One of my best gifts EVER was when my husband took me to Ireland to celebrate my 60th birthday. We visited Connemara and learned “Connemara is bounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean and encompasses a wide variety of natural and semi-natural habitats. It also has diverse economic resources. Among the more unusual are extensive deposits of soapstone and veins of green marble and vivid white quartz.The marble is a serpentine-rich rock, popular since ancient times as a decorative facing stone. With its ‘forty shades of green’ and its wild patterns, it represents perfectly the landscapes of the Emerald Isle.”

This morning as I looked at one polished piece of marble from there I was struck by a similar sight off my deck!

Lovely marble indeed. Just one of the many, many shades we saw in the showroom. And then outside my window …

Camera did not quite catch it, but the shades are so alike in my eyes that I was startled. Fond, fond memories from May, 2011!