TINY TUESDAY - JEWELLERY

Today's tiny Tuesday challenge is jewellery and I have been pondering this since I got it wrong last week!

When I was 39 years old, and I am perfectly sure of the date because the ring that I am blipping today was given to me by my husband for my 40th birthday, we were on holiday with friends in the north of England and went to Barnard Castle,  where I saw this beautiful almandine garnet ring in a little jeweller's shop.  I loved it so Mr. HCB said I could have it for my upcoming birthday.

It was purchased in about July of 1985 I was very excited and thought that I was going to be able to wear it but oh no, Mr HCB decided that I would have to wait until Boxing Day of that year because it was my birthday present and he stuck to it! 

My birthday duly arrived and Mr. HCB had not let me see the ring since it had first been bought, so when I opened the box, although I knew what it inside, I was still very excited to have this beautiful ring and wore it for many years without mishap. 

However one day when I was visiting our local library I was putting a book back on the shelf when I noticed to my horror that the middle stone was missing. As you can imagine, I was distraught and retraced my footsteps as well as I could looking for this tiny stone which I honestly thought I would never see again. I went to the desk and explained that I had lost it and the very kind lady said that she would speak to the cleaners and tell them to look out for it.  I wasn't at all confident and felt like it would be like "looking for a needle in a haystack"!

After searching for some time I decided that the stone had gone and it was in a very dejected state that I gave my books to the librarian for her to stamp them.   Imagine my absolute delight when lifting one of the books out of the bag I realised that the stone was lodged on top. I was overjoyed and went to tell the lady I had spoken to who was equally happy for me. 

Of course I then had to go to a jewellers in Swindon to see if they could put the stone back in. Originally it did not have "claws" but as the jeweller explained to me this was the only way that they would be able to put the stone back in so that it would stay in place, so I had to accept that.  I wasn't completely happy that it was making the best of a bad job.

I still treasure the ring and love wearing it and I am so glad that I found the original stone, as although I know a good jeweller would have matched it with a new stone, it would never have been the same.

I must say that it has been quite difficult trying to photograph this - but as Mr. HCB says, I do like a challenge and although I’m not completely happy with this, I have lots to do today - including going to the hospital about an issue with my left eye - so need to get this posted.

“When you’ve lost something,
     and you find it again,
          it has so much more meaning.”
David Castillo