Pic-of-the-Week for March 30, 2017

Hola Amigos!  

Si, si!  Yo estoy un poco tarde esta semana;  lo siento!  I think I'm finally getting into the Mexican mañana mode, where time isn't so important any more! It has been a rather busy week...lots to do and places to go.  However, we are enjoying it here at home.  Our shaving brush tree is blooming again, and it is prolific!  And there are as many or more blooms on the ground as there are on the tree.  The blooms last less than one day, then fall off, so the ground is littered with these beautiful bright pink blooms.

In the tree, they look like this....

On the ground, like this....

And for our friend John, the Cannas you gave to us (or at least their great-grandchildren) are still blooming.  We finally found a bug spray so that the leaves are not eaten as soon as they unfurl, so they are looking better all around.  You don't mind them sideways, do you?  In real life, these are redder.  

Another plant blooming in our garden is our Cardon Cactus.  Not real impressive, but the bugs and birds like them!  (Notice the little black ant on one of the petals.)

This is the same cactus, and our view to the FINAL garage construction project on this side of Vista del Mar park.  That should keep the crew busy for several months. 

I finished my quilt piecing for the latest quilt I'm making.  Now I need to get it to our friends who do the quilting for me.  They happen to spend 6 or 7 months here in Baja, so they live close by.  They'll take it home with them and quilt it for me, and I will add the binding.  I like how it turned out.  Very colorful!  This is for a new Wick baby.  No, not Rebecca, but her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, who are expecting this spring.  We'd better put a nice warm batting in it, because they live in northern Minnesota! 

The boat is coming together nicely.  It does start now, since the starter has been repaired, and the local electrician has rewired everything as well.  Evidently the connections were not "marine", so many were corroded.  That may be the trouble with keeping things for so long....they start falling apart on you!  For instance, about a month ago, we heard a big bang at our house.  Ben walked all around looking for a garden hose or air hose that blew, and couldn't find anything.  Then he noticed that his 1973 pickup had a blown tire.  He says he's never seen a tire blown as badly as that one, just sitting there!  The problem is, the tire is 15.5".... and that size is impossible to find anymore.  He even searched online and could find nothing.  So, now we need to change 4 wheels and tires or at least 2 of them.  Ugh!  (He probably put these on the truck before we drove it down to Baja in October 2000.  Not much wear, but how much longer will the other 3 last???  Best to replace the lot of them!

Oh!!  Here's a good tire story!  Last week we went to Costco to 1) return my hearing aid for a different kind and 2) check on tires for the 2006 Red truck.  Ben had bought the tires at Costco in Bend, Oregon, and they were wearing on the edges badly.  He showed them to the manager there, and he offered to replace all of them for full price!!  Wow!  They hadn't gone their full 70000 miles (maybe half that), so he said he'd refund the whole thing.  It took some time and about 3 clerks working the cash registers with their magic codes to get the money back (in the form of a Costco cash card).  We went back out to the tire department, turned it in, plus $110 pesos ($5 US) and we had a new set of tires.  Pretty cool deal!  

On that particular trip to Costco, we'd stayed the night before in San Jose with our friends Sandy and Debi, who'd just returned from a trip to the states, at their time share, Coral Baja.  Very nice place, and I got a couple pics of this "picture opportunity"... a family posing in their Mexican finery next to a cute burro.  They told me I should do it, and I told them I have my own personal burros at my casa!  This burro came with a poop bag attached, which I thought was pretty clever!  

Here's a view of the beach in front of Coral Baja....not recommended for swimming with the pounding surf (it rattled the doors in our rooms!)

Weather is warming up nicely, and the wind is not blowing so hard (usually!)  

Hasta la proxima semana,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for March 14, 2017

Hola Amigos!

We are already almost half way through March! I can tell you now that it is truly spring-like here in Baja Sur.  Daytime temps are in the 80's, I had to put up my shade cloth for the lettuce bed, and there are more calm days than windy days. I told Ben the other day that there will be more boats moored out there in the bay soon!  (And fewer kite boarders and wind surfers will be in town, since there are less windy days for them).  

We took some friends to the Santa Rita hot springs out of San Jorge the other day.  That's the first time we were there this season!   It was a windy day, so it was a great day to visit (because it is NOT windy there).  We stopped for lunch first at Palomar in Santiago, which is almost a requirement for a day that includes a trip to the hot springs! 

Even though this picture doesn't show it, there were quite a few people visiting when we were there.  It is hot enough that a lot of people don't spend much time in there!  (Probably between 100 to 102F depending on where you sit). 

Our town has many fund raising activities throughout the year, and one that has touched our hearts is "Feeding the Hungry".  A local Mexican and his wife, Chuy and Lydia, spend many hours every week buying and delivering basic foods to 27 of the poorest families in Los Barriles.  The majority of the funds are donated to him by our church for food purchases.  For the past 5 years or so, an American lady in town has been putting on a Fashion Show, with all of the proceeds going to Chuy's "Pan de Vida" program.  Well, this year she said she'd like to quit organizing the show, and asked for volunteers to take it over.  My dear husband decided that WE should do it, and volunteered us!  Yes, friends, Ben now knows more than you can imagine about putting on a Fashion Show!  Fortunately, we don't have to do the show until December 1, 2017.  Phew!  I attended another Fashion show here in town last week (and took copious notes for Ben, who we didn't let attend!)  Many of the same presenters will be at our show, including Pepita from Magic of the Moon in Cabo San Lucas, and our local Victoria, who makes some gorgeous dresses.  It's a lot of fun, as many of our personal friends are models for these ladies.  And, to top it off, I won the beautiful centerpiece from our table.  (This show was to help raise funds for ALMA, an animal help organization.)  

Ben's latest project is to repair our "antique" wheelbarrow.

We bought it new when we lived in Eugene, so that's probably been 48 years ago!  This is at least the second set of wooden handles he's made (hanging in the pic to the left).  The hardest part about maintaining a wheelbarrow here is cactus thorns!  We gave up on an inflatable tire, and bought a sold rubber one last summer.  Yesterday, he had it sand-blasted (and got all the old concrete off put on by contractors that used our wheelbarrow!) and was going to have it painted, but the painter was sick.  So today, he bought lots of cans of spray paint and is painting away!  He said his index finger is getting very tired!  He even bought nice new bolts.




My project, FINALLY started yesterday, is another quilt.  It seemed to take forever to choose a pattern I liked, but I finally chose "Snail Takes a Detour".  (Maybe that "snail" name is something I can identify with???)  Anyhow, my work area is all set up and I got started putting things together yesterday.  Hopefully, it won't take too long!  The only thing missing from this picture is the ironing board, which I set up to the right of the table.  Fortunately, it doesn't have to be too big, since it is for a new baby.  I make them "child sized", so they can be used through nap time ages.  

 My little vegetable garden is doing well.  We have eaten a lot of lettuce and spinach, the Walla Walla onions are getting bigger daily, and I've canned 15 jars of beans and hoping for more (and we eat a lot of fresh ones, too).  And finally, I think the little lizards who've been eating my baby cucumbers are tired of them, and we're getting decent sized cukes.  Before, they'd been eating 1/2 of each one that got about 2" long!  Grrrrr!!  I'm very happy to see one get this big.  The plants are doing fantastic, and I've got lots of blooms and a promise of many more cukes....we'll see!

 I've started a 2017 March Album if you'd like to see more photos.  And I will get captions on them, manana if not before!  

We hope you are all well.  

Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey