Estero Bay Winter Sunset

Late this afternoon early this evening I drove over to Morro Bay, CA, to meet a friend. Since I was early (quite intentionally so I could go to the beach) I made my way to the Hole-In-The-Wall Beach (the dog beach between Morro Bay and Cayucos, CA) to watch the sun set and bathe myself in its photon-enrapturing glory and in the process make some Vitamin D in my skin and consequently make myself feel a bit happier during these darkest days of Winter here in the Northern Hemisphere of my home world. Below are some images I captured of what I saw and experienced.

This view is directly out into Estero Bay.

For those of you unfamiliar with the landmark, that is Morro Rock in the distance and Highway 1 at left and Point Buchon at right.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Getting My Botryoidal Orpiment Groove On

As some of you may recall I visited Quartzsite, AZ, a year ago on New Year's Eve and Day in my column Quartzsite 2012 - Early Bird Gets The Worm Day One and Day Two . I did it again this year as I shared earlier in Quartzsite 2013 - Early Bird Gets The Worm Again. It was at my visit there last year that I first encountered the gorgeous botryoidal Orpiment with Barite (and sometimes with small amounts of Realgar) we have all by now seen and to which it was "love at first sight" for me. I acquired a piece of it which I shared HERE after having first espied this material in the form of  the piece pictured HERE and HERE and HERE and to which I mightily lusted. This time I picked up two smaller but perhaps finer pieces which I share with you below.  

In Specimen A the Barite almost looks like Calcite. The labeled price on this specimen was $36.

On the bottom of Specimen A is a bit of Realgar. I purchased this specimen at "double keystone" so my cost was $9.

I purchased Specimen B at "double keystone" meaning I paid a mere $4.

These specimens come from Paloma Mine, Castrovirreina Province, Huancavelica Department, Peru

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Tread Softly Because You Tread On My Dreams

A particular part of a particular poem by William Butler Yeats known to most people as W.B. Yeats has been echoing through my thoughts in recent days. I first became aware of it from the 2002 movie "Equilibrium" upon watching it again recently. I realize this movie did not exactly overwhelm film critics or movie-goers alike. However, I have always unapologetically loved it since I first saw parts of it and I feel there is more substance to it than most movie-watchers appreciate or realize. The movie is set in a future dystopia where following a global nuclear war the emergent society in North America (called Libria ironically enough) has banned all emotion (referred to as "sense crime") and doped its citizenry to not feel emotion and begun a purge of all sorts of things that elicit emoting such as  literature, music, and other forms of art and artistic expression in an attempt to prevent violence in the form of war or crime. For this to happen a totalitarian regime controls all of society turning everybody into unfeeling worker drones whom are easily controlled. This dominant paradigm is enforced by highly specialized and trained personages called Grammaton Clerics of whom actors Christian Bale who plays John Preston and Sean Bean who plays Errol Partridge are two such. Ultimately, Preston realizes his partner Partridge has begun to feel again and is committing sense crimes in reading a book of poetry by Yeats. Near the beginning of the movie when Preston confronts Partridge the latter is reading a book of Yeat's poetry and quotes to his partner the excerpt from the Yeats poem "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" below right before Preston executes him:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams. I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. ~  W.B. Yeats

Below is the scene in the movie to which I refer:

Scripture of the Day - Solomon

This passage has been echoing quite noticeably through my thoughts the past day or two and it does not go away:

"I have seen in this world that the race is not to the swift, nor victory in battle to the strong, neither yet sustenance to the wise, nor yet wealth to men of wisdom, nor yet recognition to the talented, but time and chance happens to them all."

~ Ecclesiastes 9:11 (Kimicus ad Absurdum translation)

Quartzsite 2013 - Early Bird Gets The Worm (Day Two)

My friend Dave and I lodged New Year's night at the Super 8 Motel in Quartzsite, AZ, awaking before dawn to drive down to Blythe, CA, (where we lodged last year but not this year) for a decent cup of coffee before returning for breakfast at Sweet Darlene's. After that we got to work picking up where we left off yesterday. We hit yesterday's spots again, but Desert Gardens was behind schedule filling up with vendors relative to last year so we did not do much there and near the end of our visit at that. However, that mattered little as by the time the day was over Dave's truck was full and could not take one more flat or box of anything. Near the end of the day we headed home which took surprisingly little time despite the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, CA, (my place of origin) letting out being directly in our path en route home.
Check out yesterday's action on Day One.

A new year dawning upon Quartzsite, AZ, on New Year's Day.

A 1955 Nash Metro in the parking lot of where we had breakfast.

Newly-unpacked Brazilian Amethyst vugs at Village Originals.

These are actually rather nice Amethyst vugs which in this configuration are called "cathedrals".

This is an exceptionally cool cathedral pair.

That's Western Wood across the way behind this rack of Amethyst cathedrals.

The view inside Village Originals as they unpacked the day before they officially open

This image does not do this particular specimen justice.

I like the ridges of crystals some of these vugs contain.

Calcite crystal cluster on Amethyst.

Detail of some Brazilian Amethyst vug kitsch... real miners hate this stuff!

While we're on the topic of rock kitsch...

...here's some more!

One of the latest methods developed for ruining a perfectly fine silicon dioxide crystal cluster.

Made in China!

Well, at least it's man-made silicon dioxide cut in a diamond configuration.

Died/dyed in China.

At least one row of these seems to feature natural color.

Ambivalent/tepid dye job.

How to ruin a perfectly nice Brazilian agate sphere...

Dyed Brazilian Ocos.

Boxed sets of dyed Brazlian ocos.

Although these are quasi-kitschy I actually like them.

At least their color is natural and they have been shaped by means of utilizing their natural cleavage plane.

Although from a desert climate they evoke thoughts of ice castles.

Anybody else think of Superman's ice castle while looking at these images?

Genuine mosasaur skull with genuine teeth in original plaster casing from Morocco.

Genuine mosasaur jaw with genuine teeth.

Faux Moroccan mosasaur jaws with genuine teeth.

Faux Moroccan trilobites.

These trilobites were accurately labeled "reproductions" but other wholesalers and retailers more often than not do not.

I'm not sure these starfish are genuine fossils.

I'm fairly certain these crinoids are genuine.

Lots of genuine Moroccan fossils in these flats.

This design and configuration for Moroccan fossilized marble is new to me and I like it.

This is the show sleeper... in future years these will be hard to come by (and thus much more expensive) given what they are: Homo erectus tools known as Acheulean choppers.

Prospector's Panarama seemed more dead today, New Year's Day, than it was yesterday or even a year ago today.

Even Beer Belly's was pretty dead... no television and thus no bowl game watching to be had there.

The best mineral deals to be had in Quartzsite, AZ, are at this place which shall remain unnamed.

This is when and where I acquired my two Orpiment specimens.

This guy was selling larger Campo del Cielo meteorites which most people do not realize are forbidden to be collected by the government of Argentina.

This struck me as funny as the label refers to the source, NOT the name of the material itself but not initially knowing that caused me to do a double-take upon first glance.

Sunset over the Inland Empire on the way home to the Central Coast as seen from Interstate-10.