Ammonite: for Technophobe, Veronica, and PaulaJ

I’ve been tired all day, so I am grateful for the chance to be still and quiet at home, with time for laundry and household odds and ends. A good opportunity to photograph this hunk of stone I found in Staithes on the day of the Great Blipmeet of 2015. (Missing from the photograph are Spots of Time, who came later in the day, Veronica, who had to leave early, and HighPike, who made the group photo.) I should also mention Anthony, smilelikeabunny, who generously offered Sue and me his home in Staithes as our home and headquarters but wasn’t able to join us there himself. 

It was a bright and sparkly day in June. We’d all been drinking tea at Dotty’s Tea Shop and chatting our heads off before going for a long walk while the tide was out, vaguely dreaming of finding ammonites, ochre, jet, or something else wonderful. The wind blew a small stone my way, I gently kicked it and gasped, “Look!” I might have screamed. “An ammonite just lying on the ground!” What I found is not really an ammonite but an impression or imprint (or mold) of an ammonite, but I still marvel that I stumbled into it. It is my gift from Staithes, a town I first visited in 1993, when I was in the UK for a quick summer visit with old friends from the 70s. Evan and Bella have been touching it (and occasionally mouthing it) since they were teething toddlers, and I plan to pass it on to them.

Technophobe was in Staithes last week and posted an extra of an ammonite impression she found, and both PaulaJ and Veronica remembered my delight in finding that hunk of ancient history. I think it is an endomoceras, and in case I haven’t posted enough links already, I did find a lovely German website full of excellent photos (scroll down) of ammonites.