The Stone Circle and @KatrionaWrites in 2023

 

 

Looking back, this blog began in 2018. It's now 2023. This might be the most constant writing work I ever had. 

Hi guys! Happy New Year! I'm still here, still working hard. 

Today I enjoyed reading back through these pages and updating them. They document from when I started driving to January 2021, which means I didn't post here for a whole year... Sorry about that. 

So Fox and I began the Stone Circle website together in April 2021. Now that we are officially up and running, I do sell most of the rocks I find from hunting. I keep a few for myself and pass the others on. Although Fox is no longer with us (he moved back to Germany), doag and I are still going strong. Kai is getting a little old for the hunts now, they exhaust him. Most of the time it's just me on a trip now. 

TSC has sold Scottish rocks to Australians, to Indians, to almost every state of America, Italy, France, Spain, and more. There are Scottish rocks which I found in rivers or hill paths all over the planet. After Fox left I had a wobble about whether to continue or not, but the support of our long term clients made my mind up for me. 

The Stone Circle: The Scottish Self-Collected Crystal Shop 

What's new with TSC? We have an Instagram page where you can follow and watch all the new rocks that I find. I have a saw now, so i can cut up those nodules and look inside. I have a rock tumbler, so I slowly polish up the rocks I find, a small batch at a time. I still hand polish but less often. Time is a big factor. I have a few new locations and know what I am doing a bit better. Nevertheless, I do still get stuck. I would like to put myself through a geology course, again it's a matter of time.

I have the TSC website up and running now, and I do still sell rocks but not on Ebay, I am on Etsy nowadays. I ship Scottish crystals that I self-collect from all over the country, polish myself, and sell worldwide. TSC shop does ship internationally so don't be afraid to visit a .co.uk site if you are not British. We are on Facebook as well, so drop us a follow to stay tuned.

The Stone Circle has become popular on TikTok, I am eternally grateful for the 13.7k+ followers who learn about rocks with me. We are on YouTube too, and have gone viral once or twice on both platforms. Come and follow us and you might see videos of the rock you are buying as I find it.

Katriona E MacMillan, Freelance Writer

Why do I have no time? Because I am working full time as a freelance writer and have been since October 2019. I am moving into my fourth year. It absolutely has not been an easy ride, but I don't think I could go back to kitchen work now that I know how to make money out of nothing. Even the slow months with little cash are better than standing for 12 hours with no breaks 6 days a week. Especially on my painful feet.

What do I do all day? I receive requests from clients to write blog posts for their businesses. As well as blog posts, I write copy, which is the literature that comes with a business. Usually this is online material like home pages, about us stories, or even leaflets and infographics. Over the years I have covered thousands of topics. If you need to know what to do after a car accident to get maximum compensation, or what the best Lay-Z-Spa to buy is, I'm your girl.

But when the dinner bell chimes and the daytime work goes away, the writer in me really comes out. I have a fair number of short stories in anthologies all over the place, so I recently started publishing my own. So far we have "Bananas", about a botanist trying to grow plants on an isolated space station, and "The Portrait Artist", in which a Victorian corpse doll maker prepares a body for post-mortem photographs. Yes, both are horror. One Sci-Fi, one Historic. My website has even more free work on it if you want to take a look. I'm a modern writer, I know that a link is worth as much as a poem. It's a weird world.

I regularly write and release poetry. I am putting together a collection but I write in multiple categories. This means I have 40 poems across three and a half collections. I don't want each collection to be 10 pages long, so give me a little more time. Stay tuned for "Gen Z Could Save The World" and other delightful poems. You can watch some of these for yourself on Tiktok. I do fun stuff, mental health awareness and tips, I do beautiful places and a lot of environmental poetry.

Other work includes the 5/6 books of the Dark Science Series which are now published. When I started this blog in 2018 I was only 3 in. I've since reworked the first few books so that it all aligns. I am 270 pages into the final book in Dark Science: Oleander. It was only supposed to be a three book series but I love how it turned out. With character driven writing, you just need a loose idea of your plot points and then you let the characters push the story with how they would react. It ended up a longer road than I expected but a far richer story for it.

I'm going to miss them when they are gone.

What This Year Has in Store

I aim to continue finding new locations for Scottish crystals, minerals, rocks and fossils. The Stone Circle will keep going as long as I can. As for writing, I will still be picking up the pen when I am on my deathbed. I already have 10k words on the book which will follow Dark Science. This one is set in a research facility in the Arctic. It came to me in a dream (I have always wanted to say that).

I'm going to finish Dark Science either this year or early next year, and I will continue to release inspirational/mental health based/emo poetry on TikTok for all of you to enjoy. I hope you all come back for the occasional update. There is a blog on my personal website you can follow for more, or find me on Facebook or Insta. 

They come for the rocks but they stay for the stories. I am A OK with that. 

Katie.

An Interview with a (Rockhounding) Artist

 

For the last few weeks I have been playing host to a good friend of mine. Some of you know him as @geometric_fox already, or by his rockhounding handle as @rockhounding_fox if you follow the Instagram page. His other handle is Kev and he is a German spraypaint artist by trade... though there's a bit more to it than that.

What's so special about this particular German? He's not just a spraypaint artist, he's the OG rockhound. The one that first handed me a lump of quartz and asked me why I wasn't picking it up because it was "Lying around everywhere up there - and you can just take it!". Fox is the dude that first got me into rockhounding, sparking 3 years of adventures all over Scotland... hopefully with many more to come.

As you guys know, lockdown, quarantine, and random rules keep separating us and I live with Kai, who doesn't speak much. When we heard it was coming, Fox packed up his spraypaints, grabbed a six pack of opals (I'm not even kidding) and crossed the sea so we could spend it doing fun things like picking through farmer's fields, climbing hills and mountains, and getting stuck on top of piles of rocks in the dark.

 

It's been a blast so far, but we want it to continue. With the markets closed and no relief on the horizon, we have made the group decision to list some of his art and rocky goodness in the Katriona's Rocks Etsy store. Which is why we are here today, writing a blog to explain why I'm suddenly stocking spraypaint art and the occasional opal.

Introductions are out of the way, so let's dive straight in. I asked Fox some questions and here are his answers... Don't forget you can find information on all the rocks you get from me/us through this blog, so stay a while and have a look around.

 

 

What to ask a German Spraypaint Artist...?

You all know I do rocks and writing, it was genuinely difficult to do an interview! What do you ask a German rockhounding spraypain artist, anyway? It went a little something like this...

What Inspires you/what brought you to art?

I was always really creative and always very drawn to painting pictures when I was a kid. I grew up in an area where graffiti art was a big thing and you saw it everywhere. All these different graffiti’s on the trainline were super impressive, so I started to create some letters and graffiti for myself.

I got into spraypaint art when I was about 13 and my interest in it just kept going. I went to art school for a couple of years and met lots of other different types of artists, but I always knew spraypaint was my preferred method. I painted for years on walls, then I wanted to use the medium of spraypaint to get my ideas on canvas.

The planetary pictures are inspired by meditations. The pictures come to me when I am meditating. 

 

You mentioned meditation, how did you come to create art by using such a spiritual method?

<he repeats the question a few times, English isn't his first language>

I lived in Australia for seven years and got really into lots of meditation practise. I decided I wanted to capture the pictures that I see in my meditations and transform them into something artistic. My artwork is super inspired by the universe. For me, art is just an expression of my feelings and emotions and it's really hard for me to put that into words.

Do you have a favourite artist?

My inspiration is life and what happens during it to create this connection between the 3D world and everything else. I'm inspired by nature, by people, but not really by other artists... I'm not that guy. 

(My best friend is probably my favourite artist but he doesn't have an @.)

The reason I got back into painting was because of Covid. I was working markets selling rocks and the odd artistic piece, when everything shut down I had lots of time on my hands to pick up the spray cans again.

 

Your paintings seem to have two main themes. Some are geometric prints, and some are universe themed. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Yes, the space themed art and the geometric abstract art. Argh it all goes so deep. I can't explain it in a few words. The reason I do the geometric stuff is sacred geometry, which is something you can't explain without time. Sacred geometry is the source of everything, what we are all made of. I like to play with the patterns of sacred geometry, then as well play with the 3D forms.

 

How big an impact does colour have on your paintings?

I like to use natural colours. It's not something I'm thinking about that much while painting. It's just what is in my head at that time. I like a nice fade between dark to bright, but if you met me in person, you'd see I dress in greens and browns to tie in with the trees. I spend a lot of time in the forest.

 

What was your biggest exhibition?

I had one in an art gallery in Germany, but my favourite exhibit was one where we put art in all the empty buildings in my home town. I am always travelling around the world, so I usually do a lot of live painting when I am on the market circuit.

Got any videos we can share?

Yes, but it's super German. It's from the exhibit in the empty buildings of my home town.

 <The video in question>

Last question… How did you come to be a rockhounding artist?

How did I become a rockhounder? Ooh that's hard. It has nothing to do with art. So…I was always obsessed with stones. Like when I was a kid, I found them really fascinating. When I moved to Australia, I felt like I had returned to my roots and as time passed, I got to know myself better. I discovered the magic of the different rocks around the area there.

Rocks are everything to me, I don’t know how to explain it. I am here to bring the rocks out of the earth and get them to where they’re meant to be, It’s as if they speak to me, talk to me, everything. It’s my purpose in this world. I hate to talk about myself like this and I hate that I can’t put into words what it is that drives me. It’s like I am part crystal myself… and you don’t have to tell me how crazy that sounds… but it’s just the truth.

 

 

You can find out more about @geometric_fox in a previous interview by We are Superheroes. Don't forget that you can catch some of his work on my Etsy page, or that you can drop him a follow and make an offer if you see something you like.

Ben Nevis...without the hike

Ben Nevis (and Kai)

So I booked an overnight stay up north this week to go have a look at some crystal sites. I found one or two interesting nooks on my travels; but I didn't turn up much in the way of rocks... however, on my way back down I swung over to Glencoe (which will get a blog of it's own for Clan reasons) and saw a sign for Ben Nevis.

View from the parking lot

Well you know me... I can't pass up the opportunity to drive up a mountain. Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Scotland and it has a year-round activity centre. With it being a fine February day I decided to go have a look. There's bound to be some interesting rocks up there, right?

So we reach the activity centre and there isn't really anywhere else to go. The other road leads to a working quarry and they don't like people like me sniffing around without a hard hat and a high viz vest on. So we pulled up in the car park and went for a look.

The Top Gondola Station

Luckily for me there is a cable car you can take halfway up the mountain... I originally thought it took you all the way up but nooooo. 650m out of a possible 1,344m (which is 4,406 ft). The photograph on the right is the top 'Gondola' station. They say they are the only mountain gondola ride in all of Scotland and I see no reason to disbelieve them.

However strangely, there is also a restaurant in this building (I kid you not) and a 'summer chair' lift that you can take out over the forest. I had Kai so that was a no-go. From this halfway point you can also take a chair lift up to the slopes. It's been dry for days but there was still snow up there.

If you look real hard you'll see my car!

In Scotland we call all mountains over a certain height 'Ben'. If you follow the blog you will see that I visit Ben Lawers quite often (and stopped on the way past this time!) and you might wonder why. The simple reason is that 'Beinn' is the Gaelic word for 'mountain'. In Gaelic the mountain is actually called 'Nibheis' meaning venomous or malicious. Why? It's the most hostile mountain in Scotland. It's the biggest, it's the hardest and it's the one we have fought the longest to tame. Every so often it still kills people.

Getting closer...

As recently as New Year's Day 2019 a young female student plummeted 500m to her death while climbing Carn Dearg (not to be confused with Carn Dearg to the north. Mountain Coward Adventures have a great slide show of this ridge for those interested in climbing it...carefully). A month beforehand another student plunged 1,600ft and sadly didn't make it. This student was an experienced mountaineer. This incident happened when he and his buddy were trying to climb an overhanging ice cornice in Tower's Gully. The Tuesday before that another couple were stranded and needed rescuing from the pitch black, icy conditions. I can't even imagine how terrified they must have been. The mountain really is as malicious as its name makes out.

The first peek over the trees

Ben Nevis isn't alone either. The winter before last there were a reported ten deaths in the mountains in Scotland - one of them in the seemingly tame Ochil hills where I spent my holiday. It's kind of scary. The most obscure death I have heard about was when the body of a Derby man was recovered from an isolated Bothy on New Year's Eve in 2012. This particular man had gone to live for a year off the land and decided to do so in the Highlands of Scotland in November. Do we need to establish ground rules?

When you get to the top there are more hills!

I am the first to point out what a beautiful country we have... but it's deceptively cold and especially at height. Summer is a great time to visit, Spring is glorious (or wet) - even September and October are awesome for climbing. But it takes a certain type of madness to go for the summit in November, December, January or February. That being said Ben Nevis is the best mountain in the UK for ice climbing; hence why there are so many experienced climbers up there in all weathers. As you can see - even the experienced ones run into trouble so the rest of us need to be extra careful.

No seriously... like another 800m of hills...

As usual I am getting a little grim. I don't mean it there's something wrong with my storytelling ability. It's set to 'dark' permanently. Really there are all sorts of fun things to do on the mountain, you just have to be aware of the caution. There is a treetop adventure course, mountain biking, skiing and snowboarding, you can hike it, you can chair it, you can eat... the two ladies in the gondola next to me didn't even get out, they were just eating sandwiches and drinking tea from a bright red flask.

...so...many...more...hills...

Now my days of hopping out and climbing the mountain are over, plus I really wanted to get to Glencoe (my grandpa's middle name was Campbell, there's a story in there somewhere) but I did get a few pictures of what you can see from the way station. On top of that there is a wee video of us on our route up in the cable car that might give you a laugh or two. Kai seemed to like it. I didn't so much. I'm freakin' terrified of heights but the chance was too good to pass up. I'm a coward but a few likes on the Facebook page gave me enough courage to go for it!

Bit of a hazy day...that view though!

Hopefully you will be able to zoom in on the picture on the left and get an idea of how far you can see. The video demonstrates it a little better. They say that on a clear day you can see for up to 125 miles. They also say that it is one of the Three Peaks National Challenge mountains. This challenge sees climbers tackle Ben Nevis, alongside Mt. Snowdon in Wales and Scafell Pike in England. Climbers do all three of these mountains within 24 hours or it doesn't count (including travel time). My conclusion? Mountaineers are madder than crystal hunters by about 800 metres, give or take a few thousand feet.

Last but not least: there's no way I was going all the way up there without getting a look at the rocks! I found a small stream and had a paddle around to have a look. I expected to find tough granite but instead I found a sort of talc substance which had flecked off all through the soil. There is a lot of pink granite in the water, a few pieces of quartz and a lot less of the sparkly, schist/mica type of material you find all around that area. I nabbed one or two to bring home simply to say I have a rock from Ben Nevis, but neither are spectacular. I learned afterwards that basalt and granite are the two main groups up there. Interesting fact: the last ice age wasn't thick enough to cover the summit of Ben Nevis. Most of the mountain is igneous and, according to Ben Nevis.com itself, the mountain is about 400 million years old... that's some pretty ancient granite in my kitchen.

I think that is enough for one page. I'll get to Glencoe at some point... Though Is still have to write about Dunure castle... the locations are stacking up!

The standard Kai pic. Think he enjoyed himself.

Scottish Jasper (and my failure to find it)

So it turns out that minerals in Scotland are a lot more popular than I thought they would be. For this reason I have been toying with the idea of starting a separate blog entirely for my writing work. I had wanted to do it the other way around since this is the 'Katriona Writes' page but there are too many established readers now to change it up. So any good titles you have for a writing page in the comments please!

This Monday I went on a wet and windy quest into the Campsie Fells in an effort to find Jasper. Apparently it is one of the most abundant minerals in the area but that didn't help me any in terms of identification. I went armed only with the knowledge that you have to chip it out of rock and that it is red, yellow, blue and green.

Yeah the sign says it all...

What makes Scottish Jasper so special is that it comes in mixed patterns of red and yellow. Anywhere else in the world it comes out of the rock as either one or the other; but ins Scotland it can be streaked or spotted with both colours. Once again I was left in awe of this country's ability to produce world class minerals... if I could find any.

My research showed that the divide in colour of the Jasper is much like the staining I have found on other minerals in both the lower highlands and the southern uplands. A high presence of pyrite and other minerals in the soil leads to all shades of yellow, red, orange and pink minerals which would otherwise be white.

In the photo opposite you can see four minerals. The one on the left is Calcite druse, the other three are all Cairngorm Quartz. As you can see, it might be difficult to identify the chunk on the right and the bottom piece as Cairngorm Quartz simply because of the colour. This deep orange or yellow form is sometimes called a Cairngorm Citrine, so I'm pretty happy to add a few to the collection.

Anyway - back to the Jasper. My research showed up that it can be found throught the Crawford Moors (that's what they used to call the Leadhills/Wanlockhead/Crawford/Crawfordjohn areas back in the day) as well as in the Campsie Fells. It is mentioned in the Scottish Agates Jasper section that of all the recorded other places Jasper is found were 'dry' when the team there went to check.The culmination of this meant that I ended up at the Car Park in the Sky in the Campsies in really terrible weather, armed with a rock hammer and one dog.

Jasper still in the rock, someone already pinched most of it.

There are a number of walks and hikes you can take in this area and, had the weather been better, I would be keen to try them out. As it was I had to make do with reaching the nearest rock faces to the car park and having a gander. Contrary to the title I DID actually find some, and brought a small chip of it from the rock home with me...among another ten potential Jasper samples which I then mixed together...DOH!

Luckily I took a photo to prove it...

Fintry Kirk - something creepy that caught my eye on the way

Kai, dam unknown (I got lost)

So the result is a distinct lack of Scottish Jasper for the moment. I will definitely add it to my list of very interesting minerals though. As you can see from the colour it is fantastic in its natural form.It seems such a shame to chip it away from there.

The conclusion? I don't know if I have the heart for Scottish Jasper... but I have heard that you find Jasper-like Agate in Burn Anne... onwards and upwards, I always say!

(Jan 2023 update - Now that I can spot it I find more jasper than anything else. Check your nearest river, you are bound to find it.)