Find it.
Things are dry enough here that flipping a wet rock was more likely to uncover some critters.
Flip it.
Hoodwinked! The yellowing foliage tells the tale -- the plants hadn't grown around the rock, the rock had been placed among the plants.
Flip it back.
Oh foo, I couldn't get it in exactly the right place. As I stretched and tried not to slip into the scum, I noticed some glassily invisible fish no bigger than my pinkie-nail, and one very tiny black fish baby, scatter.
Back up.
Well. A typical beige limestone-flat scum; what is that plant, I wonder?
Back way up.
No more flippin' flipping -- people wandering around. As the couple off in the distance passed by, I could hear them discussing her finances. Their dog was listening to the mockingbirds instead.
***
"Maybe no one can distinguish which voice
Is god’s voice sounding in a summer dusk
Because he calls with the same rising frequency,
The same rasp and rattling rustle the cicadas use..."
From "The Creation of the Inaudible" by Pattiann Rogers
***
Learn more about it all here.
Links to other Rock Flippers below:
Pohanginapete (Pohangina Valley, Aotearoa/New Zealand)
Blaugustine (London, England)
Nature Remains (Ohio, USA)
Pensacola Daily Photo (Florida, USA)
KatDoc’s World (Ohio, USA)
Notes from the Cloud Messenger (Ontario, Canada)
Brittle Road (Texas [?])
Sherry Chandler (Kentucky, USA)
osage + orange (Illinois, USA)
Rock Paper Lizard (British Columbia, Canada)
The Crafty H (Virginia, USA)
Chicken Spaghetti (Connecticut, USA)
A Passion for Nature (New York, USA)
The Dog Geek (Virginia, USA)
Blue Ridge blog (North Carolina, USA)
Bug Girl’s Blog (Midwestern US)
Riverside Rambles (Missouri, USA)
Pines Above Snow(Maryland, USA)
Beth’s stories (Maine, USA)
A Honey of an Anklet (Virginia, USA)
But wait! There's more!
Wanderin’ Weeta (British Columbia, Canada)
Fate, Felicity, or Fluke (Oregon, USA)
The Northwest Nature Nut (Oregon, USA)
Roundrock Journal (Missouri, USA)
The New Dharma Bums (California, USA)
The Marvelous in Nature (Ontario, Canada)
Via Negativa (Pennsylvania, USA)
Mrs. Gray’s class, Beatty-Warren Middle School (Pennsylvania, USA)
Cicero Sings (British Columbia, Canada)
Pocahontas County Fair (West Virginia, USA)
9 comments:
I read your comment over at Shelly's blog. Thank you for that. I've heard that some writers have a group of friends who clamor for more, but I can't say this is my experience. Shelly has asked for more and that means a lot to me though.
You've got great photographs and quotes here. It is a lovely spot in the sea of the internet.
A very nice post and flip. That beige growth is really... impressive. I guess when someone puts another person down by calling them "pond scum" this is what they mean.
Such an interesting eye you have. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!
Subtext. Subtext everywhere. Under rocks, Pentamento. Incunabula. Short stories. Photos. Then cometh the frame tale and quitting. Shakespeare quite Chaucer with not only Troilus and what's her name, but with Pandarus as well, all the way down to Wallace What's His Name quitting John Keat's with his Ode to a Brown Jar.
Now comes Lori and with a flip of the rock reminds us of the hidden pleasures of looking, perhaps at a time when we were beginning to not look, to take things for granted.
To quote Poe, You who know me so well...This post is your Christmas/Hanukkah card, the photos, the text and the list of blogs, saddle-stitched in a nifty booklet, say 4 x 6. Or to be more commercial, a nice first in a series, to be sold Internet.
In any case, this post is the answer to the question of what draws me back and back again and again.
Hi folks! Extracting myself from Northrop Frye (thank goodness) and I'm glad to "see" all y'all!
mapelba: Well, thanks -- and keep seeking your audiences. Some of my friends don't get what I do, but some do...and thank goodness for them both.
deb: *snork* Ya know, I never connected those dots, and now I will never be able to sever them! Every slow-moving stream and tinaja will make me giggle about your pond scum thought.
jen: And you should see my other eye. (giggle) Thanks back!
Shelly: Big :-) -- and you did see that happy black Lab in the far upper right of the full-out scene? Glad you keep comin' back, it helps ensure I'll keep on lookin'.
I missed rock flipping day. Next Year for Sure!
My, you are full of surprises! I hope the storms are not hitting your home--my geographic ignorance is invincible, but I know you are in Texas and am reading of evacuations.
can we have another rock flipping day? i missed it too. saw your comment on the *other* chatoyance and figured i'd give your spot a browse. i'm really enjoying all your posts.
Ched: I still am hoping for at least one good critter under a rock. That said, I am not hoping to see one of these (I have before, and bbbbrrrr):
http://bugguide.net/node/view/29132
Jarvenpa: No storms hit where I live, but I have friends from Galveston who are in Austin still...
Esme: Glad you stopped by! Hope you and your chatoyant cohort have good fashion finds this weekend.
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