Mediterranean Rock Potpourri

Bequia---I love rocks. I once carried a small boulder from Boulder, Co. home, I named it Peter and I still have it. It's a perfect round rock with one side sheared off.  So on this trip it has been impossible to not pick up a few as I go. Okay, many.

One thing I decided to do in the Mediterranean, when we were anchored in the Peloponnese and the shoreline had the most amazing, beautifully colored rocks, was to make Rock Potpourri for a few friends back home. 

I filled small net gift bags with different rocks from many of the places we had been. Then I bought some vanilla incense and crumbled it among the rocks. After that, the rocks "cooked" for several months in a air tight zip lock, absorbing the scent. Each little bag had one rock I had found that looked a little like a heart and on that rock I painted the heart defined in red finger nail polish. A sprinkle of heart glitter in each bag and they were finished.

The note on each read: Mediterranean Rock Potpourri: Pebbles from Santorini, Volcanic Rock from Mt. Etna, Pumice from Vulcano, Sicily, Shells from Ios, Rocks from Kimolos & Porto Kayio: the Maniote Pirate's Hamlet, Sea Glass from Paros, and ancient Pottery washed up as Terracotta...Gathered with Love by Edee.

Of course The Captain hated my rock collecting or, possibly my rock obsession. Granted, the boat was loaded down with more than he knew until I moved out. I had them hidden everywhere in my bunk!  I randomly selected 12 friends to get the potpourri (If I could have made 100 you know I would have!) and I hope they enjoy them. Meanwhile, the rest of my rocks, especially one very large yellow crystal rock I named Pierre, are in undisclosed locations off the boat.

Note: the story behind Pierre is that I found it in the Greek Island Ios and wanted to take it back to the boat. I dressed it with a seaweed mustache, sunglasses and a barrette to make it look adorable but The Captain refused because it was...okay, 8-1/2 pounds.  Since it looked like a french man, the name Pierre was born. But it was left on the beach. The next day we sailed to Crete and one day at the beach, his youngest son lost his favorite rock that he had been playing with in the surf. It was a small triangular shaped gray rock (that made the perfect space ship I was told). So after an hour of searching, anguished father and son came back to the beach towel and told me what happened. I decided to look, just for the heck of it. After only 15 minutes, there in the rolling surf my toes felt a flat rock. I  picked it up and there it was! WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?!! So, when we returned to anchor at Ios, I couldn't believe it. My big rock, Pierre was there. I decided that it was my reward for finding a tiny rock in the surf of Crete and it gained entrance onto the boat.