The Avant Garden

... in an Avant Garden sort of way. Ages ago, I did this thing on a rock outcropping at Rob's house, wherein I made some arches over cracks in it and put an arch on top of those two, and left a mess,  of course, including some rocks on the steps of the old ladder, and later Rob's granddaughter came over and she thought the ladder and extra rocks were part of the "piece" so we left the ladder to the mercy of the elements. Recently some of the stones fell and remained down for a while. Until today:

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2006-10 (Oct)

inter is paying an early visit, with temps in the 40s and a wind that stings. I am fully wooled.

For starters, I had a great pile of rocks that had gathered over several months and a glaring hole in the Avant Garden proper.

Then this morning I rec'd an e-mail from a friend in the rock-manipulating community informing me that a fellow soul, one of the original San Francisco Bay Area balancers by the name of Ron Divino, was ailing. It was too far to do the proper southern thing and bake a casserole (I am out of Cream of Mushroom Soup anyway), so I did the next best thing -- I stacked rocks and sent good wishes to Ron for a speedy recovery. This one's for you, Ron Divino, wherever you are:
Two rocks  on the ground, four arches -- not bad.

And I hear that's in Moss Beach, California, a cool place, and home of the great outdoor writer Tom Stienstra.

Anyway, Ron, I hope you get back to the rockpile soon and better than ever. Every time I glance over at the Divino stack, I will send good vibes your way.

around the neighborhood. Birds chirped, children's voices echoed down the valley and the River gurgled on the first crispy, cool day of Autumn. Then suddenly, a hooded figure appeared and stole our piece of Hellstone:
We were stunned at this ...

 We zoomed in a bit, but were powerless to stop him and frightened of getting any closer:
Terrifying, it was!

 He stood and admired the egg-shaped chunk of Hellstone for a while, as if we were not there:
The Hellstone egg changes colors ...

 Then we had to go home and get some dinner on the table; I cooked chicken and rice. 

I sort of feel like I should call the police and report the stolen stone, but I think they'd laugh at me. Or take me to Copestone.

but it's getting close to the end of the season. I don't even know where my waders are right now, but I reckon I will be digging them out soon. We went to visit the folks in Atlanta over the weekend,  and where Dial Mill Road crosses Gum Creek, I did some guerilla-stacking -- the kind where you show up where there was nothing before and stack something that might brighten someone's day. I did a mating pair of arches in hopes that when I go back Thanksgiving there might be more.

That over there is him, obviously: 
And this is her:

We got back on Sunday and I went over to Rob's to unload the rocks I had collected at various places across Georgia and South Carolina, and stacked an arch to accompany The Point:

 
I keep thinking Rob's wife will say "Enough already!" but not yet ...

 And then there is this thing that I built out of cat-n-mouse yesterday:
Can I add two more arches to that?

 The goal is to add two more arches -- one on each wing -- and have four arches with only two rocks on the ground. Would that be an Avant record? I think so. I'll have to ask the Avant archivist.