Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Pic-of-the-Week for March 25, 2014

Hola amigos!

Another week has flown by, and it is definitely getting more "spring-like" all the time.  We have enjoyed eating most of our meals on our front veranda, in spite of the construction noises going on down in Vista del Mar.  They usually start the concrete mixer when we sit down to a meal!  We went upstairs to enjoy the view from our table on the roof deck a few days ago, and realized that our mesquite tree is about 5' too tall and is blocking the view from there!  Ben needs to get out a ladder and saw and clippers and do some serious pruning to restore our view!  When our gardener comes on 
Wednesday, Ben will work with her to get this job done!


This view is to the east a bit, and it is how we'd like the view from the table to look!  A bit less "bushy".   

While sitting on the veranda, we always enjoy watching our various birds, especially the Cardinal.  Whenever we come out, he will let us know that his feeder is empty!   Last night, we saw a close relative of the Cardinal, a Pyrrhuloxia.  I didn't manage to get a photo of him, but you can see what he looks like here:  Pyyrrhuloxia 
This photo in the link is from the book "Birds We See", produced by people here in our area of Baja.  Great book! 
 
 

I finished my latest quilt project, and really like how it turned out.  It sure was a lot of itsy bitsy pieces, but I did finish up several fabrics that I've been using pieces of for years!  Now I need to deliver it to my friends who do the quilting (and put in the batting and attach the backing).  They actually have a vacation home down here just a few miles from us, so that is convenient!  They'll be leaving in early April.  Phew!  I made the deadline!  I'll finish it up when I get to Oregon this June by putting on the binding. This is for our newest niece (Greg & Cherlenne's baby) due in late April.  



Other exciting news (for us!) is that our  "Shaving Brush Tree", or Pseudobombax ellipticum is blooming again!  Hooray!!  It is so showy, and we're counting the blooms.  The bad part is that they only last one day, so when they do fall, we pick them up off the ground and put them in a little vase in the house, where they last a few more days.  We grew this tree from seed, and have waited quite a few years for it to bloom (while the trees we gave to friends bloomed like crazy!)   The blooms are hand-sized! 

 
Ben, when he's not helping someone one else with some project or another, has started to work on his boat to get it ready to put in the water in a few weeks, and a few other woodworking projects for our "summer home" (our trailer).  He has not yet run out of things to do, or become bored down here!  We just hope he has some time to go fishing this spring before it's time to head north!

Check out our March 2014 Picasa album for more photos; I'll probably have some captions on them very soon.  

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

 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Pic-of-the-Week for March 18th, 2014

Hola Amigos!

We have had a great week...it is always fun when we have guests.  Oh, the places you'll go and the things you'll see!  Well, we've mostly seen them before, but it is fun seeing them through the eyes of a new guest!  Our niece Chrys took a quick break from work; she came on Thursday and is leaving today, but she knew how to take advantage of her short time.  I showed her the way to the beach on Thursday, and she's been down there several times a day since!  She has taken serious walks; once all the way to Rancho Leonero and back (about 6 or 7 miles total).  It is rather rare seeing someone walking the beach in some of that area, since it is rather remote!  Several people going by on ATV's checked with her to make sure she was OK!  She spotted Flat Top butte on her hike and said to herself she'd like to climb up that hill, so Ben took her yesterday.  Here's the view from there, showing where she had hiked on Sunday!

Rancho Leonero is in the extreme right in the photo above.
 


And....our house is there at the extreme left of the bay.  Just a bit of a hike!  

She also got out in our kayak and had a fun time doing that before it got too windy.  She tried it again yesterday, but said the big swells were a bit disconcerting!  We had a very windy day on Sunday; kind of a last hurrah for winter winds!  At least the sail boarders were happy!  And on her walk this morning, she said the water was perfect for kayaking... she just couldn't haul it down to the water by herself.  :-(


Also in town this week is our friend Sharon from Canada.  We never know who will show up in town, or when, but it is always a pleasant surprise when old friends arrive!  We had her over for dinner so we could catch up on all the things going on in her life in the wilderness of Ontario!  She house and dog sat for us once when our old dog Max was still kicking, and we took a trip somewhere or the other...


Speaking of our house, I showed Chrys where we used to live in Vista del Mar, and it has changed a bit!  The owners had the place torn down so it will probably be easier to sell.  Hard to imagine our little casita here now!  But yes, we lived in that little dirt patch!  


Ryan is still in San Diego doing a remodel project for a friend.  He says it is going well, and he is enjoying time with his friend.  

OK.... I've got to get ready to take Chrys to the airport.  Our dogs have really appreciated having her here because she took over Ryan's dog petting duties.  They'll hate to see her leave!  Ben is off on another trip to La Paz this morning.   Hope you all had a great St. Patrick's day, if you are Irish or if you celebrate it!  It was also an official Mexican holiday yesterday; Benito Juarez day.  He served as President of Mexico for 5 terms in the 1800's.  (That's your Mexican history lesson for the day!)

More photos are posted in our March 2014 Picasa album.  You can check out my quilt progress and garden progress!  

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


 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Pic-of-the-Week for March 11

Hola Amigos!

It has been a lovely week... the weather is thinking seriously of forgetting about all that winter wind and just settling down to some nice calm spring-like days.  "Thinking" about it means that we still have windy days now and then, and some clouds, but we've really had a wonderful stretch of nice weather.  

Just look at this view from La Palapa restaurant in Cabo Pulmo, where we went on Saturday to visit with friends Katie and Mel.  (Yes, that is someone wading in the water).  That is CALM water! 


Katie and Ben attended grade school together in Bend, lo, many years ago, and he discovered last year that she has been coming down to Baja for years, spending her time in the "wilderness" at Los Frailes.  This was our "good-bye" get together, as they left Sunday to return to Oregon.  We don't get together very often, since it is a one hour drive over some serious wash-board roads from our house to Cabo Pulmo.

On our drive to Cabo Pulmo, we passed a truck hauling a trailer which was stopped beside the road.  The trailer was hauling a small float plane, and they were tying it down a bit more securely.  The wings were loaded on top of the pickup.  
We asked Mel and Katie if they had seen this plane, and they said that they had.  These fellows were filming giant Manta Rays at Cabo Pulmo.  They'd fly over them, then the camera man, who was also a diver, would jump into the water and continue filming under water!  Unfortunately, they had a little accident and the plane is a bit "skee-jawed" and is in need of repair.  After our hour long lunch and visit, we saw them just a bit further down the road, again tying the plane down! (It is a very bumpy road!)  

Ben wants you to know a little more about our favorite chef in town, Francisco (or Pancho) from El Barrilito.  #1  He is a fantastic chef, and makes the most delicious scallop appetizers we've ever had.  #2  He is a bullfighter!!!  No kidding.  He took a week off (his wife Nancy wouldn't let him do it for 2 weeks) to go to mainland Mexico (Jalisco, I think) and do some bull fighting.  Well, he doesn't have a cape or swords, like a normal matador.  He does Portuguese Bullfighting, which includes a team of men (forcados) who goad the bull (no capes, no swords, just a silly green hat on the first guy).  These 8 to 10 men surround the bull's head, doing a procedure called a pega de cara or "face catch" and grab his tail, and basically subdue the bull (he can't see, so doesn't move...too much).  Pancho showed us some pictures, and said that he was the first guy and wears the silly green hat!  Good grief!  Here is a LONG video of a Portuguese bull fight.  The forcados are about 16 minutes into it.  It takes two attempts, and then there is the fellow who hangs on to the tail!  He is muy bravo!!!   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQh8A4ez_Rc    Or, here is a much shorter video with just the "Forcados" portion of the bull fight.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRzPPThS_M0  and here is another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW56Yr6iZVo (this one is 7 minutes and somewhat violent, but has multiple attempts of Forcados doing a pega de cara!)   Does this look like fun, or what???

The interesting part about Pancho doing this fun thing is that he has terrible eyesight!  He says his team points him in the right direction, and he can "kind of" see the bull!!!  Yikes!  We were very happy that he was home, safe and sound.  He said he had a few nasty bruises, and was a bit sore.  I told him I hoped he was paid sufficiently for his troubles, and he said it's all volunteer!!!  Oh my!  No wonder Nancy wouldn't let him spend another week doing this!  Here's the latest scallop appetizer he prepared:  Scallops stuffed with shrimp, with cilantro sauce and hot chili sauce.  Yummmmm....  We just ask him for a scallop appetizer....it is something different, and delicious, every time we visit!  


And then Ben thought I needed the delicious flan at the end of the meal.  I agreed!



On the home front, my green beans are producing (yea!) and the papaya tree will be producing for some time yet!  We get about one a week off of this tree.  And a banana tree has finally started blooming!  We won't see those bananas until the end of summer.  If we're lucky, they might be producing in October. 


I take Sam and Zoey for walks on the beach several times a week, and they love it.  Hard to believe that Sam could barely walk when we got back here in October.  He loves his beach walks, as does Zoey.  


Ryan has been painting our casa, and it is looking very nice.  He is going to go visit and help a friend in San Diego for a while, so we will continue to have more than two colors for our house until he gets back to finish the job.  We'll keep people guessing about our color scheme in the mean time!


I spotted some wildflowers blooming on our beach walk, and couldn't resist taking a photo.  I don't know what they are, but I like them!  Hope you do, too. 


I have posted some more photos in the March 2014 Picasa album.  I might even have captions on most of the photos by the time you take a peek.  

We have company coming on Thursday... a niece from Oregon who has a brand new passport that needs a stamp in it!  We're looking forward to her visit.  

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

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Pic-of-the-Week for March 4, 2014

Hola Amigos,

We have had a quiet week at home...no guests right now, so we have some time to get some chores taken care of around here.  Ryan has been painting our outside walls; over the years we seem to have accumulated a number of colors on our two tone house.  Paint fades, of course, but there is also the fact that the paint store can never seem to exactly match colors!  Anyhow, it is looking much better as Ryan goes around the casa with his paint roller and cans of paint. 

Another chore that got done yesterday was to hire someone to spray for mosquitoes.  This has been a terrible mosquito year, and I wish we would have known about this guy a while ago!  He comes out of La Paz a couple times a month, and it was a bit windy for spraying yesterday, but we had it done anyway.  He drove his truck right through our neighboring lot and sprayed our "jungle" in the front of the casa (towards the beach).  If you need your mosquitoes sprayed, you now have all the information you need there on his truck! 

Our weather has been great for February and early March.  There are fewer windy days than normal, and the temps are higher than normal.  We may be in for a HOT summer here!  Good thing we'll be in the Pacific Northwest!    We're leaving here at the end of May this year, so I've determined that there is not time to plant my corn crop and have it mature in time for us!  Phooey!  That wasn't very good planning on my part.  At least my green bean crop is doing well.  Ben took good care of the watering while I was gone, and we should have some beans to pick in a few days.  

We are very thankful for friends here in our community.  We were invited to Ray and Karen's for biscuits and sausage gravy breakfast last week!  What a treat.  Ray has been experimenting with his recipe faithfully for years, and it is a challenge here;  you can find ground pork, but not "sausage spiced" ground pork.  We have another friend who supplies the spices, and you have to experiment to determine how much spice to add to your pork.  Anyhow, Ray has it down very well, and we were the benefactors of his hard work.

Karen sets a beautiful table on their "mountain view front door" deck. 


And if you stay long enough, you can also sit in the shade of their "ocean view deck" and  have another cup of coffee.  


That's about all the excitement for this week.  We're looking forward to visiting friends who are spending the winter just over those hills in the distance in the photo above (at Los Frailes) this week for lunch before they head back to Oregon.  I've started a March Picasa Album.  Someone told me that my link took her to Google Plus, and that she had to sign up for Google Plus to make it work (which she didn't want to do).  I'm hoping that's not how it works for everyone.  Here is the direct link to our March 2014 album.  
https://picasaweb.google.com/105471094228418480553/201403March# 

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