Clean up aisle 4 (Mandala Monday)

Once again I'm joining Dawn at Girl Unwinding for Mandala Monday. This week I'm trying to clean up the remains of a bad storm, hail, lightening, rain, rain, more rain, flooding, and rain.

What got me was once the bits and pieces had been cut or torn away from the parent plants that were headed for the compost pile, how quickly they wilted.

I confess I'm really, really naive when it comes to mandalas.  One thing I learned was in some religions, the mandala (which, according to Wikipedia means "circle") sometimes begins with a square and one of four doors or gates is placed on each side.  This highlights the circle, which radiates from the center outward.  That's what I was trying to accomplish in what I'm calling the "Clean-up Mandala."

I purchased this chess set one year in Mexico, and for the life of me, I can't remember what the material was called.  An internet search (NOT GOOGLE SEARCH-see this post from March, 2012 for clarity)  yielded nothing, and I keep coming up with names that don't match any searches.  There were white and blue chess pieces that had been carved from this really heavy material, I think was a mineral, and it was one of my favorites of all my chess sets.  

One day a friend stopped by when I had the entire set outside on my rock and stone back patio (NO, not the "patio" here in Wichita) and stumbled over the table it was on  (as an aside, I left it outside all summer in Missouri so friends and I could play chess whenever we had a few minutes).  Needless to say, most of the pieces broke and the board came apart.  I was sick, but not ready to send it to the landfill.  When I moved to Wichita, I let the chess pieces go, but kept the board, which took up residence on my front porch.  That's where it still lives today.  

If you know the name of the material this chess board is made up of, please let me know.  I've been wracking my brain trying to remember it.

 There is no "focus" on this camera, no mountain, no tulip, so this was a really lucky shot.

I tried to clean it up a bit in PS using  "auto levels" under "adjustments."  I love how it pulled out the blues of the background, and slight pink of these weeds.  And that's about all I can accomplish in this powerful program I've owned since 2000 and still don't understand most of it.

Have a super Mandala Monday and I hope to see YOU at Dawn's.  By the way, did I mention it's been raining (and flooding) here?