See? Urchin Spines!

Day 38: Seriously, it doesn't take much to keep me amused. Just give me a jar of sand from an "exotic" east-coast location and my microscope, and I'll be occupied for hours.

See those little green bits at the end of the built-in pointer? Those are sea-urchin spines, almost invisible to the unaided eye and barely visible under a hand lens. Under the microscope, they're revealed as textural beauties, ridged longitudinally. Occasionally, you can catch one in cross-section, and in those moments, you might think you'd found a faerie's zucchini dinner. Proportionally, this "sand" seems to be an almost equal mix of rock and shell fragment. A riot of colour, unlike the Pacific Northwest's drab grey grit, bits of opalescent mother-of-pearl and purple mussel-shell catch the eye amid the softer tones of cream and tan.

Sand was not the only thing in my mailbox yesterday. The friend who sent it included two lichen samples as well. See? Presents don't have to be pricey to be fun!