Monday, May 16, 2011

The Menhir


There is something wonderful about blue sky, sunshine, and sand. I am drawn to this so - probably because of a lack of sunshine earlier this Spring. Anyhow, I spent some time photographing this from different directions, so that I could see it in different kinds of light. Interesting that this object drew me in so powerfully. One difficult decision involved the fact that there were two of these near each other. I have a nice photograph of the two objects in the same image, but chose this single one as better. So I needed to come up with a title, and thought of "monolith." I went to Wikipedia and looked for synonyms and discovered that this is not a monolith! There are very specific qualities for each kind of object, and the name that fit this one most clearly, is "Menhir." It feels as if I am displaying an affect to even use the term, but it is the correct and specific name for this. Well, sort of. A menhir is defined as is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably; but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top. Sounds correct, except for one thing - this is a piece of driftwood, rather than stone. But it sure looks like stone, doesn't it?

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