My crumbling lady's head planter

I took this photograph earlier this spring.  My plaster planter in the form of a woman's head has seen better days - after just one winter, it is cracked and chipping, but perhaps that makes it look more venerable.

Arrayed around the planter are some of the stones I have picked up from the banks of local brooks.  Many of them have holes and fissures which I find fascinating.  Some of them have tiny crystals; others are unusual colors.  There are stones with inclusions, patterns, markings that resemble faces, letters, or animals; and then there are a few I look at and think - "Just why did I pick this stone up and take it with me?"

I also love smoothed-out bottle glass.  I have a chunk of what seems to be a very old soda bottle, because it is extremely thick glass; the letters on the fragment are "kist," which I just love, because it reminds me of "kissed."  I keep on thinking about incorporating it in a piece of jewelry made from found elements, but that is one of many projects I haven't gotten around to as yet.

I did find a real fossil a couple of years ago, and at a different brook, I found a petrified oyster shell.  I also discovered a small geode, which is nothing compared to the geodes one purchases, but is special because I found it!

The hellebore flowers crowning my planter's head have faded, and I must now consider what to plant in their place.  Perhaps a small-leaved creeper; or perhaps I should mound up the soil and grow some moss, giving her a velvety cap.  Decisions, decisions.  A lot of gardening awaits me this week.