A Rock and a Hard Place

I've always been fascinated by rocks. As a kid I liked to hunt through gravel for 'precious stones', always hoping to find something very shiny and beautiful like a ruby but still being satisfied with a piece of quartz. When our kids were young they found a rock tumbler at a garage sale and for weeks we patiently waited for our specimens to be polished to a smooth finish, like these.

I believe these are geodes though I'm not sure about the one on the left. Maybe if I could slice it open it would reveal a tiny crystal world like the one on the right. Maybe I should study rocks and become a geologist.

But no, right now I'm happy to just enjoy looking at them. A friend who had been to Egypt gave me this. She found it near the pyramids.

Yes, amethyst, from the town of Amethyst, Ontario. The Romans believed amethyst would protect you against drunkenness. I wonder, do you wear it or put it in your wine?

This piece of rock is embedded with garnets. It was given to me by my son Andrew, who lives in Bella Coola, and yes, this is my lead-in to the third house in my Grant Road series of watercolours.

Known locally as THE TILT'N HILTON, this is where Andrew lived when he first arrived in the valley. He didn't stay there long; lack of indoor plumbing and electricity becomes discouraging. But he did find, right where he had left them several years before, his collection of garnet rocks, still on the window ledge. I don't know how the little house fared during the recent flood but it looks as though it's one of those buildings that survive despite all adversity. I shall find out and report in the next post.