Stones, rocks, boulders and erratics 2

And here's one of my favorite shots from that day.

And here is that picture once more after I fiddled around with it to make it look like a painting. I had this as my desktop background for a long time.

Great rocks, great pics.

I have a nice rock - not a great rock but a nice rock. It was left over when they excavated the basement. Sorry I haven't quite mastered sending pics yet but I'll try to describe it:

About three feet by three feet, kind of yellowish sandstone looking, all pitted and layered.

I would like to plant something on it to sort of blend it in with the rest of the garden. Any suggestions? Ivy would look nice but it's too invasive.

apropos to the thread and how it relates to Band Camp, Football and UMass, situated in the beautiful Pioneer Valley, I forgot to mention that I brought a rock home. We were sitting on a slope watching the band do its show for the Band Parents and didn't I plunk the blanket down right on a canteloupe sized rock. Matt helped me pick it out of the ground so we wouldn't be bruised and oh, my, what to do with it? I had him put it in the car. A small piece of UMass is mine now.
Go Minutemen!
Nuts. somewhere among my souvenirs is a piece of rosestone from the red river in Oklahoma, my mom's home state. beautiful pix!
Martha

Nuts,

Looks like some great Glacier rolled through there in the past.
All the rocks seem so smooth, and on the flat ones, you can see the scars left by the heavy rocks that a Glacier drags along it's bottom.
And--those huge boulders--tossed, casually, here and there to sit by themselves for Eternity....Just beautiful!

Have you ever looked into the history of this area? When were there Glaciers ? Now there is just that little stream of water.....

In the picture you noted as "floodway"--see those two perfect lines of another mineral going across at the base of the smooth rock? Neat!

Lots of Geology there!!!

Gita

Beautiful shots, Karen! I'd love to see that place.

I especially love the photos of the trees growing out of the rocks. Seeing something like that always reminds me that no matter how tough life gets sometimes, if I just hold on, even in the rockiest of times, I can make it through anything.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone.

Gita, I am not familiar with the geology of the area, but would like to investigate further when I have some time. Yes, I loved the way those other minerals left 'veins' running through the rocks. Really gives them character. Makes me think of gold. I think you often get that with quartz stone.

As for the boulders being left in place for 'eternity', well, that's not quite true, if you think of it. Everything in this world changes. Someday those boulders will be gone. Someday the Rocky Mountains will be reduced to the size of the Appalachians, impossible as that may seem, and someday new mountain ranges will be born. For those who believe it, only the afterlife is eternal.

Karen

I'm interrupting the great shots of beautiful rocks to tell Laurel that the basketball hall of fame is over the border in Springfield MA. I'm surprised to admit I've never been there.

Victor - love the white quartz at New Paltz. Nice shot!

Karen - those are fantastic shots! I love the orange and pink shades of the rocks, and I have never seen bright orange lichen like that. Your cacti "painting" is also really beautiful. I just love how people are sharing such beautiful rocks and stones, etc. in this thread. I had no idea that Texas had that type of geology! Like Victor, I'd really like to go there now.

Rebecca - that does sound like an interesting yellow rock that would look nice worked into the garden. I'm not sure what grows well where you are, but I can see something blue "dripping" down and around it. Do you have Johnson's Blue hardy geraniums there? Or some colorful creeping phlox? Sounds like a fun challenge!

Martha - funny story of how you found your souvenir UMass rock! I guess it was meant just for you!

Thanks for the compliments, DonnieBrook. You would love visiting Texas. Lots of nice geology. I loved it there, and would perhaps consider moving there one day. My sister has 20 acres there just outside of Killeen, overlooking a part of Fort Hood where there are not buildings, so she has a really nice view. She is building a house on the top part of her property, which is kind of like a plateau. Then her land goes down a steep hill to the bottom part where there is a big, seasonal pond, only full during the rainy season. The climate there is basically dry, hot and humid in summer, a bit cold in winter, but usually no snow, just the occasional ice storms. Of course, she is in the tornado alley area, too, unfortunately. They also get some periods of very heavy rain, which causes flooding and fills her big pond. Then she can go boating on it. She has been trying to figure out a way so that she could get the water to stay in the pond, and she's tried adding clay to it, but no go. She and her father-in-law hunt for Bambi on the property, and they have 3 deer stands there.

Here are some more Texas pics.

Karen

This is me on a hike at Lost Maples State Park in the Texas hill country.

Rocks and maples.

More rocks and maples.

Rocks in a creek.

Leaves and rocks.

More leaves and rocks.

Prickly pear on rocks.

Part of a creek bed. I think there is a lot of limestone in this area. Texas has lots of limestone, and many caves to explore, as well.

This message was edited Sep 4, 2008 9:33 PM

Nice photo, Karen! Sounds like a nice area where your sister lives! When we lived in Conn., we had a large seasonal pond where we put a dock and several wood duck boxes. It would fill in the late fall and then freeze and we had a great ice-skating pond with a little stone fireplace on the bank for roasting marshmallows, etc. In the spring we put a telescope in our kitchen window to watch the baby wood ducks come out of the box and take their first dive down into the pond. I miss that pond. It went totally dry in the summer. I don't know of any way to make it a year-around pond if it is truly a vernal pond.

I can't remember the name of this lake, but it had a lot of very cool rocks. The water level was way down, too, so there were many exposed.

I don't know what kind of flower this was, but it was really nice.

Old tree stump among the rocks.

Here I am sitting on one of the logs there.

My nephew Ryan.

Ryan again.

Once more for Ryan.

Rocks on the shoreline.

My sister Wanda and Ryan.

Wanda

View of the pond from the deer stand at the top of Wanda's property.

Juniper growing from rock on her property.

The view from the top of her place overlooking Fort Hood property.

Wanda (left) and I at her pond, which is not quite full.

Wanda at her pond with one of the deer stands. You can see the pond is definitely not full.

A view of the deer stand at the top of her property from where the pond is.

Wanda and Ryan boating on their pond.

Wanda watering a garden I helped her put in. There were so many rocks to be dug out of here, and we had to add a lot of soil. We used the rocks to line the bed. I think they are mostly limestone. She also has tons of small fossils on her property. I brought some souvenirs home with me.

A view of her neighbor's house and her pond in the evening. You can see the deer feeding station in the bottom right hand corner.

This message was edited Sep 4, 2008 10:10 PM

The deer stand at the top of the property perched precariously at the edge of the rocks.

Well, enough of TX for now. More later.

Karen