The Quiet Winter In The MIddle Of The Whole World

Many years ago, I arrived in Ithaca NY from NYC in the dead of winter, January 1st.  The next day it had snowed, a good 5 inches.  I went off to explore and walked way out of town towards one of the many (i wanted to say Fjords!) Gorges.  I decided on an alternate route and trudged through snowy pine trees.  Little idea where I was heading.  There were no other foot prints.  Eventually the pine gave way to thick hemlock.  Things got thicker and darker and quieter in the snow.  All of a sudden the world opened up before me at the edge of the gorge.  It was wide, deep and dark.  The water was a good 50 feet below me.  Rushing water, Ice covering everything, primeval forces, light and dark,

I was completely alone.  

Except,  
On the blinding white snow,
On one patch of ice,
In the middle of the rushing water,
One lone goose,  
Sleeping,
In the middle of the whole world.

My Third Species Of Calcite Growth, This Time Possibly Grown By a Biofilm Of Algae and Who Knows Who Else!

 I found these blobby calcite growths on a Limestone outcrop in Rosendale, NY, (North East  North America) right behind the (defunct) Rosendale Cafe on route 213.

Here is the outcrop, and some fossils.

The calcite was growing in a crevice  (Ok, I haven't tested with HCL yet, maybe it could be some other mineral? will have to goto hardware store and get HCL and check all my 'calcites')

It's not crystaline like my other Calcites.

But wait, theres a surprise!  how is this growing?  Look at this cross section:

There's a layer of algae growing INSIDE the calcite growths.  is it inside ALL those blobs?  I will have to dissect this under the microscope.  It would be great if we could figure out who is living in this biofilm!  Did the biofilm ITSELF grow the calcite?  Mystery afoot!

for bonus look at this massive slickenside hanging over my head!  (slickenside is where one layer of this rock slid past the other while it all was deep underground and the earth was heaving and hoeing!