Scottish stones (Part One of an occasional series)

I took a brief foray into the garden while the weather was amicable. Weak sun shone through thin clouds, as it set over the hill at Rodborough. I managed a few tasks and then a few minutes for looking at the garden and all the work that is left to do, and then took a picture or two.

I mentioned presenting a short series on rocks and stones here, to reflect their various forms and human usage of them. One candidate was a limestone rock I found in the autumn, which is still partly covered in Fullers Earth, the clay that is found as an adjacent but separate strata and which was used as a key component of the cloth making industry round here. Fulling was the name of the process. But my short period of time this afternoon didn't suit the best presentation of the five fossils encased by the limestone in this one rock. Maybe another time.

I tried some pictures of our Chinese Dogwood, whose red branches looked so colourful in the weak light. Got no good shots there either. Finally I found a few Scottish stones we've intermittently brought back from Argyll when visiting The Dear, Helena's mother, on Loch Etive. They are as I found them, with twigs and old leaves as well as frost shattered bits of some of them. There is also a bit of Old Red Sandstone here from Somerset.

I have been collecting stones whenever I have travelled throughout my life. These ones had just ended up in a pile in the shade of a tall fence, so hence the green algae's presence.

I am also interested in the alchemical journey where the stone is vital too, usually in the quest for the Philosopher's stone. That will be a little harder to Blip.

I sense stones will now crop up occasionally in this journal.