Welcome to my collection!

What started as a box of minerals given to me by my grandparents when I was a child, has turned into a life-long collecting obsession. Unfortunately, I have thus far been limited to purchasing specimens at various rock shows & specialty shops -- but now that my 10 year-old is showing interest, I hope to be able to do some field collecting as a family.

It is only recently that I have been able to unbox my entire collection, and display it for the first time. This is largely due to the fact that my son's class started learning about rocks & minerals ... which lead me to decide to blow the dust off all my boxes ... which then lead me to beg my very understanding hubby for the use of a wall in our dining room to display everything ;)

In continuing with the snowball effect, displaying the stones has made me realize that there are a few things which my collection seriously lacks. One is 'proper' cataloging, which I am now trying to correct as best as possible. The second thing is my own limited scientic knowledge about this subject. I've already purchased a few books & favorited some interesting websites - so hopefully this will be a wonderful educational experience for my entire family.