In bedroom communities around America people experience lawn envy, and are always trying to make their lawns look as nice or better than the Jones’. Not so on Cape Ann. Here I think people are more inclined to experience rock envy, and how much more effectively the Jones’ have beautified their property with the rocks they had available to them. I think that Annisquam has been blessed with some of the largest, most beautiful and abundant rocks I have seen on Cape Ann, and is therefore probably the target of much rock envy.
E.J. Lefavour
Good Morning Gloucester 
Wonderful photos, E.J.! I sooo miss Cape Ann / New England rockscapes. They are magical! Here in the desert I am surrounded by mountains & they are the ugliest, most dangerous precipices one could imagine. The only respite is when the sun sets on them and they become bathed in radient in hues of orange & deep purple.
LikeLike
Great photos. I have found huge rock shelves in my yard that were hidden by leaves. So much cooler to see the bare rock and consider the fact that it pretty much is connected all the way down to the molten inner core of our planet. Now that is being grounded.
Love the photo of the rock as big as the garage sitting next to the garage. Think of all the time saved not mowing the lawn that would be there instead.
LikeLike
I love working with granite! You can build just about anything with it out of doors: walkways, steps, retaining walls, borders, raised bed gardens, and compost bins. It never needs painting, can be moved, and granite lasts forever. Plus it looks good.
LikeLike
Paul, the big rock next to the garage with the green doors is also used as the storage place for their firewood. It is split in half and creates a nice protected place for a cord or two of wood.
Granite is great stuff, and there’s no shortage of it here.
H.A. where to you live that you are in the desert surrounded by such ugly, dangerous mountains?
LikeLike
Palm Springs is at the base of Mount San Jacinto. In the winter the sun sinks behind the peaks by 3:30pm. The only time these mountains “sparkle” is in the winter when the temps are low enough at the high elevations, a couple of days of intense rain then cover them with snow. With the heavy late winter rains come a brief time of lime green as tenatious plants fight to bloom. The rest of the time they are dark brown and deadly looking. The dangerous craggy peaks surround the north, west and south sides of the Coachella Valley aka desert.
LikeLike
I have tried and tried to explain the rocky landscape of Cape Ann to friends who can’t imagine huge boulders in their yards, or my dream of a rock-laden yard. This helps me enormously! We love the rocks and these photos are great! Thanks!
LikeLike
I love rocks, especially big boulders and outcroppings. These are great pics! Talk about building your house on rock, like in the Gospel parable…
LikeLike
Surprised and nice to see my one of my family’s yards iincluded. You go!
LikeLike
My dad was a stone mason among other masonry skills. Oh what he could do with “field” stone
as in these pictures. I wish you were able to take pictures of the field stone fireplaces if any of these homes had them. I imagine they are beautiful as well. Thank you for sharing your talents.
LikeLike
You rock, EJ!
LikeLike
Beautiful photos! When I worked at the Chamber a visitor once commented to me saying Gloucester must be a very rich community to have so many granite walls and sidewalks. All I could say was “Look around you, we grow great rocks here”!
LikeLike
It’s nice to see that so many people love and appreciate rocks as much as I do, but I guess you wouldn’t love living on or visiting Cape Ann if you didn’t. You’ll probably also enjoy my tongue in cheek post about rocks today, especially you Judy.
LikeLike
So glad you share all these special places with us – amazing, as always
LikeLike
Granite looks great, but if your property has that much granite on it, please get your house tested for radon gas. Small amounts of radon in your house can equate to smoking 10 cigarettes per day. Test kits are cheap and easy to conduct, and can be picked up at home depot, probably building center, and just about any other local hardware store.
LikeLike
Wow! So many rocking comments. While living in NH, I wondered why they called it the “Granite State.” They’ve got nothing on Gloucester, Massachusetts and surrounding areas.
LikeLike
I do have rock envy and people in cape Ann envy. Wish I was there!
LikeLike
Thanks anonymous. That’s great advice that I don’t imagine most people know.
LikeLike
EJ,
Great sequence of rocks!
I’ve got a fascinating rock sequence to show you sometime. It’s just across the street.
Keep the great photos coming,
Dave
LikeLike