Phascination & Place – Rocky Surprise & Block Island, RI

Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge this week is the letter Q.  I thought at first, I can’t think of anything I have of interest that starts with Q. Then, as I often do, I reread Cee’s post. One of her photos was a beautiful turquoise bag. The Q only needed to be part of the word. (I am hearing my first grade teacher, in my head, at this point saying, ‘You did not follow the directions.’) Yes, I have always had a hard time not getting excited and running ahead with things before I heed the directions.

My quartz is a piece of a larger rock. When I researched it to find the proper identification, I promptly went out and retrieved a second chunk of it out of the border of one of my flower beds. It should be displayed in the house. The large piece has been used as a doorstop on my patio for a couple of years. I think I’m going to clean both pieces up and bring them indoors. 

I brought a few pebbles home from the beach in Block Island. We visited a week or two ago for the first time in ten years. The town hadn’t changed much, except for the loss of the Harborside Inn due to a fire this summer. We only stayed the day, so we didn’t have time to explore the outer edges of the whole island.

I never liked walking in the town too much, preferring instead the lesser-known beaches and land. I still felt the same a decade later. The town has busy streets and narrow sidewalks. It becomes disconcerting to feel you are holding back the pace of those walking behind who are always in a hurry.

I hope to get back again one day, but I’m not sure about that drive up 95. We were in an hour long traffic back-up between Bridgeport and Norwalk, Connecticut. We both said, never again are we driving that way, perhaps if we find a better route we will visit again one summer in the future. 

Photographs – Hidden Treasure

“(Extra) ordinary Mundane and meaningful objects. Beautiful everyday things. This week, surprise us with something or someone (extra)ordinary.”

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Block Island, Rhode Island beaches are part sand, part rocky pebbles. The larger stones have been used since the early centuries of our country as cobblestones for New England roadways. I am fascinated by the beauty of these rocks. The amazing array of colors and the wave-tumbled smooth surfaces mesmerize me. Much like Sanibel Island, Florida, known for the famous “Sanibel Stoop,” (a title describing beachcombers searching for shells on the beaches,) Block Island turns beachcombers into rockhounds, creating a posture that could be named, “The Block Island Bend.”

The interesting stone in today’s photograph is a cabbage-sized rock I found on Block Island. I brought it home as a doorstop, and often pick it up to gaze at what seems to be treasure inside. The exterior of the stone is a quite ordinary, but within a zig-zagging crack on the surface, the facets of polished quartz are visible, transforming the ordinary stone, into an extraordinary keepsake.

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