Why did I start this blog?

I have been collecting rocks since I was about 9 years old. The first specimen I collected  was a dark olive green color, almost black. It was full of air holes like empty bubbles, about the size of a volleyball, and very light in weight.  I found this huge specimen in the woods near my house where I grew up in Pennsylvania.  My specimen was not as colorful as this picture below, but the holes and texture are identical.

 I did not believe my Dad when he said it might be industrial slag. No, I thought it was a meteorite or at least some volcanic rock.  My imagination went wild with ideas of how this specimen was formed, where it came from.  I fell in love with the mystery of its origins.
Yes, my Dad was right.  In hindsight, now I know it was industrial slag dumped up in a clearing in the woods.  Over the years, I have lost this first specimen.  However, I have been picking up rocks wherever I have traveled for the past 40 years.  I went to college to study geology based on this fascination with rocks. I learned about how the earth was formed, how the plates move, and my favorite, how to identify rocks and minerals.  Just recently, as I thought of why I love quilting so much, I remembered my petrology class and the colorful thin sections of rocks we used in the microscopes.  It was always about the colors and forms, both with rocks and with fabric and quilting.

I have started photographing all my specimens picked up on geology field trips, on travels, or bought at a gem and mineral show at a local fair grounds.

The "Rocks and minerals rock" blog will be a show case for the beautiful rocks in my collection.