Skip treasures, detecting finds and yet another plant I.D

Mr TG and his friend are addicted to metal detecting, it's quite sad really but I have to admit that I'm glad he's finally found a hobby. I've been nagging him to find a hobby for years and while I had imagined more along the lines of Airfix kits or building something from matchsticks (basically something that kept him home lol) it's nice to see him so enthused about metal detecting - he's like a big kid when they come back and show me their 'treasure' which so far consists of weird Turtles (I kid you not), old coins, musket balls and spindle whorls. The greatest find as far as I'm concerned though is a sixpence he found on our own land, the reason being that Mr TG has always claimed he loves me sixpence (makes no sense I know) but I've never seen a sixpence so I love this sixpence and will cherish it forever.

We don't know the full history of this house and land, there is evidence to suggest that it could be up to 300 years old but the rest of what we think we know is pieced together by local memories and the way the house was built. We believe that at one point it may have housed large breed horses (probably clydesdales) before being turned into a living space and was part of the estate owned by Lieutenant - General Patrick Sinclair who not only founded this village but was a British army officer and govenor in North America, best remembered for overseeing the construction of Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island in what became the U.S state of Michigan. In fact Patrick sinclairs grave is sited in the field next to us as he was buried there at his express wish.

Anyway I digress - sort of - I was supposed to be telling you that I spied some other detecting finds that Mr TG has found on our land and I've claimed them as my own for garden use.

Not quite sure what I'll do with them but I was drawn to the sun looking object and the hook. we find loads of horseshoes and the bolt probably came from the railway which used to run alongside the house and is no longer there. We find a huge amount of railway bolts.

More horseshoes - these are rear shoes whereas the above one is a front shoe. Not sure what the two handles would have belonged to - farm machinery probably.

Here's a comparison of one of the rear horse shoes against my own size 7 foot - there were big horses.

He's found bucket loads of other metal items and strange looking objects so who knows what else I'll be able to sneak of with.

Back to gardening and I have a plant come up that is self seeded and I'm not too sure what it is. It looks like a Hypericum to me but the leaves are nothing like my clump forming one, this plant is spindly, taller and has tiny leaves. The flowers look like Hypericum though - what do you think?

The sweetcorn is ripening really well in the PT. This year has got to be the most abundant it's been, I always have good success with Sweetcorn but this year it seems extremely good.

This is the Garden Tiger Moth that seems to be popping up all over this year. I was quite suprised to read on the RSPB website that numbers are decreasing for this Moth because I've seen a few this year and have never seen them before. Maybe they're relocating lol.

We all love freebies right?  Well my daughter works at a local department store and I've blogged before about the plants she's bought me home that she's rescued from the skip - the most amazing one being 3 huge Golden Bamboo priced at £40 each. Those Bamboo are now thriving.
This little lot is my latest haul and I even had the chance to check the skip out myself, I cannot tell you how exciting that was, hmmmmm maybe I shouldn't have admitted that part huh!
Anyway included in this haul is Clematis 'Voluceau',  3 Fuchsia (think they'll be trailing), Arrow bamboo and a couple of other plants I'm not sure about yet.

Sharing this post at

Tilly's Nest