Pepper Jax

Pepper_Jax_27June2013_Panorama1, a photo by iamabraham on Flickr.

Shot this using the Brenizer Method. I think I used 7 separate photos.

Rubies and Sapphires

If you like rubies and sapphires and amethysts then I can tell you how to get some that are dirt cheap. If you type Franklin, North Carolina into Yahoo Search you will find that Franklin is known as the Gem Capitol of the World. About twenty-five years ago we drove from Brookville to Franklin to look for gem stones. Nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, this quaint southwestern North Carolina town offers a change of pace and a never-ending supply of activities for the entire family. We liked the idea of looking for gems and found them scattered around the edge of town. These places are like ordinary farms except they cater to tourists who want to look for gems.


When you drive up to one of these places, you will see shelter-like structures with a wooden trough running down the center. It doesn't take long to find out how the system works and I will try to explain how it was when we were there. The hills roundabout are owned by the men who runs the sluice. He is in business to sell dirt that contains gem stones. He uses a backhoe to dig out fresh piles of dirt. This dirt is used to fill buckets. Each bucket will contain some gem stones. When you are ready he will sell you as many buckets as you want.  If this is your first time, he will show you what to look for and how to work the sluice to wash the dirt away and leave the gems.

Back then each bucket of dirt cost $2.00. We bought one bucket for each person in my family and began to pour the dirt from the bucket into a wooden frame with a screen on the bottom. The idea is to pour about as much dirt as you can lift easily in the wooden frame and then dip it down into the running water in the sluice and allow the water to wash away the soil. It takes a little time to do this and a little longer to catch on. Once you learn how then it becomes easy and everyone in our family found rubies, sapphires and amethysts. We also saw at least one emerald in the tailings others had dumped there. Among the rocks was the unmistakable six-sided emerald. I never was sure what this was that somebody had simply dumped out.

The owner/operator saw it about the same time that I did and he picked it up and showed me and said, "Don't throw these away." Duh. Nope. I won't. If I find one. It was about as long as a shotgun shell and super green, but a bit muddy. The ruby shines red in the water. There are a lot of them. We took two or three large ones and had them polished and ready to mount in jewelry. Each is about 2 carats. We also had two sapphires polished and those are about 2 carats. We have larger sapphires but not polished. Owners will buy your finds -- or, he can make a handsome ruby ring while you're looking for more. We took our's into town and a jewelry store polished them and mailed them to us. They arrived as promised. Our kids loved this trip and we are proud of our finds -- shown above.

© Abraham Lincoln

Hollyhocks

It had rained earlier this Wednesday morning, so I decided to use a photograph that was taken a couple of days ago and this is it. I love these colors and a whole hollyhock filled with these blossoms is a sight to behold. Brookville, Ohio, where I live has had a splendid spring and early summer. Last year we had to endure an intense heat wave that lasted all summer along with a drought of biblical proportions. Everything is lush this year and for that I am grateful.

Walkabout

I like to do my walkabout early — just after the sun begins to erase the morning dew; when the birds are singing.

I like to see the sun cutting shadows into halves across the lawn. My camera snaps a lot of pictures and I used a monopod this morning trying to cut down on my focus that is shaky of late. I noticed this small bee was out and about too. He was being greeting by the Hyperion daylilies who offered lots of pollen to anyone willing to take it.

Purple Cone Flower

 

One of my favorite flowers because it offers pollen and nectar and finally seeds. The various finches wait for and finally get the spiky seeds as soon as they are dry and prickly to the tender finger.

I have seen bees of all kinds working on the cone when the flower is in full bloom and watched them take away pollen stars packed in the pollen bags on their legs.

Shade

Over the years the house we call home has changed a lot. The builder planted two silver maple trees in our front yard and they matched every house -- all had two silver maple trees. I can remember the day I used my new chain saw to cut the trees down and clean them up. We burned the wood in our fireplace. As time passed there were years when the entire front was shaded by a pin oak, a sunburst locust and a plane tree. When this photo was taken the locust was still there but my wife complained about the tiny leaves that were tracked into the house. Now, after a costly landscape change the front of the house looks completely different.

Dwarf Bamboo

dwarf_bamboo_IMG_3112, a photo by iamabraham on Flickr.

This has been planted for about three years and has multiplied many times the original size. The ultimate size should be about 7-10 feet by about the same in width. The board fence is 6 feet tall so this is about 5 feet tall at the moment — June 12, 2013.

Apple Pie

Gala Apple_3060, a photo by iamabraham on Flickr.

Well, maybe not—something else likes my ripening apples. The Gala and Fuji dwarf apple trees that I planted three years ago set fruit and there were at least three apples in each set on Thursday. On Friday, anticipating a warm apple pie smothered with some ice cream, I checked the trees and the apples were gone. None a smidgen remained.

Apples

Apples are great food at any price. If you can believe it, Eve was able to temp Adam with an apple and being the apple of your eye is an affectionate phrase seldom heard these days. I like apples and both Gala and Fuji are delicious. I planted dwarf apple trees about three years ago and the Gala and Fuji both had clusters of apples on them this spring. Nice size and growing. More than enough for an apple pie. But yesterday when I checked on their growth I was shocked to see them gone—like they had never been there. Disappointed, I checked the progress of the cherries on the dwarf cherry tree and saw something but am not sure they are the beginnings of cherries or not. The cherry tree did bloom but whether that translates into a cherry pie remains to be seen.

Second Term President

secondtermblend copy, a photo by iamabraham on Flickr.

Is his second term about like you expected? Or has it been better or worse? Do you think Republicans have picked on him too much compared to how the Democrats picked on the second Bush? I wonder what he thinks?