A Little Road Trip

Hola!

There is a flock of about forty little fat, fast flying green parakeets that make Alamos their home. I have always been envious when I hear people say...............oh, the parakeets were in my trees yesterday........or.................the parakeets flew over my house this morning.

I was fortunate to be at a friend's casa one afternoon, swimming with her in her huge pool which overlooks the town of Alamos and we could hear the parakeets coming. They are loud, raucous, unafraid to let their presence be known. They flew about very low right over the pool and my eyes were as big as dinner plates.

Well, they are now living in the empty field next to us, they are snoozing in our amapa, they are dining on the asador and we are not the only ones delighted. Cookies hears them flying and tweeting in the field next door and sits quietly, waiting for them to swoosh down for a bite of corn or a quick siesta in the trees. Of course, they are very, very fast, and there is absolutely no way a twenty-three pound Cookies could ever harm one. They fly much like a flock of teals, weaving in and out, turning upside down and rolling during flight. In the photo above I caught a few of them being still for about five seconds, then they were in flight again, back to the trees of new old Jesus' place, over to the grill, out into the field, up into the mesquite, a non stop blur of bright green feathers. Look closely and you may see at least three of them.

Who knows how long they will stay, but I consider them ours, for awhile.

Hopefully they will still be around in late December, when we return from our road trip.
Yes! Our road trip. We are going to Seattle to visit Ian for his birthday and Christmas. And there is no way to describe my feelings. We have not seen him in a year.

Yes, I think it will be a little strange, we might feel a little awkward on our first trip back to the land we came from three and a half years ago, the place where we lived for over thirty years, had our home, our jobs, raised KD and Ian, fished and played soccer, hunted for ducks, had our Christmas party, picked our strawberries and pumpkins. I expect to be somewhat melancholy, but not much. They are such wonderful memories, but we have moved on. And when we are done, I will look forward to coming home.

So, Senor and I will do this by car. A little road trip adventure, up into Arizona and then, we will head west to California and Highway 5, where we will continue north to visit what is one of the most beautiful places on earth, the Pacific Northwest.

In Phoenix, I will feel like Santa Claus as I rush to the post office to ship a lot of packages free for people who have been shopping with me at the Glasspondstudio. There is still time, if there is a beautiful glass jewel you want to purchase for yourself or as a last minute stocking stuffer for someone else. Just take the etsy link http://glasspondstudio.etsy.com/ and shop. Thank you to all of you who did purchase glass jewels from me this week for the holidays.

We are looking forward to this fun little road trip adventure and hopefully will find time to post about it as we go.
And while we are gone we will leave Cookies to babysit the little green parakeets.........
Que le vaya bien and Feliz Navidad! Linda lou

Thank you, Trinidad

Hola. I went to the Post Office this morning.

There was a Christmas card in our box. It has made my day. If you recall, each year I ask people to send us a Christmas card. Perhaps I do this because Christmases have been tough. I miss the kids, I miss our tree, I miss our Christmas party, I could go on and on. Well I am not going to bore you with that now. I promise I will save it for another day.

But I have been working hard on new traditions. One has been asking for cards.
And people actually do send cards. I think we get most of them, but for some reason I never get my mother's.

For two years we have received a card from a lady we don't know, but she sends a long letter and photos of her family, very nice. I like that. Her son is trying to choose colleges in Georgia. She is worried, the family lives in Maine.

My friend, Anne, whom we have received a card from for over twenty years, will hopefully send her fourth card to Mexico this year. Her family is grown and I am jealous they still get together, with their animals, and take a family photo.
Last year someone sent a photo of a dog. Postmarked Pennsylvania, nothing but the photo, a chihuahua. That was nice. I am not particular. Just don't send me anything I would not want to see.

I have not even put out the call for cards this year. But there it was, the single envelope in our box. It comes from Trinidad, who blogs from Nayarit, where she lives with her husband, Beto. She remembered that I always ask for Christmas cards and sent one to us. Thank you, Trinidad! You can see her blog at www.livinginnayarit.blogspot.com/



We returned from our US Thanksgiving trip late Wednesday night, after fourteen hours on the return bus which was also not the express bus. Our seats were in the middle of the bus and around Hermosillo, I was wishing I had some dramamine. After a full recovery day I have concluded that I don't really like riding the bus. So, no need to do that again. Besides we like our little car. We like stopping when we want, turning right instead of left if it feels good and turning around if we think we missed something extraordinary.

While we were gone Humberto dug a trench in a half circle outside the portal. A little ladrillo retaining wall will be built here, just a small, low extension of the portal floor. It will be retaining all the adobe that will come down with this wall.

I am hoping this happens soon. I need to have this wall down.
Senor asks............where do you want the electrical plugs in here and for what......................i say............ i need the wall down so i can experience the vast roominess of the room in order to make those decisions.
So I am hoping Humberto takes a huge hammer to that wall very soon, then scoops the mess right off the floor and into the little half circle. Nice.

Tomorrow I am going to make a little card holder in expectations of all our Christmas cards. Thank you, Trinidad, for sending us our first Christmas card!