* history on a wrist *

After taking a photo of my charm bracelet I googled those words to find out a little history of them.

I was given mine for my 21st birthday by my Mama and nearly all the charms have been gifts from her over the years.

There's a renewed trend for charms with modern versions such as Pandora bracelets and Links of London.

As long ago as Neolithic times people carried small stones or pieces of wood to ward of evil spirits and enemies.

The Egyptian pharoahs wore them as a sign of status and an aid to guide them to the right place in the afterlife.

The charm bracelet as we know it came as ww2 soldiers brought home trinkets for their sweethearts from the towns they visited. A personal and symbolic piece ~ small reminders of a life lived.

At the moment I am wearing this little stone on a ribbon around my wrist.

It was given to me on holiday by my best friend ~ it brings a smile and the recollection of a beautiful day spent on an Andalucian beach.

Apparently a holed stone should be kept by the finder or given in love.

I seem to be in the habit of collecting stones.

There are little dishes and piles of them around our house and I remember where they all came from. Memory stones.

There's an amazing weatherboarded house in Dungeness that was owned by Derek Jarman. He created a beautiful garden of found flotsam and jetsam from the shingle coastline. Apart from the gorgeous planting and driftwood, he placed stones in patterns and piles.

A plant pot in our garden is full of stones with holes that I have found ~ some from Dungeness. I like to walk along that beach too, looking for stones and imagining a life in a little wooden house, somewhere remote with the sea to the front and the woods behind.

It's said that holed stones or hagstones as they are called are lucky and have powers.

A string of them particularly potent it has been told.

Whatever you believe, I won't stop looking for them when I stroll along the shore.

And I won't stop smiling when the memory catches me.