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!

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!!

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