ABC Wednesday - P

ABC Wednesday, hosted by the lovely Mrs Nesbitt, has reached the letter P for the third time.
I've been showing gemstones and jewellery recently, so I thought the obvious thing was to show a string of pearls I've had since the early '60s.
(If, for any reason, you want to read about pearls, here is a link!)

But as you know by now, I rarely do the obvious!

Below is an interesting mineral that also begins with P,
PYRITE.

This is the stuff that has been called "fool's gold".
My specimen was once a single pebble, but it's broken down over the years into this rather sandy-looking mess. If you look closely you can see the shiny, yellowish metal flakes. You may also be able to see brownish and even green or blue marks, caused by the iron in this mineral.
Pyrite often occurs as cubic crystals, and there are some nice pictures of this here. Maybe I'll get a bigger sample one day!

For plentiful P posts, see the ABC Anthology or the Linky page.
You may even wish to participate!