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About A Stone

Swifty said:
I remember when a few of us went to Manchester on a pilgrimage of sorts because our mate was a huge fan of Morrisey and The Smiths .. to skip to the relevant part, we also went to Morrisey's childhood home and he couldn't help himself but to dart into the front garden and nick some garden soil so he could grow a flower later on. I asked him later how the flower was doing and he told me it had died and that the irony of that hadn't been lost on him.
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Oh, I love this, @Swifty! Haha! Maybe he should have taken a dirt rubbing like @catseye's brother!
 
Hi everyone me and the beloved missus always collect a few stones etc from the beach. Just back from the Isle of Wight and been putting them around the house.Happy memories apart from a piece of wood from a boat .Both of us picked it up and discarded it.just wrong (vibes). And the missus doesn’t believe in stuff like that. But she wouldn’t have it in the car/house both our kids do the same thing collecting stuff.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
Our first (council) house had a huge garden and not a single cultivated plant in it. And we were in Maggie's Millions, so broke. We ended up living there 9 years and I built that garden mainly from cuttings, plants found in cracks in paving stones, and interesting things grown from seed. By the time we left it was a beautiful garden, and had cost me almost nothing.

I got a lot of my garden from various parks and gardens that came right out onto the road...

I used to carry a little freezer bag in my pocket, so my liberated plants got home alive.
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I'm led to believe that, according to Russian folk wisdom, a stolen surreptitiously acquired plant cutting will thrive much more readily than one which has been bought or received as a gift. My OH has a flourishing collection of spider plants. The fact that a garden downstairs throws out lots of runners is, of course, entirely coincidental. :evillaugh:
 
Visited Iceland a couple of years ago and was struck by the black rocks and sand on the volcanic beaches. At xmas we visited someone else who'd been on that trip and they showed me a stone they'd brought back. I was horrified!

Though I claim not to be superstitious I'd never take a stone away as a souvenir.
 
On a Welsh beach in the summer I found a bike seat-shaped rock, all grey and smooth. Took some photos and left it there. Too heavy to carry away and anyway I wouldn't (see above) but it was very funny!
 
I like stones and other things and have a big collection of them.

And sea glass. I have a half sized demijohn full.

My late grandmother was a terror for aqquiring cuttings from parks.

If she had made friends with the gardeners, she could have had anything she wanted.

But that wasnt as fun.
 
Bad Bungle said:
I visited the excavated Market and Theatre site near St Albans Museum and picked up a stone-size piece of Roman brick in the spoil outside one of the numerous rabbit holes. 'How do you know it's Roman ?' asked my nephew and niece without looking up from their phones (whilst standing in the 2000 year old ruins of Verulanium).
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Back in about 1980, the family were on holiday in Sicily and visited the Greek temple ruins at Agrigento. Whilst sheltering in the shade of some old tree, my older sister, as was her wont, began scuffing up the dirt with her sandal, and unearthed a piece of pottery. The guide we were with casually identified it as an Ancient Greek cup handle, and told her she could keep it. She certainly brought it back to Blighty; it's probably still gathering dust in herr childhood bedroom somewhere...
 
escargot said:
Visited Iceland a couple of years ago and was struck by the black rocks and sand on the volcanic beaches. At xmas we visited someone else who'd been on that trip and they showed me a stone they'd brought back. I was horrified!

Though I claim not to be superstitious I'd never take a stone away as a souvenir.
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i can't remember where I read this now but apparently there is quite a problem of erosion on the islands that Tove Jansson wrote about as so many tourists take away pebbles from the beaches.
 
Reminds me of Keith in Mike Leigh's classic TV play Nuts in May where he admonishes Candace-Marie for collecting pebbles because "If everyone did that there would be no beach left." Did he have a point?
 
If it were titled "About a pound," we might link holiday weight gain with the thread over here. But then you'd have to link it with the anxious question "How much has the price gone up?" You can't win, sorry.
 
I am reconciled to the misery, Ibis.
 
GNC said:
Reminds me of Keith in Mike Leigh's classic TV play Nuts in May where he admonishes Candace-Marie for collecting pebbles because "If everyone did that there would be no beach left." Did he have a point?
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First time I visited the beach at Lyme Regis (Dorset) was in January 5 years ago - lovely weather and had the town to myself. I asked at the Tourist Information if it was OK to collect fossils and was told to help myself - apparently there were fresh cliff falls practically every week and the fossil bed extended at least 40 miles inland.
 
GNC said:
Reminds me of Keith in Mike Leigh's classic TV play Nuts in May where he admonishes Candace-Marie for collecting pebbles because "If everyone did that there would be no beach left." Did he have a point?
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One for FT's 'mythconceptions' I'd suggest as there's billions of pebbles (at least) in the sea and only a minority of people care enough to collect them.
 
You do see notices about not taking sand. I think that's people pulling up in a flat bed and using shovels... sort of the opposite of fly-tipping.
 
Who me said:
Hi everyone me and the beloved missus always collect a few stones etc from the beach. Just back from the Isle of Wight and been putting them around the house.Happy memories apart from a piece of wood from a boat .Both of us picked it up and discarded it.just wrong (vibes). And the missus doesn’t believe in stuff like that. But she wouldn’t have it in the car/house both our kids do the same thing collecting stuff.
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Have you ever seen the film The Shout (one of my absolute all-time favourite films and very fortean), or read the original short story by Robert Graves? Part of it concerns a pebble on the beach that contains the soul of the protagonist – a man who had been taught the death shout by Australian Aborigines – and which was later smashed to pieces (I figure a spoiler is fine for a 1978 film!). So, take heed!!

And if you get the chance, watch the film: here's the great Mark Kermode talking about it –
 
Kondoru said:
I like stones and other things and have a big collection of them.

And sea glass. I have a half sized demijohn full.

My late grandmother was a terror for aqquiring cuttings from parks.

If she had made friends with the gardeners, she could have had anything she wanted.

But that wasnt as fun.
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I have my bonsai tree's pot sitting on a load of sea glass. Works the same as gravel but prettier - and costs nothing. I'm also addicted to mudlarking videos on Youtube so we now really pay attention when on beaches etc. Have found some interesting fragments of this and that.
 
Who me said:
Hi ghost in the machine I’m going mudlarking this year will be April/May time will let you know if I find summat :bthumbup:
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Brilliant. And lucky you! I live near a river but there's no foreshore to speak of so not much chance of us finding owt - envious of anyone who gets to actually mudlark! Beachcombing is the only chance we have of finding stuff and so far, only fragments.
 
Once many years ago while hiking in the Grand Canyon I picked up a small rock to take back home as a souvenir. Later in the day when I got back up to the visitor’s center I saw a sign specifically asking everyone not to take stones or sand because with x-million visitors a year it was becoming an actual environmental problem. After briefly wrestling with my conscience I went back to the rim and chucked the stone back in.

More recently the wife and I were driving through south Texas. It was literally 100 miles between towns and along the side of the two lane road as far as you could see were millions of cholla cacti. As my wife had become interested in starting a cactus garden and as I just happened to have a shovel in the back of my truck we pulled over to dig a couple up, with the intent of seeing if they could be persuaded to grow in our yard. No one in sight for miles in any direction. But as soon as I had the second one dug up an official looking car comes along and pulls over and out steps a Texas Fish and Wildlife Officer in a very official looking uniform and broad brimmed hat who inquires as to what the hell we think we’re doing. He informs us that digging up plants along a public highway is theft and that he was well within his rights to write us a citation, but will graciously forgo that if we replant the chollas exactly back where we got them. Which we do, sheepishly. He then followed us for 45 minutes to the next town.

The scene of the crime:
https://goo.gl/maps/u3gwZGVnimt5d6cb8
 
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IamSundog said:
Once many years ago while hiking in the Grand Canyon I picked up a small rock to take back home as a souvenir. Later in the day when I got back up to the visitor’s center I saw a sign specifically asking everyone not to take stones or sand because with x-million visitors a year it was becoming an actual environmental problem. After briefly wrestling with my conscience I went back to the rim and chucked the stone back in.

More recently the wife and I were driving through south Texas. It was literally 100 miles between towns and along the side of the two lane road as far as you could see were millions of cholla cacti. As my wife had become interested in starting a cactus garden and as I just happened to have a shovel in the back of my truck we pulled over to dig a couple up, with the intent of seeing if they could be persuaded to grow in our yard. No one in sight for miles in any direction. But as soon as I had the second one dug up an official looking car comes along and pulls over and out steps a Texas Fish and Wildlife Officer in a very official looking uniform and broad brimmed hat who inquires as to what the hell we think we’re doing. He informs us that digging up plants along a public highway is theft and that he was well within his rights to write us a citation, but will graciously forgo that if we replant the chollas exactly back where we got them. Which we do, sheepishly. He then followed us for 45 minutes to the next town.

The scene of the crime:
https://goo.gl/maps/u3gwZGVnimt5d6cb8
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How the F did he see you out in that wilderness? They must have cameras on top of the hills nearby.
 
IamSundog said:
No he was just driving along and there we were by the side of the road. Master criminals that we are.
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I dunno - I'd take a second look if I saw some geezer with a shovel digging a hole in the Grand Canyon, looking furtive... ;o)

We grow woad and apparently it's classed as a 'noxious' (or something) weed in some states of the US and is banned. So the US dyers can't grow it.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
I dunno - I'd take a second look if I saw some geezer with a shovel digging a hole in the Grand Canyon, looking furtive... ;o)

We grow woad and apparently it's classed as a 'noxious' (or something) weed in some states of the US and is banned. So the US dyers can't grow it.
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Geezer????
 
IamSundog said:
Well, also an ancient specimen of masculinity, to tell the truth.
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A sometimes scraggly and ancient specimen of the male person. Ancient and contrary, of outmoded persuasions and habits. A typical grandpa.
 
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