Was Pescadero Home To The Mythic Atlanteans?

John Vonderlin, collector of the Coastside’s natural wonders asks, “Was Pescadero an outpost of the mythic Atlanteans?”
Read his fascinating email:

As I mentioned previously, one of the type of rocks I collect I call “NotRocks.” A NotRock is a rock that’s attractive or collectible because of the parts that are missing. On our coast it is common to see rocks that have been holed by various molluscs.

(Photo: A “notrock”, courtesy John Vonderlin)

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“Notrocks” come in an amazing array of shapes with the holes being spaced in pareidolic arrangement sometimes.

Tafoni” is probably the seond most common NotRock found on our coast. I have hundreds of photos of various tafoni along this stretch of coast. While tafoni are mysterious, the forces that create them are at least partially known.

Not so for the mysterious star-shaped holes I found in rocks at several places along the coast. Fascinated I posted my finds on several rock forums, but never got even a hint of what might have caused them. While with a computer controlled laser or lathe you could duplicate this in a lab or shop, how was it happening in isolated hard to even reach spots?

I did learn that there were people who believed that these same star-shaped holes found in large blocks of rock on the ocean floor in the Caribbean were the product of the super science of Atlantis. They reported in some cases the star-shaped holes actually spiralled through the rocks.

Could there have been an outpost, now submerged, of the mythic Atlanteans in Pescadero?

…to be continued…

Conversations With The Collector of Natural Wonders…(1)

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(Photo courtesy John Vonderlin)

“Although I am a natural wonder collector,â€? John Vonderlin told me, “yes, I do collect rocks—but, of types you are probably not familiar with.â€?

June: What do you mean?

John: Rocks that very few others collect, with names like synthetikites, mimetoliths, naturools, pareidolics, notrocks and concretions. The last type, concretions, or the ‘Rodney Dangerfields’ of rocks, are fairly common along this coast.

June: Oh?

John: At the south end of Tunitas Beach are the finest coastside group of concretions of which I am aware..

June: Go on.

John: The prize of the group is a prolongate coalesced concretion (dumbbell-shaped) that mollusks have swiss-cheesed.

The iPhone: Has Anybody Noticed

that the iPhone looks like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Burt says if he had a wish, he would love to meet Thomas Jefferson– the greatest of all American presidents, author of the “Declaration of Independence“–to show him his new iPhone. Burt would demonstrate all the capabilities of this wonderful “machine” and tell Jefferson that he was holding in the palm of his hand, the best of human ingenuity–and that the iPhone represents the promise of modern civilization.

Seen at SF Cacti Show

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Photo by artist/gardener Leon Kunke

………………………………

The essence of a garden is

The path through.

The curves and straight lines

And the corners and curved intersection

Seem to say:

See this plant

See that rock

What a view.

The Japanese use stepping stones

So you will look beneath your feet;

Some others use grass

To recall a time when the garden

Was manicured by sheep.

Some say the garden

Is as good as one’s clippers;

Some want a wild garden

With vines.

Your garden says who you are.

Nota Bene.

——————
Poem by Leon Kunke

I Love The Work of Artist Michael Parkes

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He has a special [romantic] appeal to women– and his often dreamy, fantasy view of life can be enjoyed at the Borsini-Burr Gallery in Half Moon Bay (235 Main St., 1-877.712.2111.)

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“Three Graces” by Michael Parkes. (This isn’t an “ad”.)