we've been moving big, heavy furniture and painting for the last three days.

So, I thought I'd take a walk in the yard to see what's been growing besides the grass while I've been inside working.

Here are these pretty yellow flowers, whose name escapes me at the moment, that grow in front of my front porch. They have just started to bloom.

And, our apple trees have little apples. . .

On the way to the garden are the grapes and blackberries. Here I have berries that have grown beside of the grape vines.



Here is the path between the blackberry plants. I was down there this morning on my hands and knees pulling weeds. You can see them piled up in the middle of the row. I hate pulling weeds!


A few weeks ago I put grass clippings around one row of the berries, hoping it would slow weed growth. It did help some, but as you can see, poison ivy is very hardy and grew back.




The bees were enjoying the flowers on the blackberry plants. If I had a dime for every bee down there I could take you all out to lunch!


I caught a butterfly enjoying herself, also.


My spirea are beautiful right now,




. . . and so are my daisies. Did you ever do He loves me, He loves me not with daisy petals when you were a child?


There is a mommy bird that chirps, chirps, chirps at me when I'm down there. She has a nest full of babies and she's telling me I'd better not dare get near them. Here she is up my old pine tree. Do you know what kind of bird this is? You might have to click on her to get a better look. She's little and has a black head. Maybe a chickadee?


When I reached the garden I found that since our second try at potatoes weren't up yet, the potato bugs decided to lay their eggs on our tomato plants. This is what they looked like before I smashed them. I hate potato bugs!


Last, but not least, I continue to look for arrowheads each time I visit the garden. I didn't find any, but I did find some pieces of flint. No doubt scraps from making arrowheads around the campfire at night.


Hope you enjoyed our little stroll through my yard.

Indian Arrowheads Spark My Imagination

We live out in the country in Jackson County, WV. We are situated on a small knoll. The land used to be a large farm in the area. Long ago I'm sure game flourished here (as it still does) and Indian hunting parties likely frequented the area following the creek which meanders its way around our small country sub-division.

We have plowed a small garden on our lot for the past 30 years. Each year I anxiously search the earth for ancient treasures.

The Indians have left their beautiful arrowheads, intact and broken, behind for us to find. Many small pieces of flint flakes are scattered throughout our garden space.

My imagination speaks to me. I see in my mind a campfire surrounded with Indians in what was once the frontier of our country. I see them sitting by the fire and making the flint into spearheads, arrowheads and scraping tools. I see them making plans for their hunting trips in an area which teemed with large game.

Below are pictures of what inspired me to write my Picture Book Rising Sun. It is about a young Indian boy who yearns to go on his first hunting trip with the warriors of his tribe. He goes to the knoll and practices making arrowheads and shooting his bow.

Any agents or publishers out there interested?

Here are a group of artifacts I've put in a shadow box for display. Large arrowheads, small arrowheads (which I believe are the ones from the most recent Indian tribes), and broken arrowheads (which to me are just as important to find as the whole ones).



Here are some of my more recent finds:


I believe the following are scrapers. They are flat on one side, except for the one on the right. I believe the small one to be a broken arrowhead which they fashioned into a tiny scraper.


All comments are welcome. If anyone has information they can provide on my arrowhead collection, I welcome it. I'm not very knowledgeable on the subject.

Every time I am in the garden my eyes look downward hoping to find another artifact from the rich past of West Virginia.

If you found this post because you are interested in arrowheads, go here to see other posts about finding artifacts in my garden.