Hawk

Today's post of of my friend the Red Tail Hawk, I keep trying to get closer and get a better shot, but alas this is the best so far..and I will keep trying to get closer..I am very determined..lol..I braved the bone chilling cold morning to stroll out and down the road a bit today to get this shot with my 55-300 lens on my Nikon D50 camera.

Click on the photograph to enlarge it and get a better view of my friend.

"First Signs of Spring"

This is my entry for the Blogger's Community Photo Challenge, "First Signs of Spring"
Click on the Banner above to see other entries.



Today's post is for my entry in Blooger's Community Photo Challenge, "First Signs of Spring" contest, I am not real sure of the name of the flowers that are growing in our circle garden, but we call them Miniature Hyacinths. These flowers are always the first ones to peek up out of the soil and produce beautiful blooms here, quickly followed by many other flowers that are planted there.

Please click on the banner above and go see all the other entries for this contest.

You may click on the photograph to enlarge for a better view.

Amazing Clouds

Exploding Mushroom Cloud

"It's a Bird, It's a plane, no It's a Duck"

Funny how clouds can form unusual shapes when least expected, as you can see in toady's post, I was outside talking to a neighbor and just happened to look up and noticed very unusual shapes forming in the clouds from a front that was blowing through.

I went in the house and grabbed the trusty old Nikon and put on the 55-200mm lens and went outside to try to capture some of Natures wonders to share with you. I was like a kid in a candy store, snap here , snap there, and amazing array of cloud formations to choose from, but I am only posting two today and saving the rest in a folder on my desktop for later reference.

Please enjoy, and you may click on the photographs to enlarge if you wish for better viewing.

Friday Finds # 5

Click on the above photograph to view entries for "Friday Finds"

My entry for "Friday Finds"

Here is my entry for "Friday Finds", a wonderful old Horse Shoe Dinner Bell, that we have hanging out in front of our log cabin here in the North Carolina mountains. It even has some remnants of last years Passion Flower vines still clinging to it.

The Bell is made of two Horse Shoes welded together and has a knocker hanging down the middle and a string attached to summon the men from the field for dinner back in the "Old Days" before we carried cell phones for our lady's to call us on telling us it is time for dinner.

Ckick on the Bell photograph to view larger.

Gemstones

Agatized Coral

Agatized Coral Slice

Cobalt Dolomite

Labradorite

Today I am posting a few photographs of some of the different gemstones that I cut.

I have been cutting and polishing gemstones for over 45 years, and collecting rough material,
buying rough, and even mining my own rough, and trading rough materials to cut and polish.

First on today's post is a very unusual piece of Agatized Coral that I have had for quite a few years and finally decided to cut a piece of it (notice the inside of the Coral has turned to Agate)
I cut a slice off of it and then polished the surface to show the wonderful colors and patterns there.

Next photograph is of the slice that I cut off the main piece and polished both sides of (would make a wonderful Pendant stone).


The next photograph is of an exceptionally beautiful piece of Cobalt Dolomite ( the pink being derived from the presence of Cobalt in the Dolomite, thus making it Pink), Dolomite comes in a variety of colors ranging from clear ,white,gray,and the Rare Pink, and even more rare Blue.
This has a surface covered with tiny Pink crystals that just sparkle in the light and is quite showy, another pendant sized freeform stone that could be wire wrapped or prong mounted.

The next photograph is of a very flashy piece of Labradorite that I cut and polished, I cut it in freeform to save as much as possible the wonderful flash of colors in the stone, as it shows Blue,Green,even hints of Gold colors as it is moved, all across the stone.

These are some of the stones I cut when taking a break from creating Gourd Art or other objects of Art and since I not longer make jewelry I use a lot of gemstone material in my Art creations as inlay, but sometimes I just like to cut a stone for the purpose of mounting it into a handmade piece of jewelry such as a ring or pendant or even a bracelet and sometimes I sell the cut stones to others to make jewelry with.

I hope you enjoy looking at these creations and seeing the Natural beauty of Nature and what Creator has blessed us with.

Peruvian Dendretic Opal

Back side of Dendretic Opal

Front Side of Dendretic Opal


Today I thought I would share with you a beautiful Peruvian Dendretic Opal that I cut,
It was too good to just cut and polish one side, so I cut and polished both the front and the back
Making it a two sided piece that can be worn and shown on either side as a pendant so it will

show all of it's beauty and wonderful Dendrites (dendrites look like ferns and bushes and are formed by different minerals seeping in the base material of Opal and forming the wonderful pictures and scenes just as one would see in a landscape out in a desert area or a dry wash.

The base material is Opal but has no Opal colors (Fire) and it comes from Peru. I bought this material in the rough several years ago and decided to cut some more of it this past week between other projects because it was laying around on my work counter for further observation and I decided it was time for the unveiling of it's wonders.

P.S. ..... I cut this stone in a Freeform to save as much as possible of the beautiful scenes.

You can click on the photographs to view larger.

Hawk Friend

My Red Tail Hawk Friend

Here is my latest endeavor at capturing my Friend the Red Tail Hawk, he is so elusive and hard to capture, as he stays at quite a distance anymore because someone or something has frightened him within the past few years and I am unable to get much closer than a thousand yards so I have to rely on my "Long Lens" (70-300MM) to get any decent photograph of him.

Here he is in all his new Spring atire, new chest feathers and all. Isn't he just Handsome!!!.