Blog Introductions

I have a couple of new blogs that I read and I want to call your attention to them since I've added them to my blogging lists.

The first one is Rancho Santa Clara written by my friend Al Lanier. He and his partner have been living here for several years and now they are building a house out in the campo that is off the grid. Al is a retired newspaper guy and I love the blog because each entry is a short story. He doesn't write every day, sometimes not even every week but when he does blog, it is a story worth reading. You will find his blog listed in Blogs South of the Border.

The second blog, The Next San Miguel de Allende blog sounds like it should be listed in the South of the Border blogs as well but I've put it into the list of Other Blogs I Like because Blogger Dana Jennings is mostly writing about Houston's East End but she compares it to San Miguel de Allende. I love this blog because Ned and I grew up in Houston's East End and we have a lot in Eastwood where we may build a house someday. The East End of Houston has always leaned a bit Hispanic. Most of the homes are modest and in the 1950's when many people were in white flight to the suburbs, it became mostly hispanic. Dana loves Mexico and visits San Miguel often. She sees the similarities between the two. And Dana is a cheerleader for the East End because she sees so many possibilities for it to redevelop in a very new-urbanism hispanic way that allows houses, businesses, artists, laborers, craftsman, singles and families to exist side by side. She says,

Much of what I like about San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, can be found right here in Houston's East End. That's absurd, right? Yet, like San Miguel, we have a walkable picturesque setting, good Mexican food, a streetscape full of people speaking a foreign language, and plenty of opportunity for daily Cross-Cultural Pollenization.

Even if you aren't from Houston, I think you might like to see how Dana connects the East End and San Miguel.