Thursday, October 08, 2009

Collection



Not so long ago I confessed my button habit - one of my favourite collections.


Another favourite is stones. I cannot CANNOT walk on a beach without picking up stones and I still have stones which I collected on family holidays as a teenager. I have a chunk of marble and pyrite which I remember picking up and carrying on a long hike up Ben Lomond and back down again, in Scotland ....
(sorry short of time, otherwise I'd post a photo of it, it is particularly beautiful)


Some of my stones lie in little places around the house


But most of them now have found a home in the garden



around my girl shed.


The granite stones with marble stripes and patterns mostly come from Jersey, the Channel Islands. Though some of the marbley ones come from childhood holidays in the Lake District. I could tell you which are which too.... Memory is bizarre sometimes.




The stones with holes in them come from beaches on the East and South Coast of England - especially Bexhill and Brighton.



The girl shed is looking a little autumnal and slightly neglected now and I've not seen any frogs in the frog pool for weeks.

But the stones will be there all winter, being lovely.




Theme Thursday - Collection

26 comments:

Dumdad said...

"I cannot CANNOT walk on a beach without picking up stones."

Nor me.

Coffee Messiah said...

Rock solid collection you have!

Cheers!

Sue Guiney said...

Ooh, I have a stone thing too. 2 shelves in my office are filled with them...mostly from Ireland but all from beaches.

Baino said...

I'm more of a shell picker upperer. I've been to Ben Lomond, many years ago and it was moist and misty but very beautiful. Love the way you display your rock collection!

Brian Miller said...

what a cool collection. i like stones and nature..the look the texture...very fine.

Anonymous said...

Finally! We get to see more of your stone collection :)

I rather fancy those with the holes in them. I still have the three stones from Pop's grave site...right there in the car.

Happy TT to ya, lettuce!

Lisa Ursu said...

I love your collection. I have a similar one! I especially love the stones with the holes.
What beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing and happy tt.

mouse (aka kimy) said...

the girl shed is a perfect outdoor sanctuary for many of your stones...I thought I had a propensity for picking, but I'm nothing compared with you!!

I too am always in search of wholes and stripes - I didn't even think of snapping a pick of my stone basket!

wonderful photos

Barbara said...

Stones are so eternal. But how do you remember the story of each of them? Is it enough just to know it caught your eye at some point in your travels through life?

Giulia said...

Ah, we share two more loves. My button "box" is a large-ish piece of French porcelain rec'd as a gift (& a hint to declare myself officially as a collector).

My stones do not have a similar resting place, but places. No garden any longer, alas. We shall not speak of shells (many of which have been given away...though not all.) I, too, remember every single place, & whether I collected it or whether it was a gift from someone's pockets.

It's not a matter of deliberate memorization (on my part anyway, don't know about Letty). Some of us are blessed-cursed with this sense memory--cursed as it can be overwhelming. It can be useful, though, as well.

One thing you just minded me of...Coming through NY-JFK customs one late night, an inspector asked me to empty stuff into a pail. A bunch of interesting (to me) rocks piled in. "Lady, are you stoned?" I was tired, dusty, & not a little exasperated from a very trying several months on a dig. Still, I laughed. He had such a funny way of delivering this line...& no, they were not valuable rocks in the ancient sense...

ciao

Holly said...

I love your collection....who hasn't found a rock to keep? They are beautiful reminders of eventful times in ones life~Thanks!!! Holly

ArtSparker said...

There's a beach near here that typically has stones with holes through them. Your collection is lovely.

Do you ever balance stones on each other on the beach?

e said...

Lettuce,

This is too funny. I collected rocks and stones as a kid because we were always going to some beach...I'm sorry now that I did not keep a few. Great collection you've got there. Can you explain about the girl shed?

Jasmine said...

I like your collection. I noticed your desert rose..

Akelamalu said...

Stones are fascinating, I often pick them up. :)

Wings1295 said...

Great pics of a great collection! I always grab one small stone wherever we go and add it to our rock garden. It is now made up of stones from ... well, everywhere!

Skip Simpson said...

Wonderful collection! I don't know anyone who hasn't collected stones from a beach at least once in their life. Great post! Happy TT!

Tom said...

that is the best stone collection ever...i could spend hours looking through it, had i the chance

Roy said...

I can't walk on the beach without picking up things - stones, shells, sea glass, and other ephemera like Whelk egg cases and Mermaid's Purses (which are actually Skate eggs) - but I think you have me beat. What a fantastic stone collection! Good work!

Lynne said...

I am a picker-upper of things on the beach. Mostly shells. We don't find too many washed up stones on the beaches around here.

Love the stones with holes. I wonder how they get that way??

Have you ever seen the silly old American movie "The Long, Long Trailer" with Lucille Ball? I thought of her after reading your post. Long story short: They got married and her husband (played by Ricky Ricardo of course) was involved with road construction somehow, so their new life involved lots of traveling from here to there. Their perfect solution was a very long travel trailer they could take from job to job for their home. Lucy had a penchant for picking up a "rock" from everywhere they stopped along the way. She ended up with quite the large collection. When it came time to go over a very high mountain pass her husband told her to throw they all away. Well, she couldn't. She kept them. Hid them in all the nooks and crannies she could find. Going up the insanely high pass all the rocks came rolling out.

At least your collection is all at rest right in your own back yard. And so lovely!

herhimnbryn said...

I collect stones too and will carry them miles to get them home.
Stones, buttons. sea glass. 'We are the gatherers, the collectors of lost things'. I think that's a quote, but I can't remember by whom.

Megan said...

I like the idea of the 'girl shed'! Great use of your collection!

lettuce said...

glad to hear its not just me
:-)

Baino, I think Scotland is mostly misty moisty

barbara & giulia, its just the way my memory works...
and giulia, i've had anxious moments about my cases being overweight, due to excess stonage

ArtSparker I have of course. I thought it was mandatory?

e, if you click on the link in the post (click on "girl shed") it will take you to an earlier post about the shed (which also takes you to an earlier post....)

Lynne I think the holes must be geological - Jersey has no stones with holes, the granite is very very hard. I think the holes might sometimes be quartz worn away. The film sounds cool

herhimnbryn my brain is saying TS Eliot? but not sure, shall google.

lettuce said...

PS shall try to visit your blogs this weekend

Have a good one, everyone!

:-)

Celluloid Stalker said...

Love your collection, but especially love your profile picture. I have a blog of faces and hands so I have put your picture there. If you don't want it on my blog, I will remove it

Soozcat said...

I seem to recall reading somewhere that you can use stones with holes in them to see the unseen. Hmmmm!