I know—a strange mix of subjects on this Friday morning.

Finally, my necklace that we bought in Cartagena! It's turquoise and a stone similar to lapis lazuli. The ornament is a replica of a pre-Colombian nose ring worn by the native people. It is removable so I could wear the nose piece with another necklace if I wanted to. The gold beads intermixed with the stones are also indicative of what the natives would have made and worn. We saw examples of these nose rings in the gold museum first, then when walking around the town we saw this in a gallery window. Without our trip to the museum I would never have known what it was.

Funny, I am not a huge fan of turquoise having been around it so much in the west, but this particular piece has extraordinary color. I am used to the more faded-out turquoise. I tried several ways of photographing it but went with flash since it showed the true color. Here's a close-up of the ornament.

What do you think? My feelings won't be hurt if you don't like it. But I LOVE it!!

Our local paper came in the mail yesterday, and on the front cover was something very sad. Do you remember these photos of the wing-walker at the air show last year? On Saturday while performing at an air show in Dayton, Ohio, she and her pilot both died when their plane crashed doing a stunt. So sad. There is a video here of the crash and you can see that thankfully they probably never knew what happened. The video is pretty graphic, so be forewarned. Our local air show in August won't be the same without her daredevil act. 

On a happier note, the paper also contained a surprise for me. If you remember, I told you that the paper published my photo of the cicada two weeks ago. I read the front page stories and the paper about halfway through when it first came and then put the paper aside. When Rick came home I was thumbing through it again and came across another photo of  mine that I had submitted of the cicada in the pool. Take a look! Not only did I get my name as a credit on the photo, but they named me again underneath! I was thrilled and very much surprised. Maybe they just needed fillers! But still …

I'm glad to report that I am feeling much better all of a sudden. I did go to the doctor the other day and my "vague symptoms" were inconclusive. I do think that she figured out my cough problem: post nasal drip. Since I've been shooting steroidal Nasonex up my nose for two days now, I am coughing a lot less. She said it might all have been related to allergies. Who knew? Either way, I am feeling more energetic and more like myself. 

We finally got a good old-fashioned thunderstorm last night. The only bad part was that it messed up our plans to skinny-dip for the first time this year as the pool was up to 82 lovely degrees. Maybe tonight …

So with that mishmash of topics I think I've said enough for today!

A bit of a mishmash, but when it rains it pours! I was going to propose we take photos of the jewelry and post it this weekend, and you beat me to it. Congrats on the cool photo. “Yes” to the pool time this weekend. And, we need to prep for our slow-cooked pulled pork for the 4th of July.

Thanks, hon. Haha, that you were thinking of a jewelry photo shoot too! Yum, pulled pork!

Love that necklace!!! It does look more like lapis than turquoise, and I have always been attracted to lapis.  You could use the nose ring piece on another necklace, or in your nose!!! (or not)

Another congrats on being published—again! They need to start paying you for those awesome photos

I saw the news about the crash and the wing walker but didn’t connect it to the photos of the wing walker you had taken last year.  Very sad indeed.  I think they are still investigating what happened. LUV the jewelry - my color of blue and much more striking than the ‘faded turquoise’ of regular turquoise.  Really like the nose ring part of it too - I think it really makes the piece.  Congrats on another photo in the paper.  Newspapers are always looking for personal interest stories and photos - keep submitting them.

Bigsis: Glad you love it! It’s maybe a different kind of turquoise? I could use it on another necklace but hey, not in my nose. Thanks for the congrats. I’m just happy to get my photos out there even if it is in a little suburban paper.

Carolyn: yes, so very tragic. But, when you do such dangerous stunts something is bound to go wrong sooner or later. It looked to me like they were too low and a crosswind caught the wing. Happened so fast I doubt they had time to think about it.  Glad you loved the necklace too! You are right—the nose ring does make the piece. We tried other rings on it and none looked as good. Thanks for the congrats. I plan to keep submitting! So far every time but once they’ve used my photo. The time they didn’t was because it was taken at Skylands and they said they don’t “do Ringwood”, only local. Hello, that’s pretty local I think!! Oh well.

I still love that cicada photo, and I’m not at all surprised that the newspaper wanted to find a way to use it. It’s a great shot!

The necklace is also great! It’s always good to be able to tell a story about a piece of clothing or jewelry, so you have a good conversation piece here.

That’s terrible about the wing-walker. I think I will choose not to watch that video.

Steve: Thanks! And yes, the necklace is just that, a conversation piece. Probably a good choice to not watch the video. It doesn’t show anything regarding the people in/on the place, just the impact of the plane itself. There was just no time for corrections.

I like the necklace too!  Its a beautiful piece but when you add the story it just makes it even better!

Congrats on your photo in the paper again….your photos are all works of art!

Thanks, Debra!