Monday, September 3, 2007

International Rock Flipping Day

September 2, 2007 found me at Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. An Army Corps of Engineers project from the 1950s, Lake Cumberland has 55,000 surface acres of water and over 1200 miles of shoreline. What a place to flip a rock!



Because of much needed repairs to the dam, the water level this year has been drastically dropped (about 40 feet) revealing beautiful rocky ledges and colorful expanses hidden beneath the lake for years.

For me, though, red, rocky ledges can also mean unfamiliar hidden reptiles--I was a little out of my comfort zone on these more southern Kentucky slopes. So, I decided to play it safe and seek my rocks by canoe, along the edges.


The layering is beautiful,
from fragile shale that disintegrates into flakes like jigsaw pieces,

to chunky limestone blocks.



And, if you look very closely, some large, round, crystal-lined balls are within the layers--

geodes!

I was able to glide right up to this one at the water's edge.


And many are still buried within the layers--
looking like little cannonballs embedded in the walls of the canyon.

Can you see this one? (Look 18" beneath the weathered stump)

So, technically, I didn't look under a rock, more actually, between rocks.
Does that count?

To see what others have found on IRFD, take a look:
Windywillow (Ireland)
Heraclitean Fire (London, England)
Sheep Days (Illinois, USA)
Earth, Wind & Water (somewhere in the Caribbean)
Pocahontas County Fare (West Virginia, USA)
chatoyance (Austin, Texas)
Fragments from Floyd (Virginia, USA) - GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Watermark (Montana, USA)
pohanginapete (Aotearoa/New Zealand)
Fate, Felicity, or Fluke (Oregon, USA)
Thomasburg Walks (Ontario, Canada)
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Woman (Queensland, Australia)
The Transplantable Rose (Austin, Texas)
Nature Woman (New York state, USA)
Marja-Leena Rathje (British Columbia, Canada)
A Blog Around the Clock (North Carolina, USA)
Busy Dingbat’s Sphere (West Virginia, USA)
Hoarded Ordinaries (New Hampshire, USA)
Congo Days (Kinshasa, Congo)
this too (London, England)
Roundrock Journal (Missouri, USA)
Wanderin’ Weeta (British Columbia, Canada)
Blaugustine (London, England)
A Honey of an Anklet (Virginia, USA)
Looking Up (Ohio, USA)
Ontario Wanderer (Ontario, Canada)
Bug Safari (California, USA)
Riverside Rambles (Missouri, USA)
Pure Florida (Florida, USA)
Burning Silo (Ontario, Canada)
Musings from Myopia (Texas, USA)
Cicero Sings (British Columbia, Canada)
Joan (Missouri, USA)



My IRFD escort, a Green Heron who stayed just ahead of the canoe, waiting for a juicy tidbit to crawl out from under a rock.

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7 comments:

Beth Young said...

Thanks for visiting. I love your blog and will certainly add you to Bloglines for future visits.

Mary said...

Bravo! Wonderful post, Nina! We you alone in the canoe? It does look a bit eerie and what impressed me was seeing the water level so low - 40 feet. It exposes so much and makes you imagine things.

I love the green eyes on the Green Heron. Lovely!

Cathy said...

It's all a matter of perspective. I say 'between' works just fine. That Green Heron looks fine between the sky and water.

RuthieJ said...

Wow, Nina, what a cool place! Geodes right there in the rocks and a green heron....all from a canoe. I'm so amazed. Thanks for sharing.

cestoady said...

The low water of that lake reminds me of the flooded canyons of the Southwest.

The lone Green Heron near the clear water and exposed stumps and rocks ,with their bold vertical and horizontal elements of contrasting forms and textures in dark and light browns , is very pleasing . Nice rich image.

nina at Nature Remains. said...

My husband steers from behind me--we can glide up with hardly a sound--great for catching wildlife. And, I'd have a hard time managing paddles, camera,...
The different colors of the layers of rock were beautiful--textures, too, water in these canyons averages 90 feet deep.
From what I understand, the shoreline is owned by the state, meaning the many homes around it are hidden a distance from the edge. From the water, all you see are cliffs, ledges and thick trees.

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work.