Fossils

Here on the ridge we are not far from the sandstone rock under the turf and as the loose stones find their way up to the surface in the fields ancient fossils show themselves. Geology is not my subject but I think our area belongs to the Middle Jurassic period and we are sitting on Forest Marble which contains sealife in the form of shells and muddy debris from shallow and perhaps tidal waters - the sea is now over 20 miles away.

Some of the shells still look recent in colour and texture and it is difficult to believe that they were around millions of years ago! This particular stone is in our garden, I picked it up from the field some years ago. In Victorian times there was a small quarry in our neighbour's paddock used for building materials - it's all been filled in now and grassed over. Our neighbours the other way have the end of the seam of rock appearing on the edge of their lawn which makes an attractive natural feature.

Another cow calving this afternoon!