The gravity of it all.

Graviola.
It can get messy. This one was a hangout for a few big black wasps and they resisted eviction. They were subsequently deported to the balcony and beyond.

A metal spittoon, or cuspidor, can be placed at some distance and the black shiny heavy seeds used to mark time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviola

talking about big rocks, part II

 So, on we went. Further into the interior and the rivers turn into waterfalls and the land drops down and down...

 A lot of power in that water. Enough to polish stones. Just around the corner from the last big waterfall I was dipping my hands into riverbed and pulling out all kinds of nature polished quartz.
Gotta watch the currents though!

So, a nice refreshing dip and on we went to the prize. Down, down into the earth. Well, it was an open face mine so the sky was there and I could see the earth´s fruits, just as they had been laid out, strata after strata. Amazing to see the theory so real, though I must say, open face mining is one of the ugliest acts man commits against this planet. Ugly, devastatingly ugly.

 Once in there, mind, it is a lot of fun roving over this glittering surface, with perfectly formed giant size crystals sticking out everywhere.

What a memorable day out. With many more tales to tell about the people who mine this land, the social structure, how the locals interact with industry, the history of silica rocks and there uses today. Not to mention the "What happened on our way home, Adventure" adventure...

talking about big rocks

my education
so it´s been a remarkably busy year gone
I have learnt a lot about more this year about metalworking, gemology and lapidary, not to mention a better understanding of some of the finer details of the typical adventures of Captain Hook and the free markets.
Here I share with you one of our "school trips", when we went to the source.
 Cristalinas, Goias, is a famous region in Brazil for it´s many alluvial, open and shaft mines; still bringing forth some great quartz varieties.
 There we met up with Charles and his father Mr. Souto, expert precious stone selectors, lapidarists and jewellers.

 here is Abraham, Charles and myself out the back of the Souto workshops. Charles took us through the whole process step by step, from extraction of the stones, onto cutting, faceting, polishing and finally setting of the stones in pieces of fine jewellery.

 Charles was able to share with us many varieties of quartz/feldspar from the area; including amethyst, prasiolite, lodite, labradite, rose quartz aswell as amazing examples of rutiles and crystal clear quartz with and without inclusions.

 From there we left the town of Cristalinas and headed on our way to the mines. We made an obligatory stop to see and climb all over the "Chapeu do Sol", the big sun hat. This region is all about the earth´s crust and it is quieting to see what nature and some wind erosion can do compared to man´s best back breaking efforts.

 O Chapeu do Sol

And on we go following the alluvial rivers...

my own little Brazilian Baobab

                                                                Does anyone know the name of this tree? I don´t think it is the baobob, but I sure do like it for reminding me. Incredible texture in the lower bulbing trunk. Amazing spikes as it reaches out to its higher branches, from where falls a wonderful cotton like flower, covering the ground in its own winter cotton snow.

These trees are to be found with such presence all around asa norte. Some of them are much bigger and older. Taller and more bulbous. The fields of cotton snow they  scatter the ground with make me think of all the sofas and teddies that could be filled. Its bark like a photo projection of a silhouetted forest or  river delta.
 Its bulbous trunk, oh its bulbous trunk!

southern hemisphere autumn palms

...a few kilometers south of Jacuma, Paraiba.

...far from the coast, Recife, Pernambuco.

Jaca! Jack fruit...the eating

if you check back a little bit we can see the Jack fruit tree
that stands in the Atelier das Arvores.
Well I took one of these monsters home and got to eat the flesh, fresh!
As well as collecting all the seeds for roasting, delicious, very similar to roasted chestnuts as loved in Catalunya.
And deepfrying some more of the flesh as loved in northern India/Pakistan. I don´t remember want they call it, but it is juicy and sweet and savory, woo wee!

AND so much comes out of one fruit that I saved some flesh pods with the
seed still inside. They were good in a jar in the fridge two weeks later.

Yummy Jaca! And hardly any of the stink of the south east Asian variety, phew!