So of course a day or two ago I mentioned some of Earth’s Highest peaks Everest and Kilimanjaro and that of course got myself thinking about what the difference is between a hill and a mountain and the seemingly most simple idea is of course what it is made of and how high it is-hills are generally considerably smaller in size than mountains and of course are usually made up of more than just the rock and stone of mountains.

Further to that I recalled that a huge debate has been waged in recent years as to whether Everest is genuinely the highest peak-K2 was measured by some clever bods with satellites who came to some well debated conclusion that it is higher and further to that it is also claimed to be a tougher ascension-of course finding the toughest or next best challenge is how some like to think of these things yet in truth I am sure any of us would be delighted to scale any height or challenge that we are not used doing in our day to day lives.

I can at this point say a very big well done to my daughter Rosey who recently completed a 12 mile sponsored walk/hike only to later discover that she had done 16 miles-not sure who the leader of the expedition was yet she did complete the challenge anyway though I am unsure if I now have to pay extra. lol 🙂

So I did years ago meet a guy named Brummie Stokes who climbed Everest and has the missing digits that frostbite causes many a climber and he actually has a great story to tell though he was of course-was climbing back in the 1970’s when it was still regarded as a major challenge-the wiki page shows a huge leap in expeditions through the 80’s, 90’s to the present day-whilst I have not seen him for many years I believe he has since set up and founded the “Taste for Adventure Centre” that caters for the more outdoor adventure type pursuits around Herefordshire http://tasteforadventure.co.uk/

and I believe they are always looking for charitable donations also that might interest some readers wanting to help less privileged-details can be found on the website.

So what is the thing with stone well I went to a school named Aylestone and initially they had a class given a letter of the name and further to that it was  split in two so we had games Ayle versus stone and so on though at the time they were two letters down and I actually recall that I was transferred from the Ayle side to the stone side-zero choice was given I turned up to start a new year and found myself moved-they did later introduce a 4 House type system and whilst that changed things again I think I was already in the last couple of years of schooling and pretty non-plussed by that time.

Further to that I mentioned reading some Andy Mcnab fiction and his hero character was named Nick Stone.

Then we of course have Michelangelo who carved the sculpture David in the manner of an artiste removing or chipping away the block stone until he had his sculpture and that of course is different to how we very often think these days where we simply mould things very often plastics to desired specification-and then I recall speaking of 3D Printers and again those are the Michelangelo way around in the sense that the excess is removed from the block or carving.

So we do also of course still refer to weight in stone despite the very best efforts to shift us to decimalised metrics and kilos and so on-so great confusion occurs around these areas.

We here of them breaking the mould when they created this person or so-and-so is a chip of the old block and no-one ever questions which way round they mean by such things so great gaps in consistency can be found in regular day-to-day speech and language that makes our brains go pop.

Yes so a stone silence is also referred to in some fiction and it is very often used to produce anxiety or a shiver and thoughts of coldness and we do of course in TV drama Dr Who have the stone weeping angels though of course gargoyles and so on have also been used to ward of demons and bad spirit from buildings for centuries.

So we also have a raft of mythological creatures that are stone based and I for the life of myself have not really come to any concrete conclusions about stone although of course many a modern man-made lake has been create in former stone quarries and so on.

So stone has many investigations that can be carried out and of course I think it was Debbie Harry or with Blondie who sang about having a heart of stone so lots of nothing that know one really needs to no about stone-though of course diamonds and gemstones are allsorts of stones too-so where does the value begin and end in stone?

Thank you for reading, God Bless and be well! 🙂