Rachel R. Smith's Blog, page 24

Writing on a Rainy Day

Drinking tea and outlining chapters on a stormy summer day (Harney & Sons Midsummer’s Peach).

Coming Soon!

Just a quick note to say: incoming! The first Records of the Ohanzee short story: Shattered Sugar Dreams will be released this weekend. The short stories will involve characters from the Records of the Ohanzee series, but tell about events that are beyond the scope of the main story line.

Shattered Sugar Dreams takes place three months before the beginning of Reflection: The Stranger in the Mirror. It is not necessary to have read Reflection to understand and enjoy this story. For fans of the main series: I hope this will be an enjoyable read while you wait for the release of book 2 at the end of August!

Field Research at Ohio Caverns

Today I visited Ohio Caverns, partially because I love visiting caves and partially as field research to gather information for part of Book 3 (hint, hint!). Ohio Caverns are limestone caves known for both the variety of stone formations present and the particularly brilliant colors of the mineral deposits. The formations within the cave are primarily composed of calcite, but there are iron oxide and manganese dioxide-based features as well. We went on both the Historic tour and the Natural Wonders tour. Each tour highlighted different features of the cave.

The Historic tour went through the first part of the cave to be discovered and opened for exploration in 1897. Unfortunately, many of the crystal formations were taken as souvenirs by the early visitors, but the tour was still enlightening. The lighting system used in this section of the cave is a replica of those used there in the 1920s. It was very dim, lacking the staged spotlights used in many other caves. Admittedly, it wasn’t so great for photography so I don’t have any good pictures from that part of the cave. But, I thought that it presented a great impression of how it must feel to actually explore a new cave. Our guide, Allison, had a great sense of humor which made the tour even more interesting! If you ever visit Ohio Caverns, try to get her as your guide and be sure to laugh at her jokes! ;)

The Crystal King

The second tour we took was the Natural Wonders tour. There was ample lighting present which served to highlight the variety of colors within the formations. The calcite stalactites and stalagmites were the brightest white that I’ve seen in any of the caves I’ve visited so far. One, named the Crystal King (see rig, was particularly impressive. The Crystal King is bright white and is said to be one of the largest and most perfectly formed stalactites to be discovered. Ohio Caverns are also the only ones in North America to contain “dual formations”. Dual formations occur when one mineral formation grows on another formation that has a different chemical composition. Those in Ohio Caverns are iron oxide formations that calcite has grown on.

Ultimately, the visit was enjoyable and gave me plenty of good material to draw from! See more pictures after the jump…

Calcite formation on ceiling

Dual formation columns of iron oxide (top, red-brown color) and calcite (bottom, white)

Water-filled passage

Calcite formations

Calcite formations

Calcite stalagtites on ceiling

Calcite stalagmite and example of colored deposits on ceiling

Sumo and Throwback Thursday

To support my claim that Sumo is, indeed, the world’s cutest dog, I will occasionally post pictures of him in all of his adorable glory. Sumo is a 3-year old black and tan Pomeranian. He packs enough personality and sweetness for ten dogs into 8 pounds of (mostly) fluff.

To celebrate Throwback Thursday, here’s a picture of Sumo with his favorite toy, “Blue Dog”, then and now. Sumo and his best bud are inseparable. (What he doesn’t know is that we have a stock of 10+ back up Blue Dogs that we rotate through when the previous ones are being washed or wear out. Shhhh, that’s our little secret ;) )

Sumo and Blue Dog (12 weeks old)

Sumo and Blue Dog (3 years old)