I’ve just been spending time with relatives in Cornwall. Never enough time, I have to confess. Just enough to have a Cornish pasty, a clotted cream tea or two, walk along the harbor, admire the views and then off again. One thing I always do is to walk along the beach and collect shells and pebbles. I can’t help myself. I have more shells at home than I can ever use. They remain in bags in a closet, or they get discarded once I come home. But it is the finding that is the important part. I have the quest built into my DNA. I get great satisfaction from spotting an unusual shell, a twisted piece of driftwood, a shiny pebble. I suppose it’s the hunter-gatherer instinct from my ancestors.
One of the things I’ve always wanted to do is to search for buried treasure. I don’t mean the sort you see on television. I mean what they do routinely in England. They meet with metal detectors and they sweep a farmer’s newly plowed field (with his permission). In most parts of England they will find the odd Roman coin, or piece of jewelry, or weapon. Really exciting, don’t you think? Occasionally there are incredible finds—Viking hordes, Celtic burials. If your find is not worth much you can keep it. If it’s genuine treasure you have to hand it over to the Crown. You are reimbursed for its value but it goes into a museum.
I also always wanted to dig for precious stones. The closest I came was at a friend’s cabin in the California mountains where we discovered a vein of crystal. I can’t tell you how satisfying it was to dig into a rock face, see a glint of smooth crystal and to remove it carefully. I found that I was taking stupid risks, halfway up the rock face, swinging an axe with abandon. I could understand how the old prospectors felt in the Gold Rush. I have several really beautiful little clusters of crystals. I haven’t done anything with them but I still admire them.
I once almost went fossicking (the correct term for digging up diamonds etc) in the Northern Territory of Australia. We had driven out miles into the Bush and had instructions on how to meet up with Tony and Lil who would direct us to the best area to go digging for sapphires. We had to set out at first light because it gets too hot later on. We drove along a dirt track, seeing every kind of animals and bird along the way, then after about an hour of bumping along, we came to a creek. The bank was steep and sandy and we couldn’t tell how deep the creek itself was. We had a rental car, not a 4 wheel drive, and John refused to drive across. I pleaded. I offered to walk ahead to make sure it was okay. But he said he wasn’t about to get stuck or not be able to drive out through deep sand. And so we turned around and I sulked all the way.
Ah well. I guess I’ll go back to looking for shells on the beach..
So Reds, do you have that hunter-gatherer gene or do you confine it to snapping up a good bargain when Eileen Fisher goes on sale?
HALLIE EPHRON: I love walking on the beach and collecting shiny bits and shells and such. Digging for sapphires? I'm in! I'd draw the line at spelunking. I'm not crazy about tight quarters. Rhys, have you see THE DETECTORISTS? It's a British (somewhat comic, mostly sweet) series on ACORN TV about a pair of guys who are members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club as they search for treasure in the English countryside. It's brilliant.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: If someone said: "you might find a sapphire if you look in this certain area" I might. If someone said "you might find a sapphire if you look in this certain semi-dangerous area," I might further inquire. Sales, yes, because I am a REALLY fast decision-maker. Shells, I have to say, I leave them on the beach. Yes, I can understand the gold rush people--because riches MIGHT be around the next corner. That must have been crazy-making.
I have one rule for looking. If you keep looking, it will ALWAYS be there.
JENN McKINLAY: Definitely a hunter/gatherer here. I've collected shells and sea glass my entire life. Last year the hooligans and I raised our game and hiked out to a hidden Nova Scotian cove last year to reach the illusive amethyst beach. We had to race out and back against the tide, but it was so worth it as we now have a cache of amethysts that sparkle and bring me great joy. You're right, Rhys, there is nothing as satisfying as uncovering the coveted treasure!
LUCY BURDETTE: We one time searched for garnets in the North Carolina mountains and found quite a few. Now I cannot put my hands on them, boo hoo. But to be honest, you're more likely to find me hunting in shops for the right shoes or hats or something along those lines! (But please don't make me go to TJ Maxx--too much drek to sift through to find the gems. Although I did one time score two complete Eileen Fisher outfits. You've probably seen them...)
RHYS: Eileen Fisher! My kind of hunter-gatherer.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My hunting-gathering is precisely the "sorting through drek" kind. There's nothing I love more than pawing through boxes of clothes, accessories and household goods at a yard sale, searching for gems like a vintage Coach bag for a buck, a 100% wool LLBean sweater for $5 or the complete Glenn Miller Band recordings - free! Then there's the thrill of finding some half-forgotten childhood favorite in hardcover at one of those used books stores housed in a barn with miles of shelves and nooks and crannies.
It's not that I don't love the natural world - I do! - but I think I was heavily influenced in my childhood by an uncle who always stressed, "Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints."
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hallie, I love the Detectorists!! And if I lived in England, I might be tempted to get out with my metal detector and hunt for Roman coins. I collected rocks as a child, but the closest I've ever come to digging for treasure was mining for diamonds on our yearly summer trips to Arkansas. I never found anything, but it does happen. Just a couple of years ago, a twelve-year-old boy found a five carat rough diamond in Crater of Diamonds state park!
RHYS: I've always wanted to go to the opal mines in Australia, where the people live underground because of the heat. But they are awfully far from anywhere! And I just looked up metal detectors online and see that the good ones cost $3000 and up. And they look heavy too. Maybe I'll stick to shells.
So do we have any other hunter-gatherers among us? Those who can't come home from the beach or the lake without shells or pebbles? Any fantastic finds? I guess garage sales also count. I'm always hoping to find a lost Rembrandt.
Well, I’ve never been fortunate enough to discover that hidden treasure at the local rummage sale [but I have found a few good books there]. I am not a beach person, but I wouldn’t be adverse to gathering interesting shells and searching for diamonds or sapphires or opals sounds exciting. My mom liked collecting treasures and I have a small box that she filled with Cape May diamonds . . . .
ReplyDeleteGuilty! When I was a kid we looked for arrowheads and fossils at my grandparents' ranch. I still look for seashells and sea glass if we're at a beach. Tried for diamonds one time at Crater of Diamonds. And my husband bought me a bucket of dirt and rocks to screen in the mountains of N.C. years ago. We found amethyst, topaz, a really cool emerald, quartz, calcite, the usual suspects. How I would love to find a good trilobite! I've got a baggie of sand dollars from the Washington coast and two jars of seashells from all over.
ReplyDeleteYes, I would love to find a trilobite! I have thought about this since I was a little kid… So funny to hear it.
DeleteI stole one from geology lab in college. Kept it for years and then it disappeared. That’s what I get for stealing.
DeleteI’m a seashell gatherer from way back! I’ve also collected rocks. I don’t really do much anymore, mainly because I don’t have room for more, but if I see an individual item that intrigues me, I’ll snap it up.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was quite the seashell collector and most of us caught the bug from her. She went so far as to buy a mailing box when she was on vacation in Florida, mailed most of her clothing home, and filled a suitcase with seashells she found on the beach at Sanibel!
DebRo
Rhys, I hate to say it, but John most likely made the wisest choice on whether or not to drive through the river. That's how people die. We're glad we didn't lose you both!
ReplyDeleteMy uncle, who was stationed in Australia for awhile, working for the State Department, had jars and jars of stones in water at their home. When I asked him about them he told me they were opals he had dug up while he was there. After he died, my aunt had dementia, and her kids were in and out of their home, taking things. I always wondered what happened to the opals, because I suspect their value would have taken care of my aunt until she died, much better than she was.
I used to collect stones, and shells, and oddments like the chunks of jade we found lying on Jade Beach in California. But, except for the jade and a piece of coal I found on Newcastle Beach in New South Wales, I could never remember where I found anything. One shell looks so much like others.
My oldest daughter lives in Michigan, with a home "up north". They have quite a collection of Petoskey stones. They are some sort of fossil that has been rounded by time, and are only found in a specific area of Lake Michigan and Traverse Bay. When wet they show exquisitely beautiful patterns of ancient life, and people go crazy for them. My grandson finds them all the time, but I stink at recognizing them. He's like my youngest daughter, who could find four-leaf clovers every time she looked, including twice in a few minutes once.
My ex-wife's mother lived in Petoskey for the last decades of her life. When I was still married, she gave me a gift of Petoskey Stone cufflinks. I wore them for many years but sadly they have also been lost now for many years.
DeleteWhat a loss, David. It was a lovely gift, though.
DeleteMy great grandfather, Lucius, aka "Caribou Ed" was part of the gold rushes in CA, and in Canada. Treasure hunting called to me. When I was very young I would spend hours breaking beach rocks to see what was inside. Once I found low grade garnets. Much later, in Eastern WA, I found petrified wood with opals. Left it alone as it was on private property. In TX as a young bride, I found lots of petrified wood, which I still have. I look at the gulf waters, and dream 'gold pieces of eight' just waiting to be found.
ReplyDeleteSeems like I am always looking to find some special treasure but other than a couple of rather large sand dollars I never found much. Other people in my family can go outside and almost trip over arrowheads and my granddaughter is a great one for finding four-leaf clovers.
ReplyDeleteThere was the time our metal detector came in handy: my puppy had somehow got my wedding ring and we were pretty sure he had swallowed it. The vet said we'd see it again in a day or two. It took a week of following him around before we did get it back.
After five in the afternoon on Cape Cod, the treasure hunters with metal detectors and the birds are beach scavengers. A treasure hunter told me he finds enough loose change in the sand to make it worth his while. I hope he turned jewelry and car keys into the police station.
ReplyDeleteI do tend to collect a few things that catch my eye--my favorite is a shell picked up on Edisto Island in South Carolina--a simple shell with a heart-shaped hole in it--memento of a wonderful vacation. I used to come home from walks with the boys with my pockets full of their treasures--I think the gene is dominant in my family!
ReplyDeleteI came home from Puerto Rico with bags of shells. Finally got rid of most of them at The Hubby's insistence. But I kept the best ones to decorate our powder room.
ReplyDeleteI'm always on the hunt for something to fill in a hole in my comic book collection or my music collection. I have lists!
ReplyDeleteBut I don't just pick up random stuff from a beach or places like that. I can't tell you the last time I went to a yard sale. Occasionally I go to a nearby flea market but not to just buy random crap, always with a purpose. Usually the aforementioned comics or music.
I love the Detectorists, have watched every episode at least twice.
ReplyDeleteRhys, the $100 metal detectors should work just fine for finding the odd Roman coin. My mother found lots of minie balls in the New Mexico desert using a cheap detector, had great fun with it.
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DeleteWhen I was a kid, it was fun to dig for buried treasure. I think the hunt is more fun than finding real treasure. I love to collect shells too. I remember visiting Mendoncio (sp?) and collecting shells. I like to hunt for a good sale at the local shop. Now I am not sure I want new clothes because of its effect on the environment. It sounds like many clothes end up in landfills! So I wonder why people stopped mending clothes? I decided to refresh my sewing skills and mend my clothes instead of throwing them away. Anything that does not fit will be donated to consignment shops or goodwill.
ReplyDeleteJulia, how did you find LLBean for $5? A friend cannot afford more than $15 for clothes and she says LLBean is too expensive! Did you find the five dollar bargain in person at a garage sale or online?
Everyone, how was your first day of summer?
Diana
Lovely quiet evening at home, lovely way to end my first day of summer. How was yours, Diana?
DeleteWonderful first day of summer too :-) . I read a Max Tudor cozy mystery with Summer Solstice in the story.
DeleteI have a collection of feathers I've picked up here and there. Most recently a raven's feather from Australia. Did you know it's illegal to pick up feathers in the US? I think it's a law that dates back to the days when birds were hunted to extinction in the craze for feathers to decorate ladies' hats.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that, Hallie! I pick up feathers in my yard all the time, mostly cardinal and blue jay, but sometimes we'll find something especially cool, like a hawk or owl feather.
DeleteI have a basket of cones from away. Mom found them on one of their road trips. I keep them because they aren't typical of the Redwood Empire. Huge boxes of of shells, many of which provided delicious meals but it was my brother-in-law who had the permit to pick. (I miss those nice abalone dinners) We have used them on the reredos in the summer. I used to search for drift wood as a kid, once I made a wall sculpture for Mom. I brought it home two years ago, it hangs in my place now. I named it 'A Pelicaway'. Have worked many a rummage sale in my day. Sometimes I might find something during the set-up but more often than not, I would say no to suggestions by others. I have a hard time at places like Ross and TJ Max, they can get too crowded for me, though I will face the hords at yarn shows. Just go early in the day and take a huge break in the middle of the day.
ReplyDeleteI still "look" but, with the exception of yarn, I can be satisfied with just looking...she says while looking at the wall of stuff collected through the years.
Shalom Reds and fans. Sometime, around 45 years of age, I started taking piano lessons again as I did in my childhood and teenage years. At some point, I started looking online for sheet music and while there were commercial sites willing to sell you anything, I made it my business to find free music. It was all over the place if you could find it. The trick was that you had to download it when you found it because it was just as likely not to be there the next time you looked.
ReplyDeleteMutopia, which was a spin-off of the Gutenberg Project was the largest collection of free classical music in the public domain. They were down for a while with legal challenges from publishers who accused them of copyright infringement. I just now checked and they are up and running. Early on, in my collecting efforts, I discovered a professional pianist from Spain who had put his entire piano bench online. In addition to reams and reams of classical music, he also put a half dozen “fake” books of jazz and popular music. Not quite legal, as the publishers do own the copyrights to these. He ultimately took the site offline. Indiana University had up on the web for a while, all of the music of Hoagy Carmichael.
The $64,000 question is how much have I printed and played from this collection of work. The most challenging piece that I downloaded, printed and learned to play was Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata. It probably took the better part of six months to learn all three movements but I did it. Even performed one movement in a recital. I stopped taking lessons a few years back, but it is still a goal of mine to print out this music, piece by piece.
I saw a gorgeous cobalt blue teapot at the potter's stall at the farmer's market this morning, but my daughter warned me that if I brought a new teapot in, another one would have to go out:-)
ReplyDeleteI have had quite a knack over the years for finding vintage quilts at yard sales. But now I'm trying to divest myself of some of them. They are too fragile to use, or launder, and I'm tired of the clutter of the quilt rack. I think I've reached the "less is more" stage as far as collecting most things.
I so understand your daughter's remark. My mother had the same illness. Shelves, seasonal boxes of teapots. I kept the pewter one with a dent and the pumpkin shaped one. It's not bright orange, nice more brownish than orange... definitely not seasonal.
DeleteI'm headed back to amethyst cove soon - I can't wait! Great post, Rhys!
ReplyDeleteWe are in the process of moving our many years' worth of accumulated possessions into our new house, and I'm deciding we are not keeping half of this stuff! Too many things collected, and it's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteDebs, "less is more" is going to be my new motto.
When I was at Sanibel Island, I collected some shells with the idea of making jewelry. Didn't happen. I still have a pretty stone that my parents brought home from a trip. Later at a national park, I was told that you couldn't even pick up a pine cone, and after working in the Bureau of Forestry, I wouldn't want to take anything from nature now. The circle of life and all that.
ReplyDeleteMy husband grew up in England, and we have a 14th-15th century silver ring that he found on the beach with a metal detector. It's quite the treasure!
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ReplyDeleteAbsolutely much watch The Detectorists! My collection of souvenir rocks, etc., get a bath then go to live in the aquarium with my Opalescents & foot long algae eater. Shards of china that emerge when we dig in the garden go to live in a pot of flowers, called a "Boody Garden" in the north of England.