Thursday, July 24, 2003

Hello from Weardale,

Yesterday was another cool, windy and occasionally rainy day in the Dale. The cleaning ladies arrived about 9:00 a.m. and Ralph Sutcliffe was due in around 1:30 in the afternoon so I decided to go up to the mine for three hours of mucking and digging in the Crosscuts. Found a few nice small pieces but mostly moved rock in preparation of getting the saw in early next week. Byron had discovered another small alcove area with a nice plate of green gemmy fluorites on it but it is going to be difficult to access and I'm not sure how we are going to get it down and out but that is problem to be solved later.

I got back about 1:45p.m. and Ralph was already there and had brought by the corner cabinet Kerith had purchased last Summer at the Newark antique fair, now with a glass front suitable to make a spar box with all the 'bonnie bits' she has saved over the past four summers.

We decided to drive into Durham and see the glass exhibit at the Archeological Museum in the medieval Fuller's Mill on the River Wear below the castle. The glass exhibit was ho-hum but the rest of the museum was quite fascinating. Interestingly enough, it has originally housed the geological collection and stuffed animals -- all of which were gotten rid of to make way for what's on display now.

A brief tour of the back streets and, of course, the cathedral which always is worth a visit, situated high on a limestone bluff above the River Wear right across from the castle which now serves as mostly dormitory and eating areas for the university students. A stop at Thornton's for dark chocolate covered candied ginger. All the while Ralph is stopping about every three minutes and taking pictures with his amazing new digital Sony that he purchased in Riverside at a CostCo several weeks back.

Home for dinner and then a run up to The Drift to see Dave Rennison for the first time this year. He was sorting through the various recent piles of fluorite. We left around 10:00 p.m. and went home to crash. Today we leave for Penrith and the pottery festival there, billed as "Pot Fest", then on to Sedbergh to an antiquarian book store specializing in natural history and a favorite stop of mine followed by seeing the Greenbanks. Interestingly, Kerith picked up one of the really hard to find books in Barnard Castle the other day - a hard cover of the 2nd edition of Dunham's Geology of the Northern Pennine Orefield which is choc-a-bloc full of what minerals came from each mine, where it is and the colors of fluorite produced.

We're off for the weekend so this will be the last missive for several days. Regards, Cal & Kerith

PS- this a.m. it is really raining hard!

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