Getting cold and getting busy!

Ice!
This week the temperature gradually dropped and the last two or three nights have been 4-5 degrees below zero (celius). The ground here is more dust than gravel so to keep the dust down Glenn has been hosing around the tables each morning to dampen it down. Then maybe I'll only have to dust the rocks four times a day rather than sixteen?? But, hey, that's life in the desert for you.

It wasn't long after he had hosed this morning before the water laying on the ground had frozen into ice!!

I was surprised we still had running water to the caravan but we heard that other people weren't so lucky. Their pipes were frozen.

People
It's the weekend and despite the cold hundreds of people are visiting the show. We meet some really wonderful people here.

Some months ago Glenn sent tons of rock to Hong Kong to be made into spheres, contoured pieces, etc and we have been unpacking it the last few days. It was like finding treasure all over again.

We hadn't long put a Mookaite sphere out on display when a lady stopped and looked at it and could not stop talking about. Then she picked it up and hugged it telling me how much like sycamore wood it looked. When I see someone drawn to something like that I know I won't have to do a selling job. She could not live without it. She bought it.

Porphyry slabs.

A man stopped and looked at the Mookaite contoured pieces and could not put one of them down. He must have told me that his wife would be along soon about five times. He was so excited about what he was looking at. While he waited for her to come he discovered another one that he loved. His wife and three little girls had gone back to their vehicle to get their coats as it was so cold and when they eventually arrived (they'd been browsing earrings) he enthused over the rocks he was now caressing. He pointed out the colours and the texture and how he'd never seen the like before.

She also found them attractive but not as much as he but she could see they were something he could not live without. He could not decide between the two rocks so I offered a deal on both and they took both.

Tiger Eye slabs.
Peanut Wood slab.

A lovely lady was browsing the tables for at least half an hour. We have made information labels (see photo above) so that visitors to our booth can read about the rocks they are looking at. She must have read them all. She eventually asked Glenn about peanut wood and was fascinated at the story. She was a teacher and she wanted to show children that when they looked at the ground it wasn't just rocks and dirt. She was going to show them a rock and then tell them the story about where it came from, why it was, what it was, how old it was etc so they would realise there was more to the ground they walk on than gravel and dust.

She chose a piece of peanut wood so that she could point out the grain of the wood and the holes the borer had made millions of years ago when it was under the ocean.

After she'd picked up a few other interesting pieces of rock to buy she was happy. I love to see people who are passionate about what they do, especially if it is for the benefit of other people, and moreso, children.

Chrysoprase slabs.
Sphere of conglomerate rock.

Magnasite Nodule contour polished.

Then along came the "rainbow people". A couple in their early twenties. He in his black oversized pants, black oversized jumper and hands that shook uncontrollably and not from cold.

She in long ragged skirt that dragged on the ground, tatty patchwork jacket, long dirty hair that looked as if it hadn't been washed in weeks under a big old floppy hat and bag over her shoulder that hung to her knees. Her body odour was so bad that I had to stand back when I served them. At least her hair wasn't in awful dreadlocks like so many of them have.

She sorted through rough rock for some time until she found just the right piece. Then she wiped her hands on her skirt.

I realise we all go through that "finding yourself" stage when we're young and I remember adoring my very tatty jeans but I never neglected my personal hygiene. I wonder about these people.

Her partner obviously adored her and wanted the best for her because he waited so patiently while she sorted through rough rock until she found just the right pieces. They obviously weren't very flush with cash but this was important to her. We gave them a good price and they couldn't have been more polite and more appreciative.

There is a man who comes every year and is a real rockhound. He loves cutting rock into cabochons and last year gave me one of blue lepidolite. This year he came, pushing his wife in a wheel chair. She looked very weak and withered and had an oxygen supply to her nose. She has terminal cancer. We know he isn't too well off but she fell in love with a blue lepidolite polished face so he bought it for her.

Many Americans love to tell us that they have visited Australia. If they haven't they tell us that they would love to and I know they mean it. One man said what a wonderful country it was and named the places he visited: Bondie Beach (aka Bondi Beach), Blue Ridge Mountains (aka Blue Mountains) and Walla Walla (aka WaggaWagga). Well, close enough I suppose. I'd love to go to Lost Vaygust, Utart, Kallyfornya etc.