Well, well, well.

This is the sight around the base of our "real fake well," or "vrai faux puits." When we bought the house, the ground around the well was covered with saxifrage - they're the green leaves on the left with the large purple flowers on tall stalks. I pulled it all up and discovered the little paved walk around the well.

The saxifrage in this photo is some that survived. The year after I pulled the saxifrage out, we saw the single yellow tulip for the first time, accompanied by the blue grape hyacinth, or muscari. The latter is thriving and even comes up in the lawn, a sure sign of spring.

There was even saxifrage inside the well, which I replaced with the lavender plants you see above. They'll flower in summer.

The well has a iron frame over it that would hold the rope and bucket if it were a working well. Now a bird feeder hangs there. Along one of the uprights is a wire that dives into the dirt of the well. I've supposed that the previous owners had a light rigged up in the well to lend ambiance to evening dinners al-fresco.

I've pulled out a lot of saxifrage around the property, but there is still much of it intact. We're also busy digging up old bulbs and dividing them to give them a new life. Iris, daffodil, chives, and rhubarb are being relocated. It's a long, slow process, and we don't really get to see the results until the following year, but it's nice when the relocated bulbs come up healthier and more robust than they were.