Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Look daddy!

"Look daddy! This one is new isn't it?" My youngest son pointed at a little fossil on our floor. My youngest son is just as stone minded as I am. We both love stones. The shapes, structures, colors, smell and little treasures in them. Everytime we look we'll find or discover something new.

I replied "No, it always has been there. I guess you never noticed this one before. Did you know that it's a kind of earthworm living in the sea millions and millions of years ago?"

On the Dutch countryside it's not chic to have marble. On the Dutch countryside it's fashionable to have your floor paved with 'belgische of blauwe hardsteen'. In English 'blue or hardstone from Belgium'. My wife and I are blessed with good taste too ;)
How bizarre. If you realize what 'belgische hardsteen' is made of. In a way we walk in  the mud of millions of years ago. We walk on the stoned mud and the cut corpses of pentacrinites fossilis, worms, brachiopods, polyps and sponges.

A couple of years ago a new floor was paved in our new kitchen. Smell. The first few days the floor of 'belgische hardsteen' smelled like mud. I immediately recognised the smell: the mud from the Wadden Sea during mudflat hiking with all it's living and dead animals.

Question: What is your favourite stone to walk on with your bare feet?

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