That is Love for Sure

Buenas tardes!

Senor and I spent the morning at Modi, the fabric and notion shop in Navajoa. This is where it is happening; the chiffons, the satins, the lace and jerseys; swiss dot, taffeta, seersucker, organza and net, you name it, they have it.

Silk flowers, crafts for making gifts, threads, glue guns, beads, sequins, pillow inserts, foam, yarn, I could go on and on.

Twenty shades of every color, every transparency, every opaqueness, thickness, pipe cleaners, crepe paper, shoe clips for quincienera shoes, feathers and rhinestones and crystals. I could live in this shop. I would have an orange bed, rose colored rug, lavender curtains and a yellow table top and a crystal vase filled with blue flowers. It is better than a candy shop and they play good music over the intercom, too.

Senor was just really fantastic. I told him we are in charge of the ribbon and some fabric for the wedding, which just happens to be in 6 weeks. So we have to go to Modi and check it out.

Modi has over fifty lace wedding fabrics. I just want you to see a few of the choices and if you recall, KD's dress was taken care of back in January, in Denver, so we are not after wedding fabric. These range, in price from ( and I am converting for you into USD) ten dollars to thirty dollars for a meter, slightly more than a yard and they are almost two meters wide.



I touched every single one and Senor picked out his favorite, and even though we were not buying any, we both agreed the prices were incredibly inexpensive and the embroidery, exquisite.

We moved on to the ribbon section, where Senor held up different ribbons so I could photograph them and send the pictures to KD for inspection.Here is Senor with a beautiful cream satin one and one-half wide ribbon. KD and Darin will have a large tent along the river for the reception and from the edges of the tent we will be hanging origami paper cranes and ribbons and whatever else we decide will look good hanging from the edges of a large cream colored tent. Underneath will be aglow with paper pinwheels, hanging flowers, more origami birds and tiny white lights.
Senor has been in the store now for about twenty minutes. Look how happy he is. He is a good helper. In fact, he says................look, KD! i like this ribbon.................!




I told Senor we need to make sure the cream satin fabric (converting again, USD, 25 cents for over a yard) matches some of the cream fabric we have looked at. I start to go back to the fabric. Now I am looking for him, but he has wandered off.

Below is some beautiful soft georgette fabric, beautiful, beautiful...................hold this out, will you, i want to photograph how opaque it is, smooth............we could cover the arbor with it or cover the backs of chairs, whatever she wants, it is so soft and pretty............i need to send her a photo of this, she might really like it...........but hold out that other one, wow, it is waaaaaay too transparent, i don't think she would want that, but well, i don't know, maybe, what do you think....................okay, I think we need to go back to the ribbon section..............

I whistle for Senor. Oh, there he is over by the organza.............okay, let's go back to the ribbons..........he says, there are only four fabrics in here with stripes................that's nice, let's go to the ribbons.............wait, this would be a nice stripe for upholstery........hmm, well, maybe we can get one chair just for you out of that, i guess, these are the better colors over here.....these are more our colors...........we have colors?.......but that is just solid, he says, i like the stripes.................we'll think about that, okay...............maybe somewhere..............


would you hold up the satin ribbon again......okay, he says.............now wouldn't that look cute with other widths of ribbons as well......................okay, sure, he says................oh, hey, look at that gorgeous blue gown up on the window ledge..................uhm, gorgeous, he says, ............did you even look................wait, don't move, i think i had the camera on portrait, okay, hold that up again will you..................oh, no, i think this battery is going dead, wait, we have to get the coral ribbon first, no, put back the satin, we are through with the wide satin one.....................



quick, hold up the coral one, no, not that one, the other one...............yeh, that one, hold that one up, but hurry...............

i LOve that small coral ribbon, it would look great with the wide cream satin, but it's kinda tiny, do you think..............sure, it's tiny..............what about another mid wide size coral......................sure, he says, looks great..............well, we have to find one first, silly, can you look...........................sure, he says, i am looking................when do i get to have lunch........................

Okay, end of Modi trip, but what a fun morning and lots of photos to send KD. Maybe manana I will show you some of the things I have been making for the wedding.


And speaking of other fun trips, last week we went to Guaymas to renew our FM3 visas. For those of you who read the blog and need to renew soon, nothing has changed here in Sonora. A few folks have been wondering about the new law written and signed by President Calderon last May, in 2011. I won't go into all the details but that law has not gone into effect, at least not here in Sonora, so everything we took last year to renew was what we needed again this year. The only difference was that when I put our names into the Immigration network to begin the online renewal process, our names popped right up and we were already in the system and I did not need to fill out all of the paperwork.

We did our trip in one day, leaving at five am and getting to the Guaymas office in three hours. The office opens at eight and our renewal took about ten minutes until we got to the money part. The bank does not open until nine am, so we went and had breakfast and then paid for our visas at nine and returned to the office where they promptly told us to come back in two weeks to pick up the visas. That did not surprise us at all. Even though there were four workers at the desk and even though three of them were just leaning back in their chairs talking about food, we were sure they did not have time to give us our visas right then.

We scooted over the back road to San Carlos to JJ's for shrimp tacos. This is a small taco stand on the boulevard that always seems to be full of Americans, just like the rest of San Carlos, which is not meant as an insult or a negative, it is just a matter of fact. There was a group of around twenty young people there. We talked with a young lady who turned out to be the twenty four year old bride from Denver whose parents live in San Carlos and the entire wedding party had flown in to Guaymas. They were giddy and excited and sunburned.

Below is a photo I took from the San Carlos Mirador, beautiful.
So lately my thoughts have often been about KD, twenty four, and soon to embark on this wondrous and amazing adventure called marriage. Seems, of course, like yesterday when she rolled over in July for the first time, and at fourteen months finally decided to walk on her own. Now she is grown up, has traveled a lot of steps and is about to be married.

I will certainly have a lot of wishes for her.

One of them will be that she will also experience a wonderful day just like mine today, when her husband will say...............yes, I love you so much that I want to go to the Modi with you and hold up ribbons and fabrics and look at lace', well, maybe not in so many words, but sometimes the experience is enough to help you remember why you married who you did..............because that is love for sure.

Plaster

 Buen dia. Whoowheee, the heat has arrived, but it is on the wings of westerly wind, so it does not seem quite as hot as the 105 reading we got the other day on our way out of town to go to the bead store in Navajoa.
A friend called to say it was 108 under her portal and I checked immediately, 98 under ours. So, there can be a vast difference, barrio to barrio. But it is definitely hot. And we have very little humidity, right now.

Things generally seem to move slowly around here, that is nothing new for me to post about. Of course, they do not move that slowly. Senor says I just don't see the process going on and therefore, don't see the progress.

But, I am pretty happy about this plastering that is going on. In the first photo you can see the inside plaster (this is the kitchen), well, it is just cal and water, isn't that plaster? Senor just went to the ferreterria or I would ask him and he would say........well, what did I call it the last time you asked me.................i don't remember. Anyway there is the inside and the outside (under the portal) and they look good to me. 

 

I think I have just about had it with this new blogger business. I don't really have time to sit around and try and figure out how to work it. A friend wrote that I can switch back to the old blogger and I might just do that.

In the meantime, I am off to town before it gets too hot. In the afternoons everything is beginning to shut down. We are hiding out in the bedroom with the mini split on, reading or watching sports on the internet. Cookies seems to think it is cooler under the bed. Most people and animals are hiding out as well. But I did see the monitor lizard out yesterday afternoon on the tree up the street. He looks hot to me.

Okay, if this post seems lacking real significant content it is because I am too caught up in the way blogger wants me to post now. It wants captions and when I do that the type changes. I am not a computer whiz. I am just a blogger who need an easy system to follow. Maybe on one of these hot afternoons I can change back to the original format. In the meantime, muchos abrazos parar ti. Oh, and Hi Mom. hasta luego, linda lou

Cinco de Mayo Parade in Alamos

 

 Hola! Cinco de Mayo was very quiet. Like I have always said, the holiday is not a big deal here in Mexico. It is however, a big deal in Puebla, Mexico, where the battle was fought with the french and it is a big deal in the states because it has always been promoted by the beer companies. But, it sort of blew right by us. Even the fast girls did not party on the street. Almost all of the partying happens in the arroyo and we can hear the music from the casa, so no need to venture down there. Still I thought you might enjoy a few of the photos.

 The big attractions are for the adults who line the streets to see their kids in the parade. All the school kids, in their school uniforms, or other clothing, march in the parades. Above are the twins who always carry their school flag in every parade. The other big attraction is the horses and there are a lot of them. The PRI party used the parade as an opportunity to introduce their state candidate, who was on a horse. The horses and riders are always pretty impressive,especially when from a distance you can see the white hats coming, bobbing up and down, but you cannot yet see the horses..

It was very tranquil. In fact some of the children were either yawning or just dozing off.

It was also extremely hot and not a breath of wind.

 So, I can't stay and chat for long. I need to go run a few errands. You might enjoy these photos below. The first is where I pay my telephone bill. She has a wonderful old cash register that requires cranking. It also has a lot of bells that ring as she cranks.

Here is the Palacio where I pay the water bill.

 Inside the Palacio, the government building, or city hall.

Okay, gotta run, that is it. Hot outside, still dry, gonna get hotter.
hasta luego....linda lou

Fast Fans and Fast Girls

 Hola, and felicidades 5 de Mayo. Soon we will be walking to town for the parade and the activities in the arroyo. In the meanwhile, Senor is out in the early morning examining the switch that operates the new fans under the portal. We were sitting at the table last night with the fans going on number 1 speed. It was very pleasant until suddenly the fans erupted into what would have been a number 5 speed. We just looked at each other. The switch began to smell.

Senor got up and turned it to a number 4 and they died. Number 6 and he sat down. They started nicely for a few minutes and then were going so fast we thought they might take off. Cookies got up and left. Number 2, they died. Number 3, feels good, nice rotation and gentle breeze. Suddenly they began rotating so fast I was afraid they might fly off and decapitate me. I got up and left.

So this morning he is checking out the situation. We talked about painting them brown, but I am not sure now. I think I like the white. They are really just very ordinary industrial fans. Well, not quite ordinary as they seem to have a mind of their own.

 Humberto has been busy plastering the ladrillos. In a photo below he is working beneath what will become the kitchen window, near the kitchen sink. We thought about leaving this wall brick, but we have plans here also for a small kitchen kiva fireplace and a stone wall and both the stone and ladrillo seemed too much.

To the right of where he is working will be the kitchen island with the stove top and oven. Does it look like we are making some progress?????

It was fairly quiet last night. The exception was a gaggle of girls who parked their car on the street and giggled non stop while they messed with their cd player. They turned it up as loud as it would go, turned it down, turned it half way up, turned it soft, turned it loud. Then they spent a lot of time just rotating the volume very quickly from low to high. They did this for half an hour and the police finally came to get them to move along, which they did, down the street. But just as fast as they left, they came right back to where they started, out in front of our casa.

 Alamos never really needs a reason to enjoy a good party, but I know tonight will be quite a celebration.

It will not surprise me if the gaggle of girls does not return for a little more fast fun with what must be a new cd player.

Okay, I need to get Senor away from his fan switch and get ready to walk to town.

I hope to have some great photos for you from the parade. Horse dancing is always big on Cinco de Mayo.

hasta manana..................linda lou

Not Your Ordinary Tomato Bush

 Hola! Que tal?

I am almost Etsy'ed out. I have been working every day on the shop and just about everything is up dated and listed. If you have no idea what I am talking about, it is my online glass shop with Etsy.com. If you look half way down the right side of the blog you will see a link to it and you can visit the shop and see all the incredibly beautiful glass I make. I think I am allowed to say that because it is true, it is beautiful, but the glass pretty much does all the work itself. Once I cut it, it is its own artist. I think it makes most of the decisions while it is in the kiln, never consults me at all. Thanks also to all the wonderful people who shop with me, not just online at Etsy, but on the Glasspondstudio facebook page, the glasspondstudio website, through the good2go2mexico blog and here in Alamos. In about two weeks I will begin the Rain Contest, so keep watching for that post to see what the give-away will be this year.

In the meantime, I am also just about tomtoe'd out. If you saw the fall photo of Senor's tomato plant that just happened to come up by itself near the door to the fake kitchen, you saw that it reached around seven feet, and was a brilliant emerald green, studded with fat juicy tomatoes. It is not a tomato bush, it is a tree.

Well, it it is almost seven months later and I am getting pretty sick of tomatoes. The foliage has turned brown, and it has drooped to three feet, but it is still producing tomatoes.

 Senor babies this tree like he has never had a tomato before in his life and that is why I call it his tree. He waters it, he picks it, I am sure he soothes it with words every time he walks by. We have probably had several hundred tomatoes from this one tree. The other day he spent half the morning collecting seeds, washing them, drying them and he plans to plant them in the garden that we do not have.

He says next year that place where it is growing now will be covered in concrete so he needs to be sure he can have it come up elsewhere.

Somehow this is an heirloom tomato plant. It produces huge deep red fruit that is covered in gentle ridges. We never put it there, in fact I hardly recall more than one or two times last year that we even ate heirloom tomatoes and that was probably when a friend brought them in a salad.

Somehow it is also a roma tomato plant and small hard oblong fruit grows on its lush boughs.
It is also a baby tomato plant, producing tiny round red tomatoes that fit deep inside its branches. Those you have to look for but they are there. It is as if someone came to our casa and grafted several different plants and put it in this small tiny patch of dirt that is surrounded by concrete.

It is my job to be creative with the tomatoes. I could write a book now after this many tomatoes. I tried to give a bag to Humberto, a man with ten people living in his casa and he left it behind three times. I have tomatoes, he finally told me. Everyone has tomatoes. Sometimes people leave bags of tomatoes on our gate. They do not leave a note, just bags of tomatoes. Well, I have bags of tomatoes, too.

I cannot throw out a tomato either. I have to use it, I can't be wasteful about it. And I am not composting either. And Cookies does not like them. The birds will not touch them. The ants love them but I am not interested in feeding them. So, Senor and I eat a lot of tomatoes.

Below is our favorite lunch that I am getting very tired of.
tomatoes, onions and mustard on a hamburger bun..............sometimes I add avocado, sometimes I add sliced jicama or capers or olives, maybe a slice of chihuahua cheese or some crumbly panela.............I add cucumbers, roasted peppers, smoked chuleta, nopales......I could go on and on and I will tell you there are at least one hundred and one ways to try and make a tomato and onion sandwich on a hamburger bun not be a tomato and onion sandwich on a hamburger bun.

Most of the time I sprinkle some of my own dry mix that I keep in the molcajete in our fake kitchen. I generally use sea salt, rosemary, oregano, epazote, sage and crushed red pepper. Whatever I add to this sandwich, it is still what it is.

I have wonderful memories of two aunts and their gardens. One had and still has a beautiful garden in Arkansas. The other had a large garden in New Mexico. They both had lots and lots of tomato bushes and when we were kids we played in those bushes while the women were in the kitchen canning tomatoes. I can remember hiding in them, feeling the wind lift their leaves and when they brushed against me, the smell was pure perfume. Even now when I walk by our bush I almost always crush a leaf or two just to smell it.

But I think I have had enough of it.

I have to get over to Pancho's before he takes a siesta. I went and looked and there are seven ripe fat tomatoes on Senor's tree. I swear they were not there yesterday. We are out of hamburger buns and Pancho has them.
Okay, please do not send me tomato recipes in my comment section. I promise you, you may think I have not tried it, but I have.

que le vaya bien, mil gracias and all that jazz....linda lou

Looking for the White Pelicans

 Hola! Buen dia and it is really a buen dia here in Alamos. The day is warm and sunny but the breeze is keeping the temperatures down and it is perfect.

Senor and I drove up to Mocuzari recently. This is a huge lake that backs up against the stone dam which lets out water to fill the Mayo River. The water in the Mayo is critical to the agricultural fields between Navajoa and the Sea of Cortez. We went there looking for the white pelicans and we found them. Of course, they were beautiful.

 What we did not find was much water in the lake. There were a number of fishermen and we imagine there were a lot of fish concentrated in the small amount of water there. The last time we were at Mocuzari there was enough water that we could see it flowing out and into the river. But that is not the case now. It only confirms the significant amount of water shortage we are suffering here in the state of Sonora. 

 Here it looks like the boat was completely grounded and then abandoned. In the background you can see the foothills of the Copper Canyon and if you look closely you can see the stone dam and there is no water behind it. The terrain has a muted surreal quality to it and while we were glad to see wildlife in the area, rabbits, birds and even grazing horses and cattle, the moonscape and its lack of color was surprising.

Senor discovered most of the bases of the rocky foothills were loaded with fallen granite, so he had a great time filling up new old car with rocks to bring back home for his fireplace in the sala. So now along with all the other things that try and trip me up on a regular basis, we have rocks everywhere. Some days I wonder how I stay on my feet.

So I am grateful to my blogger friend, Jacqui, who tells me I can still return to the old format if I want, but I think I will stay with this for awhile and see if I can adapt. I know someday blogger will not give me the option to switch back, so I should try and figure it out now.
I need to get down to the Mercado and pick up paper for the origami whopping cranes I am making for KD and Darin's wedding and I need to fill you in on the wedding plans as well. So, hopefully manana you will hear from me again.
Meanwhile, que tengas un buen dia.......linda lou