Hotter Times.

7-20-11 VERMONT: Ninety degree heat continues, but I guess most of the country is hotter. I’m busy doing the usual chores, but not too busy to admire the blossom parade.

We have been studying soapstone, as in counter tops. Soapstone, it turns out, is mostly talc, the mineral of talcum powder. The chemical formula, Mg3Si4O10(OH)2, shows magnesium, silicon and oxygen. The rock is a metamorphic shistose product of silicates altered by heat and high pressure. Talc is the softest mineral, 1 on the Mohs hardness scale [diamond is the hardest mineral at 10]. Soapstone, because of the softness of talc, is easy to carve and has been and continues to be a favorite of sculptors.

New blooms: queen annes lace, echinacea, phlox.


Daisy. I love the spiral patterns in the center, either from the right or left the spiral from the outer edge curls into the center pit.