Some Glittering Green for St. Patrick's Day!

Hey everyone! Wow, it has been a really long time since I've blogged. I hope you are all doing well. I thought St. Patrick's Day would be the perfect time to share some green crystals and gemstones with you guys. One of the new interests I've gotten into during this long winter has been crystals/stones/rocks. I've always loved jewelry, but up until recently I was not aware of the many different varieties of stones out there. Now it feels like there is an endless amount.

I have found myself drawn to green stones more than any color, and after a point I realized I had a collection of them. There are so many different colors of green that show up in gemstones and crystals.  

I have done my best to research what I have, because sometimes I don't even think the sellers know what they are selling. I don't mean they're intentionally selling fakes, but that they might be clueless as to what they have. I say that because I've ended up with a few stones that I think were better than advertised. But you guys tell me if you think I have something other than what I think I have. For the most part, I'm pretty confident in what I have.

So, here we go!

This dark green necklace was actually listed as Bloodstone. From the photo online, that was believable enough. But you'll notice here that there are none of the little red "blood" spots on the stones. 

And when I held this up to the light I got another surprise. Moss Agate! You can see how this stone got that name. I love it, probably more than I would have loved the Bloodstone. Isn't this cool? It's like there are little pieces of moss growing in there.

This other section of the necklace is a little different. I see a sort of arrow shape in it.

This is Green Solar Quartz. I'm still on the fence over these crystals being dyed. All the Green Solar Quartz I've seen online is this vibrant, and it may have also been dyed. From what I have read, this is Agatized Quartz that has been cut from stalactites. 

Just look how pretty the sun is shining through it!

They're like mermaid scales.

This pretty stone is Green Amazonite. It's hard to capture the sheen of this in a photo, but it's something you can see as you turn this pendant from side to side. The color is so refreshing. It reminds me of green milk glass. 

This beauty is a rough piece of Chrysoprase with a Peridot on top. It looks like a little figure of a person or maybe an insect if you added some legs.

I love the details on this one ~ The designs on the silver, the facets on the Peridot, and the uniqueness of the Chrysoprase. It reminds me of a cloud-filled sky.

The white stone in the middle here is a Scolecite and the little stones above it are Kunzite. As for the light and dark green oval pendants, they're stones that I bought many years ago. I can't even remember what they were supposed to be, I just liked them. Any idea of what they could be? 

Here's another view of that beautiful Kunzite. There's something almost Opal-like going on there.

This stone is a Malachite and it's one of the stones that I have a hard time believing is real. Although, I went through that with a few of these. It turns out that there are a lot of hard to believe natural creations. In the case of Malachite, I read that the fake ones have harsher black markings. I also read that a real Malachite should be cold to the touch and heavy, otherwise it could be plastic. And this one is cold and heavy. I think I have a real one. It's just such a wild stone! Look up Malachite and you'll see all kinds of amazing designs. This one reminds me of either a fingerprint or a woodgrain pattern. 

And check out the back! 

The larger green stone here is Prehnite and the smaller one at top was listed as a Citrine. That isn't the color I would normally think of for Citrine, but it turns out that they come in different colors. I looked up yellow green Citrine and saw photos of what I have here.

These Prehnite stones remind me of Amber, because it looks like all kinds of things could be trapped in there. 

I'm not sure what that shape is on the right side of it. It almost looks like a little piece of bone. Or maybe a tiny piece of stone? 

The yellow/green stone below is green opal. I got this as part of a set from a woman who was selling stones in their rough form. This is not a color I would have ever associated with opals. 

This beauty is a Fuchsite. I love the amount of mica in it. Actually, Fuchsite is also known as "Chome Mica" so I guess we should be seeing a lot of sparkle. This one is  fun to turn back and forth in the sunlight. 

Something I just learned about Fuchsite is that under a strong UV light, it turns a fluorescent lime green. I was curious after learning that and did some googling. Check out what UV light can do to some crystals: Fluorescent Minerals

I wonder how many of the stones I've shown here would give such a glow under UV light? 

This is another pendant where the seller didn't list every stone included. And the description of the main stone didn't even give me the full picture! I think the little bit of green on here is Feldspar of some kind, maybe an Amazonite.

But the white part is actually a Rainbow Quartz! So how perfect is that for a St. Patrick's Day post? This was just listed as a White Quartz, but if you look closely you will see a little bit of rainbow. It was difficult to turn this back and forth while looking for that and taking a picture, but I managed to capture a bit of it. You see that little glimmer of pink and yellow? That would be the rainbow. Sometimes I can see a little purple and green too.

The black stones on this pendant are Black Tourmaline. The person who sold this had a lot of Black Tourmaline but this was the only piece with an additional colorful stone at the bottom. The seller never listed what the green stone was, but it looks a lot like the Amazonite I saw in a book. 

This view shows the light coming through the mysterious green stone. Do you guys think this is Amazonite too? The color and the stripes are what's giving me that idea.

I bet a few of you will know about Moldavite. I could write an entire blog post about just this. A big part of what makes Moldavite special is that it was formed by a meteorite impact about 15 million years ago. This is one of those times where I just think it would be easier to post a link, rather than get into explaining what I've learned about how this was specifically formed. Directing you to that link makes more sense than me writing several paragraphs here. 

This is worth a read: Moldavite Wiki Page 

There is plenty of interesting information to read about the science behind this material and how it was formed.

Moldavite like the piece I have is basically like a shattered piece of glass. So I think mine was probably one of the pieces formed across a Central European field as the material spread out flat and shattered. Some pieces look more dark, thick, or solid. From what I've read, those kind of pieces formed mid-air and cooled before falling to earth. I'm pretty sure this is the oldest thing I own!

Again, there is a lot to say about Moldavite and I might revisit that topic later. You might also see more about crystals in general some time down the line. But this is a nice start and a way to share all the new green beauty in my life. 💚

I look forward to touching base with everyone again. Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day and if there are any crystal lovers or rock collectors out there, it would be fun to compare notes! ☘

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with exotic, magical music

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Everybody gets around to carving their pumpkin in March, right? ;)

A week or two ago, I watched a Loreena McKennitt concert on TV. I've been a fan of her music for some time, so I really enjoyed it. While watching the concert, I thought how it would be cool to share some of her music for St. Patrick's Day. She's Irish and Scottish, as you can guess from her name.

Some of Loreena's music sounds Celtic and some of it has other ethnic vibes. A few of my favorite songs of hers have parts that sound Middle Eastern to me. You'll see what I mean when you listen to the first song in this concert. I managed to find the concert I watched on TV! Enjoy. :)

A link to the video: Loreena McKennitt ~ Nights from the Alhambra

For some reason, those of you who read my blog in email form don't see the videos. If anyone knows a way I can make it so that videos show up for my email subscribers, please let me know! Maybe there's a setting I'm missing.

You'll get an idea of Loreena's personality and the background of the music she's playing here. There are some neat visuals added in of the places that inspired her.

I actually became familiar with Loreena McKennitt about 15 years ago when I was in a little gift shop. The person working there had Loreena's music playing and I said "Who is this? I love this music". That's the only time I've cared to ask what music was playing in a store. The woman working there seemed surprised. "You haven't heard of Loreena McKennitt?" she said. Nope. I had to wonder if most people had. She then went on to give me an introduction to who Loreena is and what her music is like. I went straight to finding some of her CDs after that encounter at the shop. I'm happy to introduce Loreena's music to those of you who haven't heard of her. And, what better time than today?

Although, looking back to 2012, some of you might remember a Christmas post where I mentioned her song "Mummer's Dance":

A visit from the creatures of Christmas

I wish you all a Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope Loreena's concert helps get you in the festive mood.

Irish Ghosts, Witches, and Scary Fairies

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I've been saving a few cool Irish themed videos for today. The first are a look at monsters and death myths in Celtic folklore. I know all of you Halloween people are going to love the intro to this show as much as I do! There's some really cool art in it. If you watch nothing more, watch the intro!

Celtic Monsters - Witches:

Celtic Monsters - Fairies:

These aren't the only Celtic Monsters videos. There's a series of six episodes as far as I know. It was hard to choose which ones to share. They're all so great. Here's the playlist if you'd like to see more:

Celtic Monsters YouTube Playlist

I really like the narration and storytelling in these videos. The storytellers come across as authentic, as if they're telling a story of something that really happened. It's possible some of these stories were passed down through families. It's just an elegantly put together show!

The next videos are from a paranormal investigation show called Northern Ireland's Greatest Haunts. This research team is fun to watch and I love the psychic! Wait until you hear the music that plays when she makes an appearance! Talk about an entrance. Here are a few of my favorite episodes:

Cooneen:

Cooneen House has that beautiful decay thing going on.

Prehen House:

... and again here's a playlist with a whole bunch of them, in case you'd like to binge-watch this whole show the way I did!

Northern Ireland's Greatest Haunts YouTube Playlist

There are a few other paranormal shows on that playlist which also look pretty entertaining!

The luck o' the spider to you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

As you might know, my Mom and I like shopping at estate sales. It was nice to find one during this long, cold winter. They're mostly held in the spring around here. The previous owner of the house had a large collection of old photos and postcards. Old postcards and jewelry are my two favorite things to look for at estate sales. This was my postcard find of the day:

It's always a fun little treat to find a postcard that was written on and stamped. Then you can see how old the postcard is. This one was stamped 1909 over a one cent stamp.

I looked up the name "Edd Meyer" on a genealogy site and was surprised to find two guys with this name who were alive and in the area at this time. I'd like to be sure of which one he was, because it's fun to know the story of the person who owned an antique.

I was curious about the symbolism of the spider on this postcard. I assumed it was supposed to represent something lucky since it was pictured above a treasure chest that was surrounded by four leaf clovers. So I did a little research and found this page:

Spider Superstitions:

http://www.spiderzrule.com/superstitions.htm 

Who would think there would be this many spider superstitions? As it turns out, the spider on the postcard is lucky because it's brown. Every culture seems to have different spider rules. A few things everyone seems to agree on: brown spiders are good and the later in the day you see one, the better.

Funny enough, a few days after learning this trivia, I saw a brown spider crawl across the ceiling around 9:00 PM. The following few nights I saw a brown spider at 11:00 PM and Midnight. Either there were a few lucky spiders or that one spider really gets around. I guess I have some good luck coming my way!

St. Patrick's Day seems the perfect time to share one of my new favorite YouTube channels! Adrian von Ziegler is a composer who posts lots of Celtic music videos as well as other relaxing, magical sounding songs. His two hour set of Celtic music is perfect for today:



I hope you all see a lucky spider tonight!

Mysterious Tales from Haunted Ireland

YouTube is filled with wonderful paranormal videos. I can easily get hooked on the many historical videos about haunted places. Lately, I've found some YouTube videos about haunted European castles, hotels, and pubs. I thought now would be the perfect time to share some ghost stories that take place in Ireland, because I like to post something Irish around St. Patrick's Day.

Here are a few of my favorite stories! For those of you who are reading my blog in email form, you might not see the videos. So please go to my actual blog to watch these.

First up, Charleville Castle! I found several videos about this place, but I liked this one best. It has a great introduction and nice storytelling.

Part one



Part two



The second half of this story finishes with a New Orleans haunted hotel story. I'm not including more about that beautiful place, since it doesn't fit with the Irish theme. If you'd like to see the rest of this program on YouTube, here's Part 3 and Part 4.

I found these videos on the GhostWatching YouTube channel. I love just about every video this person has collected. If you're not afraid of getting addicted to watching great ghost videos, here's the channel:

GhostWatching

Many of the places in these videos are beautiful. I think one of my reasons for being interested in haunted houses is the wonderful old architecture.

Charleville Castle staircase

Cool as the architecture is, I wouldn't go out of my way to stay in Charleville Castle. Would you?

County Wicklow

This next story concerns an Irish farm that stands on haunted land. The story starts off almost charmingly, as ghost stories go, and then gets not so cute. I thought this video was really well done and I enjoyed listening to the story tellers' accents. Watching this, I felt like I was sitting down with a friend, hearing their personal story.  



What did you think of the last story that happened in the trailer? I'd be interested to hear your opinions on what could have caused that phenomenon! 

Leap Castle

Some people say that Leap Castle is the most haunted castle in Ireland. The castle has a troubled history, filled with murder, a dungeon, and even a little "elemental" creature. This is a video from the Most Haunted show. Even if you're not into watching their overnight stay in the castle, I still recommend the history filled introduction and personal accounts. That would be about the first 10 minutes of this show.



I know it gets a little goofy by the time the men are arguing over whether to have a seance. So if you're not into that night vision, everyone is green with glowing eyes, while waiting for something to happen stuff, you might want to stop watching there. You need to be in the mood to imagine what's happening, since you're taking their word for cold spots, weird noises, etc. Watching other people wait for something to happen can get a bit tiresome for me, but I am really fascinated by the psychic on this show. The highlight of this episode for me is when he interacts with the "elemental" spirit. This was the first time I heard of that sort of thing.

I also have to share the Celtic Animal Signs I ran across recently! They're a lot like regular zodiac signs. In fact my "Swan" sign sounds an awful lot like my regular Libra description. I'm sure all you Libras will like that one! Take a peek: What's Your Celtic Animal Sign?

Walk with me to the dark side of the woods

When you think about the magic of Ireland, what images pop into your mind? Do you imagine green rolling hills, leprechauns, fairies, or rainbows? Any of these would be an interesting focus, but I'm going to take you down a darker path. It's the kind of path that leads through a shadowy, fog-filled forest. A forest where you hear mysterious noises that you can't quite see the source of. I'm leading you to the darkest realm of this forest so I can introduce you to the not-so-nice creatures of Ireland.

As we walk under this somber canopy of trees, we hear a distant shriek. Could this be the sound of a banshee? The banshee's voice is said to resemble something between a woman's scream and the screech of an owl, and that is exactly what we hear.

 

You've probably all heard of the banshee. Sometimes she appears as a beautiful woman and sometimes she looks horrifying. Either way, she is always a shrieking omen of death.

Someone claiming to be a banshee, foretold the murder of King James I of Scotland in 1437, and there have been banshee reports in Ireland as recently as 1948! So, who knows? One of them might still be here. Let's quickly get away from the shrieking.

Oh, what's this? A little cottage in the middle of the woods! This looks like a safe banshee-free zone, right?

Wait. This is a dark, haunted forest. Maybe we should peek in the window first, to make sure nothing scary is inside. Aww... What a sweet sight. It's a mother leaning over her baby's cradle. The baby shifts back and forth slowly in its bed. Suddenly it lifts its head, and... eww. That's no baby!

 

It's a lumpy, yellow thing with a bad attitude. It's a fairy changeling! Sometimes the fairies take a baby and leave a changeling in its place. They have many reasons for doing so, but the main reason in Irish stories is envy. Looking at a baby with envy is putting it in danger. If too many people envy the baby, it's more or less like signing it away to the fairies.

There is only one way to change it back into a baby: Throw the changeling into a fireplace. It will then leap up the chimney and the baby will be returned. Yeah... you better be really sure that what you have is a changeling before throwing it into the fire!

Adult humans also run the risk of becoming changelings, if looked upon with enough envy. In fact, in the year 1895, Bridget Cleary was killed by her husband, because he believed she was a changeling. Or so he said.

Let's leave this terrible scene. I can't bear to watch the changeling get thrown into a fireplace!

If these woods weren't haunted, we could be having a relaxing nature walk. There's so much wildlife here to enjoy. I assume those are squirrels rustling in the dead leaves, and birds chirping from the trees overhead. Not to mention that lovely...um, horse/goat thing with the gold eyes that's been watching us.

This is the form the Pooka (Irish for goblin) has decided to take at this time. The Pooka is a shapeshifter; it can appear as a goat, horse, rabbit, or dog. It most commonly takes the form of a large black horse with golden eyes. It can be either a good or bad creature, depending on its mood. There are stories of the Pooka being kind, and yet it also likes to confuse and scare people. The only day one can be sure the Pooka will be nice is on November 1st. That's Pooka Day. Obviously, it's now March, so it's difficult to know what we're dealing with. Let's just quickly walk past this creature and hope it doesn't bother us...

Even though we walked away from the Pooka, the sound of galloping horse hooves is still around us. Has the Pooka decided to follow us? No, we are being followed by the kind of creature that makes a Pooka seem harmless. It's The Dullahan, who looks very similar to someone you might find in Sleepy Hollow.

The Dullahan may look like the standard headless horseman we are familiar with, but there are some differences. The main difference is that instead of searching for a head, the Dullahan carries his. A strange feature of the head is that it has the color and consistency of moldy cheese. That and he carries a whip that is made from a human spine. So you don't want to get close to him, purely because you'd be grossed out if you did. Of course, there are far more deadly reasons to avoid him. It's said that if the Dullahan stops his horse and calls out a person's name, they will die at that exact moment.

One more disgusting feature! The Dullahan does not like it when people watch him. If you do, he will throw a bucket of blood in your face! Yes, he carries a bucket of blood along with his cheesy head and spine whip. He's a multitasker like that. So, now that we've caught sight of The Dullahan, let's just run the other way and not bother him. As if I even needed to tell you that... 

After running through the tangled trees, we see something more inviting. It is a gorgeous, glittering figure with iridescent wings.  It is the Lianhan Shee.

The Lianhan Shee is a beautiful fairy that is sort of like a siren. She basically puts men under her spell to the point where they give up everything for her. The only way to be free from her spell is to refuse her advances. Very few men do. If they do manage to reject her, the tables are turned and she does their bidding. It's time to go, before any of the men in our group are tempted by her...

Speaking of someone the guys might want to avoid, a Dearg-Due is known to lurk in these woods. The Dearg-Due is an Irish female vampire.  I've seen her referred to as "the red blood sucker". However, some legends say that she isn't so much interested in blood, as she is sucking the souls out of people's bodies.

 

The only way to hold her at bay is to pile stones on her grave. Evidently, if you pile on enough stones, it's inconvenient for her to dig out of the dirt. Placing something heavy on top of a vampire's coffin is a pretty practical solution! So, let's pile a few stones on her resting place, and make our way out of the woods.

* A quick vampire theory worth sharing:

Some people argue that Bram Stoker's Dracula was based upon the Dearg-due. Dracula was written during Ireland's great "Celtic Revival". Some believe that Stoker took the name "Dracula" from Dreach-Fhoula, pronounced droc'ola. This word happens to mean "bad or tainted blood" in Irish. At the very least it's an interesting coincidence.

As we make our way to a clearing in the forest and look through the trees, we see a large body of water and an approaching ship. Suddenly a fog appears out of nowhere! It's the work of The Grey Man (Far Liath).

He has created this fog in the hopes of causing a ship wreck. The fog grows thicker and we blindly manage to walk through it on our way out of this place. After walking for some time, we hear a sound in the distance. It's hard to be certain, but it sounds an awful lot like a ship crashing against the rocks.

Now that you have survived the haunted forest and scary Irish creatures, you can breathe a sigh of relief and have a happy St. Patrick's Day!