Glastonbury and Gloucester

You can always tell when I am super busy - I either don't post or I fall back on posting photos of holidays from earlier in the year...

Elestial and a Malachite egg

One of my favourite minerals is Malachite, a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu₂CO₃(OH)₂.  Individual crystals are rare but do occur as slender to acicular prisms but typical malachite is laminated.  It is this banding in differing greens that make it so beautiful.

Archaeological evidence indicates that the mineral has been mined and smelted in the Timna valley in Israel for over 3,000 years. Since then, malachite has been used as both an ornamental stone and as a gemstone.

#

Malachite was also used as a mineral pigment in green paints from antiquity until about 1800 when it was replaced by its synthetic forms such as verditer, a pigment typically prepared by adding chalk or whiting to a solution of copper nitrate.  

#

It is used for decorative purposes, such as in the Malachite Room in The Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg which also contains ahuge malachite vase. 

 The above malachite vase is in the Linda Hall Library in the USA.

On our trip to Glastonbury in October we came across lots of rock and mineral shops including Elestial.

In the window was this huge Malachite Egg.  

I fell in love with it and can’t wait for that Lottery win so I can buy it…

Gloucester - The Raven Tavern - Not! 

Another glimpose into our exploration of the route down to Daughter-who-takes-photos last October.  This was in Gloucester.

And a church spire that has got lost...

Ivy

Those of you anticipating a mention of a certain kitten should be made aware she is in disgrace.  She keeps darting between people's legs to escape from the back door.  She's not allowed out for a couple more months until she has been spayed. She knows she's not allowed out and she risks decapitation in her attempts to dive out of the door.   If she's better behaved tomorrow you may get some more photos...

Happy Monday - LY

A real Ramble about a Chair

Invalid chair, Europe, 1850-1890

Unlike modern wheelchairs that have four wheels, this chair has three: two large front wheels and one small rear wheel. This means the patient was unable to wheel the chair themselves. They would have had an assistant. The chair is heavy so presumably they would not have gone very far or very fast. This elaborately carved chair dates from the late 1800s. It is made of wood with a sprung padded seat. It was donated to the Wellcome Collections by Liverpool Royal infirmary in 1928.

It's nearly Christmas

And the Christmas cards are starting to arrive. How about this one from Jude, a friend with whom I went to college. 

She's put a lot of effort into that!

And some Postcrossing Christmas postcards are arriving like this one from Alesya in Belarus.

Ivy

Ivy isn’t pestering me at the moment – she must be asleep downstairs somewhere.  Or working in her bookshop…

 You can tell she's a cat for this household!

Leontien
You may remember Leontien, an amazing woman who is fighting cancer, from Flowers for Leotien and Leaves for Leotien that I've done earlier on this blog.  Nancy, who has been such a good Internet friend to Leontien, has suggested we think about sending her a card this holiday time.

Leontien's address at Four Leaf Clover Dairy can be found here.

 Loch Droma

A misty Loch Droma on the A835 during July last year when GB and I passed on our way to Ullapool for the ferry to the Isle of Lewis.