Special Stones: Photos By Amy

Ed's special stone collection on top of the curved stone wall has finally emerged from its blanket of snow.

Stones may get second billing in the title of the blog, but they hold fascination for all of us.

Any stone that seems special and interesting finds its way into our pockets and then gets a place on top of the wall where we can inspect our treasures anytime.

When Amy was here she took these amazing photographs.  While not quite the same as being able to pick them up and feel the texture, her pictures are so detailed it is very close.

It would be hard to choose which stone to fondle here. The gray and white one looks so smooth!  I have a thing for purple, but those holes in the brown one are irresistible

There are so many. They are all so different, so captivating if you have a fondness for stones.
 

I think if you could resist this beautiful fossil then you must  be immune to the attraction of interesting stones.

Next winter when the snow covers Ed's stones again. We can look at them here and remember how they feel in our hand or our pocket.

For Ed, the allure of these stones is how they came to be here.  Our valley is so ordinary that it does not attract scientific study.  Erosion of an ancient mountain range to our east poured massive  fine muddy deposits into the inland sea that covered this region.  Thick layers of shale formed to cover this part of the state.  These native rocks are dull gray with occasional marine fossils.  Glaciers and their melt water cut valleys in the shale plain and left behind exotic stones from exciting geological regions to our north.  Limestone formed in deeper parts of the sea is sometimes found in our gravel bank.  Coral fossils are rare here but have been found.  Near volcanic stones formed in the Adirondack Mountains are also among the stones on our wall.  Tumbling in glacial melt water for those distances made these stones smooth and small.   Not impressive in size, they are still items of interest here.