ABC Wednesday - O

The third round of ABC Wednesday has reached the letter O this week.

In keeping with my love of rocks and gemstones,
O
is for
OBSIDIAN

Funnily enough, obsidian isn't strictly speaking a rock. It's a naturally occurring glass, formed in volcanos.
More details here.
Although it can appear brown and even appear to have a metallic coating, obsidian is generally thought of as black. Being a glass, it takes a very sharp edge, and was used by the Incas in ceremonial knives.

My samples are a variety known as Snowflake Obsidian because of the whitish included crystals which can look like snowflakes.

These are tumble polished fragments, almost completely black.

The above photo shows slightly larger tumbled stones, some with good snowflake markings.

This last photo includes a much larger natural (unpolished) stone. You may be able to see some ripples in the surface, caused when the piece broke off a larger lump.

ABC Wednesday was started by Mrs Nesbitt. More O posts can be found on the Anthology Page and through the Linky site.

Odd Shots On Monday

I found this funny little hairy-faced man in the firewood. How could I burn him?

Odd Shots was Katney's idea. To see more, please check the comments on her post or the blogroll in her sidebar.

Have a good week.

Monochrome Monday

This is an old hotel in Main Street, Dungloe.
Anyone local would realise that it was taken several weeks ago, because the sun is shining brightly!

Monochrome Monday was started by Aileni.

To see more monochrome pictures please visit the Monochrome Maniacs page.

Have a good week!

Saturday PhotoHunt - Scary!

Today's prompt for Saturday PhotoHunt is
scary

Well, that shouldn't be hard at this time of year!

I took this with my camera-phone in a local shop window.

The scariest things for me are those two large realistic spiders on the skulls!

For more PhotoHunters, visit our host
TNChick.

Happy Hunting!

The Pay it Forward Plan.

Honeysuckle photographed last weekend.

The delightful Damama is participating in a pay it forward plan. I signed up and now I am paying it forward. Let the fun begin!

HERE ARE THE RULES: The exchange focuses on doing an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and pay it forward in their own way.This is how it works... I am going to agree to send something fun, inspiring or uplifting to the first 3 blog owners who post a comment on this entry (please leave your e-mail address if I don't all ready have it.) In turn,those three will post this information and pick 3 people they want to send something to and so on.

If you are interested in participating, be one of the first 3 blog owners to leave a comment!The little something you send can be something you made, bought, were given or found. No biggie, just a gift that will make the person smile. Maybe something unique from where you live?

There are no cost restraints, but don't go crazy!If you'd like to join in, be one of the first 3 people to leave me a comment. You have to promise that you will then post about this on your blog, link to me, and then send something to the first three people who sign up to play along through your blog .

In return I ask that you Pay It Forward to 3 other people in some way. It doesn't have to involve money; there are untold ways to help others every single day, everywhere you go; just look around.

ABC Wednesday - N

Here we are at letter N.
I've no gemstones or anything of that sort beginning with N so this week I'm featuring
NACRE

According to my dictionary, nacre is the iridescent internal layer of a mollusc shell. It is also known as 'mother of pearl' since the same substance is used to coat a speck of grit and form a pearl.

Nacre is used for decorative inlays in items as diverse as furniture and musical instruments. It is also cut into various pretty shapes for use in jewellery. More information can be found here.

These are some of the shapes I have. The small ones have been engraved.

Here the small pieces are attached to chains as simple pendants. The larger pieces are fixed to a chain with other items to make a summer necklace.

ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs Nesbitt.
More N posts can be found through the Linky site, or on the Anthology page. They are worth a visit.

My New Camera - Two Fer Tuesday!

Yesterday James asked about my new camera, so I thought I'd better tell you about it.
Stephen kindly took these first two photos for me, with his Fuji FinePix S9600.

It's a Sony DSC-H50, with a Carl Zeiss lens, an overly large two-piece lens-hood, all sorts of settings for things I'll never use (film-shows with a musical sound-track - not likely!) ...
... but it has 9.1 megapixels and a 15x optical zoom.

And a beautiful, bright, three-inch tilting LCD screen!
(My camera-phone took this one)

This is the picture you could see in the LCD screen.

Jonna hosts Two Fer Tuesday - visit her to catch up with more participants.

Odd Shots On Monday

I was trying out the night-time setting on my new camera, just to see what it was all about.
This photo is the result -some flower tubs outside my back door, lit only by the night sky. I've never taken a photo in the dark before, so to me this is an Odd Shot!

Odd Shots is hosted by Katney - other participants can be found through her comments.

Monochrome Monday

Monochrome Monday is hosted by Aileni.

Visit the Monochrome Maniacs Linky page if you'd like to see a load more participants.

Saturday PhotoHunt - Family.

The theme for this week's PhotoHunt is
FAMILY

As usual, I like to be a wee bit different.

This is my family of dragons.
The babies are just hatching.

Saturday PhotoHunt is hosted by TNChick, visit her for more family photos.

Happy Hunting!

A Charm of Goldfinches.

So I was standing at the sink when I saw these birds on the feeding ball. Still taken through the window, but they show quite well.
They are Goldfinches.
I thought there were two on the ball, but if you look closely you can just see the reddish brow of a third behind the ball. There were three more on the bird-table nuts as well.
Six glorious goldfinches!

Now I'd better go back to the sink!

Bird Feeder.

Oh, it's good to be back. I don't know what was wrong, but it's nice to have pages loading properly again.

Back on Monday I posted a picture of our new bird feeder as an Odd Shot, and some of you were wondering how it would work.
Here's a photo of the filled feeder hanging from the corner of the shed, waiting for customers.


This second photo was taken from inside the kitchen, through the window, so I'm sorry for the lack of clarity ( note, must clean the windows!)

There's a busy Coal Tit hard at work!

ABC Wednesday - M

Before I go any further, I want to apologise if I haven't visited some of you recently. I'm having difficulty getting some pages to load properly - even my own! I don't know if it's my computer (I do hope not!) or some internet-related problem, but it's making visiting very hard at times.
So if you see anything that suggests I've visited, but there's no comment, please don't feel I'm ignoring you.

This week on ABC Wednesday we've reached the letter M.

I'm trying to post stones whenever I can, so this week I'm offering
MOONSTONE
At the moment I only have this 40cm strand of moonstone chips, waiting to be made into a necklace, bracelet, ear-rings - whatever takes my fancy when I eventually settle to making things again. Moonstone has a lovely satiny sheen, hence its imaginative name.

I also have this polished piece of Moss Agate, which was given to me by a friend.

This is a mostly clear stone with green moss-like patterns in it. These patterns are caused by metallic inclusions in the crystal. It's very shiny, and I had trouble photographing it, so I've included two different shots to try to show the patterns.

ABC Wednesday was started by Mrs Nesbitt
To see the many participants, visit the ABC Linky, or the Anthology page, and enjoy browsing!

Monochrome Monday

Trolley Park.

Monochrome Monday is hosted by Aileni,
and there is now a Linky site to make life easier.

Come and join the fun!

Odd Shots On Monday

The birds in our garden are getting hungrier.
This is the new, strong nut-feeder, waiting to be filled.
It looked a bit ODD to me!

For more Odd Shots, or to join the fun, please visit Katney and leave a comment.

Look What I've Got!

A parcel came for me recently.
It came from the lovely and bubbly Liz in Wales.
It contained a book I've wanted since I finished the previous one in this series.

There was a pretty card with the book...

... and it was signed by both Liz and George!

Isn't it wonderful what friends you can make through blogging?

I've started reading the book, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Thank you so much Liz!

Saturday PhotoHunt - Lazy.

Time for the PhotoHunt again, and this week the theme is
LAZY
Well, I've been lazy, as I'm only now posting my entry!

This is a piece of embroidery on a towel.
The stitch used is Lazy Daisy!

Here's a close-up of one of the flowers.
Six Lazy Daisy petals.

For a load more LAZY photos, visit our host TNChick.

Happy Hunting!

ABC Wednesday - L

Yet another busy day today, and I have to apologise to all the people I haven't yet visited from yesterday. I'm posting this evening to (I hope!) give myself chance to catch up tomorrow.

So here we go then.

Mrs Nesbitt started ABC Wednesday, which is now well into its second year, and has reached the letter L for the third time.

Now I'm sure you have all realised by now that I love jewellery and gemstones. So without more ado I shall introduce my word of the week.

L
is for
LAPIDARY

Lapidary is the art of cutting and carving gemstones. I wish I had the skill and the patience to do this kind of work, but I don't.
I do, however, have a carved stone pendant.
It was, I believe, carved in China, and the stone is probably carnelian.
The design, naturally, is a dragon.
The dragon is the Chinese type, without wings, but it's very beautiful.
The stone is nearly 4.5 cm (2 inches) long.

You'll find many more L participants on the ABC Linky site.
They are all worth visiting.

Monochrome Monday

A study in lines.

Monochrome Monday is hosted by
Aileni.
More monochrome maniacs can be found through the comments on his post, or on the blogroll.

Odd Shots On Monday

This is my Odd Shot for the week.

What is it?

Drops of condensation inside my water filter and chiller.
The picture below shows the unit.

Odd Shots on Monday is hosted over at Katney's Kaboodle. Check out her comments and blogroll for more participants.

Have a good week!

Saturday PhotoHunt - Sad.

This week's PhotoHunters theme is SAD.

I've thought long and hard about it.
I've looked around everywhere.
I've searched my files.
I had no idea what to do.

Then this afternoon, in pleasant sunshine, I went out into the garden.
This is what I found.

A very SAD and neglected patch that was once a flower border!

For more, and undoubtedly better, sad entries please visit our host TNChick.

Happy Hunting!