Interlude............

I think my "sewing roll" is done! Sorry to say.... maybe I'll get back to it one day (soon I hope).

In the meantime, I've been busy with company and play. My son and his fiance came for a visit from Astoria, OR to our house the last weekend of April. What a joy to be able to give my big "boy" (age 39) a big hug!

Can never get too many hugs!

Their favorite place to go is the Richardson Rock Ranch here north of Madras. My son's fiance, Terra, has a rock, gem and jewelry store in Astoria, OR called Terra Stones. So of course, they both LOVE to go rock hounding!  And Richardson Ranch is THE place to go for Thunder Eggs. They also have exotic rocks from all over the world. It was a fun day of enjoying rocks (who would have thunk?) and a nice picnic.

The countryside and "ranch" are beautiful, and it being Spring still, everything is still green.

This is one HUGE Oregon agate!

Piles and PILES of rocks everywhere...... they are sold by the lb. and most of the piles have the types of rocks/gems (in the rough) these are, and what part of the world they come from.

We didn't do the actual "rockhounding" where you drive out away from the main store (about 8 miles into the countryside) and actually DIG for Thunder Eggs. My son and Terra have done that before and they love it. Me... not so much. I'd rather look here and go into the store to see the finished products, which have been cut and polished.

This ranch has been around for many many years, originally as a cattle ranch, and then after the Thunder Egg beds were discovered, the owners and family, have turned it into a rock hounders' paradise. Over 60% of the Thunder Eggs sold around the world, originate from this ranch!

Watch this 5 minute video if you're interested in finding out more and seeing people digging for the "eggs".  Grant's Getaways Visits Richardson Ranch.

Some of my favorites:

Chrysocolla from Morocco.

Mookaite from Australia.

Lavender quartz from Madagascar.

Of course, I LOVE the rose quartz, which is pink! I bought a tiny rose quartz "apple" to match a larger apple I bought last year (but now can't remember the name of the gem).. for my pink and green bedroom.

Raw piece of the Rose Quartz that my son gave me for my last birthday.

 

Here, a big cylinder piece has been cut out of this rock. The inside of it is GORGEOUS but now can't remember the name of it. It would make a beautiful fountain! There were smaller rocks all around that had the cylinder cut out. I'm not sure what they're used for but sure was unique.

There are two HUGE rooms inside the store with rocks and gems that have been cut and polished... many many agates, small animals and figures carved from the different stones, jewelry, polished Thunder Eggs, crystals, and much much more!

LOVED this peach colored stone (below), but now can't remember its name. I can imagine how beautiful it would be all polished. All around the piles of rocks, there are water bottles, so you can spray the rocks to give you an idea of how they would look after being polished. 

I saw this last year before we had painted our house, and thought to myself..... hum.m.m.. I want my house this color!

 Well......we came close in color!

Another favorite:

WOW was this stunning!

One other small excursion:

As my son and Terra left to go home, we followed them up to The Dalles, OR which is about 90 miles north of us. They were stopping to see my son's dad (my ex). Hubby and I were invited to dinner there (yes, we are all sort of friends!).....  their backyard was absolutely envious....... huge 20 foot tall lilac bushes and a stunning pink flowering tree in the front (dogwood?). I was in Heaven.

On the way home, the moon was just coming up from behind the sagebrush covered hills and it was enormous and yellow/orange, but I couldn't get hubby to pull over in time to get a picture of it in that state. We finally pulled over but by then, it was too far up in the sky and just "normal" looking. Oh I wish I could have taken a picture of it when it was in all its glory!

Have a nice weekend everyone. It's been warmer here so I've been planting a few things and trying to spruce up our yard. I'll show you in another post. Still SO MUCH to do!

~Marilyn~