Article: Collectors of suiseki find serenity in stones.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

PHILADELPHIA _ In the middle of a home-renovation project, Jim Hayes muttered, threw down his hammer, and set off for the calm botanical environs of Longwood Gardens.

As he walked through the bonsai exhibit, he noticed a solitary stone displayed in a dish.

"I laughed and said to my wife, `What are you supposed to do with this?''' Hayes recalled.

"Then I really looked at it. I got goosebumps from head to toe. This thing looked like a miniature mountain."

He didn't know it then, but he was having his first "suiseki experience, that initial swoon that comes when the voluptuous surface of a viewing stone makes contact with the ...

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