Pic-of-the-Week for May 14, 2013

Hola Amigos,

Happy Birthday to my youngest sister, Shelley!  She is 50-something today, and is spending the summer in Oregon.  We hope to see her and her husband David this summer when we get there.  Here she is when we visited her at her home in Nevada last summer. 

It has been a pleasant week here.  I was invited to take a little trip to Santiago with our friends Pat and Patti to pre-pay our water bills at the head office located there, and then have lunch on the patio at one of our favorite little restaurants, Palomar.  We were surprised when we got there with a musician playing the piano and singing, and doing a very nice job of it.  He made his little Yamaha keyboard sing!  (I still haven't figured out how to do all the bells and whistles on mine that he did on his while he played.)  Anyhow, we had a delicious lunch while we were serenaded.  

 

The photo above is looking at our table, and back towards the restaurant and bar.  The musician was just up there on the left side of the terrace.  

Ryan had a birthday this week, and had several friends down to celebrate with him.  I imagine he'll be expecting a strawberry pie sometime in the near future, but he and his friends were doing the loop tour for his birthday weekend and not at home.  They did dinner and overnight in San Jose on Friday, a day at the beach at Pescadero (south of Todos Santos) on Saturday and part of Sunday, La Paz on Sunday night (which included a flat tire on Sunday night on the way to La Paz!)  His van is in the shop, so he borrowed our white pickup truck.  He was surprised at the airport when not just one, but 2 of his friends from LA showed up, and his friend Ken from Portland was already here!  It was just a bit tight for the four of them in our 3 passenger cab!!!  Good thing they're all young and skinny!  

I spent time Friday and Saturday helping my friend Janet in her new dress shop, SunDays, for her grand opening.  I couldn't believe how many people were still in town!  They really came out of the woodwork for this opening.  By the time I got there to help on Friday an hour after opening, there was a long line of people ready to pay for their purchases, and it went on like that most of the day!  Janet has some really nice clothing and shoes and hats and purses and scarfs and jewelry, and even a few men's shirts.  And sizes to fit everyone who walked in the door.  It's pretty amazing, considering the size of her shop is about a 12 x 12 room, with a changing room curtained off in the hallway.  It was a little calmer on Saturday, but not much!  Obviously, she found a wonderful niche that is needed for this community.  Janet, in the center and Sharon on the left are both wearing clothing from Janet's store.  Pretty, huh? 

People are leaving town for the summer, and it's hard to see our new and old friends leave!  There aren't very many Gringos who stay here year round, so the population is always shifting.  This is the time of year when you'll see more fishermen showing up, and the fishing is improving.  And yes, Ben's boat is just about ready to go in the water.  He has fixed all the pumps (yes, please, get those bilge pumps working!), it starts right up and runs well, and now we need to clean it.  The only problem now is when to put it in the water, because our friend with the Cessna is coming down in a little over a week, and Ben will probably go flying with him.  I hate to have the boat moored and just me to take care of it if something happens!  So sorry....no fish tales to tell yet!

Sad to say, my bean crop is finished for the season.  It has some serious bug infestation, so Ben suggested I just get rid of the rest of it for this year.  The corn is coming along nicely, though!  We should have some in a couple weeks.

 

 Yeah, I know....it's a little bitty crop, but there will be plenty for us to eat for a while!  

Flowers in the garden are doing well right now.  We have lots of Adenium (Desert Rose) blooming and my big old Nopal cactus is putting out gorgeous yellow blooms, AND we have another banana blooming.  I don't know if any of the developing bananas will be ripe before we leave, but maybe some will be ready when we return in the fall.  It's always fun to watch them develop!  That big reddish pod just keeps peeling back leaves, and new little bananas are underneath.  It's like magic!  We do need to get out there and put some supports on these guys.  The banana bunches get so heavy, the trees just fall over! 

 
 I'm looking forward to this summer when I get to play with these two "future Ducks".  

More photos are in our May Picasa Album.

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

  

Pic-of-the-Week for May 7, 2013

Hola Amigos,

Yes, it's May...my favorite month of the year!  Here in Baja, the temperatures are just about perfect (low 80's during the day, 60's at night), not windy, and the Sea of Cortez is starting to warm up.  Our doors are open most of the day, and windows are open at night.  The fans are on, and life is good!  

I have to admit that another reason I like May is because it's my birthday month.  I celebrated another one on last Saturday the 4th, and had a great time!  Ben smoked another big chunk of pork shoulder for pulled pork, and we invited a bunch of friends over.  Ben got more rave reviews for his cooking, and we all enjoyed his day-long efforts of keeping the fire going!! 

We even let Ryan in on the celebration, since his birthday is this Friday the 10th.  

  Our friend Sharon made the cake, and was it yummy!  Mandarin Orange cake with Vanilla Pudding and pineapple frosting.  Very tropical and delicious!  Ryan, the artist in our family, made 3 more bouquets to go on the tables, and to go with the plant Dalia gave me.  He used flowers and foliage from our garden, and came up with some really nice arrangements!

 
 In the meantime, the rest of the week was pretty quiet.  With our open doors that I mentioned before, we usually get a few birds flying into the house and crashing against our windows, knocking themselves silly in the process.  The other day, an Oriole flew through (it's usually hummingbirds, but there aren't too many around right now).  I usually grab the dogs first thing, because they've become bird hunters!  I put them in our bedroom and close the door.  If I can do that fast enough, I have time to grab the bird before it revives to fly around from room to room.  Fortunately, Ben was in the house when it happened last time, and he grabbed it bare handed (I usually use a dish towel).  So, here you have "Bird in Hand, slightly dazed".  He flew away as soon as Ben opened his hand. 

 
 Sam and Zoey and I are still doing our beach walks several days a week, and Sam is still wading in to get a drink while Zoey barks at him ("Watch out for the huge waves Sam!  You'll get wet and drown! Watch out!!!")  Since Sam usually gets his tummy wet, and he is so low to the ground, he comes home with a layer of sand on his tummy.  Yesterday, I noticed he left quite a pile of sand on our kitchen floor before Ryan washed the sand off him in our outdoor shower!  This is also the time of year when they enjoy lying on the cool tile floor rather than a rug!  Phew! That Baja sun is hot for little black dogs! 

We've been fighting ants here this spring.  We cannot believe the hundreds (thousands?) of ants traveling around the outside of our house (thankfully, only a few inside).  Ben mixed up some pretty potent spray several days ago, and it looks like it's finally doing some good.  We've heard other people complaining of the same problem now, so it must be migration time or something.  They are definitely on the move (at least, until Ben sprays them!)  

I've started a new album for May 2013 Picasa photos.  

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

Pic-of-the-Week for April 30, 2013

Hola Amigos,

Happy last day of April!  We are already 1/3 of the way through the year, as hard as that is to believe.  This is the time of year when little black dogs get hot when they walk on the beach, and always look for shady spots on the way home!  (I think they were shaking their heads in this photo, so that's why you see ears sticking straight up!)

Yes, the weather is getting warmer; temps are almost always in the 80's in the afternoons.  Nighttime temps are still down in the 60's, so it is refreshing in the mornings when we get up.  We've started turning on the overhead fans, and windows are being opened.  I love this time of year here in Baja!  

Ben went fishing last week, but not in his own boat.  He went with a couple friends who chartered a panga out of La Ribera for a 1/2 day of fishing.  Fortunately, they hooked a nice 120 pound striped Marlin, and the friend visiting from Oregon got to pull it in.  That evening, we all went to Barrilito's restaurant where they'd taken some of the fish earlier that afternoon.  Chef Pancho did an excellent job preparing the fish 4 different ways!  We had sashimi for an appetizer (not one of my favorite ways to eat fish, but this was delicious!), then Vera Cruz style, then with a cilantro sauce, and finally pan fried with a wonderful nutty crust.  We all decided that was the best fish meal we'd ever had!  Here are photos of the sashimi and the Vera Cruz style.  I was too busy eating to get photos of the next two!

 Ben is still talking about getting his boat ready to put in the water... we'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks. It is hot on the east side of our house most of the day where the boat is parked, and he does get sunburned pretty easily.  We'll keep you posted!

Our last Bottle Brush bud bloomed last week.  Hopefully, next year we'll have more than 3 blooms, but we'll take what we can get! 

 
We feed the wild birds here regularly, and the Orioles have been keeping me busy making nectar and filling up their special feeder.  We have two kinds here; the Hooded Oriole and the Scott's Oriole.  The Scott's Oriole looks like it has a hood, and the Hooded Oriole looks like it has a bib, but that's what they're called!  Here are two examples.  Say....maybe the Hooded Oriole's hood is yellow instead of black???  If you figure it out, let me know!

I've been filling the  feeder daily lately.  There are not too many Hummingbirds around right now so the Orioles are providing lots of entertainment!

Other creatures that we're seeing more of are the Iguanas.  Here is one that lives in a tree at some friends home.  These guys can hold really still, and are sometimes very hard to spot, as they're often the same color as their surroundings.  But they can move fast when they want to!  This guy scrurried into his hole at the bottom of the tree lickety-split when I got too close! 

 There are also a couple that hang out in the Cardon cactus near our driveway, but it is tough to get close to them in that 15 foot tall cactus in the middle of the thorn bushes (especially when they are sitting on top!)  They live in those little holes you see in the cactus.  What a life!

As you can see, there is a lot of blue sky and calm water... time to consider a Baja visit, perhaps?  To convince you further, I've posted a few more photos at the bottom of our April 2013 Picasa Album.

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

Pic-of-the-Week for April 23, 2013

Hola Amigos,

We had an interesting week here.  We picked up Ben's brother John on Tuesday, and entertained him a bit (it's an easy job ... he knows where the beach is.)  He took a walk and a swim every day, in spite of there being several very windy days.  Then he did some kayaking and snorkeling, and said it was the best he's ever seen.  There were all kinds of fishes out there.  He managed to keep himself busy even when Ben was sick in bed for a day and a half!  He's heading back home today (after one more walk on the beach!)

One of the more exciting things (to Ben and I) that happened this week is that our Bottle Brush tree finally bloomed.  I raised it from seed about 5 or 6 years ago, and when the trees of our friends bloomed over the years (from sticks we'd given them), ours just kept getting taller.  It took forever for it to put out a branch!  This year we could see three flower buds developing, and we were SO excited!  The buds get to about 4" long before they pop out the flowers (which last one day). 

I went out to check them one night after we'd come home from visiting with friends, and this is what I saw!

 Hooray!!!  They were like fireworks bursting in the night!  Now the silly thing needs to put out some more branches so we get more flowers.  We're still waiting for the last bud to blossom.  

We were invited to a birthday party at some friend's home out at Lighthouse Estates on Saturday, and enjoyed visiting with other friends there.  They have a nice little putting green (yes, the grass is artificial, but very real feeling),

 And a pool.

Yesterday, we took a drive up the Buenos Aires arroyo north of town, where there is a little waterfall at the end.  Ben got out "Old Blue", our best rig for driving in sandy conditions. It made it just fine, and in the photo below, Ben had pulled in and turned it around so it was facing back out.  We stopped where the water flowed into the sand.

It was a short hike around the corner to the waterfall and a nice little pool, which was refreshingly cool!

 Hotel Palmas de Cortez has set up some Zip lines there, so John had to climb one tower and check it out.

 We made it out of there just in time, as a group of about 8 guys on ATV's came roaring up the arroyo in a cloud of dust and noise as we were leaving!  It is a popular destination for ATV's...we saw lots of tracks.

One last "surprise" photo.  The dogs like to lay on the rug at our open kitchen door and watch the world go by.  I noticed they were bothering something on the door frame the other day, so went to check if it was a scorpion or a bee, or other bug they shouldn't be messing with.  Well... it wasn't anything alive. It appears that a gecko was in a bad place at a bad time.

 

 Oops.  Looks like he'd been there a while.  We scraped him off before the dogs did! 

More photos of our adventures this week are located in our April 2013 Picasa album.    

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

Pic-of-the-Week for April 16, 2013

Hola Amigos!

Now that the home improvement projects we've been working on are done, we have more time to do some fun things.  Let's see.... Ben has been attempting to rebuild a spare Model A carburetor (doesn't that sound fun?), and I've been doing "girly" things; going to a style show and on a fun adventure to find the cave paintings.  

Sorry I don't have any photos of the carburetor rebuild, but I do have some others of my outings.  The style show was the annual ALMA affair, and it was a lot of fun.  ALMA is the animal organization here that rescues and neuters dogs and cats.  The show is one of their popular money makers, and it's held in a beach side restaurant at Hotel Palmas de Cortez.  I took our friend Pat, and we had trouble finding seating, but ended up in primo seats out on the deck.  This was my view of the models as they walked by!
 
 We had fun, and I took the opportunity to buy a new dress!  
And this is my friend Janet, who is opening a clothing shop down here as soon as she gets her Mexican paperwork for running a business.  Everyone (at least the local ladies) are very excited about her opening a store with reasonably priced (and really nice) clothing. 

 Yesterday, Janet, her visiting sister-in-law Gwen and I took a "girl's day" trip.  Gwen wanted to see some Indian rock paintings, and I happened to have it marked on our GPS, so the three of us drove north to Boca del Alamo on the coast road, found some roads heading west, and eventually found the spot! 

There was a truck parked at the base of the trail, and when we hiked up to the paintings, we discovered some archeologists there doing some research.  We used a bit of Spanish, and she used a bit of English, and we learned a few new things. She even posed for a picture with us! 

When you want to find those cave paintings, just look for this feature in the nearby mountain side...

 It looks like a big old cathedral up there on the mountain!  And who knows...maybe the rock with the paintings was from there?!?  Of course, the GPS was pretty helpful, too!

We took another road out, and here's another marker for you.  Just look for the totem pole at Boca del Alamo, and take then next road to the left at the bottom of the hill past it.  This was done by "los ninos de Boca del Alamo".  Boca means mouth in Spanish.  Notice the mouth near the bottom?  Cute!

We took the coast road back, and stopped off at Hotel Punta Pescadero for lunch.  Yeah, it's tough to sit there and enjoy this view, but someone has to do it.  By the way, Gwen is from Eugene, and knows my Aunt Evelyn and our friend Ellis's Mom Berniece and his sister Donna.... it was fun exchanging histories with her!

 Lots of cacti are in bloom right now, including some in our yard.  We have a couple varieties of cholla, and here are a couple blooms from them.

There are a bunch more photos of our hike to the paintings and other items of interest in our April 2013 Picasa album.  

We're picking up brother John today... he'll be spending about a week with us, and we're looking forward to that.

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

Pic-of-the-Week for April 9, 2013

Hola, Amigos

Another week has gone by, and it was a busy one!  Several major projects were accomplished...with flair!!!  

1.  Ben and Ryan (with very little help from me!) primered, then painted our carport, then installed all the light sconces and new lighting fixtures.  It turned out just beautiful, and the paint even matches the old paint pretty good!  The light fixtures we picked out in Oregon this summer work nicely, too.  Not too bright, but big enough to make a statement!

The exterior light fixtures we picked out in Oregon this summer work nicely, too.  Not too bright, but big enough to make a statement!

 

2.  I finally finished my new quilt, and it, too, turned out just beautiful!  Now I need to bundle it up and send it to Oregon with a friend who, with his wife, runs a quilting shop (they have the long-arm machines to do the quilting).  We'll pick it up this summer when we go to Oregon.  Sure don't need a quilt on our bed right now!  (Yes, this one is for us).

Amidst all this work, we managed to attend our friend Ray's 80th birthday (his wife invited at least 80 people!), went to a concert in the park, and made birthday cake and had birthday dinner with our friends Tony and Janet.  So you see, it's not all work and no play here!  

 
  That's Ray in the middle there, with the Miraflores mariachi band.  Ray, by the way, is a Bass player, and plays with me every Sunday at church, then usually every Wednesday night at Open Mic in Los Barriles, and wherever else he has opportunity to play.  He's a very talented musician. And here are the Purkeys at Ray's party, too.

Tony enjoyed his prime rib dinner at Tio's and the very chocolate cake I made for him! 

I'm still picking beans most every day, and now I'm scrounging for jars to put them in to can.  We should have a nice supply by the time the beans are done producing!  And I've been giving some away, too.  This was a nice big batch I picked yesterday. 

Daylight Savings time started in Mexico on Sunday, so Ben took the opportunity of longer daylight hours to get out the '28 Woody to drive into town to pick up some friends for dinner.  They said it felt like they were in a parade the whole time, since everyone waves at us!  Fun!

Our Amaryllis have started to bloom, and we are enjoying them.  We have many double whites with some red stripes, and at least one nice single red one.  They make quite a statement on our entry walk!

 

More photos are in our April 2013 Picasa Album.   I'll even try to get some captions on them! Now, I need to take care of all those beans I picked yesterday! 

Hasta la proxima semana,

Tus amigos en Baja

Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey (who are actually barking less these days!)  

Pic-of-the-Week for April 2, 2013

Hola Amigos,

Can you believe it is April already?  We have 3 more months here at our home base in Mexico before we go north, and these are some of the most pleasant months, weatherwise, during the year.  The wind isn't blowing like crazy, the sun is shining, the days are longer...it is just downright pleasant now!  

On Sunday, we celebrated Easter with a Sunrise Service on the beach.  Ben and Ryan were in charge of the set up of all the sound equipment.  That meant dismantling it from the church on Saturday, storing it in secure vehicles overnight, unloading it and setting it up on Sunday morning, starting at 4:45am on the beach!!!  Yes, that is a flashlight strapped to Ryan's head.  Ben was wearing one most of the time, too!  

 

With help from a bunch of people willing to get up very early, things got set up in time, and more than 200 people arrived to celebrate with us, both English and Spanish speaking.  Our choir did songs in both English and Spanish, and we had a lovely solo of Via Delarosa by a lady whose musical family is visiting the area right now.  Here is a link to most of her song (I didn't get my video started on time...)  Via Delarosa.
 And here are a few other photos from the morning service.

 I'm always pleasantly surprised by how many people attend this early morning service.  We also had a potluck breakfast after the service, and saw everyone who came was well fed! 



I mentioned last week that I might have enough beans to can, and I do!  I probably need to pick and can another batch today.  I can't believe how well they're doing, especially after the cow did her work on that first crop.  It is wonderful to be eating fresh Blue Lake green beans, and having enough to can for eating next fall, when we don't have the garden in yet.  (The Oregon Farm Girl in me survives, even in Mexico!)

The Cardon cactus are blooming now, so we are not seeing quite as many Hummingbirds at our feeders.  When we do see them, they often have cactus pollen on their heads!  The birds and the bees do love these flowers when they bloom.

 Easter vacation is one of the biggest Mexican holidays.  The weather is not too hot yet, and hundreds of Mexicans come to Baja and camp on the beaches.  In some places, they even set up vendor booths and Tecate tents (with Tecate girls to advertise and entice the beer drinkers in, like they need enticement to drink beer on a holiday!)  You'll see sound trucks with nightly entertainment, volleyball tournaments on the beach, all kinds of things.  When I walked the dogs on Monday, this is the first thing I saw! And let me tell you, this is a vast improvement over how it used to be!  Yes, that is a large garbage bag... the remains of a camping trip to the beach.  I guess they didn't have room to haul it away with them.  I saw several more bags like this in another place.  This will be fine, until the cows or dogs get into it and spread it all around!  I just wondered what they were thinking????

Anyhow, the weather is warming up, Ben is thinking about fishing(!), company is coming in a couple weeks. The dogs have their new bark collars (we've only used them one day), and they are doing better about the barking after just one day's use.  The day they wore them was the quietest day we've had in a long time.  It seems like they knew something would happen if they barked!  

I've started a new April Picasa Album, but the Easter photos are all at the end of the March Picasa Album.  
 
Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey