Rock Hound

Have I ever mentioned that I like rocks?

Well I do, I have a thing for rocks - big, small, shiny, dull.....doesn't really matter much. I am also one of those people who see shapes in things others don't. Not in the purposely created things that are camouflaging items or that you have to "look through" to see them. I never can see those things. I once thought the Batman Movie billboard was an advertisement for paint - it looked like a yellow board that someone had poured black paint over.....that was another embarrassing moment when the truth was brought to my attention! Anyway, I see faces in clouds, shapes in rocks, objects in ceiling plaster....not everyone has this talent. My nephews don't but they are often good sports and hesitatingly agree that a particular cloud among thousands looks like a whale jumping over a jar of salsa. My daughter does see objects and frequently points out that if you look sideways you can see a seahorse playing hopscotch. My niece Tayler does also. I have on occasion been asked if I see the clown in plaid pajama's just above the horizon. Maybe it's a hereditary girl thing, I'm gonna need some grant money to research this idea more fully....

Anyway back to rocks. While stationed in Hawaii from 1997 to 2000 I first became interested in rock stacking. Some say that the Native Hawaiians stacked the rocks as religious symbols and used them to mark significant locations. I don't know if that's true but there is something inspiring about balancing rocks and the pleasure it brings just to look at them. It is soothing to the soul. We brought this tradition with us to Tennessee and have always had a rock stack near our house. Not that the rocks took on a hallowed status for us, but when we look at them we may think reverent thoughts or thoughts of good times; the rock stack makes me smile. My husband is all about free things that make me happy and I am all about using natural resources in an inventive and non-destructive way.

When we saw the property destined to become ThistleDew Farm one of the draws was an overabundance of rocks. Some would look at this as a negative, but not us. We started collecting rocks and at times had disputes over rocks the neighbors thought were there's. You see, they have a rock fetish also. Several outstanding specimens were relocated to the previous owners wilderness garden as a condition of purchase. (My husband agreed to this deal, you know I never would have parted with such a precious commodity) My brother Bob came from Indiana for Ashley (the princess)'s fifth birthday and took home several nice two foot diameter rocks to incorporate into his brick siding. (The love of rock's runs in my family.)


S0, throughout the course of our first summer on the property, prior to any construction other than a honking play set for the Princess and a fence for the horses, we (not in the royal sense, but "we" meaning Terri, Ashley and I, often referred to as La Trois Belle or the three beauties which I inadvertently wrote as La Tres Belle which might mean the very beautiful - accurate either way I think) began collecting rocks. This is where the reference to seeing shapes in inanimate objects comes in.... I have a New Hampshire rock, an anvil, a bird, a pointing arrow...all of which you'll see after you know who (Dan, the super hubby) downloads the pictures to a memory stick for me.

Then Terri has to one up me by researching about rock sculpture, where you try to make balanced works of art out of piles of rock. She had two very nice ones in her front bed. They are barely detectable now as the Elephant Ears took over - did you know those suckers grow life size? They weren't kidding when they named them Elephant Ears, definitely African Elephants not Indian! Of course that has lead to many piles of rocks throughout our gardens and even some that look pretty cool. We had to take a break from rock collecting for a while so I could get a pesky herniated disc repaired but I feel the fever hitting again. It must be something to do with the barely discernible scent of fall on the northern breeze just starting to work it's way to Tennessee. Wonder if I can convince Terri to pick up a rock each time we go for a power-walk! Hmmm....