Monday shell sketch for Elle; Mystery Rock; Tort report: bits of knitting blah blah

This little bitty sea snail shell proved harder to sketch than I thought.

 But here it is, E.

I'm starting to get back some drawing mojo but not the skills it takes to do something that takes days.  I guess that comes with time.  Time also heals broken hearts and for that I'm grateful.  Art was always something I could go away with a sketchbook, a few pencils and my Collie, Shadow, and spend a day in the mountains around Forest Home and Oak Glen.  There were cattle up there and they do a lot of standing around, so easy subjects. hehe  There's a little bit of memory lane for ya.

Here's the mystery rock:

I think it's a 500 million year old piece of coral that I picked up somewhere along the way from "there" to "here".   It's probably off a roadway in the desert, since a lot of fossils from the layers in cuts for freeways end up as gravel and go to pave gravel roads in the desert.  Now that will give some unlucky Paleontologists something to ponder in the future!

Tort Report:  The little guys have been spending summer days, when it doesn't go over 90° outside, in their enclosure.  They now are protected by a completely enclosed pen.  They seem to like it out there and eat a lot of roses and leaves with their grass and dried grasses.  They need the dry grass for roughage, sort of the way we need our bran flakes. hehe

Knitting report: Ah.....Knitting -  the sock toe is straightened out but there are a few too many stitches on a couple of needles.  I've decided not to care a lot.   I don't care, I don't care, I don't care!  One of my feet is bigger than the other anyway.

Linen Yarn, One Rock, Many Rocks.

The Beautiful Linen yarn from Little Knits came today.  And I think it's going to be a short cardi rather than a scarf.  The Hanami stole really needs to be made in a wool or at least a silk, something with a better chance at splicing properly.  I went to Knitting Paradise with a "splicing linen" question in mind and found THIS .  There are going to be LOTS and LOTS of Russian joins in my future, I suppose.  There IS always fabric glue. hehe

My sister made the decorations on the top of the basket.  I'm afraid the camera is going south.  I hope it can be fixed because I love this little mid-sized Canon.

The color was almost perfectly, still too Blue,  reproduced once we got outside on the patio

Today, while outside for the yarn's photo op, I looked down an Lo, there were two rock pile elements that caught my eye, both things for jewelry making

Agate inclusion weathered free from matrix

There was a long, beautiful agate to slice into wire wrapping bits, or just to admire on a shelf in some sort of stand after a really good scrubbing.  This piece was collected in the desert in Southern Arizona - way out there by Locomotive Mountain on the Lazy B Ranch.  It's a fun four wheel drive sort of place.

 These are very small pieces of Peridot.  The dark piece at the base of the fingers is a large, dark crystal of Peridot.   I have a smallish hand, so these are pretty small.  When cleaned up and polished a little, they will make bright elements for an ornament to hang in a winter window.  I've been looking for these for awhile.  They were a Quartzsite find.

Today was a quiet day but cold outside; to Californians, used to 75° March weather, it was cold. Brrrr!  But it was sunny.  A very nice day as long as you had a sweater handy.

I excavated the sock heel pattern, and will work on that  until I'm past the gussets.  I love gussets but don't really like turning the heel.  I'm always sure something will slip off the needles ( though nothing ever has), and I won't see it until all the gusset part is done.  Rho loves to knit heels but she knits toe up,which is an art I can't bring myself to try.  It's a prejudice, I know. Knitting may be the new Zen, but heel cups have to be watched with the eye of an eagle!

Last night we watched an amazing movie!  It's called "Snow Falling on Cedars".  It was the most beautiful American film I have seen in years.  The cinematography is evocative and stunning!  The acting is superb, the score is beautiful, and the story is emotionally complex and completely believable.   I'm still under it's spell a day later.  I just can't say how much it affected my mind and heart.  "Snow Falling on Cedars", from the book.

Sweet Dreams!

Little side Hobbies of a Rockhound

I collect bits and pieces of both old rusty steel and iron out in the desert, some old glass, too. Mostly it's old barbed wire, hinges, twisty bits of bailing wire, that sort of thing - melted bottles out of fire pits.

This piece, an old hinge, is from Arizona, and it looks, mostly, like a trio of bull dogs, maybe Bears, trying to squeeze out of the metal. I think it's really a beautiful find.

The visit is on again, bless em. And, my doctor's appointment has been postponed for a week or so. I told the lady from reception, who called this am to re-schedule, that it was ok if I didn't see the doc so soon. I'd had time to talk to my friends and they ALL told me to stop watching ANY news. She chuckled.

I think I'm going to settle into the chair with my knitting for what Edwardian ladies in England called a "rest cure". Some Gin and Tonic wouldn't hurt, but I don't drink. Too bad! But there is always chocolate. The Drama is over here and not a minute too soon.

My Amygdule in place

 

If you enlarge the picture you can see there are hundreds of tiny amygdules across the face of the basalt as well.

OfTroy that's interesting that the word is related to almond. Many we find are almond shaped with a sort of funny twist on the end like an elongated air bubble in glass. It's true that very few are as round appearing as the one in this "yard rock". Most are more almond shaped.