u/cobaltium

I’ve had this heavy chunk of rose quartz outside in the hot and sunny weather of Arizona for about 14 years. But I got it in a haul of a large number of chunks and small boulders from a neighbor next door. It may have been outdoors, fading over 60 years!

Millie lived in her Phoenix home 50 years. These rocks lined her front yard on one side and were piled at the base of a large old cactus. Millie had cancer and likely dementia for years. Her granddaughter lived with her to help care for her and in the 8 years I was her neighbor I only glimpsed her once. When she died, suddenly a never before seen relative came and started clearing out the small home and put a giant dumpster out front and when I saw a back how appear I had to run over to ask about the rocks: yes, they planned to send all the rocks to the city dump! I made a deal that if I could get them all to my home within a few days, I could have them.

I believe it’s not random, but Millie or perhaps her late husband must have been a rockhound in Arizona. The individual pieces have great variety and many are wonderful specimen pieces. I suddenly remembered this large pink quartz so I went out to get it and washed it. Sure enough, the part always up was fading to very light pink while the bottom is still darker pink. Now I’ve got it ready to display inside. I posted this so others could remember some special rocks and crystals should be in a shaded area or inside if the color is a key feature.

Since it got almost 110° already now, early May, I brought in a few small fans from the garage. Cleaned them up with long swabs and one of them turned on but didn’t rotate. My son tried to get it going but the same. Today a helper came and I picked it up to have her take it to our trash. She asked if I was sure it didn’t work. Oh yes, I’m sure. She lightly banged it on the patio and Voilá, it works! Now starting year 7 on the small, mighty fan I spent a whole $11 for.

Just wanted to share this in case you want a reminder to take care of your fans. The photo shows the fan upside down and you can see down to the central part where the 3 fan blades join. I saw there was more dust farther inside and got it with the long swabs. I never had much luck with vacuum or compressed air to clean these. The grill covers don’t come apart. What works for you?

Brilliant blue and one of the many fascinating formations of azurite from a world-famous mine in Bisbee, Arizona. Because of the intensive copper mining, many excellent specimens of minerals have been collected for over 150 years. These three images are by iPhone, taken through the glass display cases of the convention center Showcase of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show this year. The theme was Red, White, and Blue. This case was one of many collections displayed for a patriotic American theme. Each of these 3 photos are of the same specimen. It was about 10” long. Because azurite crystals are usually seen as a brilliant deep blue to dark blue to purple color, it’s sometimes more obvious that excellent specimens with a fine matte finish show the association with copper-bearing minerals that have a little green tinge and appear more turquoise in color.

Son dug up most of the rocks imbedded in a side driveway parking place to get ready to level, put new barrier cloth down and improve. We thought they were very ordinary and all that dusty brown to gray color in the desert here. Today I picked out some to wash and was very surprised to find many minerals of different types. Now I want to take time and go through a batch daily to see if there are more special finds. I was surprised to find pumice, cinder, feldspar, gneiss, quartz, and serpentine all in the mix. Can you tell I am a rock collector?

PS I mentioned to my son it would be great to wash them to bring out the colors before they are put back. Yes, I know over time they will get back to boring brown gray. He thinks that’s weird. What do you think?

My favorites are milky quartz, pumice and a stone that when washed, looks green with very hard lumpy minerals mixed in a black base. I found a few rocks with very small blue traces of mineral that seem like weathered azurite or sodalite.