Proyectos pequeños

Wow! (or as spelled out in spanish “¡Guau!”), how time flies (como vuela el tiempo)! It's been almost two months since we last posted here. No problems or issues, or too much of note, we're just enjoying life, reading, jigsaw-puzzling, some TV most nights, and keeping up with the flowers in the yard. It's typical summer weather here, with warm days and very frequent evening showers, that rainfall taking care of a lot of keeping the plants in the yard irrigated, except for those on the porch and under the roof overhangs.

One monday in mid-July, taking advantage of the timing of a 4pm IMSS appointment in Veracruz, we arranged to drive down early in the morning, taking our neighbor Carolyn along with us. She had been wanting to show us one of her favorite beaches there. Our previous trips to the big port city had us in the downtown area, so some time on the beach sounded great. We managed a good part of the day on Playa Mocambo, in the adjacent city of Boca del Rio, south of the port, From our shaded spot on the shore (we're not looking to burn) one can see far around south, past the river mouth, to the point where the navy school is located. The port area is not visible from here, as that vista is only available from around the point to the north. Carmen had packed a light lunch of sandwiches, so we didn't even have to wander off the playa for snacks or partake of fare from the occasional vendors trudging by. Keep in mind this was a non-weekend day, before school was let out for the month long summer vacation, so parking was no problem (in the lot of the waterpark just up the strand), and the beach was not crowded. The water temp was great, with minimal wave action just right for floating on one's back—a relaxing time.

We left Carolyn under a rented-for-the-day (MX$30) umbrella station (table, chairs) on the beach, got to the clinic in time for the cita, and afterwards had time for a great Carl Jr's burger next to where we parked. Then back to the Plaza America mall (across the coastal highway from Mocambo) where we connected with Carolyn in the food court. She just loves to mall browse. Aside from a few routing mistakes, caused by not having a detailed city map and street construction changing things up a bit, it was a good day. We got back home just after dark, the last few miles on the new lanes of the autopista in the rain (no visible lane edge markings yet, and a steep drop where the shoulder had not yet been graded) causing just a bit of white-knuckling. Dan hates driving at night, so we make every effort to plan our trips to avoid it—if we had avoided the transit misdirects in Veracruz we could have been home an hour earlier.

We celebrated Dan's birthday with a restaurant outing in Córdoba. A few days before we took the time to do a walking tour of the area we think of as the restaurant area of the city. We dropped into six or seven eating establishments serving a variety of cuisines (italian, argentine, brazilian,japanese, etc), viewed menus, prices and ambiance, and decided for this occasion we'd visit the Villa Franca, a new restaurant specializing in “Mediterranean” meals. It was a good choice, after we moved our party (the two of us plus Ania & Frank) from the open area in front (too much street noise) to farther back but next to an inner courtyard window.

A couple of proyectos pequeños (small projects) in the house occupied us a bit. The open shelves in the bathroom got fitted with cantina-style doors (two pairs, the lower ones hung upside down). We bought these unfinished at Home Depot, and stained, varnished, hinged and hung them to create the look of a floor to ceiling cabinet. Now all the bottles and boxes of meds and body care stuff are out of sight.

Items in open hanging areas and on shelves tends to get dusty, but one has to be careful if closing-in spaces or covering them, because mildew is always lurking. So the new bath cabinet has louvered doors. The shelves and unenclosed “closet” spaces where our clothes live have been great for reducing chances for mildew on the fabrics, but even so Carmen hangs them all out in the sunshine every so often to keep them fresh. Closing off that end of the bedroom with louvered doors was considered, but that would have been a big, pricey, job and the doors would always be in the way. So for the master bedroom we found some pull-up “cortinas romanas” made of bamboo slats at Walmart, a type of shade normally used outdoors on a porch. Even this much of enclosure will keep the air a bit stagnant around the clothes, so we will only use these shades some of the time. Pulled up, they are completely out of the way.

Of course they didn't exactly fit the spaces, so both sides had

to be trimmed off with shears and hacksaw, and the bracket slots recreated in the new ends. That got the widths correct, without having to change the cording mechanisms. We elected to hang these so that there was about 8” of space above the shade (where air can easily exit, yet above the sight-line so the hanging clothes aren't visible), and a similar amount at the floor, where our shoes get stashed (again, this is good for keeping them dry and mildew-free).

We have had building-related activity on all three sides of us. Actually, as I write this, there is a crew cleaning out the undergrowth and pulling down bedraggled and brown leaves from the banana field to the north, so some activity interesting to us has taken place in all four directions. After Valentin, in the single-story house to the west, moved away, the landlord came by with a crew to touch up all the exterior painting, reseal most of the roof, and put it new rain scuppers there. So far, no new tenants into this small house, and the landlord comes by de vez en cuando to keep the garden looking nice. Beyond that house, there is a vacant lot, overgrown and rampantly green for all the

while we have been here, that has now be cleaned out, possibly to be sold?

To the east, the corner double-wide lot across the street has been rising fast. The regular crew seems to consist of six or seven happy guys. After the concrete walls went up, about a week of work erecting temporary posts and plywood floor forms, topped with a maze of rebar (varilla) and lastly a bunch of orange flexible electrical conduit and junction boxes tacked to the forms. We expected a pumper and concrete truck (from Veracruz port, the closest ready-mix plant) would be the next step.

Not so. This past saturday trucks delivered huge piles of sand, gravel and then a hundred or so bags of cement, these last stacked against the walls of the church to the north. A crew of 35 men swarmed over the area, making concrete in two large towable mixers, with others carrying it in partly-filled 5-gal buckets (cubetas) to the wall, others standing on a mid-wall height scaffold and hoisting the buckets to the floor level where others would run it over the rebar-covered floor to dump it for the guys placing and vibrating the mix into place. There were enough guys on the crew that a couple would be free to rest for brief periods. By the end of the afternoon all the work was done. Amazing!

Next door to the south, the house (used to be an office for a social-services organization, empty since the end of the year) has been sold to a local newly-married couple, Jorge & Carla. This is Jorge's second marriage, as also living with them is his daughter and his granddaughter (nieta). We have only met Jorge so far. This building, as an office, was only finished on the ground floor, with open-to-sky partial brick walls on the unfinished second story. There is now a crew of three albañiles working to complete the construction (with also some paint and finish work downstairs), which will consist of pouring posts between the old freestanding brick upper walls, then beams and eventually a sloping slab concrete roof. It will be good to have this building made weather-proof, as the rain-soaked brickwork has been wicking moisture into our contiguous wall.

A couple of new blooms have pleased us. First, our night-blooming cereus had three buds that we had thought were new branching stems, but as they developed we discovered they would be flowers. Unfortunately they got to just that point where we were checking every night to see if they had opened when they suddenly died back. Turns out we had let the pot get too dry. We are now taking more care and we have gotten another burst of seven flower buds. Since this plant blooms earlier in the year, perhaps this is because the first flowers failed to mature. How far will these get, and will any of them then form into pitahaya (“dragon fruit”). (Dan bought a huge pitahaya at the grocery store and enjoyed it's succulence. Carmen used a bit of it as a garnish on a melon-jicama pineaple-yogurt-dressed salad one day that Frank & Ania visited us for lunch.). The Stapelia gigantea (carrion plant) just keeps pushing out huge blooms that the house flies just love to visit.

The Stanhopea occulata (Torito, Two-Eyes Stanhopea) we have had for the longest time in a coir lined wire-basket hanging near the from gate, pushed out a bloom stalk thru the bottom of the basket. The large native orchids didn;t last very long but were beautiful, with a fragrance of mint-chocolate. We took the time one day when the car was out to visit the floricultura center north of town and but several plants we have been wanting. This include a Cycas revoluta (sago palm), a native Zamia furfuracea (cardboard palm) and an Adenium obesum (desert/karoo rose), plus another hibiscus to replace the one we lost.

Currently, the open storage wall in the mid-sized front guest room also is getting an enclosing “treatment,” vertical curtains. The fabric Carmen is using is actually plant shading cloth, so it is very strong, weatherproof and yet allows air to pass thru it. Aside from some problems with the sewing machine, which have been resolved, this project is almost done.

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La primavera

Domingo 30 - Sábado 12 Abr 2014  Close followers will note that this post actually covers two weeks. What can we say—life goes on here, not too much different from week to week, so we're thinking we'll spare you the daily details from now on. Newcomers interested in learning what life for recent expats in Mexico is all about are welcomed to browse thru this blog's archived earlier posts, accessible from the navigation column on the right. From now en adelante (going forward) we'll attempt to just fill you in on the new stuff that transpires.

The daily range of temperatures is creeping steadily toward perfect, as it seems the frentes frios (cold fronts) sweeping down from the US are over for the season, and it's really la primavera (Spring). The thermometer rarely dips below 50ºF and the nights usually are in the mid-60's. Some sunny days flirt with the lows 90's, but are mostly comfortable, hitting between 75º and the low 80's in the midday hours. The house stays pretty evenly in the 70's almost all the time, and the outside swings of mercury don't bother us in the least. An occasional light rain in the evening (except for one heavy downpour a couple of weeks ago at night) keeps things green..

We are still waiting for the cabinetmaker who we had here last year to bring back the one kitchen cabinet door that had warped, and which he took back to the shop to fix. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly just where the shop is, and we have been unable to get to him by phone. We do know the shop is in Colonia San José, a residential area of Fortín north of the autopista. So one day when we had the car out we decided to try and find him, figuring we might happen to see his shop sign or distinctive little blue car We had no luck, but then again we (mostly) stuck to the paved streets. The main street north out of downtown Fortín is paved but many side streets are not..We reached the northern end of the street where it too lost it's pavement, and turned around in a muddy cul de sac outside of the Metro bus lot there. The following weekend, passing the Jehovah's Witness hall (where we heard he attends church), we spotted his car, and tucked a note under his limpiaparabrisas (windshield wiper), with the message that he should get in touch. Fingers crossed...

On the way back we decided to visit the Parque de Floricultura, a large municipal flower market out by the fairgrounds north of town. It's a large facility, full of plants and flowers sold by many vendors, but located beyond walking distance from town, so buyers have to get there by car. Not good planning by the city when its was built several years ago (last year we were back in the US during the May festival). It is the site for the week-long annual Feria de la Flor which we hope to attend this year. On this visit we bought two plants, a cheerful yellow rose and a baby Davallia (rabbit's foot) fern, for only MX$20 each. These prices are ridiculously low, for gallon-sized plants, and are clearly a result of the low customer traffic these stalls see, located outside of town.  Next time we'll take the camera.

The next week, we were invited over for a meal at Ania and Frank's, which was to be enjoyed under their new carport, located in the middle of their beautiful yard. The local radio station had been announcing a tourism fair (local foods, handicrafts, etc) in central park, so we left early hoping to take a turn thru the large tented area set up in front of city hall. No such luck, the day before had been the last day and there was a crew taking down the venue. We used the extra time we had before lunch to stroll the smaller floral market. One stall owner gave us a tour thru the far back end of his stall, where he was raising orchids. He explained that he had recently obtained a license to propagate native Mexican orquideas, but he couldn't work with any of the non-native species. He is working with a local agronomist to perfect his procedures. This fellow had recognized Carmen from passing our house and seeing her working in the front yard lower garden.  The meal was a great treat, with oven-roasted fish, stuffed avocados, and as alway, great company.

When we had been out and about, we stopped in at the local water commission office to remind them about the city water line leak near our back gate. Having dealt with them before, and it taking almost a year to get our new bathroom hooked up to the city sewer line, Dan expected this would be the first of many reminder visits he'd have to make to get this taken care of. (He had pointed out the waterline leak to the engineer at the time our sewer connection was made, to be told to wait until the dry season to report the leak. No great rush to fix these things at that time, it seemed.) To our great surprise, several days later, two guys worked one morning to fix the problem. When we next have to do some concrete work we will probably put a hard cap over that spot, as they only refilled the hole with soil and some rock, a recipe for a future pothole right off the edge of our driveway apron. We have noticed, after several weekend experiencing city water shut-offs, that the pressure in the system is now better than it ever has been. We assume the newly elected city hall crew is fulfilling a promise to patch up the water system, and maybe that's why we were lucky to get prompt action after reporting the leak.

We have both had brief head colds and congestion, but seem to be well on the mend. Recently we met a woman from around the other side of the block who is just getting over a long convalescence which kept her at home in a wheelchair for two years. Caroline moved here from Santa Rosa,CA and was married about 25 years ago to a mexicano., when they built their house here in Fortín long before our house was built. She said back then it was all solid sugar cane fields here. She has two grown sons which she raised as a single mom, one of them still lives at home. She has been a school teacher here (teaching english), and most recently retired from being an office person in the local police department. We loaned her some books to read and will probably see her more often, and trade visits, now that she is up and around again. It is always interesting to talk to somebody who decided to leave the US many years ago, and has some work history here, and a long term view of things. Most of the folks posting on the forums (fora) we follow are more recent expats, having moved after their working days were finished. So, in retrospect, we could have made this move a lot earlier in our lives, little did we know at the time. We're just glad we are still healthy and mobile enough to enjoy tropical abundance that surrounds us, the cultural differences and the friendly people we encountered each day.  Here's a couple images of one of our Stapelia plants, which like most of the the other succulents, is growing well this spring.  The bloom is about 9" across.

Examen ocular

Domingo 23 - Sábado 29 Mar 2014   Carmen wanted to go to the Lebanese restaurant in Orizaba to celebrate her cumpleaños (birthday), but for one reason or another we never did it until today, 4½ months later.  Sunday is the day when they have their full buffet, and since we had talked about our positive experience there, Ania and Frank decided to dine with us. Oh so scrumptious! Authentic ethnic restaurants here are few and far between. After overstuffing ourselves from the buffet, the owner gave us some Lebanese special desserts that were not part of the dessert table. On the way out, Ania spied some items to buy. The one was a kilo-sized bag of semolina, which is rarely found in stores here. She shared with us. Carmen had been longing for the taste of cream of wheat for a long time...

We received an email from a friend who has been involved in rescue/recovery efforts, about the devastating mud slide very close to where we lived for many years in the US. Since then, we have been following the local news on the NWCN website.  The landslide, a mile wide and pushing mud & debris about a mile from the hillside that gave way, covered 59 lots and about two dozen houses, and has blocked the state highway and clogged the Stillaguamish river betwen Oso & Darrington, in the state of Washington. The rain-soaked hillside north of the river, perhaps undercut by the flowing water, came down as a rush of mud, rocks, trees and undergrowth, crossing the river and covering the little group of houses that had been built in a flat ox-bow loop on the south side of the river.  Rescure efforts were hampered as the mud was like quicksand, and due to constant rain it was feared that the hillside had not yet stabilzed. As of saturday 18 bodies have been recovered and 30 are still missing and may never be found..

Another jigsaw puzzle was started and finished. Only 1000 pieces, but harder than the last. It is a golfing "Where's Waldo"-type scene, with hundreds of tiny people golfing in the most unlikely situations. In trees, cars, trains, planes, canoes, and over cliff edges.

Tuesday Dan finally had his examen ocular (eye exam). His experience was the opposite of Carmen's.  Dan had Dr Ferrón, a male doctor instead of the woman Carmen had. This fellow enjoyed talking with us and opinioned that Obama should take over Mexico and make it part of the US.  He could not imagine any one leaving the US and moving here. He said he would gladly trade our US house today for his. Dan's eyes are in good shape, no changes since his last exam two years ago, and he was given some eyedrops in case he ever had need of them.

Mangoes, guayabas, apples (at US$0.60 cents a pound), pepitas (pumpkin seeds), spinach (two large bunches for US$0.14) and good looking pork chops were our buy today. Strawberries fresh on a corner in downtown Fortín for US$0.35 a pound. These are easily as good as the berries grown in northwest Washington, and are not the huge, watery, weak-flavored berries that are shipped around the US from California. Yes, another shortcake! Apple pie soon too, with MaryLou's recipe. Often our evening cena (dinner) is a half apple and piece of cheese each.

Tuesday thru wednesday we received a light steady rain. Posies perked up! Our gorgeous hibiscus suddenly showed us that it is suffering with root wilt. We followed survival info from the internet. Took it out of the pot. Threw the dirt away. Rinsed the roots in chlorinated water. Put it in new soil which we then watered with an anti-fungal solution. Wondering if we have saved it. Probably not, but Ania says they are pretty resiliant. We also have a couple other plants with a fungal problem. We have sprayed and watered them with a sulfer-based fungicide. Apparently this fungal wilt was the cruel killer of our goats foot pink orchid tree.  We saved some pods from this tree, planted them after losing the tree, and so far eight have germinated. Also the piece of our vanilla orchid which was accidentally broken off a year ago, has started to grow again. Yea!

Gardi spotted a butterfly (black with orange triangle and white spots around the edge) on it's last legs. At least it was unable to fly. He did not touch it, until it crawled upon his tail, at which time he gently removed it and sat watching it, the last we saw. Smij is becoming less fearful of her world. She even occasionally lets someone passing outside the fence actually see her, the least scary people it seems are mostly men with soft voices. She will study them before dashing inside.

We presently have copper-colored chrysanthemums on our dining table and red carnations of cream & deep red petals in the living room. Our  miniature roses are blooming: red, white, peach and yellow. Think they will be small bushes. More orchids blooming. Speaking of copper – the back portion of Carmen's hair is rather copper-like – the front being light gray. Weird for some one who formally lived with ash blonde.

Friday was not as expected. We went to IMSS hospital to do a quick pick-up of papers at the clinic head's office to get Carmen's next eye appointment. The tonometer (machine for testing internal eye pressure) had been broken when Dr Vera had examined Carmen, so the doctora had written up an order to send her to another hospital for the test.  This is the same machine that tested Dan earlier in this week!  Now, it seems that the clinic chief, understanding that the machine was fixed, wanted to avoid sending folks elsewhere for the testing. Apparently they had to wait for Dr Vera to personally check and OK the machine. Two other ladies were there waiting for the same issue. Turns out that the doctora never showed up  for her shift and we are to return monday. This next time we will not forget a book. We were there for four hours!   While waiting, Dan's sore throat got to the point where he was barely able to squeak sounds. Since we are to take in a fecal occult test monday, we can take no vitamin C – which is our favorite “get rid of colds and sore throat” treatment.

Mid-day temperatures went above 90ºF. Used our car airconditioner driving home from IMSS, for the first time since arriving in Mexico. This evening a gray-haired lady rang our doorbell. She carried an old five gallon bucket, and asked for some food. She gave us so many blessings of thanks after we handed her a container of milk, that we felt we should have given more. We are not the only house she will stop at however. Some folks specifically ask for tortillas, which we have only frozen. The younger folks get a juice box, and one really starving elderly man also gets cookies or part of our recent meal.

A favorite tv show at the moment is “The Renovators” from 4:30 til 6pm, five days a week. Takes place in Australia and was filmed in 2011. We had missed the first few shows, but luckily after the last show, the series started again. It starts with 26 people and ends up with one, renovating six rundown houses around Sydney. Friday evening a strong wind storm, with giant rain drops, blew in from the northwest. Carmen had to fight with the strong rachas (gusts), to get the windows closed. The floors and chairs on the north and west were soaked with driven rain. We have never before had forceful winds from the west, and we had not had rain blow inside since we put the plexiglas panels part way up outside our windows. The storm was relatively short – but soaking. 

Our breakfast bananas have gone squishy – banana muffin time. The neighborhood gray sleek female cat can get thru our narrow barred gates. Yesterday she was found sitting with Gardi under our car. No fighting – merely enjoying the companionship! Probably Gardi will invite her into our house some day. Then what?

No specific pictures illustrating the week's activities, so we have selected some images of our cactus & succulent collection to place here.

La cuenta

Domingo 16 - Sábado 22 Mar 2014  What a start to this week! During the night a windstorm arrived. We had to get up and check it all out with a flashlightt, due to the rattling noise from the roof. We were okay, our property was okay -- turns out the noise was from our rear rain gutter, well affixed in place but the galvanized metal made sounds when buffeted by the gusts. What a surprise! Thought for sure we would lose some roofing from the third story mirador, but all was secure there.

As we were finishing our breakfast of french toast, Ania and Frank stopped by to see if we would like to go to the huge second hand car tianguis (temporary market) which is every sunday not far from here.  This is THE place in the region to buy a used car, and we had passed it many times but had never done a walk-thru. Frank was looking to replace his old pickup. It was rather enjoyable to check out prices and models of the several hundred vehicles being privately sold. Since the thermometer hit near 90 today, we had to water everything twice. Carmelo stopped just as we were leaving in the morning. He still thinks that he can talk us into buying many plants. Carmen is determined that we will buy very few more – just no room to put them. And – we will absolutely not adv                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ance him any more money for future deliveries. After some arguing about the situation, Carmelo finally believed Carmen. He can always talk Dan into believing his sob stories, not so with Carmen. She can be most hard hearted if necessary. We finished our 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle. It is a beauty!

Carmen controlled herself on sunday and did her cleaning on monday. Ania keeps telling her to leave our doors and windows closed during the sugarcane burning months to keep the air-borne soot down in the house. Carmen is unable to do this. Not only do we like to leave doors ajar for our sweet kitties to wander in and out at their will (though we had a cat door installed, we have not gotten them used to it). Also – we lived in an area previous to this where it was just too cold to let the outside air in except on the very rare hottest days of Pacific Northwest summer, and we are greatly enjoying the ambiance of the outside doings and breezes, what ever the ocasional smells or dust it lets in.

Monday we roasted the pork butt we bought a few days ago. We invited Ania and Frank for the meal, but there is still a large amount of meat left to eat and eat. Yum, yum. Carmen made cinnamon rolls for the first time in four years. She bemoans the fact that she did not put enough butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon in them to make them perfect. It would have been nice if the oven had not darkened the bottoms too. Will practice again soon. After dinner we watched the movie “Footloose” which Dan had recorded a few days ago. Rather a bouncy affair.

Tuesday Dan studied the internet to learn how to cut a glass bottle. Not a perfect job, but now Carmen has a new flower vase made from a distinctively-shaped rompope bottle.  He wants to make a jig to cut some wine bottles we have been saving up.  A great tailed grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) sat on the fence and chattered to Carmen as laundry was being hung out. We believe it to be the same bird that was on the front porch a few days ago, and then walked up to our back gate when we had it open, working on the roof tile. It might also be the same one that threatened Gardi when we first moved here. We think that's likely. Perhaps it wants to be part of our family?

Carmen took it upon herself to take a cuenta (count) of all the plants we have surrounded ourselves with. Some in planters, some single in a pots, many orchids just tied or hanging from limbs, and many in the ground in our new front garden.

• Upper terraza outside the master bedroom: 103, plus a planter with catnip & other little things.  Most of our cactus collection is here.
• Backyard/patio area:  61, west & north of the house, including hanging orchids & plants in ground, plus ground cover of wandering jew or traveler jew, plus black mondo grass clumps.
• Inside:  8 plus four 4 african violets in an east bedroom window
• Front garden & porch:  124 in ground plus 158 hanging (many orquideas) & in pots, including a longish branch full of  many orchids and several herbs for cooking & teas.

Total:  458+ plants to care for. But still we do not have one of everything (an impossible task in this area of floral glory), and we do have several of a few favorites. Chances are, there were some plants missed in the count, and we are sadly way behind with the goal of ID-ing them all and getting them on a spreadsheet listing. Though all plants are loved, they are not loved equally -- we both definitely have favorites we watch out for.  When we chance to lose one, due to not understanding it's particular care needs,  it just gives us a chance to try again, or perhaps fill that space with something new.

Una orquidea grande

Domingo 09 Mar - Sábado 15 Mar 2014  How we do enjoy listening to the church bells and the singing coming from over from the Capilla de la Sagrada Trinidad across and up the street from us.. While having a spanish lesson with flashcards on our mirador, with Gardi laying at our feet, we saw over a dozen zopilotes (turkey vultures) floating along on the air currents overhead. Lots of butterflies too, and a couple parrots flew by. A truck with policemen drove by. The one standing in the back looked up and waved to us. 

Carmen started a 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle. Once she starts a puzzle, she is rather addicted to it. What ever she does not get done in the mornng before looking at the puzzle, just does not get done that day. There could be worst addictions, of course.  Carmen cut Dan's hair and of course Gardi loves having the clippers run over him, just the body of the unit which vibrates strongly. He climbs onto Dan's lap and pats the clippers until he gets his turn of the massage.

Dan has been unable to check our Sandander local bank account online, so we went to the bank to get things straightened out. The bank officer made a phone call and handed the phone to Dan. He had to keep telling the guy on the other end of the line to speak more slowly. It can be most difficult to understand a phone conversation in a foreign language when there is background noise at both ends, at least for our old ears. We left the bank with a newly reset password, being assured that he could now check our account from home. Guess what! No can do!-  Now the token which supplies a new countersign number to type in when we want secured info is not recognized, although it seems to display it's 8 digits when the button is pressed. We must go back to the bank again.

Celia, a block west of us, came up to the house and asked us to come and look at a blossoming plant she had. It is a huge Dendrobium nobile orchid, about 2.5 to 3 feet diameter, just starting to bloom with large flowers of white and purple. With the buds just starting to open, we should have more than 200 flowers, all 2" to 3" in size.  We bought it for $16 US. It is in a wire frame and she had two others, one of which is in a tree crotch. Apparently this particular orchid, native to the Himalayas, is a source of some very effective natural folk medicines.  Celia came back the next day because she had heard the two men from Cosco down again talking about us seeing the land they had for sale. She said we could buy her property, which is a normal width 10m lot down on Calle 9, but its very deep and goes back to the creek. No thank you, tho' we would like to see the area behind her house where she says she has an orchard. Another lady was admiring our out-front garden and asked if she could have a start from a verbena plant.  Carmen believes she is bringing a piece of hers that is a different color.

Carmello stopped by with more flowers for sale. Yes, we bought a few more. This must stop, as Dan told him, as we have really no room left for more plants. He told us he was waiting outside our gate monday for us to return, when the police stopped and told him to move on and fined him MX$300 for loitering. Apparently they thought he was up to no good, and so were they just protecting us? Or was the problem that he did not have a license for selling? Or did he just look like a campesino they could lean on?  He took them to a neighbor to reassure them that he indeed did sell plants to us, and he always waited for our return. Carmelo has been telling us that our Pata de Cabra (Pink Orchid tree) needed drastic action.  So we clipped it way back and put lots of cuttings into a pot. We're hoping to get a healthy plant again. It is certainly ill, with all the branches turning black and all leaves fallen, which apparently is not the norm for his supposedly hardy tree.  We also have a pot in which we planted some seeds from the dried pods, in case the Bauhinia monandra cuttings don't take.

The fellow from Honduras stopped at our door again, asking for mexican coins. We gave him a juicebox. Also the fellow who hurt his leg was here, ditto. A lady selling avocados came by, but the bag she handed us had squishy fruit in it – so, no thank you. A woman in a wheel chair accompanied by five grown children rang our doorbell. They had two small cans for money. Did not understand their story but we gave her some pesos. A lady stopped to speak english to Carmen for awhile. She is a Jehovah Witness and is here for a few months. She was raised in Jamaica, and then spent the next 40 years in the US in Massachusetts, Florida, and North Carolina. Her next move is to western South Carolina. She is living presently with a mexican family about five blocks south of us, and she said that everyone has told her that an english-speaking couple live here. We had a nice chat and she will stop by again.

We had lunch at Ania and Frank's wednesday – a surprise birthday celebration for Tamara who is married to Tim (from California). They live near Coscomatepec, 40 minutes north of here. The cake was a cheese pie with pear topping and final garnish of filbert stuffed candies. As usual, Ania's meal was superb! Seems that their kitty will be popping forth with kittens soon. Can hardly wait to see them. Hope her delivery will be safe. Carmen had a cat that would have died in delivery had she not been there to help her by straightening a kitten that was crossways in the birth canal, so Carmen worries about other small mama cats. Well she has to have something to worry about...!

Cosme was here again wanting to spray our plants. Carmen has bought spray and takes care of them herself. He tried hard to find some insects. There are always a few, but some of his “insect” finds were in fact soot. He is the person who sold us our first orchids, all tiny. He seemed perturbed when he saw that we have purchased more and larger ones from others. Celia came by to see that we had carefully put the huge one, we bought from her, in a proper location. She thought it should get more sun or be hung in our bugambilia tree, where of course it would get no sun. Dan pointed out that we put it in thesame orientation on a south wall comparable to where she had it. The piece of vanilla orchid from breakage a year ago, which we had potted in moist medium, is finally sending up it's new growth

We went to IMSS clinic again friday to get two appointment slips for Dan. This is the at least the eighth time that we went for the envio to the opthamologist. Finally it was ready, along with the one for urologist. We then went to the IMSS hospital to pick up an appointment slip for Carmen's next eye exam. Come back next friday, we were told. We walked two blocks east of there to a commercial meat market, where we purchased a pork roast, tilapia, ground beef and arrachera beef, all at excellent prices. There was a special on the tv news about seafood going up in price, since demand is so high this time of year during Lent. The wholesalers have imported shrimp from central america because they could not supply the heavy market this year.

We have been looking for magnesium sulfate to fertilize out plants with. To this point, no luck. Tim and Tamara, who are farmers, told us the only place that carries it is FYPA (Fertilizantes y Productos Agroquimicos) a local firm with branches all over Mexico.  Driving home from Córdoba, we saw their sign along the bulevar and stopped to inquire. This was only their main office, and we had to wait outside until we could be buzzed up into their suite of offices. Behind the closed gate and entry to this company was a most beautiful set of office buildings. Would never guess it from the street front -- gorgeous landscaping inside the compound also. Once upstairs, we learned they only sell it in giant quantities. Would take us a few more lifetimes to use a ton of it at two tablespoons per gallon of water, but it also was available in 50kg bags under another label. They did give us a list of their agrochemical stores where the product was actually available. We'll check that out sometime when we're in east Córdoba--chances are a clerk at the store will know someone who buys from them and repackages for retail consumption. 

To finish this week off, we took down our exension ladder from it's high storage spot and Dan got up onto the parking entry roof to re-cement (caulk with adhesive, actually) an end barrel tile that he was afraid might fall off. A job he had not looked forward to.

Then there was the unfortunate besucona (gecko) Gardi invited in to visit.  Either slow, old or particularly unwary, it let Gardi catch it three times. First time he carried it into the house and we at first thought it was a small snake. Did our feet ever come up off the floor fast! Carmen caught it and put it back outside.  Inside, Gardi was inside wondering where the big part went to. The tail, which was still squirming all over the place, he finally ate. Yum. Well maybe they are yummy, we will probably never try one. Now Gardi cat went back outside and almost immediately came back inside with the still lively gecko. Again Carmen put it back outside. This time further from the house in some heavier bushes. It took about ten minutes before we saw Gardi again bringing it inside and we quickly picked him up, along with the wiggling gecko in his mouth, and put them back outside with the door firmly closed behind them.

Cosas del horno

Domingo 02 Mar - Sábado 08 Mar 2014   Why is it that Carmen gets into a cleaning mood on sundays? Plus she weeded the front flower garden, while Dan did much watering. Also there was an unusual two layer birthday cake made. Both layers were our banana muffin recipe, plus grated carrots. The bottom layer became spicy with cinnamon and cloves, plus dates and pecans. All put together with a huge quantity of glaseado real (royal frosting). While making the frosting, Carmen did not put her glasses on 'til everything was whipping in the bowl. Oops, it looks much too wet! On with the glasses. Too much boiling water, so the whole recipe had to be doubled. Thankfully the frosting is not a really rich thing, lacking the butter most icings contain. It does not freeze well, so it was all spread on and around the cake.  The horno (oven) was busy with things all afternoon, as rolls and cookies followed the cake.

Monday was Ania's birthday and she and Frank came for a 5pm dinner of tilapia filets and chicken thighs smothered in a west African peanut sauce accompanied with a brown rice combined with cubes of yam and also fresh ejotes (string beans), left long. Carmen carefully put stems of fresh mint where she was filling the plates, to be sure she would not forget to garnish the plates. Yep – at the end of the meal she remembered the mint! She did remember to put the salads on this time. And the homemade dinner rolls both plain and some cinnamon sugar sticks, both of the same dough. When the first slice of pastel (cake) was cut from the end, the whole of it was frosting! That is how thick the frosting was! Careful though Carmen was in de-pitting the dates, Ania got a pit in her piece -- something special for the birthday girl. Carmen had also baked Ania some oatmeal cookies, all packaged up to take home, as she likes them so much. After dinner we played rummy cube. Each of the four of us won one set and Dan won the total by points. The perfect game when everyone wins.

Some needed rain arrived over night. Tuesday at our monthly doctors appointment, Dr Rendon's nurse, Luz, said that she could read english, she just could not understand it when spoken, just like Carmen and spanish. An appointment was made for Carmen's last mammogram, which would be at the hospital in the afternoon the next day. Gracious, she has reached that age already? Since she also had a wednesday morning eye exam, this seemed quite convenient.

The oftamologa (opthamologist) was two hours late arriving to her office. Possibly a staff meeting ran late (as we have seen happen before)? She, the doctor, perhaps was not happy that Carmen did not speak spanish, or was she just having a bad day? She was certainly professional, and had no trouble reading the eye care history Carmen had brought from the states, but she was just not warm like most everyone else we meet. This is the first experience we have had with anyone here who was not totally pleasant. Carmen wanted her eye pressure checked, but as one might guess, this facility lacked the equipment for this, and we'll later get an envio for another appointment elsewhere.  The uncomfortable time with the doctor and this last hassle caused Carmen to start thinking of moving back to the US. There Dan would not go to the medical appointments to talk for Carmen. While mentally listing all the positives and negatives of living in the two countries, that was one of  the few pluses for the US. If only Carmen's head would give in and learn to communicate in spanish. We now had a three hour wait until our next appointment.  We considered walking around town and perhaps having a lunch at a reastuarant, but we decided it was too much so we drove home instead..

One most embarrassing thing happened while waiting for the eye doctor. There were a dozen folks waiting. All the sudden, a lovely looking medical assistant stepped right in front of Carmen, bent down to where her face was smack in front of Carmen's. Now what! She proceeds to tell Carmen that she looks like a princess. Her daughter wants to looks like a Disney princess, and Carmen looks just like one, as she lightly touches Carmen's face and hair. Well – that woke up the dozing waiting folks and put smiles on their faces! The lady never knew that Carmen could barely understand her – though enough to know what was going on! Nor did Carmen think to tell her that she had wished for the beautiful darker complexion that the medical assistant had, when she was growing up.

We drove back to the hospital for the 2pm mammogram . First we went upstairs to the lab to clarify something – did not help. We still do not understand. Next we went downstairs for the mammogram and found ourselves 45 minutes early, and fifteen minutes before they closed for lunch break. Nevertheless, we handed in the exam order form, and low and behold, Carmen was immediately taken. Much too much pressure used, though Dan did not have to come in and interpret. After all, these tests must be the same all over the world.  We drove further east to the Soriana store to buy our favorite oatmeal. Don't know why, but theirs tastes more oatmealy. We also amongst other items bought a bag of their spicy tortilla chips. That evening Carmen asked Dan to check in the car for the chips, since she realized that they had not been unpacked. No chips any place, not even on the receipt. We know that we both handled the bag and put it in the cart. Hope who ever got them, enjoyed them, since we obviously put them in the wrong cart.

Across the street one afternoon we saw five huge turkey vultures. The dead cat is now gone. Never saw a turkey vulture that close before. They certainly do look much the same size and shape as wild turkeys. It is good to have something to clean up the decaying flesh. Lots of butterflies fluttering thru our flowers – to Smij's delight. Gardi pays less attention to them. The geckos and grasshoppers are more his thing.   Woolen socks were put away, which of course brought another cold front thru. Seems anything below 60ºs nights or 72º days is a bit fresco (chilly) to us now. But the orchids (and the cacti) seem to love the cool mornings and moderate days, and are beginning to bloom now. So far only tiny flowers. Still hoping that we have an orchid that will produce large flowers.

Another warm morning came along. We took advantage of it and dined on our breakfast of huevos escalfados (poached eggs) on toast out front on our porch at our table for two. No different than eating outside at a restaurant we tell ourselves, as folks walk by, saying Buenos Días, while we are sipping our fresh squeezed orange juice and local coffee.

Barreras de gatos

Domingo 23 Feb- Sábado 01 Mar 2014 

Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day...  Our house sparrows have returned and are building a nest in the nw corner of our roof again. We love their cheery songs. Our fresh flowers purchased at the front gate this week are large cream-colored roses with dark red petal edges and interiors. Off in the distance north, looking past our bugambilias and over the banana fields, we can see the top of a tree covered with bright yellow flowers!  Fortín truly is a city de las flores!  We're doing our bit here, but it does entail regular daily watering of our three flower areas -- front yard/porch, backyard and terraza.  Water doesn't stay long in pots, especially as the soil mix that all our plants seem to require is fast-draining.

Sunday it heated up, and reached 79ºF in the shade. We washed and vacuumed the car, after parking on the street in the shade on the north side of the house. Dan struggled with putting up the "barrera de gatos"(cat barrier), a section of fencing we fabricated which will keep our cats from getting off the wall on our west or down into the neighbors lot. Our afternoon meal of salmon and fried freshly-dug red potatoes was taken onto the front porch at our little table there. While dining, there looked to be an eagle soaring in the sky. Well, it would hardly have been soaring on the road. Carmen was reading in our hammock there earlier. (No not on the road either, on the porch.)  A couple stopped at our gate, selling small bags of vegetables. We bought avocados. Dan asked Carmen if she wanted some habas (fava beans) and she thought he said peas and the pods were large so she thought the peas would be too old. Had she but heard correctly, we would have fresh fava beans.

Dan finished putting up more barreras, enamel-coated shelf pieces we got at Home Depot, which he installed along the south wall, to prevent Gardi from touring the neighborhood roof tops. The next day, Gardi, finally allowed access to the second floor terraza, learned of his new restrictions on roaming, and clearly complained to us about the situation. On this level we have a clown nose plant. It presently has a “red nose.”  Actually this plant here is called Huevos de Obispo (Bishop's Testicles). So he, so far, has only one ball, it seems. Blooms have appeared for this years fruiting.  Wednesday we had a scrumptious meal with Ania and Frank. Unfortunately, we had to then rush home since Dan was expecting a skype call – which never happened! We could have stayed there longer!

Carmelo said he would bring our corn on the cob wednesday, but he did not show up. We have an unknown plant growing out front. It's dicot leaves are huge. It actually has the look of a tree. Our night blooming cereus cactus has started putting on growth. We woke thursday morning with a light rain. Finally! Did the plants ever need it. Watering is just not the same.

Friday Dan had an early 8am appointment for an ultrasound of his bladder at our IMSS family clinic. He took his liter-and-a half of water to be imbibed after he arrived. Drinking more than a few sips at a time is hard for Dan, but he managed to get it down pretty rapidly. The technician kept calling others to the lab. Finally Dan was in so much pain from his bladder holding all that water, that he told the nurse. Dan was taken next, and oh what a relief! On our way home we did a quick stop at Walmart. We bought a roasted chicken. It is absolutely succulent!

Saturday at 7am, we turned on the Fortín radio station, to listen to the two hours of oldies in english we've appreciated each weekend. The programming appears to have been changed and we did not care for the selections, so we got up. Put a laundry in the washing machine since the day looked beautiful. Had a Mexican breakfast of tortillas covered with refried beans, cheese and fried egg, lightly smothered in salsa. Fresh local coffee and fresh-squeezed orange juice. A good start to our day.

The good start came to a crashing halt when Carmen was out front, checking her plants for insects, as she does every morning. She first found all the foliage on her year old nasturtium had been eaten overnight, and what little was left was dead. Next, and by far worse, she glanced outside our front gate and there laid the beautiful friendly little white/gray cat. Apparently hit by a car and stiff as could be. Considering Carmen's love for cats – this was a bad blow. She carried it across the street to the banana field and laid it near the road in hopes that the owners would at least see it and not expect it to ever come home again. Why do animals seem to die in front of our abode? The third death of the morn was a beautiful butterfly just in front of our door. We realize they do not live long – but nevertheless it's sad that such beauty is so efimero.  It was black with orange on the front wings and the back wings were black with dozens of small relective white spots. Very pretty. Maybe this was meant to be a blessing to us – just to admire it's beauty.

We walked into town to pay our electric bill but recalled too late that the office is closed saturdays. Our bill for two months, downloaded from the CFE website, reported our daily usage was 5.45 kwh, so our power here is costing us about MX$7.60 or US$0.58 per day.  We walked on to the Farmacia Similares, where there has been a 25% discount on the 1^st and 15^th of each month, but apparently the discount scheme has changed : now it's every monday. No purchase there, we'll come back next week.  Next stop was the grocery store. We needed powdered sugar to frost a cake for Ania's birthday. The store had a pallet of granulated sugar of different grades, but no powdered sugar.  Oh well, we needed the exercise anyway.

Our day did improve. Ricardo, our fresh flower man (we finally thought to ask him his name) had gorgeous roses. Carmen bought three, all different colors: dark red, yellow, and peach. Also a bunch of six dark red large carnations plus one white. Flowers always make for a happier day. On tv this evening we watched the gran desfile (big parade), comprised of about 5000 participants, on floats and marching along in various costumes, taking place for Carnaval week in Veracruz city. Both sides of Avenida Camacho were jammed with spectators until late at night. The onlookers seemed to be all ages, but it seems to us like standing in a crowd for hours is more comfortably avoided.  Curmudgeons though we seem to be in this regard, watching on tv was all we needed to enjoy the spectacle.

Huespedes

Domingo 16 - Sábado 22 Feb 2014  Harmony skyped us Sunday morning.  So good to see and talk to her and her family! The walls & downstairs ceilings inside of our house are painted white. When the sun is bright, it is interesting to watch the shadows play about on the surfaces. We think we are hearing some new bird calls/songs. Are they migrants coming or going thru here? Paying attention to little things like this in life bring us a lot of pleasure.

The outsides of the new porch storage cabinets got their coat of paint. After a touchup of missed spots, we will finally be able to do a good cleaning on the porch! It would really be good to hose it off every day – but that will never happen unless we someday in the far future have a housekeeper other than Carmen. Found some aphids on a rose bush. Not many so they simply got squashed. Hate to spray if not really necessary. Cosme comes by every few weeks asking if we want everything sprayed. We did let him spray for insects when we first moved in.

Monday was a full day.  A drive into Córdoba was first, mainly to pick up eye appointment orders at IMSS -- these were again not ready for us, as we were told the oftamología clinic was currently over-booked. We took the opportunity to stop by the shop where we bought our vacuum cleaner, to get the guarantee stamped and buy some replacement filter bags. Walmart finally had that all important cat litter today and Home Depot had some coated metal shelving Dan can attach to our upper walls, as barriers to keep the cats off the neighbors' roofs. Now for the good stuff:   With the porch cabinets finished, Dan moved an electrical outlet, covered over in the new bodeguita, to one of the front panels of the new cabinet -- much more convenient this way. He also reinstalled a hose reel on the front garden wall.  Dan enjoyed finally moving all the garden items from their crowded storage in the backyard bodega to their new home out front. Now with all the work done, we finally swept the porch floor several times and mopped it twice. My but it does look nice for the moment!

Tuesday morning the day started with much to-do, even before breakfast!  First Carmelo came and we bought six plants and he owes us a bit of advanced money so he said next time he will bring us fresh elotes (corn on the cob) from his little milpa. Unfortunately we do not care much for the white corn grown in this area.  It isn't bad but it's just not the sweet corn one gets NoB. While perusing his plants from the two full bags he carried, our front door bell rang. Dan answered it. Two fellows, hermanos (brothers) of Luís our crew foreman from Coscomatepec, came to tell us about a piece of property for sale up there. No, we do not want to build a cabin/house up there, and take care of another piece of property, though they are sure we do. However they got that idea in their heads is beyond us. Probably since our friends the Shattucks have a couple small cottage type homes with property there, they assume we must also desire to own property north of here, perhaps for a vacation home.  Dan promised to look them up next time we visited Cosco -- no harm in looking, right?  And perhaps we will come across someone just looking for a parcel of land that we can steer in that direction. We had a great day, in the sun/shade at 80ºF+ degrees, gardening. Planting, transplanting, weeding, pruning, watering. Carmen gave many starts away of a purple coleus, a pink & green caladium and some fuchsias. Nice to have starts to give to people passing by. Artemio, our area gardener, stopped to say hi, as did many other folks. Colyn took pictures of our garden. She will be moving to Veracruz next week. We will miss her. Also did some touch up painting. A busy and happy day!  We had huespedes (guests) for lunch wednesday, Ania and Frank.. It was good to see them after their six weeks away in Nayarit!  Only an Italian sausage on a bun (reminiscent of Carmen's life in Wisconsin when the summer party food was bratwurst with sauerkraut on a bun), with a huge lettuce, fruit & veg salad.  We finished up with lime meringue pie for three of us. Ania is not fond of this so she had homemade oatmeal cookies instead.  A couple of games of dominoes, and we were all ready for post-luncheon naps.

IMSS still had no envios (ex-clinic orders) authorizing our eye appointments for us on friday. We're to try again next wednesday or thursday.  We stopped at Metalurve and picked up a small piece of welded galvanized fencing.  On our way home, we took a road that we had not traveled before. Dan kept telling Carmen to look at a map, and Carmen replied that she would do so as soon as she saw some street signs. So very exciting to think that you are lost for awhile! Never needed the map, nor saw any street signs either, as we eventually wound ourselves back into a familiar area.  Carmen moved a few more plants around. Dan still is helping some folks, remotely, with their accounting. He also got the bent steel frame (which had been welded last week by Mauricio) painted and ready for attaching the fencing.  

Saturday was such a lovely day, that we did a walk into town, mostly in the south side in the old fraccionamiento Fortín where the older upscale houses are located. We had originally hoped to buy there, but the houses we saw there were all way too large and expensive. We very much enjoy commenting about the many house styles and landscaping as we pass by. On our walk we stopped at the Suites María Antonieta, where we rented three winters ago when we were house-hunting, and had a chat with Carlos, one of the owners. He showed us their new alberca (swimming pool) and invited us to use it any time we liked. Next we saw and talked to a neighbor five houses south, who was downtown with her husband and little boy. Stopped at the Super Ahorros for apple yogurt, and continued on towards home. A vehicle pulled up beside us and the driver tooted the horn. Carlos, our neighbor two doors down, had stopped to offer us a ride. We took him up on it just to be sociable, though we were out for the exercise. Must start doing regular walks around town soon --so much to see, and winter is now behind us!