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 1st
and 15th 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.
