Casi Navidad

Domingo 15- Sábado 21 Diciembre 

Sunday we insulated our windows with foam backer rod, as a sort of temporary, later removable, weather stripping along the middle stile join, and edges where there was space.  Another cold front had swept down from the US. Also covered our vanilla orchid again with plastic. That front did not hang around and it turned out that the rest of the week was delightfully pleasant, with nights only down into the upper 50s and clear sunny days that briefly broke into the 80s.  However, cold fronts will come thru for a couple more months.  Dan has been considering how to convert our very attractive but useless fireplace into a heat source to take off the de vez en cuando chill when the temps dip and we need a spot of medium heat for several hours.  90% of the heat from an open fire goes up the chimney, and anyway, we do not have a source of leña to build the large fires that would be needed.  He has been researching "rocket-stove" and masonry heaters online, pondering possible variations and sketching designs.  Unfortunately, most of the development work on such efficient heating comes from cold climates where much more heat is demanded from stove designs, and ambient interior/exterior temp differentials are much greater. A good look at the issues involved is in this publication from the good folks at the Aprovecho Research Center, a group that traces it's history back to the 1976 Guatemala earthquake, and based in the Oregon Cascades.

Monday we met Ania and her mother at Sam's Club warehouse store. We do not yet have a membership there. Come next May, Ania's current membership expires and we plan to go in together on her renewal at that time. This means we will share the MX$450 membership fee and each have a card, and if we shop together we can split the larger quantities that are mostly sold here, much better for two small households. This day we bought a pressure cooker, and some other goodies. We had earlier seen real fruitcakes there but they were now sold out, so sad.  Actually, a just-before-Xmas fruitcake purchase was the main reason we asked to meet Ania there, so we could make that anticipated buy. We both love fruitcake and they are not normally available in Mexico.

It's hard to believe it's casi (almost) Christmas is almost here, what with flowers still blooming and plants to be watered and tended outside in the garden.  However, Monday evening Mexican children started making their pre-Christmas posada rounds to sing their song about Mary and Joseph looking for a room. More likely around here, the kids sing about La Rama (a decorated branch).  In fact Sunday we saw Alex and his son traipsing back from the south edge of town carrying branches for this purpose.  Here's more about this Veracruz tradition, courtesy of John Calypso.  We give them a couple pesos for the group and each a piece of candy. They always have a bag for the goodies and can for the monedas, usually with a slot too small to easily drop the coins into. One boy came with two others the first night, then the next three nights with one of the little girls, and thereafter by himself. He now gets only a piece of candy for his singing efforts. Thursday evening, everyone introduced themselves. They always thank us. One boy, maybe 10 years old, asked if we spoke english, and he proudly told us in english that he did too. We invited him to come back and talk to us again. He seemed delighted. Will he return? They mostly ring our door bell between 6 & 8pm, except for the two teen age boys who arrived one night at 10pm. Dan told them that they should be home in bed that late.

Ania, Frank and Wanda came for a turkey dinner wednesday. We have been unable to find cranberry sauce in any of the grocery stores, so... We boiled up some aranadanos dehidratados (cran-raisins) with a bit of sugar, then added some canned pineapple and fresh lime rind, all cooked down to a relish consistency. Absolutely scrumptious! The turkey was overdone, par for the course as we are just getting used to our oven. Apple raisin stuffing, mashed potatoes and giblet gravy, candied yams, baby peas, plus lime meringue pie. Rosé wine from España, a good deal from Sam's Club at US$1.77 per bottle.  The yams are different here. Not so naturally sweet, plus Carmen sauced them in butter with piloncillo (brown cane sugar) instead of regular brown sugar. This sugar, sold in little grenade-sized cones or pylons, has to be cut or broken up and is not as sweet as NoB granular brown sugar. After a very filling meal, we played mexican dominoes. Carmen won the series, though we all had our turns winning games, which makes for fun.

Thursday Carmen made lots of Christmas cookies, with a bit of help from Dan. The eight varieties are: Linzer schnitten, Chocolate chip bars (the recipe from Nancy Clark), Sugar cookies (rolled, cut & frosted), Nutty balls, Carrot bars with lime and lime frosting (always used oranges before, but our oranges had gone too soft to grate the peel), Blackberry jam bars, Chewy noel bars (a buttery nut bar), and Brown-eyed susans which are almond flavored with a spot of chocolate on the top center. This is the first week our oven has been used very much. Everything turned out good, except for a few over-done bottoms because a tray was too close to the edge of the oven. Lesson learned if you want perfection – bake one tray at a time!

Friday Dan had to go to IMSS to get his lab slip stamped in order to have the tests next week. We hit several of the major food stores to check out their special holiday foods. Still hoping to find molasses. Walmart had it last year, but not now. Next was the Soriana hypermart. This store is new and had little business, so perusing the aisles was relaxing. We discovered that a Little Ceasars has opened in this new shopping center. Good to know that the closest LC pizza is no longer in Veracruz! Next we headed for Chedraui and the parking lot was absolutely packed. We will try it next week after Xmas. On to Home Depot for more gardening supplies, and some copper pipe & fittings for the upcoming kitchen hot water heater installation. Lastly a stop at Shattucks to deliver the Xmas cookies made yesterday. Met Ania's daughter Milena and her children from near Puerto Vallarta.  The whole family will have Christmas together at Kalina's home in Boca del Rio, near Veracruz city.

Over the course of the last few days of the week, we gave out 16 Xmas plates and three small bags of these cookies to neighbors and service/utility workers, and kept some for ourselves. We hope that these recipes from our traditions will be a rare treat for our Mexican friends  So far Josefina has given us peach-filled empanadas, and Juanita's daughter came to our door with large pastries similar to elephant ears. Yumm.  Oh yes, construction across the street has stopped for the hoilday season, and the crew there erected a temporary chain link fence to deter people from wandering in, falling into excavation holes, and perhaps helping themselves to some sand or gravel.

Gardi gave us another scare with his wanderings. He is adventuring onto distant jumps from one of our roofs to another. He also thinks it great fun to ask us to get a ladder to get him down. When we are about to take hold of him, he proves that of course he can jump back to where he came from!  Since telling Carmelo that we wanted no more plants til mid-January, we now have 19 waiting to be planted. We are having problems with our large orchid pseudo-bulbs shriveling. Apparently this can be from either over- or under-watering – so what to do?  Dan wrapped some spanish moss around the root tendrils of some of the mounted orchids, and we think this is taking care of the problem.  Despite the cool weather, or perhaps because of it, we discover new orchid blooms several times a week.

Un gran almuerzo con amigos

Domingo 08- Sábado 14 Diciembre   When shopping this past friday, we had purchased for the first time a vacuum-sealed package of big white corn grains used for making pozole. This is large-kernel cacahuazintle maiz which has been subjected to a special tenderization process.  Having never used it before except when purchased cooked and canned as hominy in the US, Carmen had boiled some to see what it was like. Hmm, it smelled and tasted pretty sour, almost vinegary, to her. Actually the 'nixtamalization' process to which the corn had been subjected is a treatment with strong alkali, not an acid at all.  She dumped the water off and did this three more times, to finally end up with a delicious product!  The idea was to use some in the chicken stew we had that Saturday.  About two pounds of it was left over, which went into the freezer. But, what do do with it, short of saving for a later stew?

Sunday is always a good day for a special breakfast, and any day, it seems, is a good day for experimenting with a new food for us.  We started our morning with a desayuno of a scramble of bacon, onion, panela (a soft, low-fat cheese), egg and a good amount of the pozole-corn kernels. Plus toast, grapefruit and coffee. A hardy meal for the gray morning we were experiencing.  Turns out it's a great staple and carbohydrate that will be useful in many meals.  For tuesday's dinner she browned some with onion in butter and olive oil with a dash of garlic salt, and then at the last moment she added chopped fresh tomato and fresh home grown oregano. A quick stir, sprinkle with parmesano cheese, and yumm. Always fun to try new foods and make whatever seems right! Not every experiment turns out perfectly (it's still a learning process to deal with new foods), but most of the time, delicious!  Our Kalanchoe blossfeldiana (Flaming Katy) is right in season, bursting with blossoms, which is why is sometimes called a Christmas Kalanchoe.

By mid-morning the sun appeared, but the air was still a bit cool, so mostly we kept the doors closed.  About 10:30 we heard a tiny quiet "miau" coming from out back. Went to check on it and low and behold, Gardi cat was on the outside of the gate asking to come back in. Fortunately non of the neighborhood dogs were about, as he would have no escape options back to safety in the yard.  We do not know when he exited from the house, nor how he got outside the fence!  Dan suggested that perhaps we feed Gardi more so that he cannot fit through whatever spot he found. If it can be done, Gardi will do it!  Sunday afternoon our electricity was out for a couple hours. Not a problem, we read. It happened again on monday, probably due to repairs going on. This time we played mexican train with our new double-domino set, an enjoyable time.

One evening while Carmen was standing on the terraza watching for birds with the binoculars at her eyes, Dan saw a yellow bird (probably a chat) fly a foot over her head, swoop down beside her, then up and away! Carmen never knew it was there.  Last week we had hoped to buy spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), which is sold at this time of year for seasonal decorating purposes) at the local grocery store, but the big bin was empty. Tuesday, a man stopped at our door selling mosses out of two large bags. We bought all the spanish moss he had. We need it for potting up our orchids, as it's a good substitute for fibrous spaghnum. Wonder if the man was happy with his big sale, or disappointed to only have a bit of the green musgo (moss) to peddle yet.  One of the most unusual native plants we've come across is Dorstenia contrajerva.  A member of the fig family, what appears to be a fleshy green "flower" is actually a fruiting body, like a fig but turned inside out, with the seeds exposed on the surface.

While many of the trees seem to be be green all year, there is some evidence of seasonal change with some of them, as dried leaves seemed to be building up on some of the roadsides in the past few weeks.  We need to go out and bag some up for later flower-potting use, before they're all gone.  The leaves are growing back already -- as there is no long dormant winter season here.  We are fussy. We do not want the really large leaves. The two trees we used to get them from have been cut down. Carmen planted all our newest plants we purchased from Carmelo. Only nine this week! She also moved some to new spots. Carmelo forgot to bring us the one Ania ordered, this morning. Dan told him that we really do not want any more until January. It would be good to have our patch of grass gone and the new pasarela (walkway) installed in the front yard before buying more plants to fill in around the pavers.  Any plants we are not able to pass up will just have to sit in their little starter containers until the front yard is eworked in January.

Wednesday morning it was arranged that we go up to Coscomatepec with the Shattucks -- this would be their first visit to the properties there since returning from vacation. We connected there with Tim & Tamara who are living at Shattuck's avocado farm house, while theirs, next door down the road, is being re-built. We walkedf over to the construction site for a tour.  Old walls have been torn down and the house is being totally reconstructed on a larger plan, including a commercial kitchen for preparing their jams & other food products.

Dan had called our foreman, José Luís, early that morning, arranging to meet him at home, to pay aguinaldo bonuses due for the year.  Carmen came along on this side trip, since she had not visited Frank's hilltop kiosko (hexagon cabin) there in Huapalco in a long time. Our crew lives right in that little hillside community, and it was good to see Luís after all this time -- he has a 10-person crew working on three houses, all due to be turned over to the owners by Noche Buena (Christmas Eve).  A busy man!  Dan told him that we had some work for the crew in January. Carmen has traveled a great deal around the US, thru lots of back country rural areas, and no place has she seen countryside and roads as rough and rugged as this area where our crew calls home. It is hard to believe that they willingly make the Huapalco-Fortín-Huapalco trip six days a week to work!  At the kiosko cabin we dug up some loose soil under the trees for Ania to use in her garden at home, and harvested some very mature chayote from the vine growing over the carport, before heading back east into Cosco, where we picked a couple of pollos rostizados from a stand where the roast chicken is cooked over a wood-fueled fire.

our crew the

Back at the house, all six of us dined together.  The gran almuerzo (big lunch) felt like thanksgiving with the variety of foods and friends.  It was a day with glorious weather, but by the time we got back home in the late afternoon, cooler temps and clouds were rolling in. On the hour-long trip back towards home, we met bumper to bumper traffic coming the other direction, with highly decorated vehicles full of people, on their way to Xalapa, where there is a shrine to the Virgin de Guadelupe. Also there was frequently a person running beside the decorated vehicle, carrying a lighted torch. The folk here take honoring Mexico's patron Saint very seriously.  From Shattucks properties we returned with mature chayotes and aguacates. 

Ania and Frank gave us a beautiful Delftware coaster which was created by the master craftsmen of Royal Goedewaagen, Holland, a souvenir from their Holland-America cruise around the southern tip of south america. They said inspite of being the summer down there, it was cold!  This week we purchased white with pink alstroemeria (Peruvian lily) from our fresh flower man. A different man came by with fresh cut glads to sell. We think that one of the plants Carmelo sold us this week is a small, but well filled out gardenia plant. Also we bought a chenille plant, and Dan arranged a hanger for it along the west backyard wall, where it will get morning sun but be protected from the hot afternoon rays. It is very hard to turn down new and different plants.  Seems like there's always a spot to wedge in another, at least while they are small.  Surely the collection will change over time as we lose some and some are crowded out, but the garden-gone-wild look it one we both like.  We have never had luck with roses so we have kept away from them here, except for our thornless miniature pink rose in a pot on the terraza, which is blooming away, quite happy with it's surroundings.

Días grises

Domingo 01- Sábado 07 Diciembre 

The week started with a day in multiple shades of gray. Dan hung a large prayer plant in our bedroom, where we hope it will be happy. Three teens rang our bell. Dan was not able to go to the door at that moment, so Carmen went out. She dutifully asked them if they spoke english to which they all looked horrified, shaking their heads no. We know that english is taught in school here, but few students choose to actually practice it when given the opportunity it seems. They rattled on in spanish as Carmen told them no hablo español – in spanish. Obviously they did not believe her. She understood the word for woman and sick, plus they carried a plastic glass with coins, stretched out towards the gate. Carmen excused herself and came inside to get some coins to put in their glass. Always wonder if the malady is fact or is it just a way to collect money...but then, what seems like a lot to them, is so little to us. The area velador (night watchman) who walks the streets after dark was here to make his weekly fee collection, as he is every Sunday morning, just before 11am.  The gray weather doesn;t seem to bother the plants.  Lots of our orchids are looking really healthy, with lots of white root tendrils reaching out to grab on to something (like this Oncidium), and the pseudo-bulbs filling out.  Good portents of lots of blooms.

Monday we both had IMSS clinic appointments around eleven am. Dan to get lab orders for blood/urine tests before his next month's appointment, an annual checkup. And Carmen for her monthly meds plus the dizziness and elbow problems. Our appointments were fifteen minutes apart with the same doctor, to be sure Dan was there to talk for Carmen. We arrived a half hour early and knowing that our doctor leaves near one pm (patients are set up annually at the clinic for morning or afternoon assigned doctor shifts at one of eight consultorios, so you always have the same doctor), we started getting very anxious when 12:30pm arrived. Dan asked at the desk when we were to be taken, as we had already seen the nurse for the weigh-ins and BP checks. At this point Dan was informed that he had to go down to Consultorio Uno because our doctor was running out of time. Carmen was to see Doctor Rendon in Cinco as usual. Dan had to leave Carmen on her own, or miss his appointment. After another hour of waiting time in the chairs at Uno, Dan (worried all the time that Carmen would get called in and have issues talking to her doctor) had no problem getting his lab order, written out by a young and pleasant doctor. (Invariably, we have had only favorable interactions with IMSS staff at all levels.) Then he rushed back to see how Carmen was faring.

Here is Carmen's story: After waiting that extra hour or so, she became very nervous that the doctor would have to leave and she would be shuttled elsewhere, to someone unfamiliar to her situation. Knowing that she really needed to see the doctor this day, she practiced what to say to the receptionist in her mind, then bravely walked up to the desk and informed the lady that she did not speak much spanish, and would she please let her know when to go into the office. Seemed that all the other folks sitting about waiting were most interested in what Carmen had to say. Apparently the receptionist understood, because she walked up to Carmen to tell her when it was her turn. Carmen went into the doctors office and found no doctor there, so she sat and waited expectantly.

Meanwhile a fellow came in asking where the doctor was. It was discovered that this fellow spoke more english than Carmen did spanish. Carmen asked him if he could help her if needed since her translator (Dan) was sent down the hall. He did in fact hang out by the open door until Carmen was almost finished, until the time Dan arrived. This fellow had needed to talk to the doctor about some X-rays that Dr Rendon returned with.

Ok – here goes: Dr Rendon always speaks a few words of english to set Carmen at ease – “hello” and “how are you today,” not much else. Carmen first of all told him, in spanish, she was sorry that Dan was not there, and yes he knew that Dan had been sent to a different doctor. We had prepared & printed out several papers to give to Dr Rendon describing what was going on with Carmen (we find this much more efficient, doing the technical translating at home, rather than Dan trying to relate everything verbally) plus exam reports generated by the rheumatologist in Orizaba and the ear, nose and throat specialist she had been to since last coming here to our clinica familiar. He read everything and asked a few questions. It was really not too bad. Dan then showed up and the doctor informed Dan of all that we had discussed and gave us the needed prescriptions and off we went back to his nurse to get our annual influenza vaccine shots. What we learned today is to never accept an appointment late in the morning, but to choose another day when earlier appointment spaces are still open. We don't like seeing doctors that might not be familiar with our situation (although the doctors we see always type up everything that transpires in each session into their computers), and it is hard on both doctor and Carmen when traductor (translator) Dan is missing from the room. She is on antibiotics again for the swollen elbow.

Before going to the clinic, we had stopped to check on the status of our vacuum cleaner order and special paver blocks. Also a stop at Office Depot. Only needed a grocery stop on the way home. Walmart was in chaos, moving big areas around, making room for all the extra Xmas goodies. Seemed that not much restocking had been done the night before. Most unusual for this store. And guess what new item we found there this time – Temptations! Finally we have found our cats' favorite treats here! Wondering if all our emails to mexican Whiskas finally convinced some area stores to handle it? Now if only other Walmart customers will purchase these Temptaciones regularly, so the restocking will continue. When we first arrived here, WalMart was the only place that carried Scoop Away cat litter (our favorite, because it works better and lasts longer than mexican brands), but the store only had a box or two at a time. It now gets it in by the pallet load.

Our front porch area is really clean at the moment. Carmen watered flowers there and laid the hose down for another watering later before winding it back onto the wall. Some how, the hose was left running. Now, did Carmen space out turning it off, or is our little ghost playing tricks on us? Dan squeegeed the water off. He had earlier swept off the porch and cut our spot of grass in the front yard. Tuesday evening we went for a short walk down to the end of the street and back up the next one over, and found that street being black-topped. It had been dirt, gravel and cobbles. We assume that the trucks loaded with sugar cane that crossed over by our house this week are using this route since the other road was being resurfaced.  These are huge open-bed semitruck loads!

One morning a man with a sizable bag of really filled out orchids rang our bell. This was the same fellow from a week ago who we had bargained down significantly. Dan limited himself to only three, and he gave us one extra (since we're “buen clientes”), so we got all four for MX$150 (about US$11). We have misgivings about buying wild orchids that may have been stripped from forest trees (we'd never do this ourselves, and try to discourage itinerant sellers by saying we'll only buy blow-downs), but with the plants there, jammed together in a big bag, we feel that nurturing them here is better than them getting dried out and discarded should they not be sold.  Dan tied them up to a piece of bambu, here they will eventually grab ahold and flower for us for years.  We are very much enjoying the opportunities here for year-round flowers, and note that our mornings for the most part are about 35ºF higher than the frigid temps now being experienced back in the maritime pacific northwest.

This has been a crashing week. First Carmen dropped and broke a dish from the new set we purchased here a year ago. Next while in bed one night, we heard a crash and it turned out to be the light bulb falling from the ceiling fixture over our upstairs shower. Dan has now replaced the fixture, which had threading so minimal as to not grip the screwed-in bulb firmly. The weather has been quite chilly for us this past week. At six am wednesday morning a strong wind came up along with many degrees warmer air. Yea!!!! On this really windy morn, after talking to the fellow selling us orchids, we left the front door open a bit for our cats. As we were taking our shower, there was a horrific crash. Dan feared some of our roofing above the mirador had blown off. Turned out to be just the door crashing closed, driven by a gust passing thru the house. Luckily Gardi cat was all the way outside, so he did not get flattened when it closed. He was meowing to come back inside by the time we got downstairs. Kitties did not like the strong wind.

We often water our plants in the early evening, and we have discovered that our terraza outside our bedroom is a great place for bird-watching at this time of day. Two green parrots flying past several times. One orange Altamira or Black-throated oriole flying from one fruiting tree in the neighborhood to another, eating oranges. A flicker pecking away in a tall palm. The cooler cloudy weather has reduced the number of butterflies we're seeing.  The fruit on the Easter eggplant is almost ripe enough to pick, having changed color from white to yellow, and lots of lavender color blooms means more fruits are on the way.

Dan made and installed a rack to hold our brooms and mops in our water heater closet, which is in our new bathroom. He also worked on the faucets in the upstairs shower again, repacking the valve stems. Maybe this time they will not leak after a few uses. He is of course spending time at his computer, copying more music, of which now 2/3 is finished. The hour in the day that flies by the fastest, is the 6-7pm hour when the show, “Teen Wolf” is on. This and a good many other tv series and movies, are in english with spanish subtitles. The tv station that had all the cooking shows in english, has recently changed to mostly telenovela (soap opera type) shows in spanish. No all-english channels are available from Cablecom, our packaged tv-telephone-internet service.

Thursday, Colyn, the lady from Santa Cruz, CA, stopped by to give us a book. She said she was moving, probably to Oaxaca, because her insect allergies are too bad in Fortin. What a shame to lose a friend who speaks english. Then as Carmen was laying in the hammock, on the front porch, reading, this green noisey vocho (vw beetle) parked right in front of our gate again. We have often seen it parked there and thought the driver was with the social action group whose office is next door. This time the man got out of the car, started to walk past, and backed up. Yes, he actually walked backwards. He said hello and asked if we are the people from the US. His name is Juan Carlos, and he teaches english in the bilingual school here in Fortín. Carl, as he is known in english, turns out to be the father of Lewis, the teen age boy who used to stop and chat a bit, from Los Angeles, CA. The reason we have not seen Lewis lately is that they have moved a few miles away, over into the residential area behind Walmart. We also found out that two other english speaking men and their families who moved here from Houston, have moved to Tamaulipas state Bummer. So – we have lost four english speakers from our neighborhood. However, Juan also told us that a woman who is in a wheelchair and lives a block away, is from the US. Also Juan said he would bring Richard, another man from the US, to meet us. Richard and his wife own a rental house a few doors from us (where Colyn lives now), but he lives in downtown Fortín. Juan is giving private english tutoring to the teenage girl (and possibly her mother Nancy), who lives with her husband Oscar two buildings south of us.

On our walk into town friday, we spied and bought the first fresh strawberries of the season, also a pineapple. Both could have been better. The grapefruit we had for breakfast, however, was one of the best ever! On walks we always see something new. The house we considered our second choice when we were house-hunting has been sold and has been repainted, and has been having masonry work being done out back. On another street, avenida 9, we have been wondering about one large structure that had much rubble in the front and bare walls, plus some walls & roofs missing. The rubble is now gone, outside walls plastered, and the yard in the front cleaned up. Also the large field next to it where we have often admired all the wild flowers, had been cleared. Wonder what will happen there? Seems like there is always evidence of growth and change in the neighborhood.

There was a long line at our bank's atm machine. We will go there another day. Checked for a specific o-ring at two hardwares and shopped for fresh veggies at the Super Ahorros store. We saw Ania shopping there, and firmed up our invitation for their visit saturday. The menu was a fresh vegetable salad, chicken stew with dumplings, and peanut butter cookies for dessert. When that day arrived, Ania and her mother, Wanda from Poland, and Frank came for dinner and a chat. The ladies toured and admired all our plantings. The guys ended up at Dan's computer. Always an enjoyable time and we hope to see Wanda a few more times before she goes back home. She is truly a delightful lady!

Oh yes, friday night at 2am we were awoken by a flatbed truck of mariachis & brass serenading someone who was having a birthday that day, down the avenue a block away. Dan opened the window so we could enjoy the music. After two selections they were gone and we got back to sleep. Mexico is a country where people enjoy and live their music. One of the abañiles (masons) across the street loudly sings throughout his work day. Great voice!  Where the new house is being built, is a huge pile of freshly delivered arena (sand). We looked out to see an unusual sight! On the very top lay two dogs, seeming to enjoy the view and soft surface to take their ease. They were kings of the mountain, and in fact two more dogs happened by and the ones on top barked possessively to drive them off.

Baño completo

Domingo 24- Sábado 30 Noviembre

The Lord gave us a great fog sunday for all day, along with a mere 64ºF outside and 69ºF inside. Most of the flowering plants outside don't seem to mind the weather - this hibiscus is about 6" in diameter, and seems to love the clouds and rain.  (We ARE living at the edge of the cloud forest, after all!) The weather report called for clouds and precip all week. Sunday was to be the only day this week with no rain, so laundry was to be done. But, isn't fog just a massive amount of water in the air, in much finer droplets? We might be reduced to using our clothes dryer instead of clothes line. However, it was a good day for cooking an item that takes a long time. That warms the house sufficiently. Today it is to be chayote for soup. A colder day will be dried beans or beets.

Nervy little termites have started indulging in a wood beam above our hanging fruit and veggie basket at the edge of the kitchen, as evidenced by sawdust-like fine particles on the countertop below. Their tiny holes are surely difficult to find. Dan climbed a short ladder to give them a drink of festermicide via syringe, which stops the activity immediately. Dan also took the opportunity of inclement weather to catch up on some inside projects, first installing the hidden light fixtures under the wall cabinet at the end of the new downstairs bathroom (a tricky proposition as, due to prior measurement errors, there was just enough room for them to fit). Then finally, working at putting in the toilet we purchased many months ago, which has been sitting there in a big carton waiting for him to get pysched about drilling mounting holes in the tile and concrete floor. With a wee bit of help from Carmen, he installed the toilet. We now have a baño completo (complete bathroom)! The only problem was that the toilet rocked a bit on the floor after tightening up the bolts, so it took some time finding and installing wedges to make it stable, and finally caulking around the bottom edge of the bowl.

We discovered that inspite of all the work done last winter & spring, we still have evidence in the upstairs bathroom of moisture leaking in from the party wall to the south, where the house there has unfinished walls open to the skies above. This will require getting permission from our neighbors to seal and caulk some wall-floor joints on their side of the wall.  We'll have to get in contact with our crew of masons, who all live up in Coscomatepec.  This will be before Xmas, as we owe them their aguinaldo (about 4% of their annual wages) that is always, by law, to be given at the end of the year to all long-term workers. At that time we will arrange for a bit more work we want done, including the sealing of such leaks, running lines for our kitchen hot water heater thru the walls, and some paving blocks laid in the front yard..

Tuesday Dan needed more disks & cases to finish copying the music from his computer. We drove out to buy same and since we were out and about, we went on to Shattuck's. We had heard on the radio that morning that the coffee growers were having a manifestación (protesting the low prices for harvested coffee beans) which closed the federal highway between Fortín and Cosco, where the lady who does housekeeping and gardening lives. We thought she might not have been able to get to Frank & Ania's. Since the weather was colder than usual and rainy, we had best check on miss kitty. She was there, and all was fine.

Tuesday night went down into the 40's and wednesday only got up to 54ºF outside. We don't recall it ever being this cold last year. Even the three cold days we did have then were much later in the winter. Inside our house with no heat, the temp was 67ºF – time for some extra layers of clothing, and an extra blanket on the bed. We also learned last winter that our vanilla orchid does not like temps below 10ºC (50ºF), so we wrapped it with layers of plastic for several days until the temperature warms up sunday. Seems that our kitties do not like the cold any better than we do. Gardi really wanted outside, so we let him out and within a couple minutes he was meowing to come back in. But, we're not really complaining about the weather, which is nothing like the US is experiencing, or the interminable periods of cold-wet in the Pacific Northwest. We're used to and appreciate the clouds and occasional gray days. And, a little bit of seasonal variation helps us mark the months that pass. The succulents we have been collecting seem to be weathering the cold and rain just fine.

Carmen cooked two light hot meals today instead of only one to help warm our bodies. Plus it did warm our house a couple degrees. Navy bean with italian sausage soup for supper and hot spanish rice for lunch. Pans of leftovers were left on counter to cool and give us their heat. This we never do otherwise. We are firm believers in cooling foods as quickly as possible to keep them from spoiling. Our years in restaurant business taught us this. Food cooling and storage procedures were things the health inspectors always checked. Carmen finished the cover for the large foam pad on bench in the master bedroom, with much help from Gardi cat. Looks great!

Saturday it finally warmed enough with the sun out, so that we could hang laundry outside. As we were finishing a late breakfast, an elderly man came to our gate asking for food. Normally he would have gotten a juice or milk box. Today he got lucky. Carmen had not finished her ham and cheese omelet and had a tortilla left, so we put the two together plus some hot sauce and he got that also. He has been here before, moves very slowly, and always looks starved. He did indeed stand by our gate while he ate the food, and he put the beverage in his bag.

Late in the week our mailman stopped twice one day, ringing the doorbell. One of the envelopes contained some pictures of her children from Harmony. Children do grow fast! And, once the bell rang well after dark one evening. Who could it be so late?  It was our fresh flower man rang the bell. The only light we had was the dim outside bulb.  We thought we were buying large white mums and orange carnations. Inside, in the light, they turned out to be pink carnations and yellow mums! Finally,  a report on the progress of building project across the street, with most of the perimeter block walls up at two meters now. Based on the reinforcing steel already in place for the vertical castillos (columns between wall sections), they'll probably top out a three (ten feet), which seems to be the standard around here. The cool weather (and mostly dry days) we are having is great for outdoor building projects it seems.