A visit with an Artista

drawing
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

My friend Meg invited me along with Joseph and Gary to go to Queretaro to meet the artist Margarita Fick. I had seen her marvelous cut paper work here in San Miguel so how could I pass up on an opportunity to meet the artista.

I've taken the liberty to show you a little thumbnail of her amazing work because when I say cut paper you might be thinking about when you were in school and you folded paper and cut a string of paper dolls or some other design. No, no, no, this isn't the same. Maybe the same concept but Margarita is an artist with a vision that she expresses with the scissors as well as other media.

But back to our quest to find Margarita. We piled in Meg's car and off we go to Queretaro. Of course, anytime you go to Queretaro stops at one or more of the big stores is required. Gary and Joseph needed a hose to water the garden....Home Depot. Meg needed a vacuum cleaner....Costco. Fortunately for me, we didn't need anything on this trip but at Home Depot I did scope out ceiling fans again for the new room. The hose and vacuum cleaner along with a few other items filled up the trunk. We decided that before we went to her house we should have comida, so across some parking lots to a shopping center and Sanborns.

Margarita had told Meg that since we were not familiar with Queretaro and Queretaro is a big city with some major highways, it would be a good idea for us to take a cab to her house. Meg had been there once before but not as the driver. So we hailed a cab outside of Sanborns and off we went. We had Margarita's address and phone number and the cab driver said he knew the area and he had a map so he could find the street. Sure enough after one stop for directions, we found the address. We asked him to wait until Margarita came to the door and he said no problem.

No one answered the doorbell but a dog with a strong bark. Mmmm....could we have the wrong address? Was it 25A or 25? So we tried 25. A lovely woman who spoke wonderful english came to the door. She told us that Margarita lived in 25A and that she wasn't home. She said maybe we should call her cell phone. We had her home phone number but not the cell. The nice neighbor didn't have it either. Then Meg remembered that Margarita gave the cell phone number on the message of her answering machine but we didn't have a cell phone to call her from. The neighbor went and got her phone for us to use. After listening to the answering machine several times we finally were able to get the right cell phone number written down. Margarita answered her phone and said she would be back to her house soon. All this time the cab driver had been so kind to wait and help us figure out how to reach Margarita. We thanked him and the neighbor for their kindness and sat down on the curb to talk while we wait for Margarita.

Margarita arrived in a flurry, put the dog into the garden, ushered us into her house and offered us some te helado (ice tea.) Her kitchen and studio are on the first floor and the walls are filled with her colorful paintings and the tables covered with commissioned work in progress or work about to be shipped.

Margarita is a warm, witty woman with a charmingly slight accent when she talked with us in English. She started drawing when she was a child and also worked with her family making the wonderful cut papers that you see fluttering in the wind for fiestas. But as so often happens life takes us to different places and Margarite was in her 40's before she returned to her love of cutting paper and refined it to fine art.

Margarita is a self-taught artist and she explained to us that her inspiration comes from her dreams and also from her prehispanic heritage, from memories of her childhood, funerals and fiestas. I also see a rich overlay of feminine issues especially in the paintings she had hanging in her studio.

Her work is being discovered not just in Mexico but also in the USA. We came to see her work but none of us could leave without buying some of this amazing art. I wanted two pieces but I will have to wait until November before she can make them because she is preparing for several exhibitions. But they'll be worth the wait. You can learn more about Margarita at her website.

This was a wonderful afternoon with a truly amazing, original, creative artist.

A Needed Message from the Internet

Some of you who have started reading my blog because of my writing about Mexico may not know it but I'm a photographer. I guess I've been a photographer for a long, long time but I've also been other things along the way, a wife, a mother, a manager, a consultant. But for the last 15 years, photography has been my center, my anchor. I've been fortunate enough to be in groups shows and to have one-person shows and to sell some of my work along the way.

I guess it is always the photographer's dream to have a book published. Well the possibility of a publisher appearing on my doorstep with a contract is maybe less than being struck by lightening. But more and more self-publishing is a financial possibility. There are companies who can publish your book "on demand" like Lulu.com. In addition, photographers are making wonderful handmade books. There are a lot of possibilities.

I have a couple of projects that I'd like to make into books, the largest one being the 16th Century Mexican Churches that I researched and photographed over several years. I'm thinking an edition of 50 for family and a few friends and maybe even sales through Amazon or PhotoEye. These images were shot with black and white film so I started going through the old negs and scanning the images. Suddenly I was finding it hard to do this because my inner critic was saying......

This stuff is old work, don't you have anything new?

Lots of people have photographed the Mexican churches...do you have anything new to say in these images?

Too bad you didn't photograph the project in color like Eliot Porter.

Thank goodness you didn't print this one, it is really terrible.

Why are you wasting your time with this. No one is interested.

Do any of you have an inner critic? I hope he isn't as brutal as mine is. I can't tell you how many times I've had to write in my daily journal, "Shut-up you SOB. This IS GOOD WORK!" Well anyway he was beating me up pretty good recently and one night I wasn't able to sleep so I came down to the computer. I logged on and decided to go to my pbase photography site. I hadn't been there in a while. The site said I had a recent message in my guestbook. I clicked on it and read:

Ms. Mercer, I have been a fan of yours for years. I walked into AfterImage Gallery in Dallas and bought 8 of your photos immediately. I even tried to call you in Houston to ask you about the series. (These are of Mexican Churches.) I could never find the correct number or receive an answer. I love the other series I've seen on the web. If you're "in the mood" to have a conversation about your work .............

These images were sold eight or nine years ago. Why now, just when I'm filled with doubt about this work did she find me and how in the world did she find me in the vast universe of the internet.

I don't know why I'm amazed when my guardian angel has sent help so many times before to push the inner critic back to whatever dark place he goes but I AM amazed and so thankful. I'll be back to scanning more images from the Mexican Church Project tomorrow. It is going to be a lot of hard work for this little book to come together but one step at a time.

A Friend for Dinner

One of the things that I love about San Miguel is "breaking bread" with friends. I can't think of anything nicer than to sit at a table with friends and eat, talk, have some wine. It seems much easier to do here than in Houston and I've tried to figure out why that is. One of the main things is that everyone goes at such a fast pace in the USA, that in order to set up a dinner party with the people you want to bring together it may take several phone calls and then have to be scheduled two or three weeks later because of schedules. But another reason it is more difficult to entertain in Houston is a problem of my own making. I have "stuff" in Houston---lots of dishes and glasses that are used for entertaining and over the years I have built an expectation in my head of the "proper" dinner party. It just becomes a lot of work....work before and work after.

But here in this little house we have limited storage so we have one set of dishes and glasses. The dining area is small so a dinner party for 6 is the limit. The kitchen and dining area kind of flow together so I can talk with friends as I cook. I've let go of my expectations and it is all very casual. I'm having so much fun cooking here because you have to be creative and cook what you find that looks the best that day in the market.

Since we came in March and the construction started, so much stuff is stored in the living area and we have so much construction dust, I haven't entertained. But this week I asked my good friend Meg for dinner. I wanted her to see how the work was progressing and also to have time to just visit.

At the meat market I asked for a filete de res sin cordon. The butcher cut it and held it up in his big hand, what I saw looked okay, I nodded yes. He weighed it up and I paid. But when I got home I was surprised to see the Cordon was still attached....a miscommunication or was he taking advantage of a gringa? In the future I will be more careful and ask to see all sides of the filete de res. Live and learn as the saying goes. I brought broccoli to have with dinner. I've been told that most of the organic broccoli in Whole Foods grocery stores is grown in this area. All I know is the broccoli here is delicious. I serve it often.

I prepared a recipe from "Food from my Heart" by Zarela Martinez. It is one of my favorites from the cookbook which is out of print but it has many wonderful recipes. I think you can still order it as a used book from Amazon. She also has a couple of more recent cookbooks and they are on my wish list. I made Arroz con Crema Y Poblanos or Creamy Rice Casserole with Poblano Chiles. She says the recipe makes six servings but I think it serves 8 to 10 people. I made 1/2 the recipe for the 3 of us and have plenty left over. It is a great recipe to make ahead and heat for a dinner party. I love the poblanos in the recipe and usually add extra.

I had a mango salsa that I wrote about in an earlier blog and chips prepared when Meg arrived. As we talked and snacked on the salsa, I put the filete and rice casserole in the oven and sauteed the broccoli with garlic. While the meat was resting after coming out of the oven, I made a mustard sauce to dress it. The good conversation continued.

After all of the food was cleared, I sliced tiny plaintains and sauteed them in butter, honey and Presidente brandy then served them with Santa Clara vanilla ice cream. I guess you could call it a version of Bananas Foster but the tiny plaintains make it even better in my opinion.

The food was good but the conversation and friendship is priceless.

Construction - Week 8

It is beginning to look like a room!



All the debri has pretty much been cleared out. The fireplace has been started. the long windows were taken off their hinges and back to the herreria (blacksmith shop) to have the locks installed. The walls are plastered. I think the worst of the "destruction" is done. They have almost finished chipping out all of the old tiles. Still some to finish in the laundry room and on the landing. The door to the laundry room has been installed and the door you see above leaning against the wall is the one that will go to the bathroom with a kind of translucent glass.



The other big task that got underway was the tile in the bathroom. It was very hard to chose tile. Since we are close to Dolores Hidalgo, we can look at tile in dozens of places but I finally decided to go with Cortez tile. It is machine made while all the other tile is handmade. I'm sure you are probably thinking that the handmade should be better and more authentic. You have a point but I now have three years of experience with living with the handmade tile and I have found the quality of the tile varies a lot. Very little of the handmade tile is flat. Imagine a cutting board on your kitchen countertop and every chop you have "wobbly-table syndrome." Also, in three years we are finding the glaze is wearing off the tiles in the raised areas where they get a lot of wear. I've also been told that the Cortez tile is fired at a high temperature but don't quote me on that. Sometimes here it is very hard to track down the truth from the rumor.



Here you get a close up look at the tile in the shower. I'm thinking of painting the bathroom the chili arbol color that you see in the flower of the design. I know it is a pretty strong color but I think that between the window and the two glassblock tragaluz (skylight) that the room will have enough light to handle the strong color.

Today we went looking for light fixtures for the bathroom. We have to decide for the electrician if it will be a light on each side of the mirror or one light over the mirror. We had looked in Queretaro at the Home Depot but all of them seemed so American...especially so since the rest of our house has very simple handmade light fixtures except for a few halogen track lights we have in the kitchen and living area. We were surprised that we had trouble finding some of the same brass and glass fixtures we already have. But I'm sure we will find them. There is one store here where we have bought a number of things and Mr. Llamas stocks his store with all kinds of wonderful crafts. I'm sure he can find someone who makes them and maybe we can even have something special made.



This photo may look a little confusing at first but I am standing on the stairs on the first floor looking up the stairwell. This lovely underview of the stairs was a design surprise for me. I guess I thought it would be a straight slanted line or box but I love the underside of the stairsteps. I'm beginning to think of how I can make this architectural detail even more attractive with the color that it is painted.

Now that I'm able to "see" the possibilities, I'm really getting a lot of ideas for furnishing it. No rush to make any decisions because considering all the possibilities is too much fun. Besides if I bought anything now where the heck would I put it in this construction zone.

San Pascual Bailon

What do you know about San Pascual Bailon?
Nothing?
Me either. I didn't turn up much on Google about San Pasqual except about a Mexican/American battle in California, but the local English newspaper, Atencion, here in San Miguel, tells me that he is a dual purpose saint: The patron of shepherds as well as cooks and kitchens. Since rain is needed in May for good crops, it is time for prayers and prayers, saints and festivals always go together in Mexico. So what better reason to have a festival for Dia de San Pascual Bailon. Although the "Dia" was May 17th, the festivities took place on Sunday starting about 6 AM when we were awakened with the customary festival day fireworks and clanging church bells. This time a big part of the festival was happening at our Colonia church so the fireworks were close by.

After about an hour of intermitent barrages of rocket explosions, things quietened down for a bit. Then suddenly there was a band playing on our street. We ran up to the new terrace and looked over to see the band at a neighbors just down the street and they were playing Las Mananitas....it must be someone's birthday. The band was invited inside but we could hear that the party had begun.

We gathered our things and headed for the San Antonio church. To get there we walked through the Sunday market which takes place on Heroes Street. We have first hand knowledge of this Sunday market. One of our neighbors is a vegetable vendor at the Sunday market and we have rented a house on that street. The vendors arrive about 5:30 AM and quietly set up tables, awnings and their wares.....vegetables, clothing, plants, CD's, toiletries, cooking utensils, spices, toys and food booths. By 7 AM the customers are arriving. The market is bustling but surprisingly there is a low level of noise, just soft voices making their purchases or sitting at tables having tamales, carnitas, tacocs and fruit drinks.



But today there was noise on Heroes from the Colonia San Antonio church which is just around the corner. In front of the church were drummers with a pounding native rhythm beating out the baseline for a circle of dancers dressed like Azetcs. Huge feather headresses and elaborate costumes, with shell ankle bracelets that rang in rhythm with their footsteps. It is strange to me everytime I see these dancers because it is always in front of the church and they often bring incense and go through a ceremony of raising the incense to four points....I don't know if it is to the four winds, the four directions or something else but it is a little different from what I have seen of Catholic ceremonies in the USA.

The source of the noise was also from a band on steps to the side of the church. I wish I could adequately describe a local Mexican band. In a way it is kind of a mix of a German Oompa band with a lot of brass thrown in. Add to that old well used instruments and semi-skilled musicans. For me it is different and charming and very Mexican. It doesn't seem to make any difference if you are 70 or 12, if you can play and have an instrument, you can participate. Oh, and there were also huge speakers set up and if the noise let up any, then disco music would be played. All of these things go on outside the church even during masses.



People were arriving in costume to be a part of the parade. Costumes are outlandish...could be daffy duck or Vincente Fox, or men dressed in outlandish women's clothes with huge breasts and behinds. These costumed participants are called the Locos. They appear at most parades and they dance for hours, hours thru the town in the parade, stop for a bit for some refreshments and then usually they appear again to dance some more in front of a church. Talk about an exercise program....do this once a week and you could stay in shape. As the Locos arrived, they went into the church in their comical drag attire and made the sign of the cross, knelt and said their prayers. Everytime I see this I smile in amazement but no one seems to think there is anything unusual about men asking for God's blessing dressed as women.

Around noon a parade formed which left the church and went through town but I'll write about Mexican parades in another blog. While the parade was going through town, awnings or tents were set up in front of the church and after the parade, there were food booths, games for children, a trampoline, more music and more dancing. In front of the San Antonio church are lots of stairs and families gathered on them to eat or watch the children sliding down the stair railings and chasing each other. Friends met up and stood talking. About the dusk the awnings were taken down and things quieted down but not for long. About 9PM we had more fireworks.

Like I said, I don't know much about San Pasqual Bailon but the prayers said for his festival on Sunday were productive. We had rain on Monday.

Our Casa in Mexico

I never thought I would live in Mexico. Oh, I have always loved to travel in Mexico and during the last 25 years, we have been to most of the Estados de Mexico. We spent a lot of time in Cancun when it was "new" and Ned thought that we should buy a condo there. Although I loved Cancun back then, I never wanted to live there. We spent lots of time in the States of Puebla, Oaxaca, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Guanajuato and again I like them all but can't imagine living in one of those places other than San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato. We first came to San Miguel de Allende along about 1981 or 1982. We stayed for 4 or 5 days and thought it was delightful. So many times when our travels in Mexico were in the central States, we could come back again and stay for a few days before we headed back to Houston.

Eventually San Miguel de Allende became THE destination and we would stay in a hotel for a week or 10 days. The hotel routine gets old and we wanted to stay longer so we decided to rent a house. Sometimes it is very strange how when you make a decision, doors open. I mentioned to a friend that we were looking for a house to rent in San Miguel and she said that Sharon Seligman, another photographer that I didn't know, had a house there and I should call her. I did, she rented us her house and we became good friends. Her house was so lovely and from then on when we came we rented a house. Sharon's house and the other house we rented when her's wasn't available were in Colonia San Antonio. We fell in love with this Colonia. It is a Mexican working class neighborhood with some gringos sprinkled about although lately it seems more and more gingos are discovering it. There are little shops on every street so you can step out your door and get most anything you need close by.

The Robinsons, our dear friends and traveling companions of many years, had sold their condo in Cancun and were looking for a house in San Miguel. While we thought it would be wonderful to have a house to use for several months out of the year and rent it when we weren't here, we had recently retired and weren't sure that we could afford two places and it was beyond our ability at the time to think of living full time in Mexico. But while they were looking we saw a "fixer upper" that had some possibilities and we didn't get that one but it started us thinking seriously about the possibility of buying something in San Miguel. On one of our trips down, we met with Alma Rameriz, a wonderful real estate broker, who took us to see things in what we told her was our price range. After a day of looking at places that I just couldn't see even as "fixer uppers," Alma said that there was one other house she wanted to show us in Colonia San Antonio. It was a little more expensive but we might be interested in it. The minute I walk in the door into a portico and small patio, I LOVED the house. I just knew it was MY HOUSE but it was more than we wanted to pay.

This was in May, we came back again in June to look at it a second time and when we were back in October, it was still for sale and we looked again. I have no idea why the house had not sold and especially now that they had reduced the price but still it was more than we wanted to pay. We mentioned to Alma that it was still at least $20,000 to much for us....we weren't saying that it was to high for what it offered but more than we wanted to spend in Mexico.

We came back to Houston sad because I was sure that someone would snap it up. But this house was meant for us and we were thrilled just before Christmas when Alma called and said that the builders wanted to start another project and wanted to get their money out of the house so if we could close on the house before February 20, they would let us have the house at our price. Oh joy, so we set about figuring out how we would do it and not take a hit in USA taxes for taking money out of some investments. In talking with our financial planner, he started suggesting that it might be better to keep renting houses for several months of the year and asking questions about what we could get for renting it, how much we could rent it, and talking about return on investment. We told him that we had gone through all the numbers and there wasn't anyway that we could truly justify buying the house as an investment so we were thinking of this as a life style decision and what we needed from him was to tell us when we would run out of money and needed to die if we lost all the money in Mexico. He started laughing. But acutally I didn't think we would lose the principal and hopefully we might even make money on the house when we sold it.

Buying real estate in Mexico is different. At the time we bought our house there was no escrow for eanest money, no title insurance, no mortgages. Now some of those things are starting to be used in Mexico. But we very nervously sent our 10% earnest money directly to the seller. Alma assured us that if he backed out, he would have to pay us double the earnest money or he would not be able to sell the house until he did. The attornies who do real estate transactions are called notorios and there are a limited number of them in a city or state. But the attorney does not represent the buyer or the seller. The attorney represents the government. Ned got his FM3, we came down and the transaction went without a hitch except it was a bit startling when the original contract with the actual price was torn up and a new document was produced by the attorney with a much lower sales price. This is standard operating procedure although that is changing since Mexico is actually starting to tax capital gains on the sales of real estate. But this issue is not consistent across the country and there are variations in how the rules are applied to foreigners and immigrants.

We have had the house for a little over three years and we love it. It is really a Mexican kind of house. We think the actual square footage of the house under roof is about 1100 or 1200 square feet, with two bedrooms, 2 1/2 small baths, sala, dining, kitchen area, utility room, patio and two terraces. And now we are adding a studio/office over the living area. Definitely smaller than our house in Houston but it feels spacious.

In the three years we have owned the house our time in Mexico has increased. This year we came in March and plan to stay until Christmas. Now a constant conversation is should we sell the USA house and live here full time.....but that is a blog for another day.

Limones Cocadas

Walmart
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

One of the sweet treats in Mexico are their candied fruits. But the one that looks the most inviting is Limones Cocadas or limes stuffed with coconut. Reportedly, limones cocadas was a favorite of Frida Kahlo and a recipe for it is in her cookbook. If you take a look at the recipe, you will see that it isn't "fast food." It takes several days of working with the limes before you can make the coconut mixture and stuff them.

I've had the Limones Cocadas in Mexico City and they are very different but very delicious. I haven't found them here in San Miguel de Allende. However on a shopping trip to Queretaro, I found these in Walmart.

Construction - Week 7

Construction - Weeks 7
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

The new addition is almost closed in now. There is still a window and skylight to be put in and one small oval window to be chipped out and put in.



The big effort and the big noise this week was chipping out the old floor. We have 400+ square feet of old terrace floor which has to be chipped out, leveled and then new tile put in. This has been a terrible, constant noise all day...chip, chip, chip with a hammer chisel. Usually with 2 men working with hammer and chisels. It caused a bit of excitement one afternoon. Suddenly we hear, "Senior, senior" and they need to know how to turn off the water. The original plans for the house allowed for putting another room over the Sala and we were told that the plumbing was in place. The problem was that this plumbing for another bathroom would block the view of the town so we elected not to use that. But in chipping the floor, the water pipe was found. By the time we got the water turned off at the street and at the tanaka, water was pouring through to the first floor. Just another little hitch in remodeling.



We are going to have great views from the long windows in the new room and we expect that the room will be very cool because we always have a nice breeze from the north. Still we will put in a fan just in case it gets too warm in April or May.



One other thing that happened this week was that we measured the bathroom and the shower was bigger than we expected which meant that the space for the toilet and the sink would be smaller. It is a little bathroom to begin with but after talking with the architect, he had the plumber change the connections. I'm sure that the Mexicans thought that the Gringos were crazy to worry about 6 inches additional space in the shower but it was quickly changed. The plumber has realized that the sewer connection isn't where he thought it was but he doesn't seem to be worried...somehow it will all work out when the patio is cleared of materials and he can start to check it all out. He may not be worried but it is a nagging worry in the back of my mind. I can see us having to tear into the portico floor.



This is the landing to the studio. Originally it was just going to be a door from the stairs to the hall leading to the studio but one day I wondered if we couldn't open the hall and the landing. The architect said yes so now it is a very nice space and keeps the area from seeming chopped into small spaces. The door and window that you do see are into the laundry, the open space will be a big window on the landing and the stairs to the terrace are on the far right.

I knew we had to "destruct" some of the old to make way for the new "construction" but the destruction has been more than I expected. Hopefully when they finish chipping out the floor, the rest of the "construction" will be quieter and less dusty than it has been up until now.

Church of the Week, Real de Catorce

Real de Catorce
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

What the heck is "Church of the Week?" Well you will have to excuse me while I toot my own horn, but I was pleased.

I belong to flickr a photo sharing web site. On flickr you can share your pictures with family and friends, make sets (albums) of your photos and you can join groups such as "Mexicanos" "Houston, Texas" "Doors and Windows Project" "flowers" and "CHURCHES" among 100's of other subjects. After joining a group, you can put any of your photos that fit the criteria for that group into the group pool.

The churches group decided to choose a "church of the week" from the photographs that were added during the week and my picture of Real de Catorce was chosen for this week. I feel very honored because there are some very beautiful images in that pool.

Dragon Popovic wrote, "Well, this time I have a honour to choose this week's Church of the Week...not so easy knowing that with every new day we have more and more excellent photos in this pool (522)!
...and this week is B&W!
Dramatic, spooky atmosphere, chaotic surrounding, discrete sepia-tone and all this with a tiny touch of humour (!) made me to choose this winner:
Real de Catorce by BillieS"

His comments about spooky atmosphere, chaotic surroundings is right on about Real de Catorce. It is an old mining town near Matehuala. You reach it by a cobblestone road that climbs into the mountains and then through a narrow tunnel that was a part of the mine when it was operating. As soon as you emerge from the tunnel your car is swarmed by young boys wanting to be your guide, sell you something, or watch your car. It is unsettling. Many of the buildings in the town are in ruins and there is an erie feeling to the place. The town seems abandoned except for women and children.

There are two churches in the town. One right near the tunnel exit and the other even further up in the mountains. This image was of the second church. The first church had wooden floors and as we were in it, men came to clean the floors with Kerosene or some heavy petroleum product. The smell was strong and we wondered if the whole floor could go up in flames if someone dropped a lit match.

There seemed to be two places to stay in the little village. A newer place clinging to the hillside near the second church and a B&B in the "centro." The B&B also had a nice restaurant. We stayed at the newer place and ate dinner at the B&B. During the night the winds howled and we wondered if the little cabin hanging over the cliff could be blown away but it was so cold even though we were covered by several "horse blankets," as my husband called them, that we didn't get out of the bed to look at what was happening outside.

Real de Catorce is a strange, spooky and chaotic place but if you ever get a chance you should go there.

Sweet Dreams

Dexter
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

Dexter Austin Mercer is 7 weeks old. This was shot last week while I was back in the States for a short visit. He probably weighs close to 12 pounds now. He is a beautiful baby and it is true even if it is his grandmother saying it. He is also a good baby. While he can't sleep through the night yet without waking up to eat, he does seem to know the difference between night and day. He is beginning to communicate with some smiles.

What a delight to hold a new grandchild and nuzzle their little soft cheeks and downy hair. Smell that sweet baby scent. To feel them suddenly sink heavy in your arms when they fall asleep. Even though it is a grandson, you feel the potential and the responsibility.

A precious miracle...the child of your child.

A Nature Walk with Maxwell

Maxwell
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

Last week while I was in Houston, I drove to Dallas to see the new grandson, Dexter and his big brother Maxwell. There is a nature trail near to where Dexter and Maxwell live with their parents so Maxwell and I decided to take a hike. I walked and Maxwell rode his Razor Scream Machine.

It is so wonderful to be a grandparent. You have time to listen, to just enjoy and you are seeing the child with older but wiser eyes. You are seeing them with the experience of having raised your own children so you relish the family traits and differences.

Maxwell and I walked along and he showed me how he had discovered that doodlebugs curl into a ball when you touch them, and how buttercups will leave "butter" in your hand when you turn them upside down, and how you can pull the stamen from honeysuckle. Did you know that the yellow honeysuckle is best? Maxwell knew that. Did you know that you need to look to see if a snail is still using his house before you run over it with the Scream Machine...of course, you shouldn't pick up a snail that has ants on it. We saw the biggest lizard we had ever seen and he had a pink head. We thought he was dead but then he scampered away in the tall grass. We saw a water snake in the creek. He swam from one side to the other and started to come out on the bank but then maybe he felt our presence and he ducked back in the water. Another small snake crossed our path and we sat and watched him as he leisurely made his way in zigzags. We gathered some small sticks and Maxwell pulled some muddy slime from the edge of a tiny waterfall and then threw it back into the creek. We went through a tree tunnel.



We talked. As a grandmother, I realized the wonder of all this child has learned in 5 years. His knowledge of the world, his ability to use his strong little body, but most of all he has learned a language. I started wondering at the miracle of this when Maxwell said something like "I have 'aten' it before." I eat, I ate, I have eaten. Irregular verbs. He didn't have it right yet, but how do infants and children learn them. It happens long before they are taught verb conjugation in school. Several years ago, there was a series of articles in a magazine about how infants acquire language. I didn't recognize how miraculous this process was with my own sons but now with the grandchildsons, I have time to hear it and enjoy.

I'll let his parents tell him that he should say "I have eaten." I'll just keep our nature walk and conversation in a special place in my heart and treasure it as a wonderful snapshot of Maxwell in May 2005.

Construction - week 6

Construction - week 6
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

While I was out of town for week 6, the project made great progress.

The electrician is putting in the wiring. This means that channels are chipped in the walls so that this orange tubing can be placed. They will pull the electrical, telephone and cables thru. The walls will be plastered and it will all be covered.



The plumber was also working. The connections in the bathroom which you see above and in the utility room have been started.

The bathroom and utility room windows were installed. The windows for the floor to ceiling windows in the studio have been delivered. The little balconies for those windows were made and the grills that will covered them are here and ready to install.



The ceiling and one wall was plastered. The wall at the second floor landing was knocked out. The stairs to the third floor terrace are "curing" and we should be able to take down the supports soon. The wall around the stairs on the third floor has been started. The terrace balcony wall has been topped with brick and plastered.

More cement has just been delivered. I can't begin to tell you how many bags of cement have gone into this addition to this house. It is a wonder that this hill that we sit on doesn't collapse. But we are making progress.

Construction - Week 5

Construction - Week 5
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

The big event this week which took all week to do was the stairway and landing to the third floor terrace. The base for all of it is in place now. It took lots of measuring and remeasuring by Milo and his crew. The next step was cutting and bending the rebar to hold it in place. I don't see how it could fail with all the rebar that was used.

We still do not have a roof over this stairway...just a tarp held down with some boards. Since this is the dry season, we haven't had rain to deal with while we have this opening from the first floor all the way to the new terrace. However, one night this week we thought we might get rain. A sudden wind came up and the tarp was whipping in the wind. It happened so quickly and was so noisy, I thought it was a major truck breakdown in the street beside the house. But, thank goodness, no rain



The roof was poured two weeks ago on Friday so almost all of the forms were taken down and stacked in the new room.

And while all of these things were going on this week, they also plastered the new areas, the outside wall and the inside of the terrace walls. Still have the plaster on the inside to do.

Progressing right along.....

Mole and Pork Chops

Lomo de cerdo
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

There is a meat market about a block away from our house in San Miguel. It may be 10x10 in size. Just large enough to have a meat case for showing the meat, a chopping block and a saw. A saw without an on/off switch. You plug in the saw for on and unplug the saw for off. Hey, it works just fine for the butcher.

Yesterday I wanted pork and we haven't cooked anything with mole since we returned to Mexico so it was going to be pork with a mole sauce. My butcher had a very nice pork loin. He trimmed it up and cut me two chops. They looked really good but the one thing I've learned about meat in Mexico is that it generally has a denser texture than meat in the USA. Not necessarily tough but I haven't found it to be as tender if grilled so I usually braise meats. I braised the chops with onion, garlic, wine, a little chicken stock.



Across the street from the butcher is the chicken store and he always has a large container of mole de Guanajuato. I bought the smallest amount, 1/4 kilo (about 1/2 pound). It is a thick paste about the consistency of peanut butter. You add water or chicken stock to get it to a consistency of a cream gravy. I like to use what is left of my braising liquid to start thining the mole. The mole de Guanajuato is very good and has a nice ting on the tongue but it isn't hot.



To finish out our dinner, I made rice and broccoli sauteed with garlic. It was a good dinner.

Most viewed

Ofrenda
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

I've been posting images on Flickr for about 5 months and I'm surprised by the response to this one of an Ofrenda that I photographed in Yucatan several years ago. Flickr has counters or meters for the "most viewed," "favorited (their word not mine)" and "most comments." This one has been viewed more than twice the number of times of the next most viewed which is the skeleton girl.



I don't understand why the Ofrenda has been looked at so many times....I've never even made a serious darkroom print of it.

Fireworks

Ocotlan, Oaxaca
Originally uploaded by BillieS.

In the USA I live near downtown Houston and for some occasions, like the 4th of July, there are great displays of fireworks. The city departments coordinate to mark off huge "fall out zones" and to have police, fire and emergency department personnel at the scene. Everything is done to insure safety.

What a contrast with Mexican fireworks. First of all, fireworks are not reserved for just a few occasions a year but they are a part of most events, births, funerals, weddings, saint's days....you name an occasion and it will probably have fireworks. Sometimes they start at 5:00 AM and sometimes at midnight. The first month of May we spent in San Miguel, I felt like I was in a war zone with all the late night and early morning fireworks.

And secondly the "fall out zone" is however far back YOU think you need to be from the flying sparks and debris. For the Mexicans, that isn't always so far back. Little boys show their bravery by putting a piece of a cardboard box over their head and running through the flying sparks. During the Festival of San Miguel when rockets are fired not up but across the jardin, young men climb tall poles and dodge the rockets. Of course, this happens about 4:00 AM and they have been drinking all night to bolster their courage. And just so everyone in the crowd feels like they are living dangerously, the town may have men wearing structures over their shoulders. The structures may look like a "toro" or a small tower but it will be covered with exploding fireworks. The men may just run around the edge of the crowd or if they are the "toro" they may run through the crowd.

The style of Mexican fireworks is different than all of the exploding rockets with cascading stars that we have in the USA. Oh, the Mexicans also have the exploding rockets with stars but they use a lot of just a lot of rockets that just make noise...lots of noise. The grand display is called a "castillo" and it is usually a four-sided very tall structure that looks like it is made of bamboo wired together. Attached to that are pinwheels that spin or umbrella type things that open up and glow, pop and spark. All of these attachments go off sequencially so that the Castillo may take 15 or 20 minutes to "do it's thing." Usually there are two or three Castillos for a fireworks display.

I never get tired of seeing the fireworks here in Mexico either up close and personal in the Jardin or from my terrace against the night sky. It is so different....I know I'm in Mexico.