Welcome to my World

Welcome to the domain different--to paraphrase from New Mexico's capital city of Santa Fe which bills itself "The City Different." Perhaps this space is not completely unique but my world shapes what I write as well as many other facets of my life. The four Ds figure prominently but there are many other things as well. Here you will learn what makes me tick, what thrills and inspires me, experiences that impact my life and many other antidotes, vignettes and journal notes that set the paradigm for Dierdre O'Dare and her alter ego Gwynn Morgan and the fiction and poetry they write. I sell nothing here--just share with friends and others who may wander in. There will be pictures, poems, observations, rants on occasion and sometimes even jokes. Welcome to our world!

Monday, April 30, 2012

Beltaine

The ancient Celts among whom many of my ancestors could be found, were fond of dividing things. They marked each year by the sun's journey back to the same spot and then broke it into quarters to mark the key points of the equinoxes and solstices. Not content with that they then split each quarter into halves and made more festivals on those points. Maybe they just liked to party but I think there was more to it than that. They lived close to nature in an agrarian life which centered around the seasons, the weather and of course propitiating the deities in order to get good crops and other blessings.

Beltaine or May Day in modern usage was one of those half-quarter points and marked the beginning of summer. They lit fires and celebrated the coming of summer, fertility--of crops, livestock and themselves--and honored various deities, among them the Goddess Brighid who presided over a number of things --fire and water, the forge, creative inspiration, healing and the home. Tonight --since the traditional holidays were always marked from sundown to sundown--I will celebrate with some like minded friends with a small virtual ritual in our group's chat room and maybe even a tiny fire in my yard. It's very dry and burning is dangerous right now so if there is the least breeze it will be a fire of spirit and not reality! A candle only perhaps.

The image is a statue of Brighid. Celtic goddesses are often shown with a white sow. There is speculation as to the symbolism but pigs were valuable animals and known to have high intelligence and perhaps special powers so there you see Brighid and her familiar.  In some Druid circles she is honored by a candle set in water to symbolize her power over both --sacred fire burning in the midst of water, a dichotomy and a demonstration of her power and strength.

Tomorrow I will try to share some special experiences I had over the past weekend as I celebrated my birthday. They were pretty amazing! Blessed Beltaine to all!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Deserts

I know many different impressions are evoked by the word desert.  Many see an empty expanse of sand like parts of the Sahara. Actually though,  in terms of geography, desert  has a rather precise meaning describing climate and elevation criteria that mark its boundaries.

Quite a lot of the southwestern US, especially in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas,  is classified as desert. But not all of it is bare sand nor the towering saguaros show in many photos. Some deserts have no cacti at all and most do have a variety of plant and animal life. Not always obvious in many cases, but that does not mean it isn't there!

The kind of desert I like is 'high desert' marked by limited rainfall and falling below the chaparral and the alpine climate and environment zones. Some of the common plants in such regions are mesquite, creosote, prickly pear, cholla, barrel and 'pin cushion' cactus and a variety of small annual plants that occasionally produce the amazing array of spring wild flowers when the conditions are right. There may be a few running streams although not too many, some seep springs or small oases, and a lot of rock! Most are marked with steep and very rugged mountains, which are often highly mineralized and have been mined at various times for some of those minerals. Just the next level up, you will find Juniper, Pinon pine and some deciduous trees. Along the stream beds, even those that appear dry, there are cottonwoods, sycamores and willows. The latter appear across two zones, the desert and the chaparral or brush/grassland zone. A couple of my shots of local desert scenery at the bottom! My new home town, Alamogordo, NM is in the Tularosa Valley as is the White Sands National Monument--it really is some bare sand! Strictly speaking the view across the Tularosa is about at the border between 'desert' and 'chaparral' as there are some juniper trees and grassland in the foreground areas.

I was surfing the other night--on the net, not the ocean LOL--trying to identify a plant growing in our yard. It turned out to be, as I had guessed, a variety of Ephedra often called "Mormon Tea". But what I want to share is one of the sites I found--and how I had missed it before I do not know! Anyway for a whole lot of information about deserts, check out http://www.desertusa.com/  You can search for specific words or phrases such as a plant or animal, and other key words. Arizona Highways and New Mexico magazine also have great pictures and sometimes articles about features of the deserts in both states.

I also want to share a favorite site where you can find a lot of good information about dogs--especially pertaining to health issues and care, training, feeding etc. It is http://www.petplace.com/  They do have a lot of ads but I will put up with that to learn and see some cute videos people submit with their pets etc. 
More soon! I will get to the story of Angus and Alanna before long, maybe next time!

Looking east across Tularosa Valley, NM

Desert near Las Cruces, NM

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Purple people?

I'm not sure how this ties in to my four D's but anyway... Well, it is kind of a Druid thing since we do have a responsibility to give care and stewardship to other creatures. So I am building a bird feeder. My feeders were hanging in a couple of fruit trees since I settled in my new home and I realized that might not be the best spot now that nectarines and apricots are forming!! I wold like to taste a few of them at least.

My late huband and I had done one in Arizona long ago--I am sure I can find a photo that shows at least part of it and I will add that before I post this. Anyway it's made of various sizes of white PVC water pipe. I used the plastic flower pot saucers before; this one will have some of those and some plastic picnic dishes as well.

In order to glue these lengths and the necessary fittings together you have to use a primer to treat the slick surface so the glue will bond and hold. The primer stuff has acetone and other chemicals in it and is colored purple so you can see it on the white pipe and know a piece is ready to be glued. Well, being the world class klutz I sometimes am, I tipped the can over. Boy but I got a good splashing. Luckily I was wearing an old pair of cut off jeans and an older shirt as I suspect they will be purple until the threads rot and separate. My skin is a little easier to clean but I do have some bruisy-looking spots on both legs and one arm. They will wash off in a couple of days worth of showers. At  least I think they will....

Back in a much earlier life when I was training horses and mules and caring for them, I had a spot of purple or two on me all the time and most of my work clothes were similarly adorned. There was a veterinary wound dressing, one brand was called "Den-blu" as I recall and it had gentian violet in it. You do not wash that off--your skin would disintegrate before the pigment would vanish! The same chemical is sometimes used to mark money and other things so a would-be robber is easily identified by the unusual color! It is colorless until it gets wet and then boom, the darkest royal shade you ever saw!!If there are any flying purple people eaters around, I am currently in some trouble.... And no, I can testify I did not rob any Wells Fargo armored vans nor come upon a wrecked one, DTBL!! (darn the bad luck) Anyway this is not that purple!

Actually I am fairly handy and like to fool with tools and things. I know my way around a workshop and am not afraid to pick up an electric drill, a skill saw or most any hand tool but there are times.... Oh well, what is a little mess in the process of a fun, constructive task?  This is not a fab picture but gives you an idea. The current one will be a little slimmer as the main pipe is 3" instead of 4" and the arms will be only 2". We just had the larger stuff on hand in Arizona from a previous project, getting a well drilled and water piped to the house etc. And yes there are birds on the ground; seed always got spilled and some birds prefer to feed low instead of up in the dishes although they were probably empty by afternoon anyway! Those birdies were greedy and I fed a lot of them! Another day I may share some of those pix to include bats at my hummingbird feeders!!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Druids and Blessings

The image at the left here is the art work of a dear friend and fellow seeker a bit farther along
the Druid path than am I. The complex and subtle spiritual message and iconic symbols she wove into this picture of Brighid, ancient and modern goddess as well as Christian Saint speak to me in a powerful way! Perhaps it will resonate with you as well.

Today I had my annual eye exam and it is a huge relief to have that over for more reasons than one. Last year the doctor in Colorado told me that he thought he was seeing some traces of beginning macualar degeneration. I was rendered shocked and speechless and did not ask the questions that I should have. Very soon after that life devolved into a mad roller coaster ride with health and job and moving issues that totally consumed the next six-eight months of life. I worried about my vision but put it on the back burner. Lately that concern grew more pressing as the anniversary of my check up approached.

Needless to say there was an element of dread in going for this exam. It turned out better than I could have hoped and for that I give heartfelt thanks to the deities and spirits that I believe guard and protect me! The clinic for a small not super-rich town is very modern and well equipped. The staff were all great. I saw one of the doctors after the technicians did the routine stuff and he looked into my eyes, all the way through my head I think! He said both my cataracts and any other issues are advancing very slowly and when I confessed that losing my vision had always been one of my greatest fears, he smiled and patted my arm. "I don't see anything that should cause that to happen for a long time," he said. I nearly fainted with relief!

Almost everything I enjoy doing and want to continue requires at least adequate vision so I will continue to take my AREDS Formula 2 vitamins and wear my darker shades when out in the bright New Mexico son! And pray this good report will be repeated many times. Thank you, thank you!!

With this still in mind, once my eyes began to return to normal from the dilating drops, I went out to my work bench in the garage and 'played' with beads a bit. Some time ago I had strung a little fob for my phone that had a reminder to me to behave as I know I should. In a take off from the WWJD motto that has become popular the last few years, i use WWaDD or "What would a Druid do?" If they were/are as wise and gentle and attuned to the principles of Truth, Art and Kinship (my Tuatha de Brighid group is anyway) they would follow the golden rule and truly try to avoid being mean, judgmental, rude or causing any harm they can avoid to all in and on our earth and even beyond it. So "WWaDD" now hangs from my cell phone again, maybe more sturdily put together than one I had earlier and lost. I do need the reminder at times for I am not always the person my dog thinks I am and that disturbs me. Her sweet trusting eyes speak of such love and devotion I know I must work forever to be worthy of it!!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Dogs and Dust Storms

I admit there are down sides to any place one can choose to live. The coasts can have severe storms, tsunamis and maybe hurricanes. The northern and mountainous places can have wind, blizzards and bitter cold, and even my beloved deserts can be blasted with dust storms! We had one yesterday--a brown-out so intense from mid morning until around sunset that the foothills less than a mile away were totally obscured!

Those are the days to stay indoors and that I did, taking the day to rearrange my room so my computer sits against a solid wall and the glare from outside does not make the screen hard to see. Like most rooms, there are only so many ways to arrange a finite group of objects in a finite space broken by windows and doors. I drew it out on graph paper several ways and finally chose one. It works; not ideal but livable--I think. I woke once in the night a bit disoriented since things were not the same. And in the process I seem to have tweaked my DirecTV link and it was not working last night. If it does not reset itself I will have to call them...and I **hate** going thru a zillion push this for that things before you finally get a real live person, hopefully in the USA. Wish me luck!!

I promised more dogs. Let's talk about Mickey McCu. For those who might not know Gaelic, "Cu" is hound or dog in Irish and Mc of course means son of. So he was Mickey, son of dog. Mick was a Brittany Spaniel and I 'inherited' him along with my two 'house broke' kids when I married my husband. I had a few rules that Mick did not like such as no dogs on beds and once took a broom to him--not in a really mean way but just to 'sweep' him off one of the kid's beds. We had a troubled relationship for some time where he would condescend to let me feed him but little else but finally got to a mutual respect.

Although a bird dog breed and very typical of it --he was red and white, a bit taller and more lanky than the other Spaniels like Cockers and Spingers. Anyway he was deathly afraid of both guns and water due to traumas he'd suffered as a puppy. For some reason the breeder took a dislike to him and tried to drown him by throwing him into the San Pedro River--now the "Sandy Pete" is a river in name only and flows intermittently above ground, only really rolling in very wet seasons or when a heavy rain caused much run-off so I am not sure when Mickey got pitched but he made it out somehow. Then I think the man shot at him trying to run him off. (I gather this guy whom I never met --lucky for him!--was a bit of a nut case from what my hubby and son told me.)

Sadly Mickey got away when we were moving to Colorado and although we searched and advertised we never saw him again.

There were a number of other dogs that came and went for awhile but Angus and Alanna deserve a special telling so I will introduce them tomorrow. Angus was a Siberian Husky--though perhaps mixed--and Alanna was Chow and wolf!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Of Dragons and Dogs





According to Chinese astrology this is the year of the water dragon, April is the dragon month and 13 a dragon day! So this date is lucky as a 'triple dragon' day, a bit rare. That tidbit is just for anyone who may be worried about Friday the 13th. I've never had any problems with the number 13. Although my favorite numbers are 3 and multiples of it, 4 is not a bad number and of course in numerology you add the digits of any non-ordinal number to find its core number--thus 13 is actually 4.


But I am also a dragon fan of sorts. A very specific style of dragon is associated with Wales and even appears on the Welsh flag--a handsome red dragon on a field of white over green. Quite striking! I loved the Dragon stories of Anne McCaffery and was saddened by her recent passing.



So on to dogs. I was thinking back about all the canine companions who have graced my life. The first one, according to what I know now, was an English Shepherd or at least that type. I do not have a scanned-in picture of him and only a couple of old black and whites but he looked a bit like the tri-colored dog in the picture above but with less white. Like Aussies (Australian Shepherds) and Border Collies, similar breeds, English Shepherds come in several color patterns although the 'merle' or tweedy mix of black or red with white for a blended color common in Aussies and Queensland Heelers is rare in them.



I got this dog as a weanling puppy for a birthday, I think my 10th or 11th. Flash, which was what I called my first pup, was a black tri--black and coppery tan with some white. He loved to run and was full of life and fun. At that time I had a scooter--rather simpler and cruder than the ones the kids have now --but I rode it up and down the sidewalk of our block in the small central Arizona town where we lived. Flash would run along inside the fence, leaping over the fences between each yard and barking with delight. Most of the neighbors did not seem to mind.



Sadly he came to an early and unhappy end. In those days in small western towns and rural areas, no one kept dogs up--no leash laws etc and my parents didn't believe in dogs in the house. Flash ran free with other neighbor dogs and got into trouble. He ended up shot with a b-b gun or a .22 and the wound did not show thru his fur so we didn't realize until he had develped fatal peritonitis. The loss broke my heart but he always has a special place in my memory and will be leading the pack when I meet my furred friends at the foot of the Rainbow Bridge. Once I was grown each pet I had got more care and attention from my greater knowledge and most lived long and relatively happy lives. Next time you will hear about Mickey McCue and then perhaps Angus and Alanna.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Dreams









The word dream has several meanings and a lot of connotations. Most of us are very familiar with at least two of three of them. First there are the sleeping dreams, those often strange and puzzling adventures that come to us at night. We may be simply an observer, an active participant, or even seem to be someone other than who we are in the here and now. Some of them are very vivid and seem 'real' when we wake up while others are fragmented and seem to make no sense at all. I think most of them do carry a message from either our subconscious mind, departed spirits or souls linked to ours, perhaps a guardian angel or spirit guide or maybe from some other source. But unraveling what that message may be can be a huge challenge.

I do not put a lot of stock in most of the books that purport to tell us the 'real' meaning of various objects, people or situations we may experience in the dream realm. I think most of them were written by the same school of analysts who declare with lofty contempt that women who smoke suffer from p**is envy or a desire for a certain male appendage! Bull hockey! I never smoked a lot but I can assure you I never once in my life really wanted to be male or sport male equipment! As the song went, "I enjoy being a girl!" However, I was a tomboy and maybe that met any needs I might have had to take on some masculine attributes or activites.

Then there are daydreams--those mostly pleasant scenarios we construct to pass time or to escape from a boring or unpleasant reality that we find ourselves in the midst of. Those of us who are of a creative bent were probably often chided in school for gazing out the window and drifting off into a daydream when we were supposed to be studying or listening to a hugely boring dissertation about English or algebra or ancient Mesopotamia! I know I was but a lot of those daydreams found their way into poems and stories that I wrote.

Sometimes, if we are a believer in the such philosophies as The Secret and The Law of Attraction daydreams could be considered visualization and maybe if we build them with enough substance could materialize desired events or objects to appear in our lives! On that I am not quite sure; so far my efforts have not succeeded very well. Maybe I just do not have enough faith or focus! But I do keep dreaming...

And then there are 'dreams' which might also be called goals or wishes or items for our bucket list or other collection of things we want to see, do, be, accomplish or acquire. For me some of those are watching the Iditarod sled dog race in person--once I even dreamed of competing but at my age that is a bit far fetched even to dream of! Others are to learn to fly an airplane, again probably out of reach for this lifetime and maybe to make a significant best seller list with someething I wrote. I would love to travel to the British Isles and visit some of the ancient sites and places where my Celtic ancestors walked, to Australia, and to regions in the Middle East which are now very dangerous and hardly hospitable to a liberated western woman! Again not likely but one never knows. Maybe a 'sugar daddy' will show up who wants to take me to my dream places! And yes I do 'dream' of kilted laddies and cowboys and the idea of being able to dance as they did in Riverdance!

Do these far-fetched wishes and goals have a purpose? Yes, I think they do. Even when we know rationally that they are far out of our reach, they tend to draw us along, keep our imaginations active and maybe inspire us to do related or somehow connected things that are more within our grasp. I know my special dreams do start my 'what if' mechanism working and many a story evolves from that start. A few of my writings have actually begun as a sleeping dream too. More on that another day.

Just a suggestion: why not start a dream collage? Cut out pictures from magazines, collect images on line or do your own art work to build some scenes and events and post this visualization where you can see it every day and be reminded and inspired. Who knows what might come of it?


Follow your dreams with confidence and devotion!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Sunsets Part Two--verses

Poetry has been my favorite literary form for only a few less years than I have lived. I wrote my first simple verse at the age of eight. The first of these verses was written when I was the lofty age of twelve and becoming a bit more sophisicated in my rhymes! The others came along later... Thanks for sharing with me here!

Evening
When the sun is dying in the west
That’s the time I love the best--
When twilight begins to fall
Lending beauty and grace to all.
GMW, C: 1955

At Sunset
Such beauty spread across the heavens vast,
Such colors exquisite and unsurpassed.
It is a precious gift that gives such rapture
But it is too delicate, alas, to capture.
Its colors rare defy the artist’s hand;
Its creation only God can understand.
The sunset’s beauty holds me quite enthralled.
It can’t be kept but it can be recalled.
So when skies are gray as in December,
I simply close my eyes and then remember . . . .
GMW, 8 Apr 1963



Pensamientos Entre Dos Luces*

The rays of twilight reflect across the vacant hills.
The silence echoes in my responsive ears.
I listen to the silence and read its messages.
The sky is adrift now with the shades of sundown.
Its glow reflects in my eager eyes.
I absorb the glow and it colors my dreams.
The air is alive now with the vibrancy of silence.
Its music responds to the harmony of evening.
My soul matches chords with the music of night.
The earth is transformed by the beauty of nightfall.
My responsive spirit absorbs its splendor.
I am reborn and I too am beautiful.
The rays of twilight reflect in my eyes.
My soul’s voice echos the melody of silence.
The shades of sundown dye my face, my hair.
GMW, 1963
*Thoughts between two lights

Sunset Cipher
Coral and rose on faded blue,
Still at last ‘neath the broad dark sky,
Fragile runes traced in the sky
Above the patient mountain ranks.
My destiny is writ on high.
If I could only learn to read
In clouds the hidden, coded word.
What secrets might be known to me
That none have ever heard?
GMW, C: 1990

Sunsets



















Although sunset does not start with a D, they are and long have been a favorite thing of mine. I have many photos taken beginning when I was using a little Kodak "Brownie" box camera way back in the dark ages and moving all the way to the digital age through several 35mm SLR cameras of varying quality, both slides and negatives! Someday I will get them all scanned.

Arizona and New Mexico, because of the dust in the air I am told, are both known for fantastic sunsets. I'm not sure what season is the best for them as I have seen beauties in every season of the year. Usually the only requirement is some clouds to pick up the colors and their position in the sky so the sun can shine underneath them as it goes down. The picture on the opening of this blog is one I took about a month ago right here in my new home in Alamogordo, NM. I am at the edge of the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains which are the location for several communities such as Ruidoso, Cloudcroft and Capitan. There is a lot of history here but I will save that for another time. Anyway the locale gives me a great view across the Tularosa Valley to the San Augustin and Organ mountains that separate this valley from the Rio Grande Valley.

While there is not a spectacular sunset every evening, they are frequrent and a few are absolutely breath taking. The one on the left was the same evening as the opening shot and the other was last fall shortly after I arrived. In a separate post I'll add a few verses about sunsets that I composed over the years. Enjoy!

The Magic of a Clean Slate

There are so many cliche things about a new start. I could use them all, but I won't. I just want to begin, to sit and talk as if with a group of friends. A few of my favorite things--raindrops and roses perhaps but no kittens. I am allergic to cats. Not that I do not like them but they make me sneeze and my eyes run and my skin break out. Not pretty. So I stick with dogs for my fur-friends mostly.

The title says it all, or as nearly as I can in a few words. Of course all my faves are not 'D' words but many are and these four are very near the top of the list. Throw in sunsets and happy endings and the many faces of nature.... All those will be saved for other days.

Right now I celebrate the fact that I am back in the true southwest which I know and love, I truly believe from many lives here or in similar places before this one. My spirit is at home here--rugged mountains, dust, heat and all. In Carlos Casteneda's books about the Mexican shaman and wise man Don Juan, he spoke of finding one's place. The high desert is mine--more specifically I have many smaller bits of this world that call to me and in which I fit and feel right but the desert is home. The Welsh have a word "Hireth" which describes the soul-deep longing one feels for that true home-of-the-heart. Although I have a lot of Celtic blood and I am very much drawn to the British Isles and ancient sites there, either from genetic memory, past lives or other ties, I am most drawn to the desert. It is good to be back.

The picture at the top is one of the spectacular sunsets for which New Mexico is known. I call the dominant color shown "fire gold", a term I coined many years ago when I was a teen living in the middle part of Arizona and even then entranced with sunsets. Enjoy! We'll be back to talk more tomorrow!