Rocks and Lichen and Moss - Oh My!!

OK, bear with me here.

Are there things that make you cry or at least tear up simply because they are so incredibly beautiful, or maybe because you are truly awestruck? Well, I can get that way about rocks. That's right, I said rocks.

I've been wanting landscape rocks for the front of our place to divide the driveway area from the little tiny front lawn and the house. It has felt to me like the driveway just runs into the house, especially since the driveway comes downhill from the road.

So, Fred Lowe, rock guy supreme, had promised me rocks some time ago; but here's the deal: You wait for Fred or you get someone else, and getting someone else is not the good choice. So, finally Fred had a bigger job that put him working on the property right next to ours and the time was ripe for me to get my rocks.

Fred showed up on Monday with the first of the rocks. Note the rock to the left and the strap around it. Fred came down the road and down our steep driveway with that rock danging from his bucket! Amazing.



Buck and Cocoa had to check each rock after it was dropped off - and more about this rock later. The pups seemed to need to be sure that no dangerous things were coming in with the rocks.


So, Monday night there we are with big ole rocks sitting at the end of the driveway.


On Tuesday I had to go get a hair cut and run errands. When I came home, Fred had finished setting the rocks. Each is in place and partially buried in the ground looking like they've been there forever! (Near us is a house where someone else did the rock work. A bunch of big rocks were dumped willy-nilly on top of their grass, not sunk in, not arranged at all and just look wierd. Big rocks don't just sit on the ground. They sink in.)

Each of the four rocks has moss and each has lichen. I cried. Really.


The rock the puppers were checking out earlier has reindeer moss! This very special moss blooms or grown "antlers". How special is that?

One rock has a little piece of yellow lichen. It's pretty darned rare around here!

That same rock has orange lichen too, along with the white-ish lichen that is more common and is on all the rocks!



Fred calls these kinds of rocks living rocks, and I have to agree. There is life in each of these as well as the amazing history of the Sierra Nevada.

So, some folks brake for garage sales; I cry for rocks.