Thursday, November 02, 2006

Pateho's Place

Like a Rock!
I'm going to be uploading some pictures that relate to my interests. The latest hobby has taken over my kitchen and living room. My boyfriend and I now have a bad case of "Rock Pocks". This is a condition that takes over from a simple love of rocks and minerals, with minimal collecting over the years, to a whole summer spent "Rockhounding!". I probably have 1/2 ton of rocks in my house and garden! I love it.
We have spent the summer scrutinizing, mapping and mining the Bancroft Ontario district, Ottawa Valley and our own local beaches right off of Lake Huron. (Lake Huron has some amazing 'pebbles' already smoothed out, it's claim to rock fame is the "pudding stone" a conglomerate of various minerals all squeezed together, some really beautiful colored ones!)

We are planning to expand out to other districts and places, one of them being to head down to Arizona! Yippee.
I'm on the lookout for that one 'gem' to complete me (hee, hee) More specifically to set me $Financially$ Freeeeee!

I have fallen in love with the mineral Corundum. At first I thought it to be a 'man' rock. Corundum however, when cut, faceted, polished etc. is either a ruby or a sapphire, depending on the color of the crystal of course. What is so respectable is the crystal itself. It has a good weight, plus it's the second hardest mineral in the world (diamond is No.1) I really enjoyed 'hunting' for Corundum crystals at an old mine in Bancroft District called Burgess Mines. The area is really beautiful too. The rock dump has a 'live' beaver home and a spring fed pond. So it's a pleasure to hang out there.

So, at this point I've been cleaning all my specimens and will be categorizing them. Then we'll take photos and upload a bunch to www.mindat.org see if he (the moderator) likes them. There are thousands of specimens at this place. Very well done and you get to know your geology at this place.

Did I mention that out of all the specimens, Rose Quartz has to be my best mineral to date. Especially when you get a good specimen. It's translucent, waxy look makes me all gibbly inside! I resonate with this mineral for sure.

Okay until the next post, have a sparkling day!