Yesterday I had a lovely three hour outing in York with my lovely wife and youngest child Clifford. What I most wanted to see was York Minster and I had taken my loupe a geological magnifying glass to look at the stone in the Minster where there are some very nice stones which are also specimens of the rocks I see when I walk out in the hills. I was not disappointed. Well I was a little bit because to see some of the dark corners I needed my headlamp which I did not have. Bad dog. Most of the black stone inlay on the floor of York Minster is Frosterley Marble which comes from Weardale, is also found in Durham Cathedral, and has a lot of fossil coral. Again in the Frosterley limestone because that's what it is it is not a marble I saw some sort of worm burrows, what I think are called trace fossils, and they were nicely laid out flat on the floor underneath the East Window like little elongated 2 centimetre long egg shaped lace all grouped neatly within around 20 cm square. Magic! I also had a rather stupid red herring. I was staring wondrously and as it turned out totally deluded looking at some slightly spattered conical shapes on the rock which I swore was some sort of fossil. Fortunately I like to get my hands on the rocks and I always stroke across any rock that I come across just to feel its texture and even though I had seen these things about half an hour earlier and it had been rummaging around in my very small brain it was only when I went back with Fiona and Clifford to show them these wondrous little items and I got down on my hands and knees and scratched across it with my fingernail only to find out it was spattered wax. Oh boy. My stock had descended in the eyes of my loved ones even further, indicated quite clearly by the bellows of laughter! Fiona was a bit better yesterday and only needed a rest after every mile roughly every 20 minutes so that was good. She and Clifford went off on a whole York Minster history tour whilst I did my geology bit and she also had a look at the Chapter House which she had never seen before and that open wondrous look on her face staring round was a sight I will never forget. Beautiful! A nice walk out in a cold, overcast, but always very nice and interesting , York. God bless the place.