I may have shown you this before, but who cares? Not me!
I was sitting in a pub garden in Lacock, Wiltshire, not far from where most of the Harry Potter films were made, when I looked down at the gravel and saw a small fossil sea-shell.
I picked it up and as soon as I turned it over I saw the fossil star stuck to one side.
I showed it to H.I. and - not having seen this sort of juxtaposition before - she was amazed and bewildered, thinking it must have been something I had made myself.
The star is, in fact, a couple of segments from an ancient plant stem which had disintegrated about 130 million years ago and settled on the shell to fossilise with it.
The camera focussed on the table top rather than the star, but sadly I cannot take another photo because it has gone missing and I cannot find it.
I heard a museum attendant say that he told a child that one particular exhibit was 130,000,012 years old, and the child asked how he could have been so precise about the 'and 12' age.
He explained that when he first started working at the museum, the exhibit had a label attached to it saying that it was 130 million years old, and that was twelve years ago.
The old jokes are the best!
ReplyDeleteAnd old clichés are the worst.
DeleteThat's a find in a million! I hope that you can 're-find' it.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have known what it was. I would have thought it was a Walkers crisp.
ReplyDeleteYes! I thought 'lump of dough' with Christmas cookie cut-out. But still, an enormously cool find.
DeleteOnce in a lifetime for most people.
DeleteAlmost too accurate a shape to be real Tom but I am sure it is.
ReplyDeleteIt is Weave, Imagine a plant stalk with five ridges running up its sides, segmented as it grows, and there you have it.
DeleteI love that explanation. Look for it, go to ebay and under rocks, crystals and minerals list it for a million/billion dollars. I bet it would bring a pretty penny there; I mean pound.
ReplyDeleteOn a monetary level, it would be pretty much worthless.
DeleteMmmmh, having translated your Henry Dimbleby's Baking Book into German, I took it first for a dough - but: I believe you everything, Tom!
ReplyDeleteYes, you should. Why would I lie?
DeleteOh no ..... where could it be ? Do you have a loft ? Could it be up there ? I hate it when I can't find something..... I'd be really pissed off if I couldn't find it. XXXX
ReplyDeleteI fear the worst for that item, but only on a personal level. Friendships last until death, but things like these outlast friendships, with no strings attached.
DeleteI hope you find it; it's too good to lose.
ReplyDeleteI think I know where it is but it is difficult to look.
DeleteI found it interesting how your notes only focus on website..
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