Stones with
a longer story.
I'm Bram, an amateur fossil collector in Lyme Regis. My collection fits into a shallow cabinet, though the labels sometimes suggest I have been cataloguing an entire museum.
A diagram, not an identification guide.
The object I show people first is an ammonite fragment with most of its centre missing. It does not have the tidy completeness I used to look for. What it has is a wonderfully clear stretch of curve, enough to make me turn it in my hand and imagine the part that is no longer there. It has earned the place nearest the front of the drawer.
I began keeping fossils because I enjoyed the search. Now I spend at least as much time with the finds already at home. A sketch makes me notice a ridge I had overlooked; an old envelope reminds me of the weather on the day a specimen arrived in the cabinet. The small record beside the stone has become part of what I am collecting.
This site is the cabinet's paper companion. There are a few familiar pieces, some observations from the notebook, and room for a question to remain unanswered. I am much happier writing “not yet certain” than giving an ordinary fragment an impressive name it has not earned.
and an uncertain shell