I Am Only Making One Post Today,

as we are off to Rochester, in Kent,

for the Charles Dickens weekend, but first a bit of fun, whilst we were in Rye Diana made this short video of us there, note to self, mind my head!

 back today and we were off,

 for the drive to Kempton Park racecourse,

not for the ponies,

 nice though they were,

 we were here for the gem and mineral fair,

 I have a small, well very small collection of minerals and fossils that I will be putting upstairs when the carpet and bookcases arrive and are fitted,

 there were so many stalls to look at,

 Diana weakened first and bought this dainty pair of earrings,

 there were so many stalls, 

 selling fine jewelry,

 after looking at many of them, time for breakfast/lunch so upstairs to the restaurant,

 with a fine view of the finish line,

 and the bend leading into it, 

 from the restaurant and the stand,

 next back downstairs, I want that one! I said that so many times,

 and this stall had just what I was looking for, examples of geleana, or lead in its crystal form with quartz,

 but which to choose?

 and that was the problem,

 there were so many to choose from!

 choice made, the missing box is mine, well I weakened, there was actually two missing boxes when we left, 

 shopping over we made a move for home, which like the journey here took an age, I had no idea that this weekend every gas and water main between Beckenham and Kempton was going to be dug up, 

 everywhere there was single line traffic, so Diana took a few photographs as we were stuck on Hampton bridge,

 a rather nice car made its way towards us, 

 eventually we past Hampton Court train station, why on earth did they not put it closer to the racetrack? yes I know, 

 skeletal galena and quartz,  

 from the 9th September (Deveti Septemvri) mine, Madan ore field, Rhodope Mts, Smolyan Oblast, Bulgaria, 

 also from the same mine, this beautiful specimen of sphalerite quartz,

 with these fine quartz crystals, the stall was called Minerals Bulgaria, today manned by Biser Ivanovski who is based in the UK, if you do not go to the website here is a piece about the Rhodope Mountains that Biser has written, and what a helpful chap he was, 

 

 arriving home in the evening it was time for our meal, Diana had made some spicy onions, tomatoes and chilies, to top the poppadoms, 

 'Cheers!', 

 to liven up the flowers,

 Diana had bought some of these,

 peonies, similar to the ones we pass at the Gate House,

 for our main course,

  chicken aiswarya, Choyola chicken, lamb Punjabi and aloo gobi with plain rice,

 and a glass of wine,

 for dessert almost an Eton mess, strawberries, raspberries, fresh cream and meraquine,

delicious!

 Diana was captivated by the regal tang, (Paracanthurus hepatus), that we now have in our nano marine aquarium,

 if you look closely you can just about see him in this photograph, he does not yet have a name, we listened to music until the midnight hour, and then we were off to bed.