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, September 29, 2012

Fall and Passing Time

It is really fall finally. This one short time I miss the high country--the golden aspens glowing like spilled sunlight in the gentle slant of autumn's light. I took this shot in Wolf Creek Pass (CO) two years ago.Flagstaff was pretty this time of year too. I really enjoyed the four years I spent there back in the late 60s.  We had a nice rain yesterday afternoon--the remnants of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Miriam sent a big surge of moist air our way and it gave us close to a half inch in a nice steady rain from mid afternoon through the evening. Today it is cooler--still mild and very pleasant-but a fall feel to the air. I hope we will have more fall storms to make up for the low rains this summer.

This is my favorite time of the year and I'm getting an itchy foot to get out and see some of the lovely country around here. With Belle, it is still kind of hard to arrange that, though, but I am going to see what I can do the next few weeks. I'm giving her three tramadol pain pills each twenty four hours now and that is keeping her pretty stable but she also sleeps a great deal and that would be hard for her to do in the car but maybe in the little wagon with the back seat down so there is a good flat area, she might be able to. I'll try a short trip or two and see how she does. But there is always next year if it has to wait.

I have to admit the time has kind of slipped away from me! I look around my room and realize I need to do some serious cleaning. It is amazing how the dust and fur accumulates! I took the bi fold doors off my closet and am working on a curtain for the opening. I did this in my old house in Whetstone and liked the results so have decided to do the same thing here and even convinced my brother it was a good idea! I did his curtain first--fabric that goes with some on the pieces on the big railroad themed quilt I did for him a few years back! He gets impatient if they don't slide easily so I found some hooks meant for shower curtains that have rollers built in and they work great! I'm such a weirdly creative person that I like the challenges of figuring out how to get around a problem in odd ways. Like how to attach these hooks to a pair of curtains that did not have the built in eyelets or 'button holes' of most shower curtains. I found out that one part of some metal snaps--like are used on a lot of western shirts etc. would work very well and the wire part of the hook slid right through the little hole! So that worked out well. I felt smug solving that problem!

Mine will be a little different and I'll use some curtain rings with clips that I used on some of the window treatments in Colorado when we moved up the street in July 2009 to a house with many big, bare windows! The curtains will be tan, matching the sheets I use a lot and have a band or two of southwest stripe fabric for trim--like the window curtains which are chambray blue (like other sheets) with a band of red "Indian" print near the lower edge. I have bought few curtains in my life--it is more fun to make them and have just what I want. Yes, the old Sinatra song is kind of my theme--I did it my way!

I have the house to myself for a few days. Charlie made up with his lady friend and has gone over to Carlsbad to help her move from a rented little shack of a house into a brand new condo=apartment. Of course I am dog-sitting and have the radio blaring. My CD player and the cassette player are both bad order so I'm reduced to the radio only. Yes, I am pouting a little! I guess I will have to go on eBay and see what they have in bookshelf stereos since I am not going to MP3 and stuff just yet!! I even have a lot of old LPs and like a lot of hard core music aficionados I still like the sound there, even with a bit of background noise and less purity than digital recordings. They had a warmth and life that 'perfect' doesn't quite give. So for now it's the radio or silence. :-( I will survive!

The sun is shining even if there was some fog this morning. It was kind of neat when it drifted over me when I was walking the dogs! I got a few minutes of Ireland or some misty isle in the distance of fantasy. Quiet, cool and silky moist sliding by us. Here in the desert that is a rare treat! So one more day and the first of my favorite months will be over...and the second will be here. October's "bright blue weather". That sounds silly as weather is not blue and not even really bright yet that phrase has a special magic and the air and sky will be bright and blue, proof that I am 'home' in the desert--and a week from today will be the 1st anniversary of the first night in this house! I can hardly believe it's been that long! It's good to be home though.



Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Rainy days, balloons and changing seasons

It's my favorite time of year--but here in the high desert the transition comes in fits and starts, a bit of summer, a taste of fall, some wind and restlessness.... And I love it all!

A cold front swept down last week and dropped temperatures drastically for a day or two. It also gave us a bit of badly needed rain. I walked with Belle and Rico in a gentle drizzle Thursday morning and quite enjoyed it. We didn't get sopping wet but pretty damp. Still, the moist air felt so smooth and the scent was sweet, clean and vital. The old song "Just walking in the rain" came to mind but my mood was much more chipper and I was not trying to forget anything nor hide my tears among the raindrops. Walking in the rain here is a rare treat. Either it is definitely not raining or we're in the midst of a crashing, blowing thunderstorm that one would be crazy to venture out in! So this was a gift! We were also rewarded with a rare morning rainbow that day...and of course I had to get a picture! The rainbow was only partial, just to the left of the small house in the lower center--you'll have to enlarge it to see it very well!

Then the weekend saw the local balloon festival. Of course it cannot rival the huge spectacle of the annual Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque but they had about fifty some balloonists. Saturday they lifted off near the small local airport and I counted about twenty-five in the air at once as I walked my canine crew in two shifts. The next day they rose from the White Sands National Park area and I didn't have a great view but still saw a few. I would love to go up in one someday! They say it costs 15-25 thousand to buy and outfit one so that is way beyond my means but since flying has always fascinated me, especially when it doesn't rely on conventional power, it would be marvelous to take a trip! Perhaps my Prince Charming will arrive with tickets someday (ROFL--as likely as the moon rising in the west tomorrow morning!) I only got one picture--battery issue with my little camera messed me up. Last year I saw some of the balloon event in Colorado Springs as we were in the throes of moving and got a shot or two then. That's the one on the right here.

And with September more than half over now, Autumn is very close. It is in full swing to the north I am sure but tiptoeing in here, a hint in the morning and evening when the coolness is more marked, a taste and feel in the wind, really mostly a breeze but bearing a different message than the summer breezes--drier, cooler, more restless. Still have some hummers but they have thinned out a lot and bees are being pesky, probably feeling the season change and trying to prepare for the winter. I saw two beautiful hawks yesterday, hunting over the open area behind our place. I am guessing red tails but could be wrong. They did look like the ones I had in the big pasture area behind my Arizona home, though, so that was a neat thing! I love the effortless way they fly and the wild sound of their shrill cries. They soar and glide, hardly beating their wings at all. Big birds but so graceful. Once I was a being that could fly; I can feel it still, the magical power and pleasure of being free in the sky, sensing the air currents and riding upon them. I dream of it still at times.

This weekend will bring the equinox--Mabon as it is called in the Druid and Wiccan communities, and a sacred turning point on the wheel of the year.  Day and night are equal; the sun hovers over the equator, slipping farther away from us for a season. Harvest time and a drawing in for the rest and regrouping period of winter with its colder, bleaker days and greater darkness. A festival too to give thanks and enjoy the fruits of your labors through the growing times, putting away the sustenance for the harsher times. Although Samhain around November 1 is also a similar holiday in spirit so both are parallel festivals. I'm out of step with many but consider the equinoxes as marking the 'dark' and 'light' halves of the year and the Winter solstice as New Year's though many Celtic/Druid followers say this is Samhain and the opposite is Beltane. Who can say really? Without a time machine to go find what the ancient druids did and believed, we can but intuit and improvise. .

The local pagan community is having a retreat and celebration in a campground off the highway to Las Cruces; perhaps next year I can join them but I am not ready to leave Belle that long right now. She is doing pretty well but still needs a watchful eye--she dives off the back stoop or gets anxious and slips and skids, does not know when to settle and be quiet to rest. So 'Mama" needs to be here for and with her most of the time....  Perhaps I go overboard on this but it is my choice to do so. And I will as long as she is with me.

Some of my online Druid friends will be doing a ritual on Saturday evening--although we are scattered all over the globe we'll coordinate a time and go through it as if we were together. I am looking forward to that. Praying for healing and peace in the world and for those we know who are struggling with health and personal issues and dedicating ourselves to a spiritual path we believe in as a group gives special meaning and honors the day as best we can.

So brightest blessings to each and if anyone would like to join the ritual email me at azwriter427@yahoo.com and I will send you the written guide and the way to figure the time in your zone to join with us.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Where the Thunder Walks

I was going through files related to writing and came across this article I wrote a few years back. At the time I thought to submit it to Fate or a similar periodical but never did and no longer plan this but I did think some of my readers here might find it interesting! So I'm sharing it with you today! The lightning photo is mine; as is the one of Coffee Pot Rock in Sedona. The one of the Red Rock moon rise above is not but it gives the mystique I discuss a good image!


                                                        Where the Thunder Walks

Not for nothing do we have an old saying, "Good things come in threes."  Three is a number of great power and potent magic.  The idea of the triad runs through many primitive religions and was even borrowed by the Christians for their Trinity because of the amazing power inherent in the "Rule of Three."  Thus, it was no real surprise when a peculiar revelation came to me recently, one involving yet another mystical trine.
Almost everyone familiar with New Age beliefs and literature has heard of the energy vortex or power point located in Boynton Canyon, near Sedona, Arizona.  During the past ten or fifteen years, it has been widely publicized by the Dick Sutphen and others.  Perhaps less well known, unless one has traveled U.S. Highway Interstate Eight west of Yuma, Arizona, is a point known as the "Center of the Universe" where another group has built a huge pyramid and metaphysical center. 

I recently fell to thinking of these two places and suddenly realized there must be a third one!  I promptly dug out a state map.  First, I tried a pendulum.  I could scarcely believe my eyes when it hovered over the middle of Cochise County, in southeastern Arizona, where I now reside.
Then, with a ruler, I measured the distance between the two known points and then to the area the pendulum indicated.  I found it was almost exactly the same distance from Sedona as was the desert spot, and only slightly farther from the latter.  The exact spot is in the San Pedro Valley, north and east of the communities of Sierra Vista and Huachuca City.
Suddenly, it fell into place with an almost audible click.  Of course!  The Apache sensed a mystical atmosphere in the region and made it their special hideaway.  Even earlier, the Sopaiburi and other Amerind tribes frequented the area.  Their name for the region was the origin of the modern name "Huachuca" (pronounced Wa-CHOO-ka) and meant "Where the Thunder Walks."  How better could one describe a vortex of energy and power?
Although the name has in modern times been settled on a range of mountains along the southwest side of the Valley, I suspect these early denizens applied it to an opposite mountain area, now called the Dragoons.
Even deeper into the past, people were here.  Along the San Pedro near the modern settlements of Hereford and Palominas, on the ranch of Mr. Ed Lerner, a site has been discovered where primitive warriors killed mammoths.  Prior to this find, few even acknowledged man and mammoths coexisted, at least in the new world.
But at this site, some of the fine stone arrow and spear heads known as "Folsum Points" have been found embedded in mammoth bones.  This leaves no room for doubt that ancestors of Native American people actually killed mammoths, which perhaps were mired in mud or quicksand in that area.  More than one of the gigantic beasts fell prey here to Stone Age hunters thousands of years ago.
Mysterious hieroglyphics can also be found,  graven in stones of all the mountains which surround the valley, possibly left by the same folk who slew the mammoths.  Still earlier, southern Arizona was a plateau, higher than more northerly regions which were then a swampy forest, now preserved in part in the Petrified Forest in northeastern Arizona.

I grew up about thirty miles from the Sedona vortex point in central Arizona's beautiful Verde Valley.  At that time, I had no idea such things as an energy vortex existed, much less that one was near by.  I only knew "my" valley was a special place and its air often seemed to be charged with a peculiar intensity.  I rode horseback all over the hills and canyons of the region and absorbed its magic until it became an integral part of me, leaving a constant awareness of the 'otherness' which exists all around us.  Then I grew up and left the area and thought no more of it for many years. 
After wandering about for a number of years, I finally settled in Cochise County.  Here too is much natural beauty of the sort typical of the southwest.  This stark, rugged land holds many secrets and hidden treasures. 
Here too the very air sometimes seems to hold a special vividness but I gave it little thought until recently.  Once I 'caught on" I had to laugh at myself for being so slow to reach this awareness.  The whole region is infused with a special magic, and I had felt it all along, without really thinking about it. 
To the southeast side of the valley lies a range of mountains now called the Mules.  Some years ago, my husband and I, in a fanciful mood due to reading Tolkein and other fantasy tales, had christened this range 'The Sleeping Dragon'.
Viewed from across the valley around modern Fort Huachuca, it takes only a little imagination to see a great beast, tail curling near the Mexican border and head not far from the town of Tombstone.  Thus, the dragon has guarded at least two mineral lodes of great worth:  the copper mines of Bisbee which are also the source of the famous "Bisbee Blue" turquoise, and the rich silver lode of Tombstone. Since geologists know there are yet more rich mineral deposits to be found, other 'boom towns' may yet arise, unless the dragon wakes.
The valley is also steeped in history.  It is here the Spanish explorer Coronado first set foot in land which is now the United States, probably the first European to enter the region west of the Mississippi.  Here in the 1770s, about the time the Colonists on the Eastern seaboard tired of British oppression, the Franciscans established a 'visita' ‑ a small mission without a resident Padre ‑ at Quiburi, a Sopaiburi village on the west bank of the San Pedro River.  The ruins, a few melting adobe walls, are now inside the San Pedro Riparian Conservation area, protected by the Bureau of Land Management.
Sometime later, a plague wiped out most of the Sopaiburi and the influx of the warlike Apache drove the survivors to retreat to the region of Tucson.  For awhile, the people of Cochise and Geronimo had the area to themselves, but then the European Americans descended. 
Settlers began to arrive and the Army came, setting up camps and outposts which were later centralized to become the present‑day Fort Huachuca.  Intrepid ranchers such as Pete Kitchen and John Slaughter brought cattle from Texas to graze on the rich grasslands, wandering prospectors found valuable minerals, and "civilization" came to the San Pedro.  Ironically, most of these newcomers didn't have the sensitivity to realize they invaded a special place. 
Today thousands of tourists pass through to view the historical mining camps of Bisbee and Tombstone.  In 1996, Karchner Cavern in the foothills of the Whetstone Mountains will open, a new attraction to rival the wonders of Carlsbad Caverns if preliminary photographs are any indication. 
At Fort Huachuca, the Army trains soldiers in the modern 'magic' of Military Intelligence and Electronic Warfare, while the Army Communications Command develops and applies lasers and other state‑of‑the‑art technology.  All this where a century ago, the 'Buffalo Soldiers' and their officers flashed heliograph messages across the valley from the present day Huachuca Mountains to peaks in the Dragoons while the Native Americans they pursued used smoke signals and even more subtle and secret communications.
Mining has slowed greatly and there are few cattle ranches left, but relics of both remain, along with those of the earlier residents.  Thus, new links in an old chain are still forged with the passage of time.
Yet another peculiar coincidence links the three points.  The San Pedro River is one of very few in the continental U.S. which flows predominantly northward.  It joins the Gila near the towns of Winkleman and Hayden.  To the north, the Verde River flows south to meet the Salt River north of Phoenix.  South and west of Phoenix, the Salt joins the Gila.  The Gila crosses the state to flow into the Colorado, just north of Yuma.  Thus, a network of running water links all three sites, or very nearly so.  Given the geographical dispersion involved, this would hardly be expected, so it seems to have some arcane significance. 
As nearly as I can determine, the exact vortex or power point is on private land, east of the San Pedro River.  I do not feel free to disclose the exact coordinates.  Quite possibly the owner does not even know of its existence.  However, I can attest the whole region is alive with energies any sensitive person can feel. 
Each of the mountain ranges bordering the valley has its own special ambience, due to alignment with and proximity to the power point.  Natural wonders are many, and long term residents all relate tales of strange sightings and events, either experienced personally or related to them by trusted friends and kinfolk.
Last summer, I was pursuing one of my hobbies, taking pictures of the lightning during the approach of one of the region's typical spectacular summer thunderstorms.  Later, when I had the film developed, I found one picture truly amazing.  There in vivid clarity was a towering figure limned in lightning bolts.  It strode east, toward the exact power point, holding aloft a mask or skull, perhaps an offering to the Force which inhabits the vortex.  My camera had captured a specter too fleeting and too brilliant for the eye to perceive, giving me a likeness of the Spirit of Huachuca.  Indeed, this is Where the Thunder Walks, and I now have proof.
Though the true Seeker never fails to learn and question, there is so much that we do not yet know.  The exact nature of these mysterious sites falls into this category.  That they exist is definitely true; that our ancient ancestors often utilized them in some manner by constructing their most sacred and arcane temples and holy places in their vicinity is also.  Today though, how best we might utilize them is still in the realm of the unknown. 
Therefore, it is probably best the San Pedro vortex remains in its pristine state for the time being until our level of knowledge increases to the point where we can properly harness the potential offered by such wondrous resources.  Here, where there are strong links to both the past and the future, perhaps there is even a gate to other places and times or other realities.  Eventually a Seeker will come, one who is ready, and he or she will find the key, learn the combination, or simply open the door.             
Until then, the Dragon sleeps and the Point of Power waits, like Excaliber held in stone for the destined hand to raise it. But those of us fortunate enough to live in the area can smile a small secret smile when we hear the old timers' tales of strange phenomena.  We can also feel the vital energy and be 'charged' by the residual radiance of this special place Where the Thunder Walks.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Time flies-fun optional!

It's September already, and almost a third of the way into the month at that! I am not sure where the last eight days went but they are gone, just like that! No earth shaking events or anything, just normal busy-ness and plodding along with various chores and the routine. Still enjoying yummy watermelon almost every night--which the dogs love as much or more than we do! I cut up half of one of the 'personal sized' ones into bites and we all enjoy them. The hummingbirds have thinned out a bit but some will remain until at least mid October if last year was typical. I was not even feeding then so all there was to  hold them was the morning glories and trumpet vines at least here. I'll keep a feeder or two up as long as I see any around. The story they won't go south if there are feeders is a myth!

We had a lovely rain over the early part of the weekend. There was a bit of moist flow from the south and it met a cold front coming down from Canada to create a nice twenty four hour spell of mostly gentle drizzly rain! That was wonderful. We got about .55 of an inch here and never saw a bit of sun yesterday. Although I am definitely a sun-worshiper in that I say I run on solar energies, one day like that here in the desert is a novelty and so pleasant. I expect the real summer heat has been broken and we won't see 100 again but never say never when it comes to weather.

Today it is clearing off and a light breeze, still damp and mild but there is a faint foretaste of fall in the air. Hurrah, I am ready! Fall has been my favorite season most of my life except when I lived in north central California or Colorado and dreaded the coming of winter. In California it meant days on end of fog and in Colorado the cold, wind and sometimes snow. I remember fall as a time of clear, bright blue days when the sky was just a shade darker than the best "Bisbee Blue" turquoise and nights were chilly but days mild. It was a time to go out camping and sometimes hunting--when I was a kid we hunted for food, not sport, but now I would not shoot anything unless it was a necessity--so any hunting would be with a camera instead of a rifle, But the memories are still good. Even going back to school was not really a bad thing, those many years ago. County fairs and days spent just hiking or picnicking, gathering firewood for the winter, putting the garden to bed for another season and canning and freezing the harvest-- so many simple but good things.

My daughter's birthday is in September; my wedding anniversary was; and although a few sad things have happened like my younger brother's unexpected death from an aneurysm in September 2005 but that does not dim my fondness for this month. Fall flowers--mostly yellow--may give me allergies but that too I can cope with. I used to call the many varieties of the sunflower family "sneeze weeds" because most of them have a pungent and ticklish scent instead of pleasant but they are still bright like spilled sunlight.Then the leaves turn--mostly yellow in the southwest where the aspens in the mountains go first and then sycamores a kind of rusty orange and last the cottonwoods, a literal blaze of glory when the first frost touches them--usually later than September but we knew it was coming. They were pretty here last fall down along the main street and the railroad tracks. I'll try for some pictures this year!


These two shots I took two years ago just about this time. I'd made a trip from Colorado down thru southern New Mexico and into Arizona and on the return trip I drove through the Verde Valley, my youthful home and on to Flagstaff where I went to college. From there I cut across the Navajo Reservation into the southwest corner of Colorado--Cortez and Durango area These shots were on the east side of Wolf Creek Pass. The aspens were at their peak and it was breathtaking!

As an aside, the damp weather gave Belle a bad couple of days but I got her another Adequan shot and she seems to be snapping out of it. Here is a cute little shot of her and Rojito out by the gate where they can see past the carport to the street--to bark at passers by and 'watch the road go by' as we always say. They are still good friends and he hangs with her a lot even when she is sleeping off a few aches and pains. Surely he was sent to be a comfort to all of us. He's a very special little dog!!

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