P is for Peridot

Peridot is gem-quality olivine, which is a silicate mineral.  It’s one of the few gemstones that occur only in one color, olive green.  The intensity and tint of the green depends on the percentage of iron that’s contained in the crystal structure.  Peridot can occur as pure green with no yellow or brown cast.

Peridot - pic courtesy of wikipedia

Olivine is often found in lava and meteorites.  A peridot formed in volcanic activity tends to contain higher concentrations of lithium, nickel and zinc.  Olivine is an abundant mineral, but gem-quality peridot is rare.  Olivine tends to exist in a heavily weathered state, thus making it unsuitable for decorative use.

A cut and polished Peridot gemstone - pic courtesy of Wikipedia

The largest cut peridot olivine is 310 carats and is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC.

This is the birthstone for people born in the month of August.

G is for Geodes

I was going to write about gold here, but this is more interesting and there are some facts here that I bet you’ll be surprised about.

Unopened geode - see how plain this is

This is a geode sliced open.  Sorry this pic is in black and white

Geodes are agates that got their name from “achates” because the first one was found near the river Achates in Sicily.  Agates come in a wide variety of colors and patterns.  One must be careful buying them because this stone is easy to dye and the bright, gaudy ones aren’t natural colors.

A geode slice

But how they form is the really cool thing about agates.  They occur as a cavity filling in lava.  If a bubble of gas forms in the lava when it hardens this bubble fills up with silicates.  This is called geode.  You can buy whole geodes, which look dull and like a lump of rock but once opened they glisten with quartz crystals, which can be in many beautiful colors.  It’s truly a feast for the eyes that something so stunning can be on the inside of something so plain and ordinary. 

Here are more sliced geodes

I’m sure many of you have seen these around in souvenir shops, or at gem fairs.  They are strikingly gorgeous and make good bookends, or a conversation piece to sit on a shelf.

And look at this one.  Isn't it pretty?

You can also buy flat “slices” of geodes, which show patterns to their best effect.  When the geode fills up sometimes it hardens in layers of different colors.  If there’s a gap more quartz crystals may grow.  These flat pieces make excellent jewelry.

Why can’t humans leave things alone?

Lava bed destruction

In this instance, I’m talking about the never-ending building that’s going on here.  We have many houses in the area that are still sitting vacant from the 2004-2006 building boom. These homes have never sold.  Why are they building more residences?  It makes no sense to me, especially when they’re destroying the lava beds to make it happen.

It’s true they take some of the lava rock they blast out to make nice walls around these developments, but it burns me up that they can destroy something that we’ll never get back.  The volcanoes around us are dormant cinder cones now.  These old lava flows are thousands of years old.  They are a beautiful thing to see, the pitch black against the red sand and rocks.

So we’re going from this to this.

Before picture

 After picture

The whole landscape is changing so the developers can make bundles of money by asking exorbitant prices for these new homes.  The natural beauty of the land is slowly disappearing, along with the natural habitat for the quail, jackrabbits, chipmunks and other critters that call this home.  It makes me grateful that we have many parks here where the land is protected from all this destruction.

But I wonder if this will always be the case because the state park, about two miles from us, now has homes along the upper rim.  The homes in this development sell for several million dollars each because they have a nice view of the park below.  This developer is another one who has since gone bankrupt and there are few homes sold in that development and quite a few vacant ones along with vacant lots.

Lava bed destruction

Of course, I’m only one person and I can’t do much about any of this, although I suspect a few people here feel this way.  You can’t stop progress and I wouldn’t want to, but I don’t think humankind should destroy things for the sake of building either.  That’s my two cents.  What do you think about such matters?

Desert Beauty

Sunrise in the desert behind my house

If you plan to visit the desert, the best month is April when all the wildflowers and cactus are blooming.  The temperature will also be great, but this situation won’t last long.  By the end of May, it’s already too hot to stay outside for extended periods.  You certainly wouldn’t want to be hiking at that time of year, or through the summer months, unless you have plenty of water on hand and can stand 115° temperatures.

 The western sky at sunset

The cliffs behind my house at sunset

 

The desert is a drastic place of extremes.  Carved rocky cliffs are here year round and have their own beauty caused by the wind and rain that have carved them into giant sentinels over the centuries.  They stand guard over the desert floor where wild sage and other drought tolerant plants grow in abundance.

 April flowers

April flowers in the desert behind my house

 

I’m always surprised at the beauty that displays itself every year.  Nothing beats the wildflowers that add a splash of dazzling color to the bleak landscape of sand, shrubs and rocks.  An assortment of bright pinks, purples, blues, yellows and whites, in varying shades, makes the desert softer and not so desolate.

More April flowers

Enjoy pictures from my backyard and areas nearby.

April flowers

October flowers are like a carpet among the lava rock

Living in a whirlwind

I say that because it seems like I’m too busy to do anything.  I’m surprised I’ve managed to get some writing and reading done.

My computer issues are solved, I think.  My laptop crashed causing me to call a tech who wiped everything out.  There for a while he thought my hard drive and motherboard were both bad, in which case the computer would be toast and I just as well throw it into the trash, he said.  Thankfully, he was able to restore it to new condition and reload Windows 7.  Then of course I had to reload all my other programs.  And copy all my saved files back to the laptop.

I can’t stress enough to everyone how important it is to back up everything that’s worth keeping and do it daily.  I would have been sick had I lost all the files to my books and WIP’s, not to mention all my pics.

 Great room (family room) finished except carpet.  It's in now but the house is locked and I can't get in to take a pic.  The carpet is too industrial looking for my taste.  It's a very low pile and cream color.

This is a built-in Murphy bed in the office.

This is the kitchen - no appliances in yet.

Master bath double sinks

Looking down hall from great room - office to right - second bedroom also to right past office - courtyard to left and casita at end facing street

Ceiling fans throughout the house

Entry light

These are outside lights to go by the garage doors

They are still working on the house two lots down and I don’t know when they’ll finish that job.  Right now, there’s all kinds of debris in the pool floating in the ground water.  I think they are using it as a trashcan while they work on the patio area.  The patio still needs concrete, but they have poured the driveway.  To me this makes no sense at all because it makes it harder for a big cement truck to get in to pour the patio in the backyard.  It’s too heavy to drive on the new cement driveway.  But a lot of the things they do in this state don’t make any sense.

Here is the pool being used as a trash pit.

The marathon is on here and then the senior games start.  This is a yearly event that brings a lot of people to town.  They come from all over the States and Canada and even overseas.  They ran the marathon today and the games start on Monday.

Of course this is really a good opportunity to sell the house to someone tired of shoveling snow.  I now have to involve myself in setting up a website for the house, so I’ve been doing that along with the usual things that go on around here.  I don’t know why my husband thinks I’m so good at these things.  He knows I’m not a quitter and I have patience and will keep at it until the job is done.  I guess that’s why I get elected.

A real nice guy came in to say at my neighbor Sherry’s house.  He was coming from Idaho for the marathon.  I got a brief break from cat and garden duty while he was here.  He left this afternoon.  He did well in the race and finished in second place for his age division.  I can’t fathom running 26.2 miles ever.

The lizard is back in the fireplace

Another shot of the lizard

Raven trying to figure out how to get in there and get him

Now Koki's at it

The lizard is back living in the fireplace again.  Koki and Raven go crazy watching it, but Tootie could care less.  They’ll sit there for hours like staring into a large TV with a great movie playing.  I’m glad they’re getting along better, not great yet, but better.

 Raven - I hate to see him growing up

Raven is really growing and won’t be a kitten much longer.  In less than a month he’ll be a year old already.  Where did that time go?  He’s so shiny, sleek and black.  He’s also a very good boy and minds well and still purrs all the time.  I’ll have to take him for another play date across the street soon.  He loves that – going somewhere.

The desert is all abloom with a carpet of bright yellow flowers from all the rain we’ve had.  They are so beautiful and a stunning display in contrast to the old black lava flows jutting from the earth all around here.  I still have to take pics of those before they disappear.  October is a wonderful month here when you can open the windows everyday and enjoy the sunshine and mild temps.  I know winter will be here all too soon, so that spoils it a little bit.