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Crystals & Gemstones - What’s the difference?

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  The two words gemstones and crystals that we commonly use to represent those beautiful shiny things, are quite different. A gem is a rare, high-quality solid mineral that can be crystalline* in nature. If it has three attributes, a) beauty b) rarity and c) durability then it is categorised as a gemstone. Crystals are solids that contain atoms, molecules and ions in a fixed order, in three dimensions, creating a crystalline shape. Not all crystals will be made of a rare, high-quality mineral. *Crystalline in nature means its atoms are in certain definite geometric patterns: snowflakes, diamonds, table salt. (Before you ask, sugar is crystalline as chocolate, fudge, fondant, nougat, panned candies, marshmallows; it is amorphous or non crystalline like hard candies, caramel, toffee, gummed candies. My ass is not fat, just a little weight gain, because of the lockdown. April 2020- April 2021) Pyrite crystal Image by Volker Glätsch from Pixabay  Gemstones are made up of...
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The Ten Little Fairies

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  VAINLY I try to recall from my recollections of  yesterday, still vividly remembered, and from those of the long past, grown tenderly dim in the mists of intervening time, from whom I learned the powerfully moral story I am here going to repeat to children great and small, to men and their companions: I cannot determine from whom it was I learned it. Did I first read it in some old book laden with the dust of ages? Was it told to me by my mother, by my nurse, one evening when I would not go to sleep—or one night when, sleeping soundly, a fairy came and sang it to me in my slumber? I cannot tell. I cannot  172 remember. I have forgotten all the details, of which there only remains with me the subtle perfume—too fine and evanescent for me to seize it in its passage through my mind. But I retain—perfectly retain—the moral, which is the daughter of all things healthy and strong. The things which I am going to recount happened in a charming country—one of those bright lands ...
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The Necklace of Tears

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  ONCE, many years ago, there lived in Ombrelande  a most beautiful Princess. Now, Ombrelande is a country which still exists, and in which many strange things still happen, although it is not to be found in any map of the world that I know of. The Princess, at the time the story begins, was little more than a child, and while her growing beauty was everywhere spoken of, she was unfortunately still more noted for her selfish and disagreeable nature. She cared for nothing but her own amusement and pleasure, and gave no thought to the pain she sometimes inflicted on others in order to gratify her whims. It must be mentioned, however, as an excuse for her heartlessness, that,  being an only child, she had been spoilt from her babyhood, and always allowed to have her own way, while those who thwarted her were punished. One day the Princess Olga, that was her name, escaped from her governess and attendants, and wandered into the wood which joined the gardens of the palace. It ...
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The Opal Story

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                           The opal was the last of the precious stones to be made. And this was how it happened. Long, long ago—so long ago that no one had ever seen a ruby or a sapphire or an emerald—there was a princess who had a great many friends among the fairies. It was the delight of the fairies to do her bidding, to fly and fly over hill and dale to fetch her anything she wished to have. Sometimes she wished to have very curious things, and if she wanted things that no one had ever heard of before, the fairies would set to work to make them for her. One day she said— "Oh, Fairies dear, I am going to be married. I am going to marry the Prince of the Far Land over the Hill, and the wedding is to be the grandest ever seen. My dress is lovely: it was cut out of a rainbow on purpose for me, and trimmed with the edge of a sunset cloud. But what am I to wear in my hair?" Now, the Princess's hair hung over her in dar...
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