Blogging About My Rocks

I'm blogging over at Inkwell Inspirations today about my rocks. It was supposed to be a travel piece about somewhere I've been and every time I sat down to think about it, I kept coming back to the Souris Rock Pit and all the treasures I've found there.

I asked hubby to read my rock post when he came home for lunch. He was eating with one hand and holding Lynnette Eason's latest Love Inspired Suspense, A Silent Fury, in the other. He looked up and asked, 'Do I hafta?'

'It's got lots of pictures,' I told him. I even brought my mini over and put it down on the table in front on him. Then I sat down to eat my own lunch. And no, I didn't feel bad that I was able to read Margaret Daley's Love Inspired Suspense Poisoned Secrets while making him read my blog. Heh.

But a funny thing happened while he was reading it. He started chewing slower until finally, he put his sandwich down and kept reading the blog. I was so astonished I had to remember to breathe! And when he finished, he smiled and said, 'That's really good, honey.'

So, if I can catch his attention . . . LOL

You could say today's post is a continuation of one on agates I wrote about here last year.

I was late getting my post up last night because I decided to check in with my doctor in the city yesterday. This cough of mine has been going on for 10 days now and that's too long for me. Being sick is such a waste of time and I've got things to do. Like write Emma's story without interruption, even by a coughing spell.

The doctor said I have an infection in my lungs and gave me some meds. One to get rid of the inflamation and an anti-biotic. The pharmacist said the anti-inflamatory might keep me awake at night. I said that was good because I'm a writer. But here it is in the middle of the day and I feel lethargic and dopey. *sigh

Anyway, anyone who comments on my rock/travel post over at the Inkwell blog until midnight Oct 22nd will get their name in my hat for a free Janet Dean Love Inspired Historical, Courting Miss Adelaide, as well as a small piece of petrified wood and a small agate.

We have a great discussion going on at the Inkwell based on todays blog questions:

- Are there any other rock hounds out there?

- Do you have a favourite hobby you need to get out of your system once in awhile?

- Do you collect something which gives you a reason to travel?

Thanks for visiting here today.

Souris Treasures - Agates

This week, instead of getting more spring-like, the weather reverted back to winter. As I watched the snow fall, I thought back to last summer. In particular, my treasure hunt to the Rock Pit in Souris, Manitoba last July. The pit is a working gravel pit. After paying a daily fee, I drove the short distance to the pit and parked in a designated area. With a squirt bottle of water, a bucket and a digging tool, I scrounged the pit.

Click on any photo for a wonderful close-up showing the waxy texture that makes an agate easy to spot amongst all the other rocky material.










Pictured in this main photo are 4 agates I found while exploring the pit. Some were lying at the bottom of rock slides, and others I dug for in the soft walls surrounding the pit. Agate is a microcrystalline impure form of quartz (silica), chiefly chalcedony, characterized by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. The following photos are close-ups of the above agate













Top left in the main photo, this chunky agate has 2 indentations or holes on one side.













Top right in the main photo, this egg shaped agate looked like it had a small piece of moss or insect stuck in the middle.










Bottom left in the main photo, this is probably the clearest agate I found last summer. If you look on the photo at the top of this post, this agate is on the bottom left. It looks like it has a white spot. But when you hold it to the light, even the spot is translucent.











Bottom right in the main photo, the lines on this agate show it to be an agatized piece of petrified wood.



The indentation in this agate was formed by a steady drip of water over many years. We're talking hundreds of years here to carve a bowl shape like this out of the agate.













Do you like rockhounding? Do you go out for a walk and return with 'treasures' in your pocket?