stones, rocks, boulders & erratics

very nice beds and use of stones, Bill!

Bev - what lovely memorials!

Bill, how can anyone, who lives in New England, be accused of buying rocks?!!!

Carrie, my thoughts are with you! It's so scary when the kids start driving!lol! When I taught my son to drive, I was hanging on the dashboard so much I left fingernail imprints!! Too fast and a gutter driver!! He's twenty now and much better. whew! Now my DD. She would drive under the speed limit when she learning; which was good but when going down a back road, which is posted 25 and she's going 20(everyone else goes 35!), it would be a very, very long ride! I'd be bitting my tongue so I wouldn't ask her to speed up to 25!


Bev, I really like what you have done with your stones. The memorial gardens are beautiful. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Sue

I offered free stones to one of my neighbors as she was building a koi pond and wanted stones around it. She declined and spent over $700 for stone! I don't think she has the same yankee spirit as most of us! Why spend money if you don't have to!lol! I know she wanted a certain look and probably didn't want to spend the time looking at piles of stone to pick out what she wanted.

Thankyou Sue and if anyone offered me rocks I would take all I can get. Too bad shipping is impossible. HUGS BEV

primrose - you are absolutely right about rock in NE! he just figured the wall with all those nice big falt stones that fit together perfectly had to be bought. i think he was jealous. like i said it took a two week relocation effort on my part to collect enough for the wall.

Now, here's a good use of the rocks around here: Today I went to a juried Crafts Show up at Lake Sunapee about an hour north of me......all high quality (and high dollar, for the most part!) creations. One craftsman had taken granite stones with nice veining and diamond lasered the bottoms flat and drilled down into the top of the stone to make a lovely vase from the rock. He had all sizes and various colors......some were very pricey, but I bought my DH a small one that was very masculine as a "housewarming" present for his desk in his "new" 1763 office. LOL Very clever....I'm already trying to figure out what tools I need to make a buck on some of my stones here! LOL ....People were really buying them - even at high prices.

Sue, yeah, thanks for the solidarity re: kids learning to drive. She says "well as long as I'm going about the same as everyone else that's ok, even if it's over the posted speed limit, right?" and I said "wrong! If the speed limit is 35 and most people drive 50, you may drive 40, but not 50! I don't care if you have a bunch of cars behind you! If they're making you nervous, find a place to pull over. If you're doing at least the speed limit, it doesn't matter what everyone else is doing!" We have a lot of those wind-y narrow parkways around here with just one lane in each direction, and not necessarily space to pass or pull over. Boston has to be the hardest place to learn to drive!

Great stones, everyone. My DH built me a path while he was out on Worker's Comp with a broken back - we call it the path of pain and agony (and craziness, but shshsh). It's just concrete pavers, though. (I think I already said that. I just went and read Bill's thread, and his wall very much reminded me of this path, although Bill's wall is ever so much more aesthetic!)

Gawd! I love these stories! Kids learning to drive ... rocks developing from here and there into great art and walls ... ah! the memories!

Yikes, Candyce, you love kids learning to drive?

A problem with this san serif font - STORIES looks a lot like STONES in lower case - stories/stones - my eyes miss the dot on the I (as in igloo) when they're tired. But I do too, Candyce, love hearing about all these STONES and STORIES!

Setting pavers w/ a broken back??? OUCH!!! Well, I guess it would make the initial injury seem trivial!

Here's a shot of the small granite vase I bought at the juried show - with the very first of my dahlias to bloom!

I see why they were selling so well - it's beautiful!! Dahlia's are awesome, too.

WOW you sure can pick a great vase.
I looked up another teriffic Juried show.
Paradise City Fairs.
Google them and see what they have. There is a shoe over Columbus Day weekend at Marlboro Mass.Oct 11-12-13.
The Dahlias are just perfect,along with the purple loosetrife or butterfly bush bloom.

My DH was just as stubborn, carrie. He had neck surgery for an herniated disk(the dr's graphed a bone and attached a metal plate w/ screws). He wasn't even done w/ the pt and he wanted to play with the stones! Very stubborn! He uses the tractor more for lifting now instead of trying to play incredible hulk!

That is a beautiful vase and the flowers are gorgeous! Now that's art!

This message was edited Aug 7, 2008 3:10 PM

That vase is beautiful! the grain of the stone is intriguing!
Flowers are purty, too!

Glad you all like the vase! It looks so nice on Hank's desk! Nothing prissy about it, that's for sure! I just loved all the veining and the color striations in the craftsman's vases. He has a great eye for choosing just the right stones.

A work of art for sure and perfect for a gentleman's desk. That dark red dahlia isn't too tough to look at either.

It's perfect for your northern more rustic environment.
Jo Ann

I agree, everyone! The dahlias are so pretty.......glad I decided to give them a shot this year! They are so dark and rich looking they were hard to get a good photograph of them.

Oh, I need that vase! And my dahlias are way behind yours, which is lovely!!!

It's 4 AM. For the 2nd night in a row, I've been jolted out of bed by an owl hooting. I love owls, but I am not amused.

Louise - love the vase. It is beautiful!! Eleanor

Thanks, Eleanor!

Jax - We have had lots of owls serenading us too during the nights. We have a large beaver pond in the woods behind our bedroom and we hear a lot of wildlife sounds. This is the summer of the barred owls! Hoo-hoo-h-hoot!

Newcomer here, really enjoying this thread! Glad I'm not the only nut building stone walls. I've been pilfering from the old wall around my property for a retaining wall around an above-ground pool and two raised beds on either side of the front door. My personal favorite is the rock that sits in a flower bed next to the house, where the dryer vent used to fry anything I planted there. Now instead of a gaping hole, I have a rock that just doesn't care how hot or dry it gets in that spot!

I'd take photos for you, but I'm handicapped from the broken foot I got two days ago when my D16 was driving with her learner's permit and just clipped a concrete bridge abutment. The concrete won, and I'm off to get a cast in about 45 minutes. (Poor kid, I feel more sorry for her emotional trauma than I do for my own self!!!)

In other words, I had to make my first post on this thread since I can relate to both themes here. :-)

Welcome CGC and I hope your cast acquisition isn't too traumatic. Give your D16 a hug from me and invite her to help with the house work while you are off your feet, that should help with the emotional trauma, poor kid must feel awful really. Accidents and mistakes happen that why it's called learning, just glad no one was any more seriously injured. Welcome and post away while you recover and beyond. :)

Hello crabgrass & welcome. Sorry about your news

Welcome to the forums CGC. Glad to have you and get well soon. BEV

Best wishes for a speedy recovery CGC. Hope your D16 is back behind the wheel already. You know, like when you fall off a horse.

Welcome, CGC! Your D16's entry into the world of driving sounds like mine when I was first driving. My Dad had a brand new sporty Thunderbird (this was in the 60s) and he very magnanimously allowed me to drive it when I first had my learner's permit. As I was pulling into the carport (this was in Fla.) I panicked and hit the gas instead of the brake and crashed into the concrete wall straight ahead. I'm glad I didn't break his foot on top of it! I can just imagine how your poor D16 feels!! Hope you recover soon, but in the meantime, you have DG to keep you amused! LOL

Louise

Welcome CGC! Hope you and your DD are doing well. Hopefully she's back behind the wheel and putting this behind her. I think DG should help in your recovery too! There are great people here!
Sue :)

Thanks for the welcome, gang! Yes, I'm finding DG to be a most entertaining way to spent the enforced rest I'm getting. Normally I hate sitting around! Unexpected bonus: I've gotten my DH suddenly engaged in gardening because he offered to take on a task I had planned for yesterday before I broke the foot. He laid down our first lasagna bed under my supervision :-) from a nearby lawn chair. Then he got all inspired and turned the entire mulch pile that had been sitting untouched for two years since it got soooo huge ... then he cleaned all the weeds off the stone wall along the driveway, revealing the ferns we have there, and laid mulch all around them. It looks spectacular to actually see the stone wall again, see how the ferns have grown, and how they "pop" against the mulch and the stone wall.

And my D16 is asking when we'll get the car back (I haven't told her maybe never ... and it will take time to buy a new car :-( ) so she can get back on the horse. It really helped to tell her stories of everyone else's youthful driving mishaps, she's feeling much better about herself!

Really love this site, and I only hope my brown thumb won't kill my enthusiasm for my new pastime.

What a wonder DH, CGC. Would love to see pictures of the stone wall and ferns, sounds beautiful. Your D16 sounds like a real trooper too. Good for her!

I am not alone in saying I came her with a brown thumb, but it is slowly turning green with the help of all these great DGers!

Here it is. It's easy to whine about New England's rocky terrain, but isn't it wonderful to have such native things to appreciate for their aesthetic appeal? The ferns are a bonus. :-)

Those ferns are fantastic! Thanks for the picture.

Great wall and ferns.Tranquil looking.

Those ferns do look great with the wall as a backdrop!
DH has done a terrific job. Hmmmm, how long can you milk this injury? Tee-hee.

CGC - what a beautiful shot of your wall and ferns. Really lovely!

Nance - I think your brown thumb (LOL) has turned a nice shade of green! BTW, the lavender moonvine you gave me just had its first flower. Love it.........thank you!!!

Everyone in my family knows how much I love (read that "collect") stones and rocks, including my little grandsons who spent the day today with us at the farm. I have to share this because it was so cute.....we took them swimming in the lake down the road and the 3- year-old somehow brought a pretty heavy rock from the bottom of the lake up to the shore for me. He was so cute saying, "This rock is really heavy...Can someone help me get it out of here for Grammy??"

Crabgrass - great name! Yeah, I have a lot of dead plants and weeds I don't take pictures of, and your ferns are very pretty! My daughter (age 17) is a pretty good driver now, driver's ed started a year ago . . . finished last week, only mishaps were a blown tire. I'm so very sorry about your car.

Sue - my DH hasn't yet had PT for his broken back, and the pain, which got better for the first year, has been getting worse. He's still a macho, macho man, though. If he sees a healthy, vigorous, athletic, energetic, young female carrying three books, or a box, he'll rush over and carry it for her. If she's pregnant she only has to be carrying a paper napkin and he'll rush over and carry it for her too.

Louise - how precious! A rock for grammy. LOL What a wonderful time for all four of you.
Glad you like the moonflower.

Carrie - does DH have a suit of shining armor hidden somewhere? :-}

DonnieBrook, Fine looking rock and kids. Both are keepers.

When my DS was about 7 he decided to roll a huge round 2 foot high cut tree trunk from a new cottage being built down the road which was way down a hill near her cottage in Canada. So he managed to roll it to the top and then down a long a dirt road to my mom's cottage and then down her hill to the lake. He wanted to give her a table for her coffee cup when she was sitting outside by the dock. We put it on bricks so it wouldn't rot and screwed a large metal tray on to the top that he food at the dump. I just repainted that tray this summer. Twenty years later. It is still where she sits with her coffee, by the lake. It gets covered up for the winter. Sometimes, simple things are best and most treasured.

Find a special spot for that rock. Patti