Tagged With: Copper

Azurite and Malachite

Photograph taken on Thursday, February 22, 2018 by Henry
Azurite and Malachite

Azurite and Malachite

The other day I posted a photo of a small souvenir from Republic, Michigan, where some of Cathy’s ancestors lived and at least one was involved in iron mining before moving to Alaska to mine gold. Well, my family has a little mining history, as well. My great grandfather came from England with his parents and at least some of his siblings. They lived in Canada for a while and he was in the military there during the United States Civil War. In the early 1970s he moved to Nevada where he mined for copper and silver. This is a piece of copper ore including both blue azurite (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2) and green malachite (Cu2CO3(OH)2). It’s a small piece found in the area he lived and worked and I think it’s sort of pretty. This piece is wet, which contributes to its shininess.

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Malachite and Azurite

Photograph taken on Monday, July 23, 2018 by Henry
Malachite and Azurite

Malachite and Azurite

I think I mentioned before that my great grandfather was a miner in Nevada in the late 19th century. He mined two forms of copper ore, green malachite and blue azurite, copper carbonates with formulas Cu2CO3(OH)2 and Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 respectively. For some reason, our family collects rocks. These were gathered on the mountain where my great grandfather lived and where my grandfather and his two siblings were born and raised. We have recently thrown away a lot of rocks that were in my mom’s basement but we kept a few that were particularly nice. Cathy put some in this bowl and they are outside our front door, where the bowl has filled with rain water, which I think makes it especially nice.

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Pennies

Photograph taken on Friday, January 04, 2019 by Henry
Pennies

Pennies

I was looking around for something to photograph today and came across a jar of coins, mostly pennies. We have a few jars like this around the house and we really should turn them in for cash and be done with it. As someone who collected coins from my youth, however, it’s hard to do that without first looking through them for old coins. When I was a kid, wheat back cents were quite common, being produced up through 1958. Starting in 1959, the obverse was changed to feature an image of the Lincoln Memorial, as you see here. I still come across a wheat cent now and then, but it’s fairly rare. They aren’t all that valuable, of course, unless they are towards the older end of the run.

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Beech Leaves

Photograph taken on Saturday, April 23, 2022 by Henry
Beech Leaves

Beech Leaves

Cathy, Dorothy, and I went for a walk on the Cabin John Creek trail today, from Bradley Boulevard to River Road (and a little beyond). It was warm today but still very good to be outside. This is a a nice walk and one we haven’t done before. There are some particularly nice areas, including an area thick with mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) and a few scattered wild azaleas. There is some bamboo growing along the trail in places, as well, which is different, even if it isn’t a native thing. The beech trees are starting to leaf out. On many stems the leaves are still tightly rolled and that’s pretty cool. On a few stems, as shown here, the leaves are open and their color is quite remarkable.

Also visible through the trees from the trail is the Robert Llewellyn Wright House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1953 for his sixth child.

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