Year of the Wooden Horse begins!

If you follow Chinese astrology and calendar at all, we're at the leading edge of the year of the Horse. In addition to the sequence of animals, there are five elements that also rotate through a sequence and this year's is wood. So we have the wooden horse. I do not think we are talking here of the broomsticks some of us 'rode' as kids before we could even aspire to a pony. But wood is the element of life and perhaps aspirations since trees reach for the sky. Horses are very powerful beasts even in Chinese lore--and I really do like some of the ancient horse images in Chinese art. I won't expound or explain all that as many can cover it better. Instead I thought it was an auspicious time to revisit some more of my past equines.

A dear friend of mine from those early days has taken up painting and she is working on a picture of me with my beloved Tina. I am really excited about this. That mare was so very special. I think most anyone who has worked with quite a few horses has one or two that they recall as being extraordinary in one way or another. Tina was definitely one of those! She was middle aged in horse years before we retired her from the active work she did so well and let her bear a couple of foals. By then we'd added a registered Appaloosa stallion to our herd and he sired two fine colts with her. Sadly neither of them turned out to be spotted but at that point the breeding for color was still not really well established to the point where any Appy produced 100% colored offspring. I am pretty sure Chief had some Quarter Horse in his ancestry although he was marked with a nice "blanket".

Tina's first was born on March 16, 1964. He was the image of his mother, also a blood bay with a star instead of her blaze face (which was almost a star and then a snip, very fine line between them) and quite a handsome little guy from the first, He ended up, along with his brother, being favored roping horses and 'cow ponies' on a big ranch out west of Prescott, AZ. The second foal was born on my birthday, April 27 in 1965. He was a bright sorrel with some white socks and a big blaze. He was a big stout colt but took a lot out of his dam. In actuality she never really got back to good health afterwards. We probably should have let her rest a season in between the foals but we did not. Twenty twenty hindsight is always so clear.... She stayed up and going long enough to wean him, but we lost her that winter. Broke my heart, of course!

Anyway here are shots of Yavapai Chiet, Tina again with her first baby, and the two colts that we named Bravo and Rico. Sadly I did not get to break and train the two colts although I had worked on Brave some--he was nearly two when we had to shut down the business and I shortly went off to collage. I could tell though that he was going to be an outstanding horse and was later told that both of them were. They went to a good home and did valuable work, anyway. I am glad of that.

First, me riding Chief. He was a pretty well-behaved stud and very manageable. He'd been roped off etc.  He was a gorgeous bright sorrel red with the nice blanketed rear and generally a Quarter Horse build, about 14 1/2 hands tall..

 Next is Tina with Bravo on his first or second day! And below is Rico at about the same stage. And last is Bravo as a long yearling, shaping up to be a pretty good looking guy even in a winter coat.

I wish I had good color shots of them all but color film was costly in those days and I could barely afford the black and white I used to picture my pets!

So no wooden horses here but may you ride this year's mascot off to your dreams and a wonderful year! Happy trails, all!!

Playing with Rocks and Words

It is kind of amusing how things we start in childhood tend to go with us throughout life. Although of course I really had many other toys and things to play with, I found two less typical playthings at an early age. Since my conscious memories begin in the old mining camp of Jerome, AZ, I discovered the wonder of stones at a very early age. I joke that there wasn't much else for kids to play with there which was of course not true but rocks were certainly plentiful! Most kids started out throwing them but I always "threw like a girl" and a rather uncoordinated and awkward girl at that, so instead of throwing rocks, I sought out pretty or unusual ones and brought them home.

"Mom and her &(^%***%^  rocks" became a family joke after I was married and had kids of my own. My daughter would threaten to kill me if I once again repeated the tale of the time she accidentally crossed into Mexico with a bunch of mom's rocks in the back of her Toyota pickup and had a heck of a time getting back into the USA although she can laugh about it now.

Maybe in some ways I have the last laugh since I learned some lapidary skills which is the craft of cutting, shaping and polishing gem stones to make objects of art and beauty. I learned silver smithing as well, so that I could put some of those 'pretty rocks' into pieces of jewelry. This is still a hobby I pursue at times and I still have a pretty extensive rock collection--stones from Kentucky, Colorado, California, Arizona of course and now New Mexico. Crystals, agates, quartz, petrified wood, geodes and a lot of good old junkerite and leaverite. Those last two are rock-hound terms, kind of... Geologists and the more scientific rock hounds tend to pin an 'ite' onto all sorts of formal rock names. So this is a bit tongue in cheek. Junkerite of course is rocks that are junk, probably have no commercial or real value but are curiosities and odd things you bring home from various treks. As for leaverite, that is the stuff you should have listened to the inner voice that said,, "Leave 'er right here." Only mostly you didn't. So I'm still playing with rocks, a lot of years later. And above is a picture of my little Rojito as a "rock hound" in truth while I was cleaning and  going though part of my collection I had just rescued from my old home in Arizona about this time last year.

Words came rather naturally to me as well. Some of my early memories are of my dad writing madly away on what he was sure would be the great American novel while he survived on severance pay from a war industry job after moving to Arizona very long ago. No, it never sold but that is beside the point. He did write and later on publish quite a batch of articles and short fiction over the years. Thus I grew up thinking that putting words on paper was a natural thing to do and could maybe even earn money!

At age eight, shortly before the brother I now share a home with was born, I wrote a few simple verses, my initial poetic efforts. Within a few more years I was writing my own versions of Nancy Drew stories and then Zane Grey and other authors I was reading avidly. I also soon discovered the fun of puns and double entendre and other mischievous uses of our very strange English language. We have so many words and phrases that lend themselves to this, too. And I was taught by example the fine art of satire and sarcasm, which seem to come easily to most folk with some Celtic blood, especially Irish. Over the years I became known among friends for ridiculous puns and the elaborate "fuzzy puppy stories" that are crafted to lay a pun on as the punch line. Doggerel and nonsense verses much klutzier than those of Lewis Carroll or Ogden Nash were also a trait I showed.

Here is one very bad limerick to illustrate: (No rotten tomatoes please!! It is just in fun!!)

An Irish lass named Mary Claire
Had a voice all pronounced sweet and fair.
She thought she'd be the rage
When she took to the stage
But fell flat on her Londonderry Air.  (Okay, boo and hiss!!)

And lastly, I actually combined both of my old time 'toys' into a verse some years back, words and stones! And no, I was not "stoned" either in the vernacular of the Hippie Era or literally as those who break Sharia Law might be in some places. Just having some verbal fun.

              The Stoned Poet?

I would take words and use them like stones:

stack them up carefully, building a wall;

batter and scrape the flesh from the bones;

running, kick one before me as if t'were a ball.

I would take words and use them like stones:

heap them between us to keep you away;

throw them at you 'til you leave me alone;

or offer as treasure, to entice you to stay.

I would take words and use them like stones:

circle them round to keep you with me;

strike them to music to hear their deep tones;

lie down amongst them, become one, you see. . . .

I would take stones and use them as words:

agate, jasper and turquoise my verses would be.

Bright send them flying, wilder than birds

to draw your attention so that I might flee.

Fleeing and running, I stumble and fall,

trampled beneath the wild verbal herds.

No ear can hear a rock should it call,

but I would take stones and use them as words.  

                                                      GMW c:1982

Another Day Trip

This past Sunday, Ginger and I hopped into Red Hot Mama about nine in the morning and took off for a day of sight-seeing and exploring. We took more back roads and did more walking this trip and I think that made it even more fun!

Our first stop was right here in Alamogordo since Gin had not yet had her morning walk and was a little fidgety. We pulled off on the east side of Florida Ave just before it runs into Highway 82 which goes up to Cloudcroft and over the mountains to eventually reach Artesia. Someone was once trying to build some kind of an amusement park there and I snapped a few pictures of the strange ruins left behind. Here is one; may share more later

 After that we headed on out on Highway 54 north, passing through Tularosa, "Tulie" to the locals, and toward Carrizozo, taking a side road out to the Three Rivers Petroglyph area, a National Recreation Site. I was dismayed to learn that dogs were not allowed on the trail so decided to forego a look at the ancient rock art until another time. Instead we drove on out the road that soon became gravel instead of paved and discovered a really neat place! It's a small chapel with an adjacent cemetery sitting at the foot of two conical hills, both topped with crosses and winding rugged trails making their way up to the peaks. It is clearly old and very picturesque. I do plan to go back but did snap a couple of pictures. Santa Nino means holy child in Spanish, a probable reference to Jesus. I think the rest says de Aturbia but not sure as the fence obscures the somewhat faded lettering.



From there we went back to the highway and on up to Carrizozo and then to the west a few miles to the Valley of Fires, another National Recreation Site with some very interesting lava flows from a relatively recent (perhaps historical times) eruption in the area.I stopped at the office to get my Senior Pass card which admits me to a wide range of Federal facilities, such as Forest Service and BLM recreation areas, National Parks and Monuments and these lesser sites too. We got out and walked a bit as they do allow dogs there (why the discrepancy I have no idea!) but the wind had come up and taken a sharp edge. It was a good 15-20 degrees cooler than down at Alamo! So we had a fast light lunch and went on our way.

Last we went back through Carrizozo and out on the same highway to the north a few miles and then took a county road that goes out to an old mining camp and now kind of outpost village called White Oaks. Again I want to go back but did get a photo of the beautiful old school house there. There are a few other picturesque buildings as well.

We then headed home but it had been a fine outing and driving slow on some narrow, winding and even unpaved roads took me back to many happy adventures from childhood on. It's always been something I enjoyed, whether sitting in the middle in Mom and Dad's first Jeep as a wee tyke or riding in my late husband's 1950s vintage GMC pickup when we were going together, mostly with my soon-to-be step daughter perched on my lap. It's just so neat to get off the beaten path and have some of the wonderful rural and remote country pretty much to yourself!

Have You Hugged Your Dragon Today?

I know that a number of us are lovers of dragons. I was enchanted by the late Anne McCaffery's Dragon World books and even have a small collection of dragon 'stuff'. Here is what I just saw on a Feng Shui daily bit I get through Astrology.com.

***Today's 'Appreciate a Dragon Day' is a great time for me to share some information about the role that mythical animal plays in magical Feng Shui. The dragon is considered the most important symbol in both this tradition and in Chinese folklore as well. It is believed the precious cosmic breathe of the dragon can create miracles in our lives. The dragon is traditionally associated with the East, so placing an image of a dragon on the east side of your office or living space will attract good fortune while also bringing good luck your way.***

I think that is mega kewl. I also have some pix of dragons and being part Welsh, enjoy the old traditional flag of Wales with its handsome red dragon on agreen and white banner! I could live under that flag happily. (Not that I am rejecting the stars and stripes as I am very patriotic and loyal to it!)

Then in Feng Shui and other oriental wisdom, symbols of the dragon and the phoenix bird together are very powerful to attract good energies for fortune and romance! The dragon is very Yang or male and the Phoenix very Yin or female and together they represent an ideal couple with the great strengths of the two sexes combined! 

And finally there is my little gecko or lizard emblem that I have used on a lot of things. Of course he cannot fly and does not have the mystic dragon powers but the Ancient Ones in the American Southwest honored him and I think he has luck and powerful energies too!  

So let's all hug our dragons today!!  In a more esoteric sense, one might also liken dragons to the monster under the bed or the hidden bugaboos that lurk in the dark closets and corners of our mind and try to delay, detain or detour us! If we bring them out into the sunlight and give them a hug we  just might find that we can bring them to heel and put them on a leash where they can help rather than hinder us. What bully would bother anyone walking a dragon? Way better than a Pit Bull!! (And I'd adopt one of them under a lot of circumstances except four dogs in a household are the local limit and we are there.)

Too soon for spring

Despite the calendar saying it's only a third of the way through January and the rise time of the sun has not really turned around, the weather is definitely trying to convince us it is spring. I see a faint sheen of green on some trees, the doves are cooing in the pine outside of my bedroom window and it's been very mild and not even too windy.

Ginger and I took a drive yesterday just to get out and away a bit and enjoy the day. A lot of people might not find the trip down the Tularosa Valley too scenic or inspiring but I enjoyed it. The hills around the little old mining town of Oro Grande look so much like those behind Tombstone, AZ that I felt a real jolt of deja vu. Then we went on down to the northern outskirts of El Paso, across to a road heading back north and thru a low pass in the jagged range that separates the Rio Grande Valley from the Tularosa Basin called "the Anthony Gap" since it comes out at Anthony which kind of straddles the Texas/New Mexico state line. Still desert and pretty barren but comfortable to my eyes. Of course the mesquites are not yet showing a hint of green--they know its not spring yet but they wait patiently. From there we took I-25 north up through the east side of Las Cruces and headed toward home on US 70 through another, higher pass. Just on the east side, we pulled off and got out to take a little walk. Ginger was ready, having had to forego much of one at the Anthony Rest Stop due to sand burs. Those are a nasty grassy looking weed that has brutal burs shaped like the head of a medieval mace with burning prickly stickers! I had to take a comb to get them out of her furry legs. Ouch!!

We walked about a quarter of a mile from the pull off from the highway and I took a couple of pictures. The Organ Mountains were beautiful and the sky that perfect blue! If you click on the upper left one to get a larger view, you can see a hiking trail leading away; next time we will follow it for a distance!We were home about three thirty which was just perfect.

                                                                                                            Gin was tired as she has not yet gotten used enough to travel, especially in Red Hot Mama (that's my red pickup, you know) to lie down and relax for more than five seconds at a time. A few more longer trips and I think she will learn. I want her to be the great travel companion that Belle was for several years. Anyway here are the photos I shot and also recent ones of Rojito on "our" bed and Ginger in a favorite little spot near where I work on the computer!


At any rate if winter was always like this I would love it! We're bound to have some more really wintery weather but this January break is certainly welcome. I just hope the plants do not get too far ahead of the schedule and get frosted badly. Still I enjoy this special kind of gift and blessing that we get to soften the bite of the grimmest season here in my desert home

A Little Inspiration for Jan 3

A good friend of mine posted this to my yahoo group of creative friends who support, enjoy, tease, console and encourage one another!! I do not think she will object to my sharing it here. The author is Esther Luttrell, a writer of mysteries, some inspirational work (Dear Dean--Love Mom comes to mind) and film scripts. She is an amazing lady and very talented and also very strong and deeply rooted in her faith. A couple of links: www.estherluttrell.com and esther.luttrell.7 on facebook. I think you will love her as I do!

Anyway here is what she shared: (I think it is beautiful and awesome!!)

I just had a thought that I want to share, though it may be an idea you 
came up with long ago. 

It hit me that there is a whole blank canvas stretched out in front of 
us...absolutely blank! Ready to be filled with whatever images and colors 
WE want to put on it! 365 blank pages on which WE may write the story that is in 
our heart ... 

It has never before struck me with such force that ... even though we are 
given an allowance of 24 hours every single day of the year, free to 
spend as we will ...we have an entire uncharted year in which to steer our 
ship to whatever destination we choose ... Or we can drift ... There are no 
rules! There are consequences, but no rules.  

Storms will come up out of nowhere, for sure. Winds will blow us off course 
from time to time, but nothing - nothing! - can keep us from having a journey of 
our own choosing. 

What a joyful notion! A blank book in which we can write this 2014 chapter 
exactly as we choose to write it ... 

I will endeavor to write a life book of hope and joy and inspiration, 
of courage and kindness, of adventure and spirit and faith ... I will set my 
sights on the sky not the trenches ... I will do my ever loving best to remember 
that it is ALL a matter of choice. Even when the negativity comes slamming into 
us, how we deal with that negativity is still our choice! 

So much good is waiting for us! So much excitement is here, this moment, 
waiting to be recognized and enjoyed. Even the pain of remembering those 
we have lost this past year is sweet because we know that life cannot 
die, it can only change forms. We are wonderfully made of star stuff, durable as 
Teflon, flexible as a willow, strong as our faith allows. 

I don't wish you a wonderful new year ... It is much stronger than a wish. 
I SEE a wonderful New Year for you! I see you living each moment in harmony with 
everything around you... 

365 days! Just think! Yours to do with as you will.