My daughter and son-in-law had already made their purchases at the Gem and Mineral Show in Springfield the day before…but she offered to make another visit with us. I took a few pictures around her yard (holly berries, rose blooming, surface roots of a dying maple, lichen on the trunk of the dying maple) before she emerged from her house.

Walking around the show did not take long since I was not buying a lot; we got there shortly after opening and before the crowds too. It was interesting to see the myriad of items from vendors.

My daughter and my husband didn’t buy anything at the show. I found a vender with petrified wood (from private land near Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona); one of the pieces had lines that looked like tree rings…and the color was more similar to wood too. I bought it to add to my tree materials.

I also bought a small bowl that was petrified wood…which I will use for bar soap!

When we got back to my daughter’s house, we went in to see their new lighting in their mineral cabinets. My two favorite items (armadillo dermal bone and shells) were biological. But the lighting was good on them too!