Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Just Stones

You can drive for miles and miles, over country roads in New England and one thing seems constant- those stone walls. Left behind when the glaciers melted, early settlers found these pieces of granite and limestone strewn across fields that needed to be farmed. These 'New England potatoes' helped replace the zig-zagging wooden fencing that had to be re-built often and were used to form the boundary lines between farms, and even helped pen in animals. Take a walk up through the woods on our property, and you'll find running stacks of granite, with some pieces too heavy for one person to move. In the fall and spring, with the leaves gone, it's a beautiful time, with late afternoon sun ricocheting through the trees, to view the walls. Quite beautiful, so peaceful and with quite a history, I bet!

5 comments:

  1. I like to think about the hands that set those stones, don't you? This is a great post, Birdman!

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  2. If only stones could talk! The stone walls demarcating fields in Ireland are quite a sight as well. Don't you love the diamond-shape of that one in your photo?

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  3. You're right sebago! The eyes are drawn to those two diamond-shaped ones, aren't they.

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  4. Very shawshank redemption! I love them.

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  5. Nice connection! Shawshank does end in Buxton, Maine... and in a pile of rocks. Ha!

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