There has historically been a good bit of coal strip mining in this area (Coal City is just up the road). So, it was not surprising to have several pieces of it turn up in my yard; it lies close to the surface here. I was surprised at how colorful it is, though. I always thought coal was uniformly black, but this has lovely reds and blues and yellows. It also flakes apart into thin layers. I’m going to try to separate more layers, without crumbling them, because I think they’d make an interesting addition to an art project.
red paper boat 