Blood from a stone

The expression “You can’t get blood from a stone” crossed my mind this morning when I went for a walk. With the warmer than usual temperatures, water that is usually frozen into a tundra-like mass on Chestnut Mountain was flowing, gurgling, racing down hill. The rivulets of water stayed inside the in the channel that was carved out of our driveway for just that purpose. I stopped a couple of times to adjust stones and remove leafy debris that was impeding the flow of water. At the base of the quarter mile drive, I noticed that the drainage pipes were clogged with dirt and stone. To the best of my ability, using my canes and some sticks, I scraped away the worst of the mass.
As I headed up the road for my walk, I passed an outcropping of rock. I noticed further evidence of the recent temperature shifts. There were some mudslides and small avalanches where rocks had split, then let go - tumbling down to the road. I thought of that age old question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” What captivated me most was the way the water seemed to be leaking out of the stone itself. The water was tinged reddish-orange because of the iron in the rock. There, right before my eyes, it appeared that I was seeing the impossible. Maybe, despite popular belief, you can get blood from a stone.