Thursday, July 15, 2010

Irish Geology


I'm one of those travelers that would rather have a nice, typical stone from a visited place than almost anything else. Certainly more than a plastic "souvenir" made in China.

Since I started to going to Ireland regularly, in 1984, I have brought back examples of her impressive geology. My front steps are now lined with an ever-changing arrangement of Irish stones. I like to look at them, when they're dry and when they are slick with prairie rain.

Once, in Shannon airport, a porter hefted one of my bags and said "What have ye got in here, rocks?" I said "I do indeed!" and I think he chalked me up as just another crazy American.

When I moved out here, friends helped me load the semi-trailer I had purchased. I had a large library and they grew weary of toting the many boxes of very heavy books. But when they came to the two boxes of Irish stones, weighing about sixty pounds each, I had planned ahead! I didn't have the heart to tell them they were carrying stones, so I labeled each box "Irish Geology." No questions were asked.

1 comment:

BobG said...

As an amateur rockhound from way back, I find them interesting. The bottom left one looks like breccia, and the bottom right one looks like granite; can't see enough detail on the other two, but the gray one is some sort of sedimentary rock, isn't it?