Thursday, day off, into Kaslo for a bite to eat. Check the thrift shop, nothing, across from it a new consignment shop, filled, more or less, with the kind of stuff people have left over after a 3 day garage sale. Upstairs to the "boutique", however, and I find some treasures:
If you can see past my reflection, on the left some black tourmaline, various quartz crystals, one big one, what looks like a selenite or desert rose, a stalactite (probably from the Cody Caves, or the mineralizations near Ainsworth Hot Springs)...
And this:
Blue/Green Tourmaline in Quartz, and (not pictured), a fine rhombus of Icelandic Spar.
Now this is exciting for me, because recognizing the quartz specimens as similar to ones I've found I'm pretty sure that the rest of the rocks are local as well. The lack of preparation suggests they weren't storebought at a rock-shop. And Tourmaline is a major constituent of rocks here, and I've found dogstooth spar (a different varietal of Calcite, not quite as pretty), and it gets me salivating...
I'm not going to buy any, a rock to me is generally only as good as the finding...and I want to quiz the proprietor to see if she knows where they were found - but I suspect - if like me - they'd be a little cagey about specifics...Nevermind, I got maps.
And finally, the bookstore:
It's a gem, open - like a few Kootenay businesses, whenever the owner darned well pleases. An interesting selection of old books, esoterica, a well-read proprietor, but it's not open today.
After this, to the Fish & Chips kiosk, tasty, Halibut and Poutine, then home, a bear in a field (they're everywhere at the moment), snap a couple of pictures but he's too far away...