It's been a relaxing christmas break, drinking tea out of a favourite mug and keeping warm under a favourite crochet blanket of bright,cheerful wool. Even managed to get out and see some snowy christmas geese, now it's time to get going on the new year's work. I've been buying some wonderful new  beads, the quartz look like big chunks of ice and the jade like cherry sweets. It'll be a busy january!  

On an autumn walk a few years ago i spent time taking images of vivid inspiring colours, yellow, bronze and copper leaves, but not this year it's too wet and windy. All the damp and mist has encouraged an amazing amount of velvety moss on the old stone walls. So it's these walls that I see reflected in the moss green crackle of the smooth ovals  of stones of these silver earrings.

For the past few days here in South Wales we've been expecting a stormy night, disruption, damage and other dire warnings. This must have been on my mind more than i've  thought because it's the middle of the night and although the storm hasn't arrived so far i'm wide awake and listening to the wind and rain!

This got me thinking about if there any gemstones with a symbolic link to the weather. The most common association i can find seems to be with moss agate. This is a stone i've often used, as in the moss agate and jade earrings in the photo, it's a warm mix of greens and blacks, mottled with stripes and intricate patterns which do look like moss or lichen. When polished it can be quite clear but i use it in a semi polished form so you can see the natural patterns more clearly. It's seen it mentioned several times as being good for balancing unsettled weather elements and helping gardeners and farmers. 

The rain has stopped for the moment and the wind does't sound too bad so who knows, might be a peaceful night after all.