From the Weekend

We've had a lovely weekend. Friday evening we planned to hit several gallery openings but didn't make it very far. The first two galleries were at the Instituto just a few blocks from our house. At YAM there were some 3-dimensional wall pieces by Luisa Restrepo. Luisa is originally from Columbia but currently living in Oaxaca. Very wonderful pieces of glass and iron on gilted board. Also at the Instituto was jewelry in the La Boveda Gallery. We saw the work and visited with friends, then decided to walk to the far side of the Instituto to see how the Parroquia looked at night with all of the new lighting.

That was as far as we made it into the Centro. The Parroquia was so gorgeous, like a jewel in the dark sky and the food at Le Invito smelled so delicious that we decided this was as far as we needed to go. We sat at a table so we could keep an eye on the beautiful Parroquia while we ate. A little wine, a little dinner and talk. Very nice evening.

Saturday I was up early and met Meg for breakfast at Masion del Bosque. They have a special price breakfast and I don't know why I haven't been there before. There are long tables and everyone just sits together. It was a good breakfast and afterward Meg and I walked back to her place. She has moved into the Casita and the rest of the house is still under construction but getting to the point where you can put in cabinets, tiles and doors. It is so peaceful and quiet where she is building. We had a wonderful time talking about ideas for decorating.

Saturday night, a dinner party with Barbara. We had never been to Barbara's place before. She overlooks the Presa and has a great view of the town. I loved her place. The minute you walk in you are surrounded by color, plants and comfort. We met Fred and Ron, a couple who moved to San Miguel recently, and our friend Joseph who lives just around the corner was there. The food was good, the conversation was lively but suddenly during dinner we heard some rumbles. We all looked at each other and said, "Is that thunder?" Thunder in March? But just then I saw lighting flash through the window. Joseph had to run back to his house to put up things from the patio. You just don't expect rain in March and especially since the sky had not looked menacing two hours ago. Before the rain had stopped and the evening was over, we found out that we have two different sets of friends that Ron and Fred also know. In San Miguel, it is a small world.

Tom and Dianne were our hosts on Sunday night. Tom and Linda and their house guests were also there. We sat in the patio before dinner talking. I loved the birds that were singing all around us on the patio. Dianne prepared a wonderful Mexican of dinner of Enchiladas, beans and rice. And she served it on her new Gorky Gonzales plates. Actually they are a new design by Gorky's son Gogo. The food was beautifully presented on these gorgeous plates. The evening just flew by as we talked about trips to Cuba, living in Portugal, the work that Dianne does with Feed the Hungry, the work Tom does with Casa, Tom K's work at refurbishing old computers to place them in schools with educational software and we found connections in places we had all lived.

Some of you may wonder why I don't have pictures from the weekend. I have to admit. Lazy. I didn't want to carry the "big" camera then walk home with it late at night. I don't have a point and shoot because I want to be able to capture images in RAW format rather than jpg. If you don't know what RAW is, don't worry. You probably don't even want to know. But most of the point and shoots don't capture digital files in RAW. A new point and shoot camera has been announced, the Sigma DP1 which captures files in jpg and RAW. This may be "My pocketbook" camera if it doesn't have too much noise at 800 ISO and if I can justify the cost. But for now, you'll just have to use your imagination for my weekend social calendar pictures.