Dear Agua Nueva Agate,

Where do I begin? Not since my handsome husband has anyone beguiled me quite as much as you. I am referring to you as a sentient being because, somehow..... you are.

Your bands of color are hundreds of thousands and millions of years old and yet they are as fresh and immediate as a newly peeled nectarine or a ripe Japanese eggplant. 

I think I began collecting a few years ago, unwittingly finding my first Agua Nueva (new water) agate online and wondering if there were more to BE found, so new was I to the lapidary world - ha!! My latest problem seems to be stopping! I've found enough.

I wanted to share these pictures with you, dear readers, because I was struck today by how varied and special each piece is: some are from the very same nodule (you can tell by the colors) but they all express a complete idea, which is partly due to the skilled hands that cabbed them and found the sentence or paragraph inside the rock.

Some are suns.

Some are Opera sets.

Other still are trees, or curtains opening to an alien landscape...

each one has captured my imagination in some very big way and I find myself staring at them for hours, dreaming up designs for some and simply coveting others with the knowledge that they will never be set for anyone other than me.

It's taken me a while to realize that's ok: not every stone I own will be shared: I am allowed to cling a bit, just not so much that I forget them biggest lesson: they are not 'mine' - they belong to the earth as she created them with the sweat of her seismic changes and the slow drip of her weather systems.

I've made the pictures rather large for your viewing pleasure: I wanted you to see the details as I do every time I open my cabochon boxes - click on the picture and it will expand to a magnificent detailed size.

Enjoy my collection!