Marja-Leena Rathje
Home ::: a white stone

a white stone


quartz.jpg

quartz2.jpg

two sides of a much-loved stone that resides on a windowsill
was it found by one of our children years ago?

Marja-Leena | 22/02/2011 | 8 comments
themes: Photoworks, Rocks


8 comments

not i. looks like the stuff i always called quartz, only i suspect it wasn't actually. x

What kinda stone is it? It's clearly not marble, it looks like it's too hard for it, it would shatter, if you try to make a sculpture out of it. It seems to me that this type of stone is here and there also in Finland.

I know many people who gather stones. Even we have some, the oldest one being kärnäiitti from Lappajärvi, which is a meteorite crater lake. They estimate the age being sometime from 150 000-200 000 years.

Elisa, I wonder too if it's quartz but I don't know. This one is interesting because it's large, larger than the palm of my hand, whereas a lot of the stones we all seem to collect are small, almost pebbles and they mostly end up on top of flowerpots.

Ripsa, see above, I don't know what kind it is. I don't know the names of most stones in Finnish, such as this "kärnäiitti", but that's fascinating that it's from a meteroite crater lake and it's so old. I love that about stones and rocks. But I'm really revealing my ignorance here!

My guess is crystal quartz but what do I know other than the fact I would have held onto it too. The thing I love about rocks is a glimpse of deep time.

Susan, "a glimpse of deep time" - well said, thank you!

It makes me think of those museum exhibits where they shine UV light through rocks and bring out magic invisible colours in them; I never knew quite what they were supposed to demonstrate scientifically but they were always appealing!

Sorry I missed your birthday, hope it was a lovely one!

I too have preserved certain stones and pebbles, though I have not gone as far as a much travelled one-time acquaintance who, whenever he visited a new place, took away a stone to remember it by.

Lucy, I imagine those lights really showed off the colours and textures beautifully. And thanks, the birthday was nice. Oh, and I love your "stone" poem you published yesterday - so timely!

Joe, you have reminded me of a certain friend who was visiting from Europe and we spent a few days together on some wonderful beaches. She gathered pounds of stones and shells. Finally her husband said they'd be overweight with their luggage! I limit my collecting to places where we don't have to fly in and out of :-)