How do Gemstones get their Colors ? — Know-It-All

Posted on September 3, 2016 by waterhigh

Reblogged this because it’s kinda cool:

The most common cause of color in gemstones is the presence of a small amount of a transition metal ion. Most gemstones are allochromatic, meaning that they are colored by impurities or trace elements in their crystal structure.

via How do Gemstones get their Colors ? — Know-It-All

Portal

Posted on May 31, 2016 by waterhigh

P1000420

I won’t be making it to this year’s Fennboree, but if I could, I would take a moment in Santa Fe to get a look at an ancient wrought iron gate on East Palace Avenue, the site where dozens if not hundreds of scientists, mathematicians, and physicists, after meeting with gatekeeper Dorothy McKibben, disappeared from sight beginning in April 1943. P1000401

(Well, first I might stop at that French pastry shop at La Fonda where Amy bought those gorgeous treats for Forrest’s book signing last September.)

Said portal transported those invited to the site of the Los Alamos Ranch School on a mesa in New Mexico. You probably know (part of) the rest of the story, but for me, I learned a lot from a book called Bomb, by Steve Sheinkin, my newest favorite non-fiction author. Wow. He used to write textbooks for schools but kept notes on all the things they wouldn’t let him put in–fascinating stuff I should have learned. Sheinkin puts it together in a compelling and quick read. (Young Adult level but hey, who’s got time for an academic treatise these days?)

So back to the story: the race between the Americans and the Germans to develop the bomb; some very, very brave Norwegians on a mission; the spies who wanted to steal the plans for Stalin; the guys who just wanted to give it to the Russians so there wouldn’t be only one superpower in possession of the new and terrible weapon of mass destruction.

When I was young, my ideas of Russian spies were partly based on Boris and Natasha, and hearing intimations about the McCarthy era excesses. Somehow my public school history classes never got much past the Civil War by the end of the school year, hence the black holes in my knowlege. (No, that’s not a typo; it’s spelled Fenn’s way.)

[Side note: There was a Rocky and Bullwinkle episode titled Buried Treasure. Hmm. Frostbite Falls?] P1000443

I could also rave about Sheinkin’s newest book, Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret Viet Nam War. I have no excuse for not knowing or remembering more about the topic, having been of school age when it was in the newspapers, except that the facts didn’t all make it into the media at the time. I wish that weren’t still true. History gives us perspective if we’d only choose to look at the parallels in our own day. Does your view of Ellsberg color your impression of Snowden? What caused Benjamin Arnold to switch sides? Had you even heard of the Port Chicago 50?

Do you agree with Abraham Lincoln?

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”

(Check out Steve Sheinkin’s other books like King George: What Was His Problem? or The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights or Lincoln’s Grave Robbers, etc.)

The Call of Distant Places – Book Launch for Forrest Fenn’s Latest

Posted on August 25, 2015 by waterhigh

(If I weren’t eighteen hours away . . . )

Charmay Allred invites you to an autograph party

Please join us and bring a friend

Leon Gaspard – The Call of Distant Places

A new book by Forrest Fenn and Carleen Milburn

Monday September 14, 2015

5-7 pm

La Fonda Hotel

Santa Fe Room

Light refreshments will be served

Please RSVP by Sept 10 to:leongaspardbook@gmail.com

Catching Up is Hard to Do (hum to the tune by Neil Sedaka)

Posted on August 4, 2015 by waterhigh

Time on the water, priceless. Home again? Also priceless, but busy. I was north. I was east. Was I west, “in the mountains somewhere north of Santa Fe?” No, darn it. Not yet. But this bronze reminded me of the drawing in the Thrill of the Chase book. Another great thing about the road trip? Listening to the audio version of The Black Count, a true story about Alexandre Dumas’ pere by Tom Reiss. Fascinating. The Count of Monte Cristo was one of my first favorites. I read an old copy found in the attic. Next best was the 1998 French miniseries of it starring Gerard Depardieu. I didn’t mind the subtitles, it was so engrossing. And now to learn how so much of it was based on his own father’s experiences (including hidden treasure), enlightening. Also, it explained a lot of the history of the French revolution/devolution/rise of Napoleon, areas my education was thin on.

Minnetrista

So, my treasures when I arrived home? A lawn turned to meadow, wild blackberries to forage, and a garden exploding with cukes, beans, and tomatos, etc. Now that the pickles and jams are in the cupboard and the beans and tomatos in the freezer, except for the awesome salads Caprese and salsa verdes and, well, you get the idea.

Jungle garden

Intrepid came to visit and fortunately she loves to pick berries, dig potatos, etc., just happy to be outdoors. She’s begun her fourth (and purportedly toughest) year of residency. Six twelve hours days on for a month, then six twelve hour nights for a month, then same at a different hospital, rinse, wash, repeat…. I’d help her if I could. The least I can do is give her organic veggies.

On This Day in History – The Birth of Alexandre Dumas

15 Things You Might Not Know About ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’

The Point

Posted on January 26, 2015 by waterhigh

Thorns and Ice

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats

From “Beowulf” (The Other Beowulf)

Posted on January 12, 2015 by waterhigh

A Year In Verse

From “Beowulf and the Fire-Dragon”:

Hold thou now fast, O earth,now men no longer can,
The treasure of mighty earls.From thee brave men won it
In days that are long gone by,but slaughter seized on them,
Death fiercely vanquished them,each of my warriors,
Each one of my people,who closed their life-days here
After the joy of earth.None have I sword to wield
Or bring me the goblet,the richly wrought vessel.
All the true heroes haveelsewhere departed!
Now must the gilded helmlose its adornments,
For those who polished itsleep in the gloomy grave,
Those who made ready erstwar-gear of warriors.
Likewise the battle-sarkwhich in the fight endured
Bites of the keen-edged bladesmidst the loud crash of shields
Rusts, with its wearer dead.Nor may the woven mail
After the chieftain’s deathwide with a champion rove.
Gone is the joy of harp,gone is the music’s mirth.
Now the hawk goodly-wingedhovers not through the…

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The Sonnets

Posted on October 26, 2014 by waterhigh

Forrest Fenn is writing poetry again. I’d love to watch over his shoulder and see him at work. Is it a messy process with lots of words crossed out? Or does he compose it in his head and only write what works? Does he adhere to form or formula? Or is he a free spirit, free verse wordsmith?

English: Title page of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Photo credit Wikipedia

Apparently William Shakespeare worried about leaving a legacy. At least the young man narrating the Bard’s first dozen or three sonnets did. He stood gazing marvelously in the mirror, pondering, and concluded that he’d just have to get married and have a son. {Okay. That’s more abbreviated than even a Cliff’s Notes version.} But, it made me think of the last chapter in Forrest Fenn’s Too Far To Walk where he gazes with marvel(?) in his mirror in a closing poem.

Legacy~~~

“Oh very young. What will you leave us this time?” Cat Stevens

Where the Wild Thyme Blows

Posted on September 7, 2014 by waterhigh

Thyme

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows….

Wm. Shakespeare

No wild times in Santa Fe next month. The Fenn gathering at the Loretto Inn and Spa has been canceled.

I’d like to have attended, and not just to meet the competition, though that in itself might prove fascinating.

And not that it would have been really wild, but you never know.

English: Wild thyme in the flower bed of a “garden à la française” in the park of the castle of Champs-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne), France. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Architect

Posted on August 4, 2014 by waterhigh

According to Forrest Fenn, the poem was written by an architect.

Barn built by Rich brothers in 1900 on the family farm

I saw this cool post on ‘poems that look like what they’re about’ and, of course, thought of the Thrill of the Chase treasure poem.

Is the poem a map?

Synchronicity.

Some things are built to last, like the poem—

—or the treasure’s resting spot, good for thousands of years.

Some things come crashing down—

—like your hopes if/when someone else finds the bronze chest.

(Unless you’ve stored your treasures where they will not rust or be stolen.)

66,000 Links

Posted on June 17, 2014 by waterhigh

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
– Henry Miller

Dinkelsbühl_stadsmuur_stadtmauer (Photo credit: duitsland-reisgids.nl)

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” ― Frances Burnett, The Secret Garden

This was once carved in stone above a fireplace in Wisconsin. I only remember the first stanza—

It may be never, it may be soon,

But I hope that it will be some afternoon.

I’ll hear a step on the creaking stair.

I’ll open the door and you’ll be there.

Keats’s Grave, by William Bell Scott (Photo credit: Martin Beek)

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE ( 1749-1832 ) (Photo credit: frank carman)

Image taken from page 288 of ‘Goethe’s Italienische Reise. Mit 318 Illustrationen … von J. von Kahle. Eingeleitet von … H. Düntzer’ (Photo credit: The British Library)

“Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and — if at all possible — speak a few sensible words.” ― Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Whatever you can do or dream you can do … Begin it now (Photo credit: symphony of love)

[I’ve been in the garden, waxing poetic, and not having any luck solving the clues in THE Poem…..]

Cities of Gold

Posted on May 27, 2014 by waterhigh

Cover via Amazo

So I read another Douglas Preston book this spring. (I bought this one, Mr. Preston.) It was a departure from his horror/thrillers I’d read previously, but this non-fiction book was fascinating in another way.

He decided to retrace the steps of Coronado from the border of Mexico to the Pecos Pueblo in search of the Seven Cities of Gold. It turns out that it was a bit of a wild goose chase for Coronado, but people will believe what they want to believe when it comes to treasures of gold. Time hasn’t changed that.

Preston smoothly wove massive amounts of history into the story of his trek on horseback through some very harsh lands. He’s also made use of the experience in some of his fiction, i.e. Thunderhead, Tyrannosaurus Canyon, and others.

Tyrannosaurus footprint from Philmont Scout Ranch, New Mexico (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let’s see. Did Mapsmith call Dal foolhardy? Well, let’s just say it takes a certain mix of courage, stamina, and not too much information to undertake some adventures. Which is why the glory goes to the brave. Kudos to all of you. Lacking two of the above, I’m just happy to get the vicarious thrill when I read about your adventures.

Pecos Glazeware Bowl, labelled as serpent design, Pecos National Historical Park From the ruins of the Pecos Pueblo in in San Miguel County, New Mexico.

Gimbles and Gymbals

Posted on December 2, 2013 by waterhigh

Cover of The Jabberwocky

“‘Twas brillig and the slithy toves

did gyre and gymble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogroves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son.””

from Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

—Fenn knows someone who has the entire book of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland memorized.

Gyroscope with arrows (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thanks to Toby’s video, I got to enjoy Forrest Fenn’s book signing event in Taos last month at Moby Dickens. Fun and, as always, fascinating to hear the man himself. He reminisced,recited poetry, and remained cryptic when it came to where the treasure lies.

Gyroscope-9-4 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

New insights? Yes and no. “Fling” was new to me, but then I have no trouble in finding clues in everything he says or writes. I suffer from mental gyrations following each and every post. Tabasco? Mace? Curlers? Head spinning.

Also, hearing him talk about the deal he made with his granddaughter regarding med school expenses reminded me of conversations I had with Intrepid.

As high school graduation approached, her friends were all getting piercings and tattoos up the wazoo. She was inclined to follow suit, until I asked her if she wanted help with college. A deal was struck.

She got early acceptance into the only school she applied to, (UW-Madison

English: University of Wisconsin “Sifting and Winnowing” plaque Located on Bascom Hall, University of WIsconsin Photographed July, 2002 by Daniel P. B. Smith. Copyright ©2002 Daniel P. B. Smith. Licensed under the terms of the Wikipedia Copyright. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

) ((I was very jealous.))

One time, when she was home on break, she asked what would happen if she got a tattoo.

Me: You’d turn that gift into a loan.

Her: Oh.

Me: Anything you want to tell me?

Her: No.

At one point in those years, she was set to join the military because they would pay for med school and she’d get good experience. I suggested she wait until she got accepted into med school before taking that route, because once she joined she may not get the choices she expected. Or something like that.

So, she waited. Got into med school and through it, on student loans. Now, this was a surprise to me— the interest rates go up the higher your level of study does. Undergrads, the lowest, and med/dental students the highest, like 7 to 8 per cent. How, I wondered, could this be, in a time when banks pay you virtually nothing on your savings?

Early forms of stethoscopes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, she is now in a 5 year residency, and owes about twice what our first home cost. I think there are underserved areas that are willing to trade tuition for services, kinda like Rob Morrow’s character ending up in fly-in Alaska in Northern Exposure. She does love to travel.

About the tattoo(s)? She’s now old enough to know what forever means (longer than the life of her loans), and if she wants the rod of Aesclepius indelibly inscribed on her body, she’s earned the right to choose it.

Aesclepius (Photo credit: santanartist)

{{Note to self: Let Dal know that, if by a slim chance my entry won his contest over at Thrill of the Chase, not to ship the prize. I need a way to convince Mr. W that I have to return to Santa Fe!}}