This little guy showed up in the mulched bed.
Mary
Spring Garden Improvements
As the garden space was finally set up, this year it was time to work in making it look more like we wanted. For the deck, decorative boxes were located online that seemed to match well and could provide a nice edging to the deck.
Now that the berries were relocated, along the bed along the driveway fence had a few more herbs and drought resistant plants added. Also, a retaining wall border was installed and some nice shredded cedar mulch topping it off.
The path to the back gate was evened out and another retaining border wall installed there as well.
Experiment with photos
Photographing faceted gems has continued to frustrate me. I find it hard to get the camera to see what I see, especially the sparkle of the stones. Perhaps the only way to do that is with video where the reflections of the light change as the stone turns.
Anyway, yesterday, I conducted an experiment with my fairly new Pixel 6 cell phone. Most of the photos were pretty poor. I didn’t have the phone set in a tripod and would need more time than allotted to figure out the best positioning of stone, phone and lighting. But a couple of shots did surprise me with nice detailing of the facets and color.
First is a 2.58 carat peridot, cut in an 8 mm. octagon shape. The characteristic black disc shaped inclusion shows clearly in the photo. When the stone is held in hand it has such great sparkle that the inclusion is hard to find.
The second photo is of a 1.89 carat orange garnet. The color is very close to that of some “Madeira” citrines I had just cut as well.
Lemonade and Orange Juice
Despite the “pruning” by our neighborhood deer last summer, most of the citrus trees that have been growing alongside our driveway are being productive this year. It seems strange to have fruit ripening at this time of year when very little else is actively growing. At the same time as the ripe fruit, the trees are putting out blossoms for the next batch.
This morning the orange juice I had for breakfast came from a Valencia orange tree that appears to have much more ripening than what I picked. I guessed (correctly) that number would be about right to fill the pitcher, and so I am set for the next week. The Morro blood orange was last week. It seems odd to have pink “orange” juice. It was not nearly as sweet as the Valencias.
The Meyer lemons are always juicy and the juice is in the freezer to make lots of lemonade for the warmer weather. Likewise, the juice from the Bearss limes went to the freezer. The mandarins were a seedless variety and went well with the orange chicken for dinner. No clue what to do with the Buddha’s hand citron or the Kieffer limes. At present they are just fun to see.
Been a while
It has been quite a while since I posted what I have been cutting. The whole pandemic thing left me unable to feel the level of creativity required to give the larger and more expensive rough the attention it needed. So I ended up cutting left overs from parcels purchased by mail order from the back of Lapidary Journal back when I was just starting to facet. Most were small and included, and my photography skills are lacking. My camera only seems to capture the interior features and not the sparkle, especially with the smaller stones.
Now I am to the point of getting back to the newer and nicer rough. There were only a few pieces left from my 2019 Tucson visit. This 3.36 carat aquamarine cut as a blunt end marquis was from some old stock that John Garsow was offering. It is 15.4 mm. long and 7.0 mm. wide.
I just love the granny apple green of the Arizona peridots. I always am on the lookout for affordable nice pieces of rough. This 2.30 carat, 8.0 mm. round was from the pieces I picked up during my 2020 Tucson adventures.
Next is a pretty pink tourmaline from a parcel found at the 2020 Tucson Faceter’s Symposium. It came in at 2.51 carats, 8.4 mm.
Finally prasiolite quartz with concave facets on the pavilion. I’ll skip the part where being out of practice with the fantasy machine, there was an unfortunate incident requiring the pavilion to be completely recut. The fantasy machine is not forgiving when one’s attention slips. Fortunately, the rough was sufficiently deep, that the only loss was my time and my pride. The stone ended up as 11.6 mm., 7.08 carats.
