Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The nature of rocks. . .


Self Taught Artist writes about art, that nature has already done everything to perfection. (Now I'm going to be brave here and try to put in a link. Wish me luck)--Self Taught Artist: I see Faces. (By jove, I think it is going to work.) She also has a great photo with her post.
This got me thinking about what I love best about nature. I'm not going to make a comprehensive list. The internet isn't big enough.
On a certain kind of day, this would be rocks. The mineral world encompasses a large variety of form, texture and color. When you are near-sighted, as I am, sometimes it is easier to look at the small details up close than at the grander vistas. Maybe that is what first attracted me to the pebbles underfoot.
Naturally smoothed stones are great to run your hands over. They are like a fine hand cream for the soul. And there are rocks with stripes, or spots, with large crystals or sparkly mica. There are stones in green, red, pink, orange. . . you name it. I have a rock I found at the beach once that has a little face in it. It looks like it was hand drawn in ink by a comic artist. I love this rock.
I'd like to feature more natural stone in my garden. This is a bit daunting because of the weight of stone involved in doing this. I don't live in an area where boulders are easy to come by (can you folks in British Columbia mail me one?), so quarried rock will have to do. More garden daydreams will have to wait for another post. A pond lined with, what else?, rock is also on the list.
I'm not great at taking photos of rocks but I am posting one of my efforts here.

The book I've linked at the end of this post is on my gift list for someone.

4 comments:

Rayne said...

My daughters and I are always picking up interesting rocks. We have baskets of them and we place them every where. When my husband deploys to the desert regions around the world he brings home some incredible ones. When we were in germany we were walking past a construction area and there was a rock about the size of my fist lying on the sidewalk. It was an ugly rock, but something about it caught my eye, I picked it up and turned it over and it was a perfect nautilus fossil. I am still very proud of my find.

p said...

Thanks for the link, congrats on doing that :-)
The rocks you took a pic of remind me the aftermath of a cannibal party. I don't know why...they aren't morbid, but first impressions are always the most interesting are they not? They look like little personalities.

Have you seen Andy Goldsworthy's work? He does amazing things with rocks.....

Heather in Beautiful BC said...

Hah, I'll send you all the BC rocks you want - what's your address? (COD of course).

My husband would love it - I'd be collecting for 2 of us then.... he had a fit the first time I loaded up the boat with rocks to bring home to put in my little courtyard. He wanted to throw them overboard - aaaaakkkk...not my beautiful rocks!

He's getting used to my weirdness I guess cause he doesn't complain so much these days.

I usually write the date and place I picked the rocks up on one of my favorites, with a permanent marker.

Barb said...

I have a Petosky stone from Lake Michigan.. it's very smooth and I guess they're supposed to grant wishes or something.