One of my last samples comes from Isle of Wight, more exactly from the beach at Brookgreen (approx. location: 50°39’04″N 1°27’31″W). The sand has lots of foraminifera, maybe one day I’ll try to separate them on classes but right now I just wanted to share this photo with you (check the Photo Photomicrography section for more sand photos uploaded today).

2741 GB-IW United Kingdom – Isle of Wight - Beach at Brookgreen

Yesterday I received a really nice email and, with the author’s consent, I decided to publish it on the website because this is maybe the most beautiful part of sand collecting: the people…

“Hello, I’ve arrived to your website accidentaly, but I’m really excited after dive into all the beautiful information you present in. I’m a sailor, and I use to sail all around the world since several years ago, for the yacht industry. Now, I’m in the north of  Unites States in another long trip in the way back to home, Spain. I have a sister biologist that collects shells from everywhere and because my plural visit to different places, I’m one of her providers. But knowing the existence of people that collect sand, and finding it a beauty activity, I proposed to her start this new collection, and since then, I’m her main provider. But looking at how you work with this world, I’m seriously decided to start my own collection as well. It’s a shame, I’ve been travelling last years from Antartica to all the archipelagos of south Pacific, north atlantic or my trips to the Himalaya mountains, or Patagonia in my free time and I could have had good samples of sand from this areas. So you gave me reasons to start with a new hobby driven by your gentle advices and information. This email is to send you my gratitude for your effort to communicate  your passion. Many thanks, E.M.”

Collecting small amounts can be extremely benefical in terms of number of sands swapped. As far as I know, this is the biggest number of sands that I ever sent to another collector: 275 sands in quantities from 2 to 5 ml. I really hope the package will arrive at destination because it took me about a week to put all those samples together :-)

275 sand samples sent to Matt Whaley in the USA

The last 22 sands were sent by Pete Gigliotti and they have just been entered into World Atlas of Sands database. Among them there are samples from 10 different states in the US (8 sands from Hawaii only, including the famous green olivine sand from Papakolea beach) and one sand from each British and US Virgin Islands. Thanks much Pete for this trade!

Sands from Pete Gigliotti (USA)

Last night I took some photos of the sands sent by Kathy Obersinner. There are really nice sands, with lots of minerals of different colors. The samples are maily from Alaska and Hawaii but also from California, Florida, Oregon, Illinois, Chicago, Mississippi, Washington. Additionally, several sands from New Zealand, Mexico, Canada and Bahamas. I already took photos of about 25 sands so please check the Sand Photomicrography section for new photos.

Selection of photomicrographs from the sands received from Kathy Obersinner (USA)

The winter months are rather bad time for sand collecting, at least in this part of the world. However, one can use the time spent at home to organise and refresh the collection, eventually better organize the trading list etc. Some time ago I received a very kind email from another sand collector in the US and we decided to do a ‘blind swap’ (which implies that none of us knows what sands will receieve – pure surprize). The package just arrived from Alaska and today I was able to sort out and organisze the newly arrived sands. Here is a photo of the samples (thanks much Kathy for sending me such nice sands):

The sands received from Kathy Obersinner (Juneau, Alaska, USA)

Very often I was annoyed of not having a complete and updated tradelist so this weekend I started to count all leftovers for the first 1,000 samples. I was surprised to see that one third (336 samples) could potentially be swapped although most of them are in very small amounts (see graphic below).

I will try over the next days to record also the rest up to 2,700 and put together a comprehensive trade list. Because I expect much more leftovers from the rest of the collection, I estimate that my tradelist will contain over 1,000 samples. Although most of them are much less than the standard 30 ml, I know many collectors who collect small amounts so I am looking forward to the next trades. I will post an update to this post when the counting will be complete so stay close if you’re interested in a trade.

We met Diotima and Bernard for the first time last year in September at the 7th German sand meeting in Black Forest. I think they are the most cheerful and open-minded people we ever met among sand collectors. It was a honor to meet them and we enjoyed a lot sharing the evening in the first day of the sand meeting. Several days ago Diotima wrote me a very kind email and sent me several photos of her collection. I already added one photo to my ‘collection of collections‘, here it is:

Diotima’s sand collection

Thanks much for the nice words Diotima, as well as for the photos. We hope to see you soon again, latest at the next sand meeting.

Last days I came across this great clip on youtube about sand saltation. The author used a macro lens and captured on digital support the movement of sand particles on desert dunes. An extraordinary perspective of something rather ordinary… enjoy watching!