The Marble That Never Was

This is a piece of "Portsoy Marble".  It's actually polished green serpentine quarried locally to the picturesque port of Portsoy, on the Moray coast of Scotland, some 50 miles north of Aberdeen .  Some of the original buildings around the old Portsoy harbour date back to the late 1600's, and even the "new" harbour was built back in 1825 to accommodate a herring fleet.  Portsoy Marble has been shipped around the world, and most notably it was used to make two fireplaces in the Palace of Versailles.  I bought my piece of smooth and highly-polished green "marble" on a visit to Portsoy some years ago.  It's engraved with a simple picture of a salmon, and I was reminded of it this morning when I saw a report on BBC News about the sharp decline in numbers of salmon in the Scottish rivers.


A busy day today - I was with Mum until just after lunch, and then travelled to my home in Buckinghamshire after more than a week away to start getting everything there in order.  It was rather neglected when I was working full-time , and it's wonderful to have the luxury now of taking as long as I need to make it a lovely place for relaxing in once again.