In the last-but-one post we were talking about moss and I thought, now this is something we really have a lot of, I ought to take some pictures of mossy boulders. So yesterday afternoon, I took the dogs and goats up the hill behind our house. The goats had never been there before, most of the year it is grazed by cows, but they can see it. That’s the goat house and their part of our garden below, behind Vesla:
On the right, below, is our house and to the left the hill down which boulders have rolled for several million years. You can just see Alex, the rat-like blob in the right-hand foreground:
And behind us is the lake. The dark, barrow-shaped bump in the middle of the picture …
… is this rock. Its striations are made so prominent by …
yes, finally: moss …
That was volcanic lava, and those are some of my favourite rocks around here, but they’re sitting in a field. Above them is the forest and the prime mossy area. Here’s a typical bit, showing some of the enormous cube-shaped boulders that look like fuzzy dice:
Here is another boulder on the edge of the forest:
It’s in a notable spot (that’s Alex again on the right, below) …
right next to it is this. A prehistoric pebble beach:
Some years ago this place, right here, was at sea level. But the dark reflection of a hill, on the left, is in the lake. The lake’s at +145 metres above current sea level and here we’re about +200 metres (650 ft). So when I say ‘some years’, I’m talking about a few million years; back in the days when Norway was a tropical paradise, with snorkeling and deck chairs. It’s just a small area. The stones are mostly pebbles; much more rounded than elsewhere:
By that time, Vesla was tired and the goats wanted to go home.
That dead tree has been at that angle for years.
Stirling Moss, for anyone under fifty-ish, was a 1950s racing driver.
A Bad Guide 
From Wiki:
For many years during and after his career, the rhetorical phrase “Who do you think you are? Stirling Moss ?” was supposedly the standard question all British policemen asked speeding motorists. Moss relates he himself was once stopped for speeding and asked just that; he reports the traffic officer had some difficulty believing him.
What a wonderful place you live in, AJP!
Beautiful rocks!
From a distance, the one with the mossy stripes makes me think of a sleeping tiger.
Simply gorgeous photos again, Crown. I am still 3 weeks away from hitting “The Answer”, so am significantly short of the apparent age theshold for knowing who Stirling Moss is. I have, however, known about him since I was a kid, although I only recently learned of his stunning act of sportsmanship in surrendering hia only opportunity to be crowned world champion.
his stunning act of sportsmanship
Good god, Stuart. I’m not reading the whole bloody Stirling Moss wiki entry just to find out what that was. Oh, all right then ….
… Hmm, they need a subheading, ‘A Stunning Act Of Sportsmanship’. Unless you’ve read it too, I bet you didn’t know that
’58, huh? Nope, I must have missed that episode.
What a beautiful place to live.
Daisy, Yes it is. I was about to say thank you, but I’m not sure that’s appropriate. I didn’t create it, I’m just lucky enough to live here. But thanks, anyway.
Gorgoeus! (But I didn’t get the pun.)
Did somebody say moss?
I’m watching the countdown for the Ares I-X right now. Or at least until they scrub the lauch – again.
Mr Crown, It was very kind of you to take us for a walk with you and your quadrupeds. I came back feeling all cheered up!
Thank-you!
I must have missed that episode.
YouTube.
My wife just saw the beautiful pictures and said “Let’s go there!” Are you psychologically ready to see a flock of Martian passing by one of these days, or one of these nights?
You’re welcome, Catanea.
(But I didn’t get the pun.)
Sili, I approve of that mossy balcony.
I like your tiger association, m-l. I would never have thought of it, but up close it’s quite like that.
M., it’s wonderful what’s accessible nowadays. I’d assumed he must have been on the British version of What’s My Line?, not on the original. It’s fun to watch, I take it all back.
Sig, we’re prepared to be invaded by Martians and will alert the media. Come during your winter; the nights are so long during ours and it’s not worth coming just to see a snowstorm or two.
Oh – I know what Sterling means (I have (non-goat) silverware). But I’d never heard of Stirling Moss.
I think there’s something called a Stirling motor / heat engine, but I don’t think they’re related.
Stirling Moss was very famous in England in the 1960s and he had a famous sister, Pat Moss, who was a show jumping rider.
The Stirling engine is no relation. It’s an invention that goes back to the 1800s, I believe. (Too lazy to wiki it, but felt guilty, so — invented in 1816, details here). Hope I got that link right….
AJP: Are you anywhere near the Hallingdal? I spent a weekend there in 1960 in a ski lodge, sleeping under a polar bear skin. Owners used to land on the lake with their floatplane pre WWII. I was very impressed ….
No, it’s sort of in the middle of southern Norway and we’re near Oslo. I haven’t been there. It’s a valley where the ski resorts like Geilo are. Rich people from Oslo have cabins there and go there in the winter. There’s a floatplane that often flies over our house, taking off from Oslofjord and going in that general direction; it may still be running (flying).
You two are very erudite, knowing about the Stirling engine. I’d never heard of it.
Stirling: comes from being involved with cars – one hears about all sorts of unusual engines. Here are the top 10 current and historic uses for the device – the top one is a cordless hair dryer !
Sorry, I read the list backwards – the top use is a cat magnet (no explanation why, really).
I’ll bear it in mind if we buy a cat magnet. I wonder if it’s cordless.
The family name Stirling is from a town in Scotland (Gaelic Stirla), nothing to do with “sterling.” There’s more than you could possibly want to know about the Stirlings (and Skirlings, to boot) here.
The only Stirling I know is Jim, the late architect, but he was from Liverpool.