Precious Stones

Something the simplest and most primitive things can make a little boy happy, when he is inquisitive. Since he received this issue of Aquila, and maybe before that, Wolfie has been fascinated by rocks. Gems especially: diamonds, emeralds, rubies, etc. But also semi-precious stones, such as jade, and other stones of lesser value, like quartz. Anyway, we visited a friend on Easter. She had chocolates for Wolfie, but also gave him a bag full of crystals. She is a bit into New Age, so she has loads of crystals she keeps in a drawer and plenty to spare. So Wolfie is now the happy owner of a loot of crystals. He was more grateful towards these stones than the chocolates he received, and that's saying something. In fact, he finds the stones more interesting than many of his toys.

Aquila on gemstones

I know I said it before, but I am saying it again: Wolfie receives the best mail. So, yes, he received this month's of Aquila Magazine (tagline: "Big ideas for inquisitive kids") issue and I have been wanting to blog about it for a while now. And this November's Aquila is all about geology. There is a whole section about gemstones, which is pretty cool. He's already been through it more than once, so I can now pick it up and read it myself. Wolfie might not become a geologist, but he loves learning about diamonds, rubies and emeralds, not to mention gold and other metals. So this issue was a winner. Again.

Les pierres précieuses de DAC

J'ai blogué mardi dernier au sujet de le Distribution aux Consommateurs. Que je trouvais assez étrange enfant, étant un magasin qui semblait sans inventaire. Mais j'aimais leurs catalogues, même s'il n'était pas aussi bien que celui de Sears (ou de La Baie?). Ce que j'aimais dans celui de DAC, c'était la page avec les peirres précieuses. Mon souvenir est vague, mais je crois qu'il y avait des émeraudes et des diamants. Je ne sais pas trop si on pouvait acheter les pierres seules ou si c'était pour des bijoux. Mais je me rappelle des pierres. Ou alors elles étaient des ornements pour des bagues. Nous oublions un peu ça aujourd'hui, quand on peut chercher et de l'information du bout des doigts avec l'internet, mais les catalogues des grands magasins nous faisaient parfois découvrir certaines choses. Les pierres précieuses de DAC, je les trouvais exotiques.

Emerald Hunters?

 Oh the things you sometimes learn thanks to random online researches. Like a few days ago, when I stumbled on this article from the Guardian. Well, an article, more like a pictorama. It's about a yearly emerald hunt in Colombia. it looks muddy, messy and far less glamorous than sounds. And I learned that Colombia is the main producer of emeralds. Like I said, the things you learn randomly online. I only Colombia for another natural resource (you know the one), far more sinister. But this emerald hunt would make for a great backdrop for an epic crime fiction story. Emeralds make for great MacGuffins to begin with. In And what an array of characters these emerald hunters would make: some like the gold diggers of old, trying their luck, some obsessive, some maybe more prone to gain the precious green stones through any means necessary. It might have been written before, who knows. I will look into it.