2014- My annual pilgramage to the Gem & Mineral Show

Its that time of year again and I've made my annual pilgramige to the Gem & Mineral Show in my area.
I did not get too many pictures on my camera because I was having too much fun looking at all the wonderful things.  Then I started to buy some beads to work with and forgot all about it.  The next day I did go again to pick up a few items I didn't ge the day before but wished I had.  I did not have my camera with me and was only able to take some pictures on my cell phone.

I thought this fish was really intersting to see.

 

 Look at this crynoid - I just would love to own something like that but the price was out of my range.

Now to see what I've made with some of the lovely's that I got while I was there and from previous years..  
This is not turquoise but a stone that has been dyed to look like turquoise, I think its howlite.

 Freshwater pearls with daisy brass spacers.

 Amozonite with freshwater pearls

 Rose Quartz with fresh water peals and spacers with brass&glass.

 Adventurine with decorated brass spacers.

 More Turqoise dyed beads but this was a lighter shade than the other set

 Hematite beads of various shapes.

 This is a manmade stone called goldstone but its popular with my friend and its fun to work with.

 This was a petrified wood that I think they were calling picture jasper.  It has hematite spacer beads.

I got a lot more but some of the designs are similar and so I haven't included them.
In case you are wondering why there are so many hearts its because with a couple of groups in my area my title is 'Lady of Love' and when I give these to my friends it shows my love for them.

I find beading to be extremely relaxing and a great hobby to have.  I just love it when I can get new materials to work with and let my creative juices flow.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art- Bentonville Arkansas

   I went to visit some of my husbands family up in Arkansas.  While we were there we decided to take a trip and see the Crystal Bridges museum.( http://en.wikipedia.org wiki/Crystal_Bridges_Museum_of_American_Art )
I had heard a little bit about it before I had gotten there but really didn't know what to expect.  I was thinking it was a nature park with a small museum - boy was I wrong!!  It was a world class Art museum up in Bentonville Arkansas.  It blew me away that a small out-of-the-way town like that could have something like that.  But then you find out it was built by Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton who founded Walmart and it all made sense. 
      While we were there we were told we could take pictures of the structure but not to use the flash and also some of the galleries were restrictive as far as taking pictures.  I didn't want to take any chances and so just got a few that I thought would be okay.  These pictures do not do it justice and its worth the effort to go visit it.
 
This was the entrance to the place. 

 Across from the entrance was this beautiful sculpture that fit right in with the surrounding scenery.

 I wasn't expecting the museum to be down below and got these images as we were walking to the elevators to take us down.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

 Inside it was so bright and cheery looking.  It was also very modern looking too.

 This was one of the rooms I felt okay taking a picture.  Notice the surrounding nature.  There was a path outside but at the time they were getting ready for a wedding and we were not allowed to go out on it.

This was looking across the building.  The one closest to us on the left was a reception area. The galleries were to the right and the restaurant was in the center building in the back.

Crystal Bridges Art museum.

Updated:   
What really got to me was after I visited it my newspaper had two articles on it in December. One was on Dec. 7, 2014 The Times E1& E5 - Life section  shreveporttimes.com and the other Dec 12, 2014 in the Lagniappe C-1 & C-10.

A Weavers Heaven

   My husband and I went on a trip to visit some of his family in Fayetteville Arkansas. Fayetteville-Arkansas. While we were there we got to visit a friend of theirs.  I love to weave and this friend loves to weave too.  It was decided the two of us had to get together.  I'm so glad I was able to make that connection.
  I couldn't get over her place and the looms she had.  She had a room added to her house just to do her weaving in.  When I saw it I was totally captivated by her stuff and it was hard to leave.

Just look at this loom and all the harnesses that it has!!!! (The harnesses are where the thread goes through & what gets lifted up to create the patterns).  Its a programmable one that she had just gotten and was having troubles figuring it out.   All I knew was this was out of my league - I had never done more than four harnesses on a loom.  But oh the things she'll be able to do once she figures it out.  I'm still drooling over this machine. 
  

 Here's another loom that she had.  It is just as nice as the other one.  I was envious of the threading device she had where she could warp the loom by her self.

 Here's some of the things that she's been able to make.  Aren't they fantastic?

 Now this loom was more my speed but just look at the pattern she was able to create on it.  I loved it.

I do hope I get to visit this person again.  It was so much fun seeing her work.
She was such an inspirations to me.  I know I'll never get to this level but I sure did enjoy seeing her stuff and admire what I saw.
  

Fun trip to Fayetteville Arkansas

   My husbands mother & father were both from Arkansas.  Both of them are gone but we still have found memories of the stories they told of the areas where they grew up.  She lived in Fort Smith and Van Buren.  Both towns are on the Arkansas river.  Van Buren is smaller and to the north with Fort Smith to the south.  So when we decided to visit some relatives in the Fayetteville area I had to get images of the river as we drove farther up north.
This was looking east from the I-71 bridge.

The Arkansas River as seen from  I-71 taken 7-27-2014

 This was looking to the west. 

I love driving up to this area because of the mountains and the different scenery we get to see. When we drove up it was raining and I was not able to get decent pictures but coming back we did have some decent weather and I did get a few along I-540.

 I was pleased to see that this road has been four-laned.  For the longest time it was a 2 lane road and it would take all day to get up to Fayetteville, now it just takes a few hours.

We ended up staying in Fayetteville Arkansas.  It's definitely a college town with the University of Arkansas being there.  We did take a tour of the area and here are some of the images I got.  I took a lot more but since I was in a moving vehicle most of them just didn't turn out.

Then we drove around the area some and I did get these images too.

 I saw this old building and thought it was so neat looking and had to take some pictures of it.

 We went by the airport and I had to get this image of the plane.  I love looking at planes.

Fayetteville is pretty rural yet because of the University its a fun place to visit.  I like the fact that we have family in the area and it makes for a pleasant get away trip.

Eternal Flame Falls

Eternal Flame Falls, Shale Creek Preserve Chestnut Ridge Park, Eire Co New York

     When I was in undergrad school I had heard about an eternal flame falls but didn't find out where it was located.  All I knew it was to the east of where I lived.  I had no idea where to begin to look for it and forgot all about it even though I really wanted to see it.  For years I never gave it another thought, until a fellow blogger Jessica Ball @ Magma Cum Laude gave this post on it. http://blogs.agu.org/magmacumlaude/2010/11/12/gas-seeps-in-western-ny/
She wrote  "One of my favorites is in the Shale Creek Preserve at Chestnut Ridge Park"
That finally gave me a clue as to where to look.
When I clicked on the Shale Creek preserve I got this website.
http://www.wnyhikes.com/index.php
I realized it was in Eire County - upstate New York.  That was close to Niagara falls and I knew Niagara Falls was just a couple of hours away from my mothers home.  I figured the next time I would visit I could go there.  The trouble was when I would visit I was too busy with other things and didn't have much of a chance to visit until just recently.  I had a reunion to go to on the 12 of July, and my brother was visiting my mom on July 4th and left on the 6th.  I realized I could go visit my mom & brother and also go to the reunion all in the same trip.  It also gave me a week free to do what I wanted.  This was the perfect time to go.   So I looked it up in Wikipedia because I was having trouble remembering where to find Jessica's post.   

Here's what Wikipedia had and it was not very helpful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Flame_Falls

I then did a google search and found this website: http://nyfalls.com/waterfalls/eternal-flame-falls/
They gave these directions to get there:

Location:
 In Chestnut Ridge Park; just outside of North Boston, Town of Orchard Park, Erie County, New York Maps: Google Map, Bing Maps, Multi-map (topo); Interactive map.
GPS: Parking and Trailhead: (N 42.69993 / W 78.75238)
Eternal Flame Falls: (N 42.70158 / W 78.75113)
Roadside parking: (N 42.70012 / W 78.75255)
Directions: Take I90 to US Route 219 and follow it south for 11 miles. Take the NY-391 exit toward Boston/Hamburg and turn left onto Boston State Rd. Take the 3rd left onto NY-277 (Herman Hill Rd.) and follow it for just over a mile and a half. It becomes Boston Ridge Rd. Take a sharp left on Seufert Rd and park immediately on the right.
Or use Google Directions.
Parking: Park alongside Seufert Rd. Spaces for roughly a dozen cars.


Now having this information I  was all set to go.  I was going to go on Monday but when I woke up it was pouring down rain.  I checked the weather map and they were predicting rain all day long.  I decided not to go due to weather.  Tuesday I had other commitments and couldn't go, which was just as well since it rained on and off all day long.   Then on Wednesday I was finally able to go, with my son.  As we were driving there we encountered some more rain which surprised us since it wasn't suppose to rain that day.   We decided to try it anyway and I was glad we did since the rain had stopped by the time we got there.  In fact I felt like the rain was a real blessing since I had read that in the summer the creek could sometimes dry up or just have a trickle running through it.  They recommend seeing it in the spring.


For us it was the perfect day since there was a lot of water and we could get the full impact of the water falls.
We parked where they recommended and got out and followed the trail.  We crossed  this creek and wondered where the falls were.  Since the trail continued on we decided to follow it. 

 We got to a point were it split and luckily we came across another hiker in the woods who told us to go left and to look for the flame signs on the trees.  That really helped a lot and once we saw what we were looking for it made it so much easier to do.

 The hiker told us that the trail basically follows the ridge and the creek is down below with the falls.  he told us the ravine was pretty steep and not to try to go down any other way than the trail.  So we followed his advice and could see what he was talking about.

 This was looking down at the creek.

 I was beginning to wonder if it would be worth it to see, but was enjoying seeing the glacial boulders and such along the way.  It felt good to be hiking in the woods after being couped up for a couple of days like we had been.

 We finally got down to the creek bed and was able to follow it up river to the falls.  I was glad the hiker had told us which way to go because the signs weren't very helpful at this point.  But we did run into some more people looking for the flames and they had been there before and knew which way to go. 

We came across this one falls and I was wondering if this was  it, but was told it wasn't.  I was glad because there wasn't much water coming down from it.

 This is the shale that was lining the walls of the ravine and I could see why it was called shale creek preserve.  It reminded me a lot of the parks in the Cleveland Metro park system.
Jessica tells us that this is the Hanover Shale, Devonian age. http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Geolex/UnitRefs/HanoverRefs_1964.html

 Then we came upon the falls.  People said this was it.  I realized from the pictures I had seen that I had to go to the right side to really see the flame.

 And then I saw it.  It was so fascinating to see.  I also felt it was very spiritual.  It was such a contradiction to see that flame burning with all that water flowing over it. It was mind boggling!!  Amazing!!! Incredible!!  Everyone who came up to it would make and exclamation of some sort. 

 The natural gas seep is probably from the Medina group which is produced a lot in the region.
http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Geolex/UnitRefs/MedinaRefs_2722.html
I tried to look up natural gas seep and also gas seep in Wikipedia but all they had was cold seep.

 I did take some video of it and am trying to include it here.
I can see the video on my computer but not on my cellphone.  I don't know if you can see it or not. 

 

 If you ever get a chance to go to Upstate New York I highly recommend making the effort to go see it. To me its just as great as Niagara Falls.
  I also want to thank Jessica Ball for blogging about this in the first place and helping me find out were it was located.