Boo

Go Go Jason Waterfalls!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

L'automne

A lovely day! It was grey and drizzly and windy. I went for a walk. A fly was very patient with me as I took photos of it. It was cold enough that I made a pot of mint tea to warm up.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Bancroft

I went rockhounding in Bancroft last month. It's been a few years since I was last there. I went with Kyle and a number of members from the club. We all stayed in cabins on a hill overlooking Elephant Lake.

I love going up north, driving along highways cut through rock, the jagged walls towering over you on either side. Passing by forests of dead trees, looking like bleached skeletons rising out of the murky water. There's less light pollution up there; one can see the entire sky filled with brilliant stars. I always see new and interesting animals on these trips, like snakes! I never see snakes at home. Kyle and I passed by a little snake near our cabin. It couldn't have been more than 30 cm. Whenever we got within a metre of it, it would snap its mouth in our direction. So cute!

I got some nice specimens from the Beryl Pit in Quadville: peristerite and amazonite, as well as a greenish mica book with a purple fluorite stuck in the centre. This was only Kyle's second time rockhounding, and it was here that he discovered quartz is really sharp. He was hammering a big chunk of it and it exploded, showering him with crystal razors. His hands and face got a bunch of little cuts and he bled all over the place. It was quite amusing (he was fine).

I got some nice fluorichterites from a roadcut in Wilberforce, and lots of green apatite from the Bear Lake Diggings. I believe I found a single sphene crystal, too. It rained the last day, but the trees at Bear Lake provided partial cover, so it wasn't so bad. As I was digging in the dirt, a snake kept me company. It was black with yellow lines, and beautiful brown eyes. For about 15-20 minutes, it simply watched me dig, lying a couple feet away, its head raised slightly above the ground. Eventually it slithered away; I touched its tale as it left.