It just dawned on me today that, I LIKE ROCKS !! This revelation came to me as I was walking my mile around my house. I have a collection of small rocks on the back of my golf cart and each time I complete one walk around my house I move a rock to a separate pile to keep up with my laps. Twenty laps and I have gone one mile. I began today with a book in my hands and I was reading as I walked. After a bit I tired of this so I put down the book and put my hands in my pockets and began walking and looking down. This reminded me of how I would not allow my little boys to do this as they walked down the halls at school. My concern was that if they stumbled and fell they would not have a free hand to help ease the fall. I was breaking one of my steadfast rules for my young students. So, I took my hands from my pockets and concentrated on looking at the gravel on the roadway. Those thoughts took me to the back of my house where I have a rip rap retaining wall. I had some high school boys help me build this wall. My husband would normally have done this but with his impaired vision he was not up to the job. He did oversee the beginning however, showing the boys how to dig a foundation and how to lay the rocks back gradually to a 12 inch slant. All of this for stability. I had the job of mixing the mortar to use in with the rocks for a secure strong wall. I used a wheel barrow to mix the sand, water and concrete to the proper consistency. Then I transferred it to a 5 gallon bucket. Sometimes I carried it to where the boys were working. That may be why I have strong bones now, from labor like that. I may be partial to this rock wall as I have a personal investment in the building of it.
Beyond this wall, and at eye level is a huge table rock. It is about 5 feet across and around one foot high. It was here when we first came here and no one has seen fit to attempt to move it. That would be an impossible task and I think it is quite attractive as it is with flowers and shrubs near by.
At the front of my house where the walk way begins are two huge rocks, one on each side of the walk. Another case of huge rocks too big to move easily so they were slid over to mark the entrance. Right now they have been covered by the encroaching blue rug juniper planted there many years ago. For years I have had to be careful when parking in front so as not to open my car door and hit one of them. I must write a memo to myself to do some pruning down there.!
Some years ago I had a retired gentleman who helped me with chores around here. He had a creative streak and he suggested I allow him to make a rock wall in front of my house and use it for a boundary for flowers. It sounded good to me so I just gave him carte blanche with my blessings. He used rocks that are large and flat and laid in stacked rows. In between them he built steps so I could go up through the middle of them. At the west end of the wall it is as tall as I am as he designed it to follow the slanting lay of the land. I could not have asked for a nicer flower bed. This wall is like a natural outcropping and it pleases me more as years go by.
Since I was so happy with this creation of his he suggested building a similar wall in the curve of my road. That is what he did and each time I drive out of here I go between these big flat curved walls of rock. The inside curve has been damaged several times when big trucks come in for the first time and misjudge the space for their trucks. This has never happened to the outside curve. These walls blend into the landscape and are a natural setting for perennials.
I miss my friend as he was witty and intelligent and fun to work with. He left behind him a legacy of beauty which has given me much pleasure over the years. Sometimes it makes me sad to think of him and the way he suffered before his death. He left me with many happy memories however which cause me to smile when I think of them.
I suppose you could say he had a permanence about him much like the rocks he worked with. He not only left me with the rock walls and the many memories but of his own volition he planted two grape vines in my vineyard. He thought they would be seedless or almost so. He did not live to see the results of his planting. I wish he could know that they turned out to be really delicious and make a wonderful jelly with a wine like taste.
He was one of a kind like the rocks he worked with and he had the solidness of a rock to match his personality. Is it any wonder that I like rocks.?
Beyond this wall, and at eye level is a huge table rock. It is about 5 feet across and around one foot high. It was here when we first came here and no one has seen fit to attempt to move it. That would be an impossible task and I think it is quite attractive as it is with flowers and shrubs near by.
At the front of my house where the walk way begins are two huge rocks, one on each side of the walk. Another case of huge rocks too big to move easily so they were slid over to mark the entrance. Right now they have been covered by the encroaching blue rug juniper planted there many years ago. For years I have had to be careful when parking in front so as not to open my car door and hit one of them. I must write a memo to myself to do some pruning down there.!
Some years ago I had a retired gentleman who helped me with chores around here. He had a creative streak and he suggested I allow him to make a rock wall in front of my house and use it for a boundary for flowers. It sounded good to me so I just gave him carte blanche with my blessings. He used rocks that are large and flat and laid in stacked rows. In between them he built steps so I could go up through the middle of them. At the west end of the wall it is as tall as I am as he designed it to follow the slanting lay of the land. I could not have asked for a nicer flower bed. This wall is like a natural outcropping and it pleases me more as years go by.
Since I was so happy with this creation of his he suggested building a similar wall in the curve of my road. That is what he did and each time I drive out of here I go between these big flat curved walls of rock. The inside curve has been damaged several times when big trucks come in for the first time and misjudge the space for their trucks. This has never happened to the outside curve. These walls blend into the landscape and are a natural setting for perennials.
I miss my friend as he was witty and intelligent and fun to work with. He left behind him a legacy of beauty which has given me much pleasure over the years. Sometimes it makes me sad to think of him and the way he suffered before his death. He left me with many happy memories however which cause me to smile when I think of them.
I suppose you could say he had a permanence about him much like the rocks he worked with. He not only left me with the rock walls and the many memories but of his own volition he planted two grape vines in my vineyard. He thought they would be seedless or almost so. He did not live to see the results of his planting. I wish he could know that they turned out to be really delicious and make a wonderful jelly with a wine like taste.
He was one of a kind like the rocks he worked with and he had the solidness of a rock to match his personality. Is it any wonder that I like rocks.?
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