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.

Más Macetas, Más Flores

Domingo 17- Sábado 23 Noviembre   Dan updated some of our albums on DavesGarden, where he has put categorized fotos of the plants for which we have sure IDs and good pictures. We'll post more here as we work thru our master list of acquisitions, which we maintain on a spreadsheet. We have had comments about them from Colombia, US and Mexico, and answers to our queries about IDing plants from as far away as England. Sunday we drove to Ania and Frank's house to check things out while they are away, and to give their kitty some loves and food.

Lots more plants waiting to be planted, purchased over the last few days from Carmelo. He showed up again monday, bearing ten or so plants, which he peddles around the neighborhood. Despite Carmen saying no more, Dan convinced her to buy two we didn't yet have. Carmelo asked Dan for a loan, to “buy medicine.” No, we do not do that. We have several times given him pesos in advance for a couple of plants that we have not yet received, but that is our limit. Cosme was here about the same time, with a huge bag of orchid and other epiphytes he collected up north. Carmen said no more, but Dan felt he had to buy one, a unique large tillandsia from up by Papantla. A lady came by selling some smaller Hass avocados at a good price, so we bought three and she gave us another—they were very tasty. Now that valencias are coming into season, we bought another 40 pound bag of juice oranges, which proved to be much sweeter than the last bag we bought. Repeated frentes frios (cold fronts) are sweeping down from the states bringing cooler weather, but we see the sun most days.  The butterflies are still around when the sun warms up the air.  Here are two common ones we see often:  Diaetheria anna anna (Anna's 88), a brush-footed butterly, and the other one with iridescent silver/blue wingspots that we haven't yet ID'd.  hey both are about 2" across when wings are spread flat.

Dan has started burning CDs of our LP s and tapes. In Anacortes in the month before we came down here, he had copied well over 180 original recordings, using the shareware Audacity program, and stored the resulting aud files on his computer's hard disk, about 300GB in space that he really needs to free up. It did not make sense to bring the originals down here. Once converted to wav files (which can be burned to audio CDs), he wants to move the aud files into separate storage. We took advantage of the special seasonal sales, and went to Office Depot to buy an external hard disk specifically for storing media files for music, photos and such. A stop at Shattucks where we expected to see Manuel working, but this was a holiday (Dia de La Revolución) and he was not there.  

Tuesday we went to the IMSS hospital outpatient section for Carmen's cita with the ENT department. A nice Dr Cobos, who spoke some english, examined her and found no obvious cause for the dizziness. There is no swelling or apparent infection in the ear area, so the specialist feels the problem might be coming from her neck where she had surgery a few years ago to fuse some cervival vertebrae. Looking acutely up or down can stress her neck, perhaps causing the swelling which is affecting the blood supply to the inner ear. She is totally fed up with the head pain and dizziness! He prescribed a cortizone shot, with the hopes that her dizziness will disappear – there will be a followup with him in a month. The shot was interesting in that she was just given a prescription by the doctor. She had it filled at the hospital pharmacy where the clerk there provided a tiny bottle filled with injectible cortisone. She then had to find someone to give her the shot. Dan offered, but she preferred to go to our IMSS family clinic, where a nurse in the urgencias section used a syringe and gave it to her in the hip. Actually the nurse was a young fellow who looked to be in his teens. He did a really great job of very slowly injecting this thick fluid. We could have also gone to the clinic attached to the farmacia in Fortin, where it would have cost MX$30 for the doc there to do the injection.

From the parking spot near the hospital, we walked on into the center of the city where we went to the Waldos store. It finally has fig bars and those good oatmeal cookies again! Only place we have found them! Also we bought someattractive but inexpensive plastic macetas (flower pots) of various sizes;  we're sure to fill then as it seems we can't seem to have too many pots on hand. (Can't seem to turn down, each time, one more interesting flower -- this is Fortín de las Flores, after all!) Next door to Waldos is our favorite fabric store where we purchased, after much deliberation, the heavy upholstery fabric for the new bedroom bench seat, for which we bought the foam pad in Orizaba last week. Wondering when Carmen might finish this project? The fabric is rather exciting. It has the browns and greens of the other fabrics hanging over windows and storage areas, plus much rather country-ish looking patterning.

Of course, since we walked right past the main El Borrego store we bought a hunk of their delicious swiss cheese. Now loaded down, we walked the six long blocks up hill and down hill, back to our car. It is always a trick deciding which streets to walk on: where are the hills the least steep, where are there fewer steps in the sidewalks and where is the shade? We then drove to Frank & Ania's place and found the housekeeper tidying up and watering the outside plants. She said the uphill water tanks were dry. Dan checked them out, and turned on the water at the meter (Frank had turned it off before they left). The tanks had been full a few days earlier, so perhaps there's a leak, so we'll go back to turn the water off once the tanks are filled. (Dan later sent Frank an email to explain the situation and ask exactly how the water system was configured. Not a good thing for them to think about on their vacation.) Then home again, home again, jiggity jig.

This week a banana cream pie was made and devoured, plus a batch of chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal added. Our 5gal water garafon was delivered just as some came out of the oven, so of course a couple went to the delivery guys.  Across the street, the crew of albañiles are finished with the rubble foundations, and are pouring a reinforced bond beam along the top, a base from which they'll shortly erect concrete block perimeter walls.  We ran short of sand for our homemade potting mix, which needs to drain well to deal with the ample rainfall here, so Dan went across the street to buy two half-cubetas from the guys, from the huge pile they were working from.  This was way easier than driving somewhere to convince a building supply store to fill and sell us one bucket, when they normally sell it by the cubic meter.

Gardi cat finally had his outing and hike across the top of the narrow fenced ledge on the wall dividing our property from that of Valentin. He traversed out to the roof over the car entry into our backyard. He'd been studying this journey for quite some time. He crossed both slanted sides of this roof and onto the tiled skirt-roof above the west-facing bedroom window. Being a dead end, he went back and made the decision not to leap down into Valentin's property. This is the one place where he could actually get off our property, if he was brave enough to attempt the long, steep leap which would be required. We both did lots of calling to him, so he wisely decided he had had enough adventure, and returned to the terraza outside our bedroom. Now, until we get a barrier at this “jump over” place, kitties can not go out the bedroom door, which is really too bad since timid Smij cat feels comfortable there.

We needed to go to the Shattuck's saturday to feed their beautiful petite short haired calico cat. Our weather report told us that it was supposed to be light rain later, so we started our circle trip in the morning. First to the RG store to see if they had gotten our vacuum cleaner yet; nope. Office Depot for more clamshell CD cases. Next was Walmart, where we bought a Beatle's calendar and a tall flower vase, plus a few grocery items. Calendars are hard to find in this area; everyone stocks agendas (daily/weekly appointment books), but wall calenders big enough to make notes on are a rare item.

By now the weather was sprinkling on us. Off to home Depot to purchase the steel stock to create the fencing panel to keep Gardi where e think he belongs. Was raining hard by the time we left there. Still had to go to Shattucks. As we drove past their front gate, we saw a large branch from a palm laying just inside  on the driveway. We park and go in at the upper back gate. By this time the “sprinkles” have turned into a heavy downpour which kept us in our car a while. We found miss kitty under Ania's car, trying to stay dry. She does so love the cat food we take her. We also gave her a serving of her regular food, assuming she might save it for tomorrow? She is so very sweet and loves any attention we can give her. Dan dragged off the branch out front since it made the place look unoccupied, and checked that the water tanks are now full, and so turned of the main water supply at the meter.  ALl the plants on the terraza were well watered when we got home. Our cacti seem to be doing well despite the rain, as they are planted in shallow fast draining planters.

Dan indeed did sell our old hot water heater, for MX$300, about 1/10 the price of a new one, but better than scrap value. Our fresh cut flower man has not stopped this weekend and now we need them. The flower vase on the dining room table has drooping pink carnations from two weeks ago, but the pink anthuriums Ania gave us are still lovely. A wheelbarrow came to our front door loaded with ceramic cookware—turns out they were the very folks we had bought flower pots from streetside near the Super Ahorros grocery store in town. Carmen showed the two folks selling that she had some of their large pots. Their asking price was higher than we were used to paying, so we made a lower offer and the deal happened. We now have four empty large hand-painted ceramic tripod base pots longing to be filled with something beautiful.

Manos Verdes

Domingo 10- Sábado 16 Noviembre   A delicious start to this week with a nice dinner at Ania and Frank's. A celebration of Carmen's birthday with chayote soup and an adobo chicken with mexican rice course. We just love Ania's cooking, and she always takes so much care with presentation. We played four games of double dominoes. As we left Ania gave us some cut anthuriums that we put in the vase with the carnations we had purchased. She also gave us several stalks of a very interesting dried prickly plant from Veracruz. They are now over one of our living room windows, yet to be id'd. Also a couple of plant macrame hangers that her daughters had made. She does not hang items on her walls like we would, so she thought we could make use of them. And right she was. The hangers are in the living room with different types of prayer plants, which seem happy!

By Monday, Carmen had run out of the antibiotic to treat her arm, still a bit swollen, so we walked into town to buy another course of pills at a local pharmacy. We figured this would be quicker than going back to IMSS for a new prescription. Turned out that purchasing antibiotics takes a doctors prescription – can't just buy it over the counter like one used to be able to do here. Other than antibiotics and narcotics, all medicinal drugs can be bought over the counter on demand. The Similares (Generics) pharmacy has a small clinic, staffed with a doctor, attached to the store. On the wall is a list of services provided, with very reasonable prices. We explained the situation to the doctor, showed him the drug packaging we got from IMSS, answered some questions on how Carmen was faring, and he wrote out a receta (Rx) for another week of treatment. For this service we paid MX$30 (US$2.30). Next door, in the farmacia we bought the dicloxacillin, which here cost a tenth of what it would have been in the states. It was perfect weather for the walk, and we were happy to get the exercise!

Carmen spent most of this week exercising her manos verdes (green hands, ie "green thumbs"), planting new acquisitions and caring for them. This included potting up the little start of the Reina de Noche or Pitahaya (Hylocereus undatus, Night-blooming Cereus, Dragon Fruit) Celia provided, for which we have high hopes for fantastic flowers and delicious fruit. The plant is supposed to be a fast grower, which we will have to trellis against our south terraza wall. It seems everything here grows at warp speed, including not only wanted plants, but also weeds and insects. Dan spent some long hours perusing the internet, identifying plants we have growing here, and creating some online albums of plants of which we have good photos. There are links to our foto pages near the bottom of the navigation column to the right of this blog page. Frank reported that google maps just updated it's coverage in Fortín, adding street views of both the calle and avenida for the corner where we live. These are dated August 2012, the month before we arrived here with our furniture, so the house appears just as we purchased it, before any of our house renovations and painting.

Thursday, we picked Ania and Frank up at their house and took them to catch their bus in Orizaba, going to the airport in Mexico City, the first leg of their vacation. We are still wondering if they caught the bus for which they had tickets, since they got to the station only minutes before departure time. We had needed to go to Orizaba for foam for our bench seat in our bedroom. The foam shop was closed between 2 and 4, as many businesses are, and that was the time we got there after the stop at the bus terminal. To fill our time, we wandered about a bit in the downtown business area. Always an enjoyable walk in this beautiful old city. We also strolled the big mercado, which has hundreds of stalls selling about every imaginable item. Lots of interesting sights and smells, as markets of this kind are heaped with produce of all kinds, as well as raw fish and freshly butchered hanging meats, all mixed with cooking odors from many dining stalls.

Stores proffered large discounts for this weekend – “El Buen Fin” (the good weekend) is the third year of holding this mexican equivalent of the Black Friday weekend following Thanksgiving. Next Wednesday will be Mexico's Dia de la Revolución, but the holiday is celebrated monday, extending the shopping weekend into a four-day friday-monday affair. Yes, we just could not resist a good buy. Off to Home Depot to buy a small supplementary hot water heater to put in near the kitchen sink. We have been holding onto the old 38 liter storage-type heater we removed when we built the new bathroom, but realized we would be better served with a newer fast recovery de paso model (heats 6 liters of water almost immediately and continuously). Our main water heater is at the opposite end of the house and it takes long minutes to get hot water to the kitchen faucet. Being that Carmen is most impatient, and much extra water is used just draining the cool water in the lines before it turns hot, we decided to put this second water heater in. While at the store we also bought more soil and pots.

What a day saturday! Seemed like the whole town was stopping by to talk to us or sell us something. By 9am we had purchased 2kg of freshly dug red potatoes, an orchid in full bloom (Laelia anceps anceps) with an asking price of MX$120 (but Carmen really does not want any more orchids, so she firmly held out while the seller's price dropped over and over, until she relented and paid MX$50), plus more plants from Carmelo. We must have one of nearly every plant that Carmelo grows! Such a variety! Thruout the rest of the day there were folks asking for money and food or work. We never give money – only food. Our fresh flower man again had beautiful long stemmed flowers, but we did not need any this week. Our last week's carnations were still healthy. Folks ringing the bell included some with questions about the old water heater we now have for sale and people looking for some other address.

During a typical week, many vendors pass down the street, hoping to sell: unfinished small furniture, pillows, coconuts, fresh herbs, garlic bulbs, fruits, avocados and many homemade items like breads, tamales, desserts, pickles, etc. There's also the man with a bicycle cart selling fresh raw milk right out of the steel milk can (the kind that farmers in US used in the past). And services like the knife sharpener, the motorcycle-riding postman, and the guys that drive around wanting to buy scrap metal. Then add in the regular domestic deliveries of bottled water and propane (at least three brands of each have customers in this neighborhood), and commercial deliveries to the little house-front abarrotes (grocery-sundry shops), at least one in every block. On and on the list goes,and many varieties of just about anything one can think of, will eventually come to our door with the hopes of a sale. Not all of these sales people passed by saturday, but any typical week most of these vendors will be seen. And most of them just walk past hawking their wares, without ringing doorbells or knocking, depending on residents to hear them pass and come out if they are interested in buying.

Oh yes – there is the saxophone man, and occasionally a three-man conjunto of musicians. They come by playing a few bars of music, up and down the streets, hoping for an appreciative tip! Plus all the folks just walking past who have a smile and hello makes for a rich full busy life here. The weather has been delightful, the various cold fronts (we're expecting number 14 this next weekend as I am writing this) bringing in very sleepable nights (not so cool that the bedroom window isn't open all the time) and mid-70's sunny days.  Dan is speaking more extensively to folks, which pushes his learning (finding the correct verb tenses and using those pesky relational pronouns), making it that much easier to keep conversation flowing.  Vocabulary has never been much of a problem for him, but then there are those subjunctive tenses to stumble over too. All in time...!

Medicada

Domingo 03 - Sábado 09 Noviembre   This was Carmen's birthday week, and as usual (as she recalls) it turned out to be a bad week for her. The dizziness she had suffered has not gone away. Monday morning she woke up with a puffed up left arm, sore and red around the elbow. Fortunately, we already had a family doctor's appointment that day. Dr Rendon examined the swollen arm, which had no apparent insect/spider bites nor abrasions – simply no problem visible from the outside. He gave her antibiotics for the infection in the arm, and more meds to control the vertigo, dizziness. On wednesday Carmen had her six month appointment with the rheumatologist in Orizaba. Dra Estevez felt the arm was a complication due to scleroderma. She wrote out ongoing prescriptions for the year. Included was a course of a powerful antihistamine for the swelling affecting circulation for the inner ear, which is probably causing the vertigo. She gave us a referral slip to take to the Cordaba central IMSS facility, for an appointment with an otorrinolaringologo (ear, nose & throat) doctor there. Soonest this doctor could see Carmen is 19 noviembre. Meanwhile, a medicada (medicated)dosed up Carmen can seldom stay awake, and has napped a lot this week.

Our flower starts man, Carmelo, has been here several more times. Carmen worked hard at potting everything up, with most of the acquistions hanging either on the north end of the front porch, or in shallow planters (the succulents) going up on the terraza in shallow planters. Up there, we noticed that our little potted payaya tree, which we started from a sprouted seed found in a fruit, while it's only about a yard tall, is already starting to form real bark on the truck near the base, and has the smallest of fruits developing near the top.  Whether these will actually ripen into something edible, we're waiting to see.  We're running out of garden space for plants we actually want to put in the ground, so we think we'll have José Luís come back for a day or two, after the rainy season finally passes, and do a bit more work for us, including laying a pathway thru the north side of our front yard. We ordered the additonal 54 adoquines (concrete pavers) when we drove into Cordoba monday. We will then remove the tiny bit of grass we have and let it all become a flower garden. It seems the passers-by enjoy our flowers almost as much as we do.

When we went to Orizaba on wednesday, we visited the espuma (foam rubber) shop that we had found way back when we thought we'd need a mattress built for us. Parking spots are at a premium on the narrow streets of old Orizaba, but luck was with us, and we found a spot only two blocks away. We need a foam cushion made for the bench seat in the closet area Dan built in our bedroom. The ownership had apparently changed from father to son, and he no longer will make finished items. He recommended a few tapicería (upholstery) shops a few blocks away, but we never found them. Looks like Carmen will have this task – shouldn't be much different from how she made the futon cover. We'll buy just the piece of foam when we next have a chance.

Next we drove to the big Plaza Valle shopping mall which we had heard was in Orizaba, but had yet not seen it. The parking area was enclosed and gated. We drove up to the entrance and while Dan was studying it to figure it out, a person the next gate over told us to just push the button and take the ticket and drive on in. There were no explanatory words or symbols on the ticket machine. We walked thru the mall, a location for many expensive stores (Liverpool, Sanborns and the like) and a multiplex cinema. Back to our car, we now had to figure out how to exit. The bars across the gates are of course all down. We drove up and put our ticket in the most obvious slot, but the gate would not come up, and the ticket was ejected back out of the machine. There was no slot to put in any money. Meanwhile other cars were exiting as the bars raised and lowered. Hmm. We tried another gate. Still no luck. We backed out of the gated exit area to watch what others were doing to get the gate to raise. It looked like we were doing it right. Finally Dan walked back into the mall and asked a fellow near the door how the ticket could be used to exit. He was directed to a little vending machine under the stairs where he could put the ticket in, put coins in a slot, and receive a validation stamp on the ticket. We assume that there might be a way to get one's ticket validated if one were to make a purchase at one of the bigger stores, but otherwise the parking cost MX$10 per hour. As we drove out we decided we will never have a need to go there again – not our style or budget, thank you.

We had a late lunch at the Chinese buffet restaurant near Chedraui grocery store. We park in the store's sizeable underground parking lot. After lunch, Dan did buy a couple items there. Home before dark. The remainder of the week was pretty low key, with Carmen catching up on reading and a lot of meds-induced napping. Saturday was a busy day, with the frontgate buzzer ringing at least a dozen times as various itinerant vendors and others made their presence known.

So far, we have mostly been putting in temperature and currency equivalents when we post someting here about the weather or costs. As we get more accustomed to thinking in Metric, Celsius and Pesos, we'll probably do this less, so we have included some tools at the bottom of this page you can view to convert some numbers to make better sense of what we are experiencing.

Fieles Difuntos

Domingo 27 Octubre - Sábado 02 Noviembre

We have spent many frustrating hours with our computer, trying to identify the 27 new plants we have purchased from our “plant man” who we asked, is named Carmelo. The far majority of the new purchases are not identified yet. His plants continue to be very well rooted, gorgeous and inexpensive. We finally have our succulent and cactus garden of 15 plants, in planters on our terraza. Of course this meant another trip to Home Depot for pots so that Carmen could re-pot them all. Our north fence on the front porch, is becoming a plant wall. The plants will need a few more years to grow to complete it they way it is imagined to develop. Dan drilled holes in the pots and Carmen helped him hang them. Our orchids are starting to blossom! Carmen is still not convinced that orquideas are worth all the time they take throughout the year, as tmany of them are under the eaves on the porch, and so need regular attention to watering & fertilizing, etc. Plus they usually only bloom a few times a year (although when blooming the flowers last a long time), so there is a lengthy part of the year they just hang there being green. Her preference so far, are the many plants that blossom all year here.

We started to leave wednesday for a walk into town. We got thru our front door and found that the security gate there would not unlock! Luckily that lock could be removed from inside with the help of a screwdriver. The lock went for a walk with us. Thankfully it is not welded in place like most of our other gate locks. The lock got dropped off at the locksmiths and we walked on to pay our electric bill which was much higher this time! US$37 for two months. This is US$16 over previous months. Up to 280 kwh a month costs about US$0.07 per kwh, and above that, in the bracket we found ourselves this time, three times as much. The cause is that Carmen has been enjoying using her toaster-oven for baking petite desserts. Perhaps the big propane oven would cost no more to bake with but it seems such a waste, since it needs preheating too. However, we do not want to be put into a higher bracket for electricity, so we need to be a little more cautious. But, you know, baking only eight small cookies at a time is such a “waist line” saver!

Our lock would not be ready for an hour, so we, for the first time in a couple months, took the time to sit in the park. We must do this more often. With nothing else to occupy our minds, other than people-watching, we had a good time conversing about topics we rarely get into at home. We saw a couple in lederhausen-like outfits; they seemed to be mexican teens dressed up for the holiday. Several of the ofrendas for tte coming ay of the ead  celebrations were under construction in the open space in front of cit hall.On our way home we saw amaranth flowers for sale. We bought a bunch. They, along with huge marigolds are the main flowers for this weekend honoring the deceased.

Last week, getting into the spirit of the season, as it were, over a thousand of the living-dead, and pretenders to the zombie “lifestyle” paraded thru the streets of Cordoba. Some of the walkers (or is it “biters”) were quite convincing as they ambled along. A good outlet for those who wanted to appear in disfraz (costume & mask), as halloween is not a big thing here. The days at the end of october are special in that people who died from accidents or drownings are especially remembered, but the Octuber 31^st day itself is hardly noted, much different than in the US. No trick or treating, at least in our neighborhood, though some homeowners decorate a bit, prompted by the US-style seasonal paraphenalia imported by some of the big city merchants.

November 1^st, Friday this year, is Todos Santos (All Saints) day, honoring all the saints in the catholic canon, and those who are making claims to sainthood. Also children who died in youth are remembered this day. November 2^nd is the big celebration, a remembrance of all the fieles difuntos (faithful departed) on All Souls day, also called Dia de los Muertos. A bit like our Memorial Day, except the cemetery here fills to overflowing with family visitors. They take huge quantities of flowers and decor to adorn the plots, sing and play musical instruments while perhaps picnicing around the graves with foods the deceased was known to have favored. It is really something to experience Some days later the cemetery attendants clean up all the debris. Also, the parque central is the site of large ofrendas, altar-like displays honoring respected personages of the past, made here of thousands of flower petals, dry beans, corn and other foods along with sawdust and sand, all shaped into patterns and walkways on the ground, interspersed with votive candles to guide the way for visiting souls. Kids and teens, influenced no doubt by NoB halloween traditions, are taking more and more to dressing up in scary costumes and walking around the park to show them off.

November 2^nd people also honor and remember their forebears, with family meals created around the favorite foods of their loved ones. Do we by any chance know any favorite foods? Here are our guesses, since we really do not know – for the decdents in Carmen's family:  for her mother she would say popcorn with lots of butter. She really liked the butter that she got from a cousin's dairy. It was made with slightly soured cream, much like most of the butter here in Mexico. For her father, she would say fudge. She really has no idea about her sister, Judy, whom she feels she hardly knew. Perhaps we had best ask our siblings or be more aware on our rare visits? The best would be to visit with family more often, but that won't happen with much frequency, living so far away now. Dan's father loved a good sharp cheese, and sardines & kippers – in fact all sea food. His mother loved pistacio pudding, green seedless grapes and chocolate ice cream. Oh yes, they both enjoyed their 4pm coctail. Do Dan's brothers remember any other items? Now, Carmen's favorites are: salt cod gravy, rutabaga, and pastries of all sorts. Dan's would be sardines, sharp cheeses, sweet cherries, and oatmeal cookies. How about all of you who read this? Soooo many foods to choose from.

Since we had to go to IMSS monday to get vigencia papers stamped for Carmen's blood test on friday, we tried to get in to see our doctor. We arrived there at 7am. At 8:30 the receptionist told us that there were 20 people ahead of us and we should go down to urgencias (emergencies). We waited there another two hours. However, we need to say that a nurse always checks you in, asks for your symptoms, and does some basic tests (BP, temperature, etc) immediately upon arrival, sort of a triage exam to determine if you need to be attended to right way. Carmen is still having bad dizziness. The emergency section doctor gave her meds to get her thru until her regular appointment next monday. We also found the Brandt-Daroff exercise for BPPV on the internet to help with the vertigo symptoms. Carmen thinks she is a speck better. We have her monthly appointment scheduled for next monday, and if she is not better by then, the doctor will send her to a specialist. As we sit for hours waiting for medical assistance, we consider a private doctor. But, the IMSS is free, and what else have we got to do?

Actually while at IMSS, a lady asked us if we were German or English. She was delighted to find that we were from Washington state. She has an agronomist brother living many years in Oregon who works for a landscaping firm. She is an english teacher at the ESBAO, one of the technical schools in Cordoba. She and her daughter (to whom she has spoken english since a baby) are going to come visit us so that she can strengthen her english. Later, a lady sitting next to Carmen in the waiting area in Urgencias, started talking, so Carmen has had her first talk on her own with a spanish speaking person. The lady spoke clearly and Carmen could understand her easily. Just talking about the usual – why are you here, where are you from, are you vacationing here, why here? Easy, though later Carmen told Dan that she might have referred to him as her hombro (shoulder), instead of hombre (man).

Across the street the foundation ditches are still filled with rain water, stopping further progress until things dry out. Not much happening here at home construction-wise. Carmen did persuade Dan to create some special plant hanging gizmos for our epiphytes made of scrap wood, wire, and some shade cloth we bought for the purpose. The dark brown loose-weave shade cloth is stapled to the wood, leaving space for the plant, leaf mold and a little soil. Wire loops suspend the plant on a wall or column (lacking as we do many crotched tree limbs on our lot) – a perfect home for some of our bromeliads and orchids. As the weekend arrived, we could feel autumn in the air. The cooler nights have caused a few leaves to fall here, but daytime temperatures are still in the mid to upper 70's. Saturday was a day of thunders and HARD short rains.