The awesomeness of printed books.

I was just sorting out my book shelf, not alphabetically or anything like that, but I do like a certain "order" to it, a flow of topic or discipline.  I have to say that books are rather special to me.

I like to hold a book, I love to feel the pages and the anticipation of turning them over to read whats next.  I love old books, I love the smell of them.  I could spend all day in a book shop or at Good Sammy's where books are plentiful...you just never know what little treasure you may come across.

I mainly read non-fiction.  I love my science books.  My shelves are full to bursting with titles I hope to consume at some indeterminate point in the future.

It would be a lot easier to manage if I just downloaded all those books to my iPad, most of them I am sure are available this way, but that is just not the same now is it.  Not for me anyway.  I think print and paper has a lasting value that people appreciate.

Your favorite books define you, and digital versions don't seem to impart connections that are quite as deep.  I see my books as a piece of aesthetic furniture as well as full shelves.

When I was a child, my father always told me to love and appreciate books.  My mother use to read me bedtime stories every single night.  She then started to buy me the odd one or two to read myself.  I learnt to read rather quickly when I was little and I soon started collecting my own unique little collection.  When I moved from the UK to Australia, I had them all shipped over.  Except some of the children's books which I gave to certain op shops.

I, like my parents, feel that it is of paramount importance for children to read printed books. This is the perfect time to introduce him/her to the wonderful world of books. In this time of personal computers and the Internet, many of us consider books to be things of the past. However, they still play a crucial role in the critical development of a young mind.  The more books children read, the faster their vocabulary is expanded. 

Books help them to learn new words and new ways of using the words that they already know.  Reading books to children at bedtime is a wonderful bonding experience that nourishes emotional development.  Parents can also help the child relate the incidents in the story to real events in their lives.

Books make great gifts too.  I often buy my friends books if I know what they are interested in, or to introduce something new.  Books are affordable, and they provide hours of surprise, escape, and discovery.  There is a book for every special person in your life. An adventure, a romance, a mystery, a comedy.......



I love this quote by John Lithgow, 
“Books make great gifts because they’re something you love that you can share.”

Need I say more.... go on, go grab yourself a book and take yourself off somewhere ;)

Australian Opal

I was sorting through my jewellery and I came across my Opal necklace that I actually forgot I had!  So I thought I would share a few facts I have learnt over the past on Australian opal.

Australia is the source of the world's finest opal specimens.  The discover of this gemstone in the 19th Century triggered waves of migration just like those of the American Gold Rush.  

At the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Tertiary era, the area of the planet occupied by Australia experienced sudden climate change.  A mild maritime environment gave way to another, much drier one leading to the creation of a great dessert.  Later, during the Miocene period a slow process of erosion took place (you can read more on the geological history of Australia in one of my previous blogs).

These events gave rise to the formation of opal, a semiprecious stone that is a combination of water and silica.  Over time, nodules of opal built up in veins; fractures, and discontinuities of Australia's sandstone.  There it remained until its discovery by British settlers and prospectors. 

Opal has been mined in Australia for more than a century and a half.  The first miners that arrived in the Australian dessert immediately realised it was going to be impossible for them to live and work in 50degree Celsius temperatures.  So instead, they tunnelled underground where it was cooler, both to extract the gemstones and also build their homes and live.  Even today, these 'troglodyte' dwellings are still inhabited.

The first commercial opal field in Australia was White Cliffs in New South Wales.  As yields from this deposit declined, propectors began exploring other parts of Australia with similar geological characteristics.  In 1915, the Coober Pedy deposit was found and quickly became renowned as a new, darker kind of opal named black opal.  It was unearthed in shades of red, blue and vivid green.  Even today, Coober Pedy is one of the most important opal-producing deposits in the world.

More info on Coober Pedy here:  

http://www.cooberpedy.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=191 

http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/coober-pedy-australia.html