Pic-of-the-Week for March 17, 2015

Hola Amigos!

Happy St. Patrick's Day.  I'll have to find something green for the first photo!  

AHA!  How's this?  My green beans are producing nicely now!  Ryan's contribution of compost from his juicing operations is helping a lot!  We did a bit of an experiment...I used Ryan's compost in half the row, and a bag I got from a local farmer in the other half.  Ryan's seems to be doing better, and it has less weeds.  We are getting tomatoes and papayas sprouting on that half of the row, however!!  

The corn is also coming along better since I replanted and put a screen over the area the cat was using.  I've also strung a new soaker hose through there, so it is getting plenty of water.  We just might have corn by May!  I'll keep you posted. 

We're getting extra water this year from the plentiful rains.  I think we've had more winter rains this year than any time since we moved here in 2000.  Maybe the jet stream changed a bit and the rain clouds are going over the tip of Baja instead of further south.  There was a very impressive looking storm that moved through late yesterday afternoon.  Here's a panorama shot I took standing in the empty lot next to our house, looking from the east where there is blue sky, to the west, where the storm clouds are rumbling in! 

 Of course, the desert can always use more rain, and the ranchers love it; they don't have to buy so much hay for their animals.  

Speaking of animals, Sam and Zoey met the newest baby burro the other day.

They did fine until one of them barked, and started chasing it.  Baby had the right reaction....run to Mama!!  (Mama and aunties and older brother ignored the dogs!) 

Ben got the kitchen cabinets installed last week at our friends little house in El Campamento.  She is SO happy!  She told us her friends are asking for the "carpenter's" phone number so they can order just exactly the same thing!  Ben told her to tell them he's now retired!  

She said she's short, so she'll need a stool to reach those top shelves, but she is very pleased!  And.... her little boy can't get to it (yet!)  She said he often pulls stuff out of the bottom shelves below the counter top, as there are no doors. (Typical 2-year old actions!)   

  
I'm busy this week getting ready for our church's Ladies Spring Conference this weekend.  A friend decided I should head it up and be the Mistress of Ceremonies. OK... I was a project manager and a Toast Master in a past life, so I can, with God's help, get this done!  I'm offering this newest table runner I finished making yesterday for a prize item.  It was fun to make!  (Same one as was pictured last week, but finished with the binding.) 

When I looked out my bedroom window this morning, I was greeted with a beautiful view, so I'm sharing it with you today.  I could happily wake up to this view every day!! 

 

 More photos are posted in our 2015 March Picasa Album.  

Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey
 

Pic-of-the-Week for March 10, 2015

Hola Amigos,

Are you getting used to your time change?  Those of you on the US West Coast are now the same time as us here in Baja California Sur.  We don't change until April 5, Easter Sunday.  We always get up extra early on Easter Sunday to set up and have our Easter Service on the beach, with the service ending at sunrise.  I can see a nap in my future on that day!

I was invited to go with friends on a garden tour last week.  Buena Fortuna gardens in La Ribera was started in the late 90's by a botanist.  They had big plans and lots of room, and started planting plants from around the world that he thought would grow in this area.  He had great success with many of them, and there are many exotic plants there.  Unfortunately, he contracted meningitis (I think that's what it was), and has since moved to Hawaii.  His wife (ex-wife?) is now running the garden, but it is for sale if anyone is interested.  Lots of work involved there, and they have many volunteers to help (usually young university types...horticulture students or botanists, probably).  

This is a Hibiscus flower.

Black bamboo.  Kitsia(sp) is the owner and tour guide.

Many different kinds of Aloe, which is blooming right now.  

I have posted more photos from the gardens in our March 2015 Picasa album.

Here on the home front, Ben has finished the cabinets and will be installing them manana.  He also spent a lot of time yesterday picking up his screw collection that he managed to strew all over his shop floor.  When pulling out his drill press, he didn't realize that it had a cord hooked to it that ran behind his screw and bolt cabinets, and they all fell over!!!  Ay ay ay!  What a mess.  Only one of them broke, and he managed to find most of the screws, but there was a lot of sorting to do! 























For my "hobbies", I've had some fun making some quilted table runners.  They are a lot smaller than quilts, and can be finished quickly.  I put one together yesterday in about 2 hours, maybe a little less.  Of course, I still need to quilt it and put on the binding, but I did manage to get the "guts" together!  (Now I need to remember to buy some batting when I visit the US this summer!) 

Here's the one I made a few weeks ago.

I'm not going to tell you how long I've had some of this fabric!  But I did buy the orange print with this kind of thing in mind, and last summer I found a book with lots of patterns, so I'm a happy quilter!

In the garden, the beans are ready to start picking (yay!) and the corn needs some re-planting.  Looks like we've either had a cat in the rows adding some fertilizer, or dogs digging up a few extra smelly areas.  And, some of it just didn't come up.  I do have more seed, so will be doing that today. 

We had a beautiful full moon the other night.

 
 And the Agave plant is still getting taller.  The top is still forming buds, so it has some more growing to do, and the lower branches are getting ready to bloom.  In this photo you can see it across the garden.

Sam and Zoey and I still go down to the beach on occasion, and when we went the other day the tide was very low.  Lots of rocks were seen that we don't normally see.  We're having less windy days, but still enough to keep the wind surfers and kite-boarders happy.  

 
I started with a Hibiscus, and I'm going to end with a Hibiscus.  This one is in our garden. 

 
Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos en Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for March 3, 2015

Hola Amigos,

Another kind of busy, kind of quiet week has passed.  No major activities, like whale watching...just normal stuff.  I've been busy with organizing the Ladies Spring Conference our church is holding the end of this month, and with my music for the church choir and community choir (keeping my fingers active tinkling those piano keys), and some gardening.  My beans are blooming, and to the top of the wire!  Hooray!  I've planted two corn crops, and the first one has sprouted.  I have to spend a lot of time out there making sure the dogs haven't trampled through it, and to cheer it on!  I'm trying some new varieties this year that take less time to mature.  It seems like I've also been making a lot of pies lately, what with the strawberry vendor showing up at our house regularly, and the lemons being available at the veggie store.  

Ben has been spending a lot of time upgrading his web site for Martin Parry owners.  Ryan built it for him originally, and has trained Ben to do many of the updates that he requested....most of the time.  If you want to take a peak at it, it's at http://www.martin-parry.com/   He's recently been scanning some dealer catalogs that are now located under "Technical Info".  (I was wondering what he was going to do with the Martin-Parry stuff he was buying off E-Bay!  Now I know!)

He has also been working on building kitchen cabinets for a Mexican friend in El Campamento who has a tiny little house, and a tiny little kitchen with no cabinets!  I think she's going to be pleasantly surprised when she sees what he has built for her!    

These are the doors.  He has made them out of oak, and the melamine shelves help keep out the termites.  

He also just discovered termites in a shelf he made for our churches sound equipment!  It must have been in the wood when he built it, but they weren't noticeable until they sat in the church for several weeks!  Get out the bug spray!!

Things are growing fast around here, including our agave, which is now putting out side branches.  

And just to the right of the agave and cactus, we have a Neem tree stump that we are trying to eradicate!  We've been having evening "campfires" around the stump, and it's going to take a few more fires before we have it gone.  Hopefully, we'll burn enough that it will give up and not sprout any more, but we're not holding our breath!  

It's very nice to have the new brick path on which to set our chairs!  

Since we extended and improved our drain system, this stump won't be standing in water any more, so it should be not as eager to grow.  (The plywood behind the fire is to protect the little palm behind it, which we'd like to keep.  

Our dogs want you to know that it is a pretty relaxed life down here, with lots of "soft spots" to lay down and rest, in the sun or out of it.  We've had one more visitor cancellation, and we have a room available at least until April 14.  And we just got an ad from Alaska airlines that they have some special one-way fares from here (San Jose del Cabo - SJD) to LA ($178) and Portland ($219).  Check it out!!  Maybe some of my lady friends would like to come down for our church's Ladies Conference March 20 - 21???  

 This photo of the dogs is on the window seat next to my piano, where they have to be whenever I'm playing the piano!  They love their music....or they love the soft seat in the sunshine close to wherever I happen to be!  

Last week was Dia de la bandera in Mexico (flag day).  That's the only day they put up the Mexican flag on the Flag Monument near us.  They have a big celebration and speeches and a band and choir.  We can see it from our house, and always appreciate it when it's up.  It's a very impressive sight!  Here it is from the south side (the lighting was a bit better).

I've started a March 2015 Picasa album.  Not much in it yet, but there will be!  I even set it up so you can get into it and look!  

Hasta la proxima semana,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for February 24, 2015

Hola, Amigos,

Did you miss us last week?  We were on a mini-Baja vacation early in the week, so I decided that you all could just wait another week for our news and photos, and besides, you'll probably get twice as many photos as usual!  We went with friends Debi and Sandy to Magdalena Bay to do some whale watching with our favorite guide, Crispin Mendoza.  He can ALWAYS find whales for you to see and get close to.  

It was a gorgeous day (Ben checked the weather carefully, and chose the perfect one for us!)    We were on the water before sunrise and ready to go find some whales.

The only bad part is that it was a LONG boat ride.  The whales have decided to hang out at the south end of Mag Bay, and San Carlos, where we start, is at the north end of the bay!  We left San Carlos (green pencil) and went almost to the little fishing village of Cancun (near the yellow pencil).

We motored for about 1 1/2 hours before we saw our first whales.  We could get close, but most of them turned away from us or went tail up, so we knew we wouldn't see those for a while.

This is what they call whale footprints.  It's the formation on the water that is made as a whale swims just below the surface.

We saw this beautiful French sailboat (we talked a bit with the people on board).  
And we saw lots of tails!  (See the sails of the same sailboat on the horizon?)

Crispin decided that since more boats with whale watchers hadn't shown up where we were, they must have found a friendly whale further back, so we headed back north. Sure enough, 5 or 6 pangas were gathered around a friendly mama and her nice sized baby.  Each of us on the boat had a chance to touch and/or pet a whale that day!  

I've got some great whale videos loaded to our February 2015 Picasa album, so be sure to check that out!  

Another great part of our visit to San Carlos is fresh seafood for a reasonable price...and we're not just talking about eating it there!  We're talking about bringing home big coolers full of shrimp, clams, and lobster!  Yum!  This year, we managed to bring home a reasonable amount of clams, so Ben and Sandy didn't have to spend hours cleaning the silly things (a full gunny sack last year!)  We had a clam feed at our house on Saturday night attended by people who appreciate a clam bake, Mexican style!  

Other than that, it's pretty quiet here at Casa Purkey.  We're waiting for our springtime guests to start showing up (you have bought your tickets, haven't you, JM and AM???  and DS???)  The flowers keep blooming, the agave stalk keeps growing (see it in the Picasa album).  We are staying healthy, and life is good.  We have noticed that some people are already itching to head north, and some are on their way, but we're perfectly happy to stay here and enjoy the warm temperatures, sunshine and clear skies (and the delicious seafood!)   Besides that, Ben hasn't quite finished all his woodworking projects yet.  He's building some upper kitchen cabinets now for a Mexican amiga from Campemento.  He did finish this item that has been on his list for two years; a glass fronted cabinet to hold all his "toys"  (or...collectables).  The large piece of glass took forever to get to town.  The glass guy says that they're still repairing hurricane damage, and glass is hard to come by!

Nice job Grandpa!  Let's see you explaining to your grandsons why they can't get their hands on these "toys" next time they visit!!

Here's my favorite flower blooming this week.  This thing is at least 8" in diameter...and the colors blow me away!  Each bloom is slightly different.  Some with more yellow streaks and others with more red.  It's too bad they only last a day.

Hasta la proxima semana,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the Week for February 10, 2015

Hola Amigos,

Another week has rushed by, and our weather continues to be sunny and pleasant temperatures (around 60F for lows and 80F for highs), and not too windy.  We had brunch on our veranda yesterday, and then dinner at friends in the evening in their beach-side dining area, without the need for a sweater or jacket.  There is still enough wind on some days, usually in the afternoons, for the wind surfers and kite boarders to enjoy the day, but not too much for us to enjoy being outside.

Here's an evening sunset (looking east) when we had a pretty rising moon.  This was from the house of friends in Los Barriles.  You can see that little white spot above the clouds!  

 
I looked out our bedroom window the other day, and noticed that our Agave plant is sending up a bloom stalk.  It was already about 10 feet tall, and that was the first I noticed it.  

These things grow like gang busters...I think it's grown another couple feet since I discovered it.  It will bloom, and the plant will die, and then we'll be done with that agave in that area.  (The leaves are NOT friendly...very sharp points on those things!) 

Zoey is checking for lizards at the base of the plant, and it's a pretty good picture of our new brick path.  

We've seen in the news where the price of gas is much cheaper in the US these days.  Unfortunately, here in Mexico, it is still going up and up.  The other day, we paid about $3.66 (US) per gallon for diesel.  Diesel is priced about mid-way between regular and premium.  We're not sure how Mexicans afford to fill up their cars!

We make up for the expense of gas with cheap property taxes.  Ben paid our yearly tax bill the other day; $138 for our casa...for the year!  Not bad, with twice a week garbage pickup service, and occasional grading of our road!  

Our Community choir, OK Chorale, sang at the weekly Open Mic last Wednesday, and I heard several rave (or at least good) reviews.  I was able to take my "new" portable keyboard, and it worked very well.  Our group sang an African song (Babethandazah in Zulu), then Dona Nobis Pacem in Latin, then "Soon and Very Soon" by Andre Crouch.  Our director is a very talented lady; she makes it a lot of fun, and we've all learned a lot!  

One of our favorite restaurants in town, Pisces, has hired a local artist to brighten up their space with some ocean scenes.  He's done a really nice job, I think.

We need to go there often to check out his progress!  This scene includes Flat Top on the right, and The Tuna Slides on the left, encompassing the entire bay in a panoramic type view.  We'll do another photo when it is completed. 

I told Ben we need to hire him to do a scene at our casa on an outside wall, but I haven't convinced him quite yet!! 

 

We are having yet one more "home improvement" project done at our casa (no, not painting a pretty picture on the wall).  Rick, the contractor who did our sidewalk, is putting the Cool Deck finish on the carport roof, and they also removed some of the original parapet walls in front of the bedrooms for easier access to the roof.  He also repaired some chipped and low areas on the roof of the original house, so we're hoping they will drain better (flat roofs are nice for extra living area, but miserable in the rain when they don't drain!) 

 I leave you with the view from my kitchen sink!  Costco sells these orchids down here, and we can rarely resist buying one or two....or three!!  Good thing the store is a long ways away!  Anyhow...we're enjoying them, and thought you might, too.  We've usually gotten them to re-bloom for us, if they survive the summer. 

Some more photos are posted in our February 2015 album.  

Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos en Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for February 3, 2015

Hola Amigos!  

It's a beautiful day here in Baja this February morning.  I guess the groundhog would see his shadow here, whatever that means!  I'm just enjoying the bright sunshine!!  And look!  My green bean crop is up, and I got it strung yesterday (a skill I've never lost, evidently!)  I'm looking forward to lots of yummy beans in another month. 

And for your flower pic of the week, my Cattleya orchid is blooming!  Yeay!  I really need to repot it, but this close up of the blooms makes it look pretty impressive!

Today is also our grandson David's 5th birthday.  Wow.  I remember when I traveled solo from Baja to Jordan to be with our daughter Rebecca and her husband Tim to help with the new baby and entertain all the guests (making tea and serving cookies and baklava) who came to visit.   Last week was also our granddaughter Eleanor's 1st birthday, and I remember that frigid visit to Chicago very well!  They grow up so fast!!  She is almost walking.  Rebecca is very good to send photos of the kids to us, and here's one that was on Eleanor's birthday, I think.  (Sorry, Aaron is missing from this one.) 

We had a very nice time celebrating our anniversary in Cabo San Lucas last Tuesday.  We went out for dinner to a fancy restaurant (Pitahayas) and enjoyed the view, the food, and each other!  

This is a plate of sashimi that they served us first.  Very nice presentation throughout the meal, and hovering waiters to see to our every need.  












One morning last week we were surprised to awake and see FIVE shrimp boats out in the bay in front of our house.  We found out later they were from Sinaloa (a state on the mainland) and were here re-supplying and getting out of the wind for a while.  

Ryan pointed out all the birds on the rigging of this boat, so I zoomed in and got a good close up shot of them.  Not sure what they are, but they might be Frigate birds, which we normally don't see roosting....just floating around up above our house, dropping white bombs with regularity!!!  (Ick!  Don't hang out laundry on days you see Frigates above!) 

We have had some nice sunny days, and some windy days, and we had a downpour the other day that really tested our new replacement gargoyles! You might notice that our sidewalk  was a river there beyond the tile! I imagine the weeds will really start sprouting now!

We have also been having some work done on the roof of our carport.  We've hired Rick and Alfredo again to put on the water-proofing and cool deck, and while they're here, they're repairing some cracks in our house ceiling and replacing the cool deck there.  Hopefully, next major rainstorm I won't have to worry about water dripping on my piano!!  









On Sunday, we took another quick trip to Cabo San Lucas to have lunch with my Uncle David and Aunt Evelyn from Harrisburg, and friends from Bend, Mike and Ruth, who happened to be traveling on the same cruise ship!  David is the last surviving brother of 6, and my Dad was the oldest.  Believe it or not, these two are in their 80's and are still very active.  

Mike and Ruth were enjoying their trip very much, and were the inspiration for us to go meet them in Cabo.  (We can't get Mike to fly down here....he thinks we have too many bandidos!)  

I've started a February 2015 Picasa album, and I have made it public so you can look at it, too!  

Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

PS. Happy Birthday (tomorrow) to my brother Rich!  I won't mention how old you are.  *grins*