Recently, we went for a road trip south, to visit a quarry that Karen had mentioned. I am a bit of a rock nut, so this definitely went on the 'to visit' list.
“Tatlock Quarry is the largest calcium carbonate mine in Canada and is said to produce the purest calcium carbonate in the world. The calcium carbonate is derived from a natural marble (or limestone) rock formation. The Tatlock quarry is about 900 meters long, 400 meters wide and 110 meters deep.” (from their web site.)
The quarry has a fenced viewing area where they also leave piles of samples. I brought home some beautiful rocks, a couple are blindingly white, as well as one that is faintly pink and one faintly green.
While in the relative vicinity, we visited the Purdon Conservation area, operated by the Mississippi Valley conservation authority. (Yes, there is a Mississippi River in Ontario.)
We were a little early this year, but could see the plants coming up all over the fen.
I'm glad you had a nice trip and brought home some pretty rocks. Beautiful photos too Rosalea!
ReplyDeleteThank you Martha. Those orchids are even more gorgeous in person.
DeleteI love rocks too, Rosalea! Every time we go out to Wyoming, I end up bringing back about 50 pounds of quartz... I can’t resist it, and my brothers ranch has plenty of rose quartz. Your photos are beautiful! Have a marvelous week!
ReplyDeleteThank you, wyomingheart! I have a beautiful piece of white quartz I recently lugged out of the bush! Can't resist rocks of all sorts. They fascinate me. Any gold in your quartz?!!
DeleteI do have one piece that has gold running through it. It’s one of my favorites!
DeleteI have a few flakes of placer gold that I panned in New Zealand years ago, but sadly, none in my quartz!
DeleteAn interesting trip! Calcium carbonate would be exciting to me too! lol. I've never seen real live lady slippers. They sure are pretty.
ReplyDeleteHello Leigh. Apparently early on, they harvested some beautiful marble and made counter tops out of them from the rock of the quarry. Now it appears the rock is crushed, and the web site says it is used as a filler in things like "paint, plastics, paper and toothpaste". Seems a waste of beautiful rock to me!
DeleteWe have regular Lady Slipper Orchids here, but these are Showy Lady Slippers and are quite spectacular. There are around 50 different species of orchids in Ontario, some spectacular, some very demure and hard to find.
We have wild Lady's Slipper orchids in our area, too, but they are quite elusive and not many people have actually seen one. Many years ago when we were between our first place in the area and finding this present one, we rented a small cabin for one summer. There was a clump of Lady's Slippers in the woods. I had told a good friend of mine who had published a book about wild flowers about these Lady's Slippers. She was thrilled and came to photograph them. Long story short here, the lady who owned this particular cabin was in the process of selling it and relocating. She came one day and dug out the orchids to "transplant" them to her new property. My friend actually cried when she found out this had been done because she said they wouldn't survive the move. It was a sad thing for her. Not a happy tidbit for me to share, but your pictures did so remind me of the incident.
ReplyDeleteYes, orchids have a symbiotic relationship with a particular fungi, and will not live long if removed from their original environment. I have a friend who wanted some for her wild garden area when she found out we had some. I, like your friend, would also have cried over that desecration!
ReplyDeleteHi Rosalea! :) The orchids look pretty so far! I'm a big rock nut too, in fact I work with crystals. I'm always on the lookout for a nice colour and original looking gem! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Rain. So good to hear from you again. Yes, rocks are fascinating. There is nothing like walking a cobble beach, be it by the ocean or along a Superior shore, or really, anywhere!
DeleteThe bushes have sure leafed out since we were there. We could see right down to the bottom.
ReplyDeleteNot the best pic. It was overcast, but the sun did poke out now and then, but I missed the shot of it hi-lighting those conical piles of crushed stone. It was blinding when the sun shone.
DeleteI've been told from someone who visited the quarry regularly years ago that there was a section with beautiful pastel colored marble, but that has now been mostly mined out. Just this white stuff left.
ReplyDeleteYes. Did a little research. Long ago they shipped huge blocks to TO to have it cut and polished, and somewhere on-line, I found a lady who has a beautiful counter top from there still.
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