Saturday, August 19, 2006

Valley of the Mists

The rains over night left us with seven tenths of an inch.
I watched as the rain drop fell from the bittersweet berry onto the leaf and danced about until it fell onto the quartz cluster below.





We are keepers of the cluster. A friend of our son's asked us to care for it when he moved to Europe. This twenty pound "rock" is from Mt Ida, in the Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas. This area is known as the Valley of the Mists.


We are fossil hunters. My favorite is the crinoid. It is the fossil of the Sea Lilly and the Missouri State Fossil. When we travel I like to stop at an outcropping and look for fossils. The history of the land tells me about the plants and animals and bugs that are living there. It reminds me that the Earth is always changing.

Saucy sent a comment and I thought it would be fun to reseach a bit on growing a crystal garden. Would be fun to do one.

3 comments:

Saucy said...

That quartz is amazing. It just grows like that? I've seen the crystal growing kits at toy stores but didn't realize they would grow like that! Lovely.

Q said...

Hi Saucy,
Yes that is a natural crystal! Anyone can grow them too. My sister grew crystals when she was in grade school for a sceince fair project. She won too!
She had crystals all over our house. Doing a crystal garden would be fun and ever so pretty. I am posting a link for recipes and such.
Let us know if you do one!
~Q~

Q said...

Hi Sprite,
I do not the entire story of the cluster. I only know where it came from! It lives in the garden.
You have such wonderful experiences. I have never been crystal digging. My son has. Does sound like hard, heavy work. I think I would be inclined to go with my husband.
You know all sorts of things about crystals I bet. I only know they are pretty and if you hold them just so sometimes one can see fantastic realms. Sometimes certain "rocks" speak and they are nice for energy.
I have two rocks I bring in every year for my hearth. They are my winter rocks. They hold the heat from the fire and when I am cold my rocks warm me. I also know some rocks tell stories. Must be why I love fossils so very much.

Hummm..I do love riddles. Let's see I would think that the pressure for diamonds would be different than quartz. No pressure only a chemical reaction.
Humm...
You are a diamond! Bet you have all sorts of beautiful crystals!

~Q~