Passions...passing them on

Before Paula was a photographer, she worked many years as a gemologist. She loves stones, and she had done some research to find a Portland place that deals in semi-precious, rare, and interesting stones. We took Bella there, and Bella was delighted to learn from Paula what to observe and appreciate in stones. It was a joy to see Bella receiving instruction in eloquently flowing español. Bella understood every word. I limped along getting about half of it. Sue and I both have stone collections, so Bella was not surprised by the idea of collecting stones, but she was delighted to hear Paula's ideas about what to look for.

Paula offered to buy Bella specimens of her favorite ones. Bella's first choice was a vibrant green fluorite, and then she chose a pure white selenite, a flashy pyrite, and a tiger's eye (which I promptly forgot the proper name for). There were some ammonites in a case, and Bella told Paula, in español, that her Baba had found one on a beach in England. I was amazed that Bella remembered that detail about the ammonite from Staithes that now has pride of place in my stone collection.