A Palette of Color in Death Valley, California

 

One of the major attractions of Death Valley, California was the mineral deposits. Mining was a boom-and-bust attraction for over 140 years. The main mining interests were focused on borax and its 20-mule team wagons that became the basis of a popular TV show called "Death Valley Days" hosted in 1964 and 1965 by Ronald Reagan. Reagan left the series to run for Governor of California and the rest is history. See Wikipedia: Death Valley Days. There are several websites where you can watch the original series. 

Parking Lot Rainbow

 Some of my earliest memories have always been seeing it rain when the sun was shining and seeing the rainbows in the oil on the streets. You might want to call this a double or even a triple rainbow. There is beauty all around. 

Life in Death Valley, California

 

The overwhelming impression of Death Valley, California is that there are no plants. But if you look carefully at the lower left corner of this image, you will see some very hard-to-notice bushes. It is true that foliage is scarce, but it does exist. The white stripe is not a road or a trail, it is a natural feature. However, there is a glimpse of the road on the middle of the left side of the image. 

Eroded Salt in Death Valley, California

 With a huge drought in the western part of the United States, it is illustrative to see what an almost completely dry landscape looks like. This is a huge playa in Death Valley, California. This is what happens when the rainfall drops to less than 2 inches a year. 

Reconstruction of the Salt Lake City, Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

 

The reconstruction of the Temple is now slated to last until 2025, an extra year. The scaffolding is almost unbelievable. This is the view of the Temple from South Main looking north.  

Pioneer Reflections

 

This photo is looking south towards South Temple Street from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The statue commemorates the pioneer handcart treks from the banks of the Mississippi river 1,400 miles to the Salt Lake Valley from 1856 to 1860. The reflection is the Assembly Hall finished in 1882. It is highly unlikely that any of the pioneers would have imagined the statue or the reflection in a high rise building across South Temple from Temple Square. 

Watching the Reconstruction

This statue of the Angel Moroni looks out at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. For information about Moroni, see Angel Moroni. During the reconstruction of the Salt Lake City, Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the original Angel Moroni statue was removed from the eastern spire of the temple. This particular statue is in The Church History Museum. The one from the temple is being stored during the long reconstruction process. The renovation process has been extended to five years and at the time of this post, will be completed in 2025. 

Evidence of Spring

 

Grape Hyacinths are some of the earliest flowers to bloom in the Spring, often even before all the snow has melted. We have quite a few in our front yard but ours are usually eaten by the deer that live around us long before they bloom. Despite the annual persecution by the deer, the plants continue to come up and try hard to bloom every year. 

Chocolate Strawberry Cake

 

Every once in a while, someone in my family bakes a stupendous birthday cake. This particular cake tasted as good as it looks. This was for a grandson's birthday. 

Desert Rose

 This is a closeup of a gypsum mineral called "Desert Rose." Here is a short explanation about this interesting mineral. 

Desert rose is the colloquial name given to rose-like formations of gypsum or baryte crystal clusters which contain abundant grains of sand. The ‘petals’ are crystals flattened on the c crystallographic axis, fanning open in radiating flattened crystal clusters.

The rosette crystal habit tends to occur when the crystals form under arid sandy conditions, such as a shallow salt basin becoming evaporated. The crystals form a circular series of flat plates that give the rock a similar shape to a rose blossom.

Read more : https://www.geologypage.com/2020/03/desert-rose-what-is-desert-rose-how-do-desert-roses-form.html#ixzz7PcytqdkN

This is a closeup of one of the specimens that we have in our living room.  This is a gypsum mineral with sand. 

Happy Birthday Candles

 

A lovely birthday cake with colorful candles. If you look closely, you can also see the chocolate covered strawberries.