Amethyst by Mother Nature

JEAN VENDOME DIAMOND, AMETHYST, STALACTITE, CRYSTAL, STERLING SILVER, 18K YELLOW GOLD NECKLACE

Cascading down the left side are seven overlapping, graduating amethyst stalactite slices, ranging in size from approximately 50.00 to 20.00 mm, terminating in two carved floral amethysts each centering one full-cut diamond weighing a total of approximately 0.20 ct., cascading down the right side are eight graduating amethyst crystals ranging in size from approximately 35.00 x 20.00 mm, set in an articulated hinged, slide lever and figure eight locking sterling silver and 18k yellow gold collar. Accompanied by the original carved hinged wood box measuring approximately 10.50 x 10.50 x 2.50 inches.
Signed Vendome.
Sold for $22,420

I'd have bought it but it's not in my price range, anything under 25 grand is just for doing the housework in and you know me and housework.  It would make a nifty dreamcatcher with the moonlight shining through. 

And I blew my top as well

Cabulco volcano in Chile has erupted for the first time in nearly fifty years.  20 kilometres straight up and that is the dangerous part.  The column can become so heavy that before being dispersed by high level winds, it can collapse on itself and flow down the volcano's sides as a pyroclastic flow.  A red hot cloud of ash, water and rock debris, a lot of water and you have a Lahar, a red hot mud flow that destroys everything in its path.  This usually follows the gullies and crevices down the mountain side but it can go anywhere it wants to.

Reading this was quite timely for me since I went off like a volcano yesterday and if my sister speaks to me this side of Christmas it will be a miracle.  It was about time she copped a blast.  Mother just got the edge of the blast too.
But my main target wasn't around and hasn't rung either.  When I'm paying a woman who is supposed to be an expert in her field I expect her to be an expert.  Dansac have stopped making the colostomy bags the old girl's been using for the last 15 years and stopped without notice so no chance of stockpiling although I had just received an order that will last 2 months. The new bags are completely useless for what we need, so the need for a stomal therapist.  I've dealt with stomal therapists since l988 and all of them have an elevated belief in their own superiority and only one I met was that good. This one was the same bombastic bimbo and about as useful as a bucket with a hole in it.  I automatically assumed this professional would look at mother's medical files and discuss with the PCA who cares for her on a regular basis. Hah, what a joke, Joyce.  
For one thing she'd never seen a stoma like mother has. (TMI, I could give you more)
For another thing if she'd never seen one like that, why didn't she take notice of my mother who lives with it, the PCA who looks after mother or me who's looked after it since 1988.
She's too superior for that.  Didn't know how allergic mother is to sticky tapes of all kinds.  Decides that the stoma is bigger than the 80mm opening I've been cutting out and measures it as 110mm and orders larger baseplate bags and cuts out 110mm.  Rings me and says there's only 5 in the box and I'll have to order more and pay for fast delivery.  When I go down, stupid superior nitwit hadn't looked in the box properly and found the other 5 when it says in big letters on the box - 10 in box.  
And the way she'd cut them out was disgraceful and I had to re-do them and cut out the others.  Good thing I always have a small pair of scissors with me in case I need to open a vein.
By night time, mother was in pain, allergic reaction to sticky bits, allergic to baseplate and skin  burning and blistering.
Bitch goes back next morning and PANICS because she's never seen anything like it before in her career.  Isn't there a text book that has pictures?  Yes, it is unusual but only because the two ends of bowell were never re-connected which is why it's like it is.  I'm well aware that neat little round holes are the norm but if you are going to put yourself out as an expert then make sure you know you have learnt all you need to know to be an expert and obviously this dumb arse tart hasn't.
She rang Doc Marvin.  Brave that is, he hates incompetence from experts.  He has now taken over, she's back with the old bags, the small 80mm opening, antibiotics and a big notice about watching for cellulitis.  The expert is now trying to find replacement bags, good luck for that, fkning bimbo.

And I must say this, The Peninsula Ostomy Association has been terrific over the years in helping people and even they were not told these bags were dumped.  They couldn't even get a letter out in time to warn us.  They're staffed by volunteers and are not lumped in with superior dumbkins.

There's something about owls

This is a Banded Owl from Sumatra and is that a face of authority and wisdom or what?  I fell in love with the eyes, snappy looking beak though but the feathery tuffs say "listen up, dude!"  Sorry for the Americanism but it's really a 'dude' look not a 'mate' look.

 This is a juvenile Banded Owl, hasn't got the wisdom look yet but attitude, he has it.  Looks like a typical in your face teenager but I still love the eyes and the tufty feathers. The more I look at him the more I can almost hear the mouthing off. "Yeah, yeah, I'll clean the cage, gimme a break, I've been out all night, the hangover is kicking in, ffs Ma, I'm not a hatchling, I'll get to it!"

And straight from Harry Potter's family home after he graduated, became an auror, married Ginnie (she was the only one for him whatever the snippy Hermione fans say) and had kids.  The most divine Owlery but ditch the windows, owls are a bit dim they'd just fly straight into them.  I'd like this at the back of my house as a reading nook.

But since real owls have sharp beaks, sharp claws and eat live things and leave the bones around as well as the owl crap by the ton, I'll just have owl beads.  The colours in this one's eyes make mine water with desire to own him.

Him up there might be made in the wise mould, these two are a little on the frightened edge of the wild wood but if they stick together, they'll be right.

Even in beads we can get one with 'tude!  Get those eyes boring into your pocket looking for owl treats and that's definitely a hoodie he's wearing.  A bit of bling around the neck and probably a tinnie under that left wing.  Way on the wild side is this one. 
 

I can see him up there intimidating this wee sweetie into handing over his dead vole.  Never mind little one, you'll grow and it might be into a Banded Owl of vicious then we'll see who gets the voles.
(not true that I've seen the Owls of Ga'hoole 10 times, 8 maybe, 9 tops)

Regular posts will resume when I get over these

.

I was browsing through wedding cakes for no particular reason except that I love wedding cakes but these three could turn me against wedding cakes forever.  The one above is called the Dancing Queen although we could change that for Andrew with one little letter change and R looks dazzling in red.

This was truly over the top and for some reason the red layers look as though they have a furry covering.  One mask, okay but three and oh my, the giant feathers.  Although I could have used a giant feather or three at my wedding mainly to stab the best man right through the heart.

That led to this.  There's so much going on at that table I wouldn't know what to eat first let alone plunge the knife in for the first slice.  My imagination went into overdrive at just what the Bridal Party were wearing.  Surely the Bride would not have gone for the full 'Gone with the Wind' black crinoline and red bustier but what would the Groom be wearing?  Bearskin hat, red jacket, black pants, gets a faceful of tourists at Buck Palace.  I wonder if the theme was the red wedding from Game of Thrones?  Now that's my kind of wedding.

Fossils (not me)

These are Petoskey stones, a rock and a fossil of a coral called Hexagonaria percarinata which flourished during the Devonian period. They are found in the Gravel Point Formation of Michigan. The rounded stones formed as glaciers grabbed them from the bedrock of complete fossilized coral colonies. As the glaciers moved the rocks were smoothed and moved to just one area on the shore of Lake Michigan. 

When it's picked up as a dry stone it resembles ordinary limestone but when wet or polished by a lapidary, the mottled pattern of the six-sided coral fossils emerge.
 

 The name comes from an Ottawa Indian Chief Pet-O-Sega. The city of Petoskey, Michigan is also named after him and is the centre of the area where the stones are found.  The movement of the frozen lake ice against the shore of Lake Michigan turns over the buried stones exposing new deposits to be found each spring.  They can also be found on the beaches and in sand dunes  but only in this northwestern portion of Michigan's lower peninsula. In 1965, it was named the state stone of Michigan.

This is a living coral colony in the sea today.  The same six sided polyps show up in lovely colour but they are the same as the fossil shapes in the second image.
Anyone travelling to Michigan in spring is welcome to send me a pretty Petoskey, doesn't have to be large but must be pretty.

I meant to post something serious.

But I was sidetracked by glittering things like these glass beads by Masae Nakahara.  I tried to find out about the artist but pages translated from Japanese do not make easy reading.  All you need to know is in the glass artistry of these tiny objects.  The bead above has a little salamander.

 I love the detail in the lobsters in this one.

And for Elephant's Child, penguins.

And the detail is fantastic.

Did someone mention Penguins?

I really don't care if this is photoshopped because I couldn't stop smiling at the penguin riding the waves on a dolphin.  I got lost in penguins while looking for something completely different.

This is genius. Instead of me dunking the tea bag he does it for me and with a timer.  My orange and cinnamon tea must take exactly 4 minutes of steeping or it's ruined so I'm always drinking crap herbal tea.

Instead of sewing up the cushions for my sister who is annoying me and possibly trying to take the title of Queen Bitch of the Universe because now that she's retired, she has the time to refine her bitching, I was looking at painting little animals on rocks.  I had owls and fish then I found penguins on plastic ice cubes.  Adorable and genuinely time wasting.

I need time wasting.  I looked up my diary for this time last year and my mother had a chest infection and was on antibiotics.  This year she has a chest infection and is on antibiotics.  My life is not Groundhog Day, it's Groundhog Year.

Ocean cute

Another cute (almost) photo and this is the banded piglet squid (Helicocranchia pferreri).  Its name comes from its rotund shape and normally it's found more than 320 feet or 100 metres below the surface of the ocean.
Measuring just 3.9cm in length, this squid species has a singular light producing organ (photophore) to help it navigate the depths.
Because of its deep water habitat little is known of its behaviour but it is known to be a sluggish swimmer with ammonium ions in its body fluid to help keep it bouyant and in this photo it's swimming upside down.  Look at the frilly frippy of its little back fins, sweet.
The image was taken from a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in the Gulf of Guinea near oil pumping equipment at a depth of 1015 metres.
They like tropical and subtropical oceans also the north temperate waters of the Atlantic Ocean with the smaller squid staying higher in the water table and descending into deeper water as they get larger and older.