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Stone me!
I don’t own very much in the way of material possessions. A very expensive divorce in my early adult years plus a succession of parasitic relatives in later years have conspired to see to that. It doesn’t matter though. I’ve never been particularly acquisitive either, despite appearances. In fact material things have always been a bit of an anathema to me, always preferring the life of a Ludite. If I buy anything at all it is always following the care to ensure it will last a lifetime. Which is why I write ‘despite appearances’. The reason being that virtually everything I have ever acquired but that was not subsequently wrested from me in either Divorce Court or by jealous relatives I still own. I'm not mean, far from it, but I have always had to work very hard for what I own and was also brought up frugally and to value things. Thus when at the tender age of just fifteen and helping my dear, now late, parents in their garden I came across nothing of any more value than a humble small piece of rock. Although intrinsically worthless I subsequently have kept it all my life since.
A remarkable thing about this piece of rock, although clearly indigenous to the area but in a region not particularly noted for being rocky, was its extraordinary shape. It measures about 15cms (6") across and looks very much like a very large human eye.
The rock is called Carrstone.
Local and practically unique in its form to west Norfolk in England. A generally
sedimentary region. Carrstone is ostensibly a soft sandstone that is impregnated with
iron oxide. Freshly excavated it is the colour of honey but after years exposed to
weather, absorbed rain water evaporates on the surface leaving behind iron oxide (rust
to the layman) which accumulates to create a beautifully rich chestnut brown colour.
If there was enough iron oxide dissolved in the sample then sufficient will deposit itself
on the surface to create a silken sheen of almost pure iron. It gains physical strength
and resistance to compressive loads after such weathering and this quality, coupled with
its ease of working and cutting, makes it a superb and visually very attractive building
material. Indeed the Queen's private residence - Sandringham House, is built of it.
Sometimes the process of saturation followed by evaporation and then deposition on the surface of iron oxide follows some natural strata lines within the rock itself. Leading to interesting variegation and patterning. Such was the piece I had found and it was indeed the most unusual I have ever found either before or since.
Memsahib and I hosted a dinner party last week. All our guests were ladies. I was the only male. The group were all of highly educated and cultured stock and thus predictably it was an interesting evening. Dinner conversation pleasantly interspersed with bits of local gossip, a few jokes, a little politics and some exchanges of just simply subjects of mutual interest. One such area of interest was about each of our former lives before settling in what was likely for each of us to be our bountiful final resting places, along Brittany’s spectacular Rance Valley.
I explained to our guests that I had been brought up, although not born, in a similarly attractive region of Europe. That shared many similarities and virtues as our newly chosen region but that the architecture, the topography and the geology were all quite different. To amplify my point I donned wellies and picked up a torch to go outside and retrieve my ‘eye stone’ from its new home in our garden and that I had carted all over the globe throughout my life. As if it were some albeit worthless but nonetheless spiritual talisman.
I brought it in and up to the dinner table. "What do you think of that?" I introduced my magical stone to our curious guests.
"It looks like a fanny!" came the unanimous response.
I won’t be able to look my stone in the eye in quite the same way any more!
I’ve finished ‘getting stoned’ now.
For the day anyway.
