Más y más lluvia

(Domingo 08 - Sábado 14 Septiembre)  

Just another surprise! Our safe place for pastries has been in the microwave oven, which sits up on a shelf above a kitchen counter. Not so any more! Carmen opened the door to the oven, and there to greet her were many of her little hormiga helper friends. No matter how much ant poison we use, they keep coming back. Usually the teeny, very light colored, hard to see ones. Even after using the microwave for a minute, an ant was still walking around inside the oven. Yes, Carmen put it out of it's presumed misery. Seemingly, at present, the only food safe place is in the refrigerator. Bet the ants could even learn to enjoy the cold. They really do clean up any spills, so they do help – but...

Even though the week started with a gray, cloudy sky, we went for our walk into town and only a few sprinkles fell upon us. Stopped by a new store a few blocks from home, El Borrego, which does it's own smoked cured ham. A free sample from the clerk proved that it was most delicious, so we bought a kilo. Will be good with the homemade mac and cheese planned for the meal today. We had actually hoped to buy some of their swiss cheese, (the best we have ever had) but they are not carrying that item yet. The parent store is in downtown Córdoba., where we have purchased this before.

Closer to home, we passed a fenced yard with some of its ginger plant (probably Hedychium coronarium, Ginger lily) having spread outside of the fence, encroaching into the sidewalk. Dan said he would like some ginger plants, so of course being that we are now turning into mexicans (anything outside the fence is free for the taking – one person's usable household discards often are appreciated by others, and what is considered usable is a much larger selection than we're used to in the US), Carmen pulled one stalk out by the roots, carried it home and planted it. Then we read that it can be invasive, so after going to Home Depot the next day and buying some more flower pots, this plant got re-potted. Also we later got a Blue ginger (Dichorisandra thyrsiflora) stalk from Ania, which got planted in the same pot. Very different shaped flowers, and one is white and one purple-ish. Hope they enjoy their closeness.

Despairing of being able to id some of the plants we have acquired, as local common spanish names seem to often be no help in determining the scientific name, Carmen joined Dave's Garden (www.davesgarden.com), a wonderfully helpful site hosting a forum where gardeners around the world chime in with identification, propagation and plant care info. Within three hours of our postings gardeners from Hawaii & England replied to id the plants for which we had queries.  One of those id'd is the pictured plant here, locally known as a Raya de lapiz.  It is a Calathea ornata, or Pin-stripe plant.

It finally happened. Gardi cat brought a (tail-less) gecko into the house. We put it back outside for him to play with, twice, and he finally ate it. The tail, which was still out on the porch, became a later cat snack.Don't mind the cats chasing after and “playing” with the geckos, but we like these besuconas alive for catching spiders and other insects.  Another day, he notified us of a strange bug crawling about out in the front garden & patio.  Turns out it was a walking-stick (Phasmatodea), an order of insects that include the world's longest.  We let it stroll off (quite rapidly), and later learned that people somestimes keep these for pets.  This particular specimen's body

was about 5½" long

We bought a fifty pound bag of oranges from a vender on a corner. First of the season. It's a marketing trick to pack oranges in orange colored net bags. They looked riper than they were. We can now attest to the fact that though green oranges can be sweet (the orange color often added artificially for US consumers), the dark green ones are still bitter. Hereafter, we shall wait a few weeks before buying more juice oranges. They are ripening fairly quickly and a bit of sugar takes the pucker power away.

Dan did some concrete patching, making up two small batches of stucco mix using our leftover cement & sand, which are stored in buckets in the shop. He fixed up the new stair steps at the west end of our sidewalk and the”cricket” area above the chimney where the tiles collect a bit of persistent water in their corrugations

Venders this week were hawking: coconuts, a naproxen gel (like bengay), homemade tamales, pastries, and celebration breads for independence day coming up this weekend, one man asking for money or food (he got a juice box from us), two different religious groups, Telmex, and Cosme, who sold us a couple bromeliads. Plus we always have some men asking for work of any sort. Dan hung the Vaso de plata bromeliads (Aechmea fasciata, aka Silver vase plant) out front on the concrete porch columns. They do look good there.

Ania and Frank emailed us wednesday, and told us that neither of our phones were working. Also our skype setup doesn't allow us to answer calls. Always something that needs repaired. Dan had been trying to install a phone in our bedroom and did not realize the wiring was messed up. (Phones had problems of old batteries, faulty cables, broken lines.) Finally found another phone junction box behind our downstairs audio-video setup and had to take much apart to do a wiring repair there, before straightening out all the phone lines. Also, for some reason our cell phone will not take a charge.

This has been a week of entwined events. Ania and Frank had planned to go to their avocado-farm cottage and do some work, however the road up to Coscomatepec was closed due to flooding, and their crew was attending a local funeral. That evening we saw footage of the funeral procession on the national news. The rains had brought down two houses earlier this week in the small community right down the hill from where our workers live. Eight children and five adults died in the landslide. The governor of the state attended the services there.

Lot's of flooding along both coasts of the country this week. We learned that 35% of the rain that falls in Mexico drains thru Veracruz state, and swollen rivers and streams often overflow their banks. The historic district of the city of Veracruz, where we drove thru a few weeks ago, had several feet of water in it. Also north of the city is a lake which filled, with no overflow outlet, so all the area around the homes have water half way up the lower levels, being rather flat land out by the coast. On and on the stories go. Much has been shown on CNN. The west coast of the country is getting different tropical storms, with flooding and deaths there too. From storm systems on both sides of the country, the whole country seems to be under water. Streets are also flooded in Mexico City. There was a flooded area near here, but we did not see it. Luckily, Fortín has missed most of the downpours. When looking at weather maps, one could see the storms swirling all around Fortín. Thankful we are to have little risk here of our home being flooded, as our home is situated at the top of a ridge, so all the excess rainfall flows past us down paved streets.

Now, back to the phone call from Ania and Frank – they invited us for dinner, since they were staying home. Ania had made Frank some gumbo. Being from Louisiana, this is one of his favorite meals. The gumbo, seasoned with filé, but no okra, was outstanding. For dessert, Ania made some pumpkin seed (pepita) brittle. Most delicious meal. As usual, Ania won the game of rummikube. Before leaving, we walked, in the light rain, around their property to see all the landscaping changes they have done. On the tour, we of course ended up with several more plants and starts to bring home, which Carmen immediately planted.

On friday the 13^th Carmen woke up saying that this is always a lucky day for her. Well, it seems that luck is not always as it seems. Before getting out of bed, she rolled over and was struck with a sudden, overwhelming dizziness, transitioning soon into a general swirling numbness, which took awhile to go away. Dan stood by to lend a steadying hand in the shower, and helped her downstairs to recline in a propped up position for the rest of the day, which she spent mostly sleeping. She gave Dan instructions for preparing their breakfast oatmeal the way she likes it. It was a quiet day and all was well by saturday.

Slugs are back! Two in the house this week. As soon as it stops raining part of every day, we will put out some slug bait. In between storms one day (during the six clear hours), we spray fertilized plants and sprayed insecticide about the house and a different mix for plants. We don't like to use sprays, but we've come to the conclusion that gardening "naturally" is very difficult in a moist, tropical environment.  Hard to keep up with these items when the rain washes all the effort away.

Saturday we rearranged storage in the two smaller bedrooms, and seating in the living room. All the extra clothes are now out of the small bedroom, which is where the cat litter boxes are located. The drawers under the single bed are now empty except for heavy towels for kitties to sleep on. The new arrangement of furniture in the sala makes it look more spacious and when we have extra quests overnight we can pull out both double futons at the same time. Probably unlikely – this would mean sleeping seven people besides ourselves. The new furniture setup also made room for another aralia plant to come inside. Perhaps a celery aralia? Not sure of the id yet; it's a plant that Ania started for us.

Dan updated our 100 or so blog posts here with searchable labels or tags, added some additional links, and rearranged the blog page layout. Carmen caught up on many little tasks:  sewing a tassel back on the pillow cover we bought in Turkey, filling a tiny mouthed glass container with pumpkin seeds for Dan to nibble on, finding (this took hours ) and changing cat box filters– (still not absolutely sure where we have stashed some items we brought down with us), cutting back the long-dead flowering branches of our heliconias, and cutting off & potting, to hopefully root, a stalk of our umbrella plant (which is losing leaves for some unknown reason). Amazing how long it can take to get to the little jobs!