Oh Schist

My brother Ted  renovated his kitchen recently.  As part of that installation, he used  local schist.   According to Ms. Wikipedia:
Schist is a medium-grade metamorphic rock^[1] with medium to large, flat, sheet-like grains in a preferred orientation (nearby grains are roughly parallel). It is defined by having more than 50% platy and elongated minerals,^[2] often finely interleaved with quartz and feldspar
   Ted's stone is mysterious dark green with creamy streaks and flecks of gold. He told me that Ashfield Stone (in Shelburne Falls now) cuts a number of varieties of this local beauty.
     We went to Ashfield Stone yesterday to look at possible counter tops for the kitchen and master bath.  We spent about an hour with Johanna, who explained to us how the rock was formed and how they cut the stone for use in countertop, floors, and furniture.  We got to watch them at work as well.
    Here are some examples.  I warn you that the colors are a little off because of the light reflection.

 This one is quicksilver.  It is actually much grayer than this photo.  From Ashfield Stone's website:
   When Ashfield Stone is sawn with the huge diamond tipped circular saw, there are two distinct layers that can be used in many dimensional applications such as countertops and flooring. Quicksilver is a lighter, Quartzite layer with marbled garnet patterns, trace silver blazes and occasional quartz veining.

This one is crowsfoot.  Ashfield Stone desribes the stone in this way:
   Crowsfoot is a variegated schist that has been designated by the Marble Institute of America as one of this continent’s rare, exotic stones. This 600 million year old stone originally flowed out of ancient volcanos, cooled slowly, grew the wonderful crystal inclusions and than was pressed and folded in the crush of continents. It has a field of opalescent teal green or sea gray with varying sized bundles of black hornblende crystals (crowsfeet), feldspar, quartz ribbons and occasional cherry wood colored garnets. Every block we quarry is unique and therefore each variation is a limited edition.
   I think that Quicksilver will be the counter top in the kitchen.  we may use some crows foot as our fireplace mantle.