Pic-of-the-Month for November 2023

 Hola Amigos,

Hey!  It's December 1st and I didn't get our November post out on time!  Oops.  So, maybe you'll get 2 in December, you lucky people!

So what happened with us in November?  (I always have to go back and look at my pictures to figure it out!!)

Our curly cactus, which only blooms at night, bloomed like crazy this year.  It had at least 30 bloom buds on it.  The only problem is ... it blooms at night, and we're usually asleep then, so I made sure to get up while it was still dark (which is when Zoey usually wakes up) and got some pictures.   Absolutely gorgeous palm-sized blooms!  This picture gives you an idea of how many were blooming at once.

We hadn't seen many burros in the neighborhood in October, but they are back!  There is a group of 3 who like to hang around here, so we've started putting out the water bucket for them.  No goodies from the garden yet, but someday!

We visited our neighborhood plant nursery and bought a bunch of flowers to brighten up the place; geraniums, petunias, hibiscus, and others.  It's looking really nice! 

 We needed to buy the hibiscus because the cows got in once last summer and they usually go directly to the hibiscus first.  They must be a special treat!  The plants usually survive, but they struggle to bloom after that. 

 

This is one of the new hibiscus that has been blooming nicely since I bought it.  

Ben has been working really diligently on our garden.  We have radishes, tomatoes, beets, lettuce, spinach, chives, squash, and some wonderful cucumbers.  The cukes actually survived over the summer, and they started producing nicely after we got back and started watering them regularly (lots of water!)  The other plants are still maturing, but we have harvested some radishes.  

Ben started a new area just outside our kitchen, and it's been a struggle.  That particular spot is where much concrete and plaster was mixed up on the ground.  And guess what?  There was a several inches thick layer of that stuff still there, under several inches of dirt!  Lots of digging and raking and wheelbarrows full of old concrete removed, but it is looking very nice now!  

My old washing machine died.  Fortunately, we knew its end was near, and had just purchased a new one from Home Depot in Cabo San Lucas.  And believe it or not, it was delivered the day the old one died!  It took Ben most of the rest of the day to get it unpacked and installed, but we did it!  Not an easy job, but Ben is very persistent!  And it works very well (the instructions are all in Spanish...good thing I'm getting more proficient in the language so I can choose the correct washing cycle!)

 

For those of you who know our dachshund Zoey, she's still kicking (barely) and going for very short morning walks with me.  She is pretty much blind now, and it seems she can only see shadows.  She still manages to wake us up early every morning (4am or so) for her first morning walk.  I let her out our bedroom slider by herself and she comes back in the dog door at the kitchen.  She's only gotten lost once!!  Obviously the old nose is still working quite well.  And she hasn't forgotten how to tell time.  She knows exactly when we should feed her, and isn't shy about reminding us!  She also still appreciates a spot of sunshine!

 

We participated again this year in the November 20 Revolution Day Parade in Los Barriles.  They said the parade starts at 8am.  We figured, as usual in the past, start lining up at 8, parade will start about 9.  We got there 15 minutes before 8, and the parade started exactly at 8am!  First time ever, that we can recall.  Wow.  It's also the first time since we started participating in about 2007 or 2008, that we didn't have any princesses or queens in our cars.  They had a fancy Corvette for the Queen, and a big float for all the other royalty.  This year, I actually got pictures of the parade, because cousin Tom Malpass was driving the pickup for me.  

There were 10 of us at our casa for Thanksgiving dinner.  Ben smoked a turkey (that he fortunately found in La Paz...a Butterball), and we had all the regular fixings that go with it; potatoes and gravy, 2 kinds of stuffing, cranberries, salads, green beans, pie and ice cream!  We were very happily "stuffed"!  It was nice enough weather that we ate outside on our veranda, which is always very pleasant.  

 

For the second year in a row, the non-profit Ben and I and others run, won the most votes as the "charity of choice" in the Los Barriles area!  We won $2500 dollars which will go a long way in feeding people in need in Los Barriles.  To read more about the program, check out this blog link:  Feeding the Hungry

We were very pleased with this outcome!  On the table, I showed what items could be purchased for $300 pesos or less (less than $15 US right now, as the exchange rate is going down for the dollar).  $300 pesos is the value of each voucher we give to the families, 4 vouchers per month. 

I made my walking goal for the year of 650 miles on November 27!  I really do love walking here in the pleasant weather and beautiful scenery.  I'm hoping to match the same number of miles (or maybe get a few more) as last year, of 726 miles.  (To keep me humble, my neighbor Hope is doing a run today, and the next 2 days, from the Sea of Cortez to the Pacific Ocean, over the Sierra de la Laguna mountains!  68 miles.  Here's the web site for it. https://maramartrail.com/en/  )

That's about it.  I've created a November Album where you can see more photos and I will make sure there are captions on the majority.  

My sister Shelley is coming to visit in just over a week.  It will be good to see her again.  We still have room for you to visit, too!  Come see us!

That's all folks!

Hasta la proxima vez 

Tus amigos en Baja

Harriet, Ben and Zoey