Thursday, May 29, 2003

Good Morning from Weardale. The weather - well, yesterday it warmed up a bit and by the late afternoon it was quite sunny. We're back to the usual overcast this morning but I am assured by Donna (who tends bar at the Grey Bull in Stanhope) that it will remain sunny through the weekend. Though she obviously lacks the credentials, if not the showmanship of a BBC forecaster, I doubt that she's any less accurate.

Yesterday was a digging day for all. As Jonina didn't yet have a big pile of newspaper-wrapped specimens in our famous collection of various colored plastic tubs awaiting her attention, she decided to come with us to the mine. After last year's efforts, the West Cross Cut is now a bit of a maze, so Byron and I both chose out own spot and had at the face with water and steel. I was working in the alcove that had been so generous to us the day before and quickly realized that this generosity was today to consist of three very large, fluorite coated boulders surrounded by loads of mud. I suspect that I've regaled the reading audience with tales of our famous mud in the past, but least you forget, let me remind you of some of it's attributes. This stuff has a very stiff paste-like texture and in the crystal-bearing flats usually fills all voids around the specimens. This sometimes works to our advantage as it can provide a sticky cushion protecting the crystal-covered surfaces of the rock from damage during extraction. To its detriment, it is near impossible to remove during collecting and holds most rock in place like glue. To remove enough of it to work some of the rock out we use water hoses with spray nozzles and try to blast it out. Sometimes this works to good effect, but not here. The clay in the West Cross Cut is so stiff that after making very little progress by just spraying it, I settled on a technique that involved gouging holes in the mud seams with a large screw driver, blasting it with water to loosen it, then trying to scoop it out with my fingers. After enough mud is removed, rocks are then wiggled with a pry bar until they move enough to be extracted. If unsuccessful, this process is repeated. All the while the collector is working in some of the most contorted positions imaginable, with muddy water invariable splashing into one's face (and mouth if not careful), running down the sleeve, collecting in small ponds at one's feet and sometimes rising to above the top the boots and pouring in. And some people think this is fun.

I've long wondered if there is any way to turn our copious amounts of fine quality mud into a commodity, and may have hit on a scheme. Perhaps we could set up a pottery and produce our own line of designer earthenware. "The Rogerley Collection, available at all the finest London boutiques." Any potters out there willing to give this a try?

Anyway, after several hours of the above, I was rewarded with three fluorite-coated boulders, one of which was too large to even lift and had to be rolled out of the cavity on its crystal-free side. A byproduct of all this activity are the numerous loose crystals that came away from the matrix ages ago and are embedded in the mud. We usually try to recover as many of these as possible while collecting for thumbnail-sized specimens and gem rough. While doing this I picked up a nice gem twin about 1.5 cm on edge, perched on a small triangle of rock. Sort-of like fluorite en croute. After all that work, it may have been the best specimen I found all day.

Byron was having a similar sort of day and by late afternoon we had amassed a considerable lot of very large specimens, which will require sawing in order to bring them to a manageable size. A lot of collectors complain about saw cuts on specimens, but for us there is really no alternative. How many collectors are going to put a half-meter rock into their display? The day came to a fitting close when the water hose I was using burst from the pressure and required a surgical procedure, which added a fourth splice to its length. We then gathered up all the specimens Jonina had wrapped, washed off as much mud from ourselves as possible, and adjourned to the pub for something to dull the ache in the small of my back.

Back at the cottage everyone was too tired to do much about dinner so I had my favorite fall-back - stilton, oat crackers and a good English beer. Not bad, really and not dirty pots to clean afterwards. The sun was peaking through from under some clouds casting long shadows over the dale as we relaxed, when Dave Rennison came driving up. He had a few flats of some recently collected fluorite from the Rampgill mine near Nenthead to the west of us. Not stunning specimens but a new locality for the collection and one of the few new things from this area other than our green stuff. He was anxious to see what we had, and though nothing had been washed yet and most were still wrapped he found something to his liking.

Today Byron and I will make an attempt to get the chainsaw going to deal with our accumulation of large bits. Jonina has numerous chores to run after and is hopeful that her car will be ready to be picked up from Watson's garage this morning. I'll let you know how it all turns out tomorrow. Today's photo is of Byron contemplating a course of action at the face of the West Cross Cut.

Stay tuned for more...

Cheers,

Jesse, Byron and Jonina

So much rock, so little time....

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