Rejects

I made and scanned this image some time ago, like more than a year ago. It was shot with color film in the Holga. I see this tree everyday when I walk up Pila Seca and I love the early morning light as I approach this corner. But when I tried to work with it in Photoshop, in color, it just did not work. The other middle of the night/early morning when I couldn't sleep, I changed it to a monotone image and played with it again. I liked it but didn't see much chance for it with the public. What the heck, I uploaded it to Facebook and was surprised at the positive response I got. Of course these are my Facebook FRIENDS. Still this is a reminder that when I feel an emotional response to something, I might be able to capture something in the image that will stir a response in someone else.

Intensity of the Commonplace

After being rained in for five days since our return from Texas, I finally was able to hit the streets on Friday. There is construction on my usual route into town so I went up Canal to the Centro. I have to go to the same place up hill when I travel on Pila Seca but somehow Pila Seca is a more gradual climb. Canal is kind of a straight shot up hill. I've been gone for over a month and I thought I might have to stop and catch my breath. I didn't. Maybe I was a bit slower but I kept an even pace. It felt so good to know that these old feet and lungs and heart can still take me where I want to go even though they have only had to work at sea level on a flat surface for a while.

The sky was blue. The sun was warm. My heart just filled with joy as I passed shops and shared a "Buenos Dias" with people passing by.  I stopped at Bonanza grocery store and it is so tiny compared to mega stores in the States but once again I marveled at the variety packed onto the shelves. A stop at the butcher shop provided a kilo of filete de res....nicely trimmed and perfect for dinner for some friends on Friday night. Now that I knew what the meat would be for dinner, I went on to the Ramirez Mercado for veggies.

I wish that I could explain the differences between shopping for food here in San Miguel and in Houston. Going to Kroger or HEB in Houston is just going to a grocery store but shopping here is a total sensory and emotional experience. I'm currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle so I'm thinking about where my food comes from. I don't think that all that I buy here is organic or even that all of it is local but I do feel closer to the source than I do in the USA. I connect with a person, the vendor, with every potato or onion or slice of bacon that I buy. In the States my only connection with a person in the grocery store is with the checker when I'm leaving the store.

On Saturday I walked over to Parque Juarez to see and do some photography at the giant Spring flower market. I loved walking the winding paths in the parque past vines, flowers, herbs and shrubs and I loved the smell of garden dirt. I did do a bit of photography with the holga lens on the digital camera. One vendor had some snake plants but he only had one pot that matched the variety that I have in the patio garden. I bought it and he promised to have some more on Friday of this week.

Sometimes when we are in Houston, I think that maybe someday we might move back but then I think about the joy of doing such commonplace things as shopping for groceries or walking in the park here in San Miguel. These things in Houston do not have the intensity of doing them in San Miguel. My life would lose a lot of color. In fact, it might become quite pastel.

Our Lemons and Other Gardening thoughts

Finally some lemons from our lemon tree on the terrace. These may be ugly looking lemons but they are OUR lemons so we think they are pretty special. We probably have had some earlier lemons ripen while we have been gone, especially during the summer but these are the first we have picked. Don't ask me what kind of lemon it is. I don't know. In fact it is hard to get a lemon tree in San Miguel. And it is hard to get a named variety of most any tree. Oh, the nursery will tell you that it is a certain variety of lemon but you never really know until you get the fruit.

The lime tree continues to keep us supplied with limes even during the winter. We probably couldn't whip up a jug of margaritas with the limes right now but there are enough to tang up a plate of melon or spitz a drink. Both the lime and lemon trees are container grown on the terraces so they get enough sun to make fruit.

Do you know what else I've picked and even used in a salad last night.....cherry tomatoes. I couldn't believe it when I went on the terrace. After all the rain and cold and hail, there were still cherry tomatoes hanging on to the vine. I had enough to top four salad plates. They were delicious and sweet although I thought the skins were a bit tough.

The chard is still growing so I'll harvest some for dinner one night this next week. And I now have a nice bed of chives established so I can snip some when I need them for a recipe. The mint is looking good. The oregano is starting to come out again. The thyme is happy but the basil isn't. It has gone to flower and the leaves are skinny and dry looking. I'll have to pull that up and start some new basil. 

Although we have had our fill of cold, it is time to start thinking about Spring. The patio has survived pretty well this winter but it still needs some things moved and some plants replaced. I'll head over to Parque Juarez today to check out the plant vendors who come here from everywhere. I don't know that I'll buy anything because these are not necessarily plants that will be happy in San Miguel. Most of the plants have been forced to adolescence before their time but sometimes I just can't resist.

The sun is out again today. I think by Valentines Day, Spring will officially begin in San Miguel.

Rain and More Rain

This isn't San Miguel but oh how all of us here are wishing for a sunset. All we are getting is cold, overcast skies and rain. Before we returned, San Miguel had a lot of rain in January and it is continuing into February. There was even some snow while we were gone. And since we arrived home it has been rain and more rain. Yesterday it started raining about 9:00 AM and it has rained continuously since then. We don't have storm sewers. The streets take the rain waters downhill. Our street has been a little rivlet and sometimes it has looked like shallow rapids.  This is unusual for San Miguel in January and February. Oh, I've seen a storm come through in January before but not where it just settles in for the month.

Yesterday we were out in the rain so we could join some Mexican friends to celebrate the presentation of their three year old daughter to the Church. There was no way to stay dry with an umbrella. Golashes were definitely needed for crossing streets. Today we have stayed bottled up in the office/studio at home with the lava rocks glowing in the fireplace. We are cozy. I should have gone to the grocery store but neither of us wanted to be out in the cold rain. We'll get by tonight with some kind of tomato sauce on pasta.

It is February. Time to buy plants in Parque in Juarez. Time to sit in the sun in the middle of the day. Time for something besides cold damp days and rain.

I made this image one evening near the hospital while we were in Houston. I have a new point and shoot that shoots RAW images, the Canon S90. It is shirt pocket size and fits in my purse. I am carrying it with me most of the time. It really comes in handy when you come on something spectacular like this sunset crowned with those amazing clouds.


 

What Is Important?

As usual this Sunday morning I watched Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. There was a segment about  Thornton Wilder's play Our Town . The segment asked the question, "In an over-caffeinated popular culture dominated by the big and loud, how did a drama about unremarkable people in an unremarkable place become one of America's most produced and most beloved plays?" That question seemed to tie back to what has been happening in our life for the last month. The play is beloved because it goes back to the basics of family and friends, sickness and health. The things that touch us all.

In a crisis life boils down to the basics and one of the things that I found wasn't so important to me......Blogging. Not when I'm faced with a crisis in my family. One of my "boys" was sick and within a couple of hours of getting to the hospital he was on a ventilator in ICU. It was touch and go for about a week. He is now home after a four week stay in the hospital and he is doing okay.

This past year has been like a whack on the side of the head to remind me about what is important.....to live in the moment and take time to stop and smell the roses. I know those phrases can sound trite but right now they don't sound trite to me at all. They are more like my mantra.

When I look back at this four week period, I am inspired and oh so thankful for the way my family came together to do everything we could for our son, brother and brother-in-law. I'm thankful for the amazing Houston Medical Center and all the highly skilled doctors and nurses who took of him. I'm thankful for all the friends who took care of us and prayed for us. And bloggers, I'm thankful for you even though you didn't know what was going on. Some of you wrote to me and let me know you were concerned. I'm back in San Miguel and I'll gradually take up blogging again.

Merry Christmas

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We are about to find out what Santa left. Through the day the family will gather. Looking forward to seeing all the grandchildren. Good food is ahead today.

I hope that this image isn't too dark, too off color. I'm working blind with a new program and an uncalibrated laptop. It looks terrible on my monitor but I'm trusting that the camera got it better than I can do.

Christmas Color

I know I've been missing in action but I'm half way back now. At least I can give you a photo of Christmas cheer.