Why do I collect?

Well, first of all- thank you very much for reading my blog and the positive feedback that I`ve received from you. After 3 weeks, I`ve got 500 hits and I believe it is not so bad, considering the fact that mineralogy is not as popular as fashion or traveling, for example. My audience mostly comes from the USA, the British Islands, Canada, Russia, and Germany.

Link to my blog landed on some Russian mineralogical forum and that gave me a significant number of hits. They apparently liked my quartz sample from the post about collecting crystals in Co. Clare. 

For those of you wondering why I`m not posting so much right now I have this explanation- my sis is on holiday and I don`t have a companion to take on my collecting trips. She`s coming back on the 4th of August and I have already planned wavelitte and hematite collecting in Co. Cork, the first one on the beach near Rosscarbery, and the second in an old mine.

Muckross Mine, Killarney

Source- the Internet

Killarney is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ireland.  It`s located in the Southern-Western part of the Emerald Island, and is well known for its beautiful lakes and the Ring of Kerry. I`ve been there a few times, and I always enjoy it very much.
The last time I was there was about a month ago. Together with Klaudia, following a fellow collector`s suggestion, we visited the old Muckross Copper Mine, which is at a lakeside.
We had studied the specimens that can be found there on Mindat.org, and we knew we were looking for some green and pink stuff ;)
When we got there, we couldn`t find the path, which was clearly marked on a map and got lost in the forest. Well, not lost, but we had to go back a bit, as the path we followed, surrounded with dense forest, just finished and there was no way we could go any further. On our way back we spotted the right path and then we quickly got the the mine.
The mine is fenced but you can jump the fence over and get down to the hole. The hole is quite deep and you have to be careful not to twist your ankle or worse- break your leg! But what wouldn`t you do for a few pieces of cool pink and green stuff? ;)
The green stones were scattered around and you don`t even need to dig there. We also found a few lovely pink erythrite samples. Here they are:

My favourite Erythrite sample from the Muckross Mine

Klaudia found a tiny little beauty that we were unsure of, so I asked the folks on Mindat and they said it`s definitely gypsum:

Photo taken with my phone

Photo from Mindat.org- devilline

And then, of course, we found very many green buddies. The thing is that they didn`t really look like the devilline photo from Mindat.org, so I posted it on a forum there and was told to run a few tests in order to find out what they really are. There were a few theories.
Yesterday I visited one of the lecturers at UCC and I had my samples checked under the microscope.

This one is most likely langite with posnjakite+ gypsum

That one is brochantite, langite (?) and chalcopyrite

All samples from the mine

I still don`t have devilline, and this is why I will most likely go back to Muckross. This time I will take some insect repellant, as the midges are really P in the A!

All photos taken by Marina Gonzales Bardon, unless marked otherwise.


EDIT: I`ve just received a photo of a posnjakite crystal from one of my samples (about 0.2 mm)

Posnjakite. Microscope photo.

Treasures of the Baltic Sea

...yyy...nooo, it`s not going to be about amber ;)

It`s going to be about the time when I was 8 years old and my adventure with collecting had just begun.
From the industrail region of Upper Silesia in the south of Poland, where I was born and grew up surrounded with chimneys and mines, together with my classmates I went to Dzwirzyno up to the north. I can still remember that while my friends were building castles, burying themselves up to their necks in the sand and swimming in the sea, I would spend my time breaking pebbles and looking for fossils. I just couldn`t imagine a better thing to do! Every day, I would carry rocks from the beach to the hostel, hiding them from the curious sights of my teachers under my T-shirt.

I took home a few of them, and this is what survived until today...

 Above two pictures of the same rock. Hundreds of tiny shells are visible.

 I am not sure what this one is but I guess it could be the spine (?) of some living creature :)
Edit: I`ve asked a specialist and I was told it is probably Orthocone

Here is a photo of a similar fossil that I found on the Internet:

I used transparent nail polish to preserve and protect the surface of my fossils and it looks like it`s done great job, because after 25 years it is still in place.

And at the  very end, I would like to share with you this beautiful photo of simple pebbles that impressed me so much, that I`ve kept them and displayed all these years. Beauty lies in simplicity. 

All photos taken by my lovely student from Spain- Marina Gonzales Bardon.
Thank you, Marina.

John is here!

Arrived yesterday.
Very well-packed (seller: Mary mean, Amazon), and for its age (51 years) in great shape.

I`ve only read a few pages but I feel so much wiser already! Especially when it comes to associations (what minerals can occur together and in what type of rocks), which is the area I`m the most interested in.

John has one huge disadvantage- pictures. For an obvious reason, all photos are black-and-white, which doesn`t help much with identification of specimens. Look at the below example. The mineral in the first picture, on the left side, could also be Malachite (for example). Fortunately, we all have the Internet nowadays :)

Without any doubts, this is the best choice I could have made when it comes to my birthday gift. I am so happy with it! I`ve also asked for a chisel and a good hammer :) Right now I work with my father`s chisel and a hammer meant for construction workers, and a few E1.5 screwdrivers as well. I am in need of buying some equipment ASAP.

Other news?
One of my students is a photographer-hobbist. She is coming next week to take photos of my specimens. After moving back to Ireland, we currently live with my parents (until we buy a house), so all our things are scattered around the house: a box here, a box there. I have two boxes with my minerals, but I`ve only found one. I have no idea where the second one could be, so we`ll only photograph one. After that I`m going to have hands full of work uploading the photos to this blog ;)

See you again,
Monika xxx

Ballyhass Lakes- Fluorite and fossils

I am almost sure that the Ballyhass Lakes once used to be a quarry; there are many similar looking places around Mallow.

This was our first planned collecting destination. We had no idea what we could expect, we didn`t know what we were looking for, and we did it for the first time in our lives! The day before for several hours, we watched movies on YT about rock hounding and collecting. What we learned was basically all we knew! Before I just used to buy my stones and I never really thought of field collecting.

We knew we had to look for so called veins, stripes of e.g. calcite running through the rock. After half an hour or so, Klaudia exclaimed "Hey! Why is this rock purple?!". I went to have a look and couldn`t believe my eyes! She found Fluorite! I was a bit foxed by the fact that I had not really heard of any Fluorite from Cork before, but I had heard of |Amethyst, so I thought it could be any one of the two.

We went there on another occasion and found even more Fluorite, it was badly weathered and fractured, but I love it so much because it was our first serious finding!

Here it is

Samples that I`ve kept (Photo: Marina Gonzales Bardon)

"Spare" samples (Photo: Marina Gonzales Bardon)

Some other findings from Ballyhass are fossils.

Photo: Marina Gonzales Bardon

Photo: Marina Gonzales Bardon

The Syringopora Coral is the one I`m the most proud of :) EDIT: There is a spelling mistake on the label.
A lecturer from UCC told me that Fluorite had never been reported from Ballyhass so we are the first to have found it!!!! Yeeeeeeyyy!!!

Crystal collecting in Ross, Co. Clare

On June 22, 2015, the whole family went on a spontaneous trip to the Ross Bridges.

  

If you plan to visit Ireland one day, I truly recommend this place- the view is breathtaking! We drove along the shore, stopped here and there for lunch, or just to admire nature and take some pictures.

Tourists know about the Cliffs of Moher and this is where they usually head, but there are not so many who visit other magnificent cliffs, like the one from the above photo in Co. Clare.

Of course we wouldn`t have been ourselves if we didn`t look for Quartz crystals!
We found many great "nests", and we managed to collect some handsome bits too!
Just look at these crystals!

The quality of the photo on the right is not perfect due to the fact that the beautiful wall of crystals was hidden in some kind of a small roofed cave and it was dark in there. I have a small piece of this at home (photo below)

 These iron-stained crystals were difficult to access and I didn`t manage to forge them from the rock.

Here is a piece of the Quartz from the cave. The sample is green from algae.
 I am currently thinking of ways of cleaning it. I may just dip it in some solution for iron removal, but this is still to be decided.

 Loads of beautiful, intact thin crystal needles. Such a beauty!!!

Above all samples from this day, including the smallest one (top, right)- completely covered with iron staining.

My fav from that site, found by my sis (Photo: Martina Gonzales Bardon)

Photo: Martina Gonzales Bardon

Photo: Martina Gonzales Bardon

Fancy a sandwich? ;) (Photo: Martina Gonzales Bardon)

After cleaning with Domestos ;) It stinks!!! (Photo: Martina Gonzales Bardon)

I love this picture, of course by my talented Spanish student- Martina Gonzales Bardon :)

Gifts from Fuertaventura

My mother and sister brought me two minerals from their holiday on Fuertaventura.
The Canary Islands are well-known for their Olivine, so I am pretty sure this specimen comes from one of the islands, but I have some doubts about the Amethyst. It looks like Brasilian Amethyst, with wide Quartz "framing" (excuse me my unprofessional terminology, I am originally a speaker of Polish and I have to learn the English vocabulary connected with mineralogy), which makes it less valuable. Anyway, it is a very nice gift! Oh, and by the way- Olivine is my fav mineral :)

 Olivine

 Amethyst-top

 Amethyst- side

Amethyst- backside