Down She Comes

 Hola.
 They say pictures are worth a thousand words.
 I have too much polvo (dust) in my throat to say anything.
 So, go for it. Gracias, adios................Linda Lou

A Dead Man in the Arroyo

 Buenas tardes.

I still go for a walk each day, as early as possible. Usually I leave the house by 5:15. Yes, it is still very dark, the Big dipper is still spilling stars into the northern sky and only a few roosters are crowing.

Because it is so dark, I no longer walk out the highway to the arches. I stay close to town, on the streets or in the arroyo.

On Thursday, I saw a man laying in the dirt, under the walking bridge near the road that leads from the Alameda to the La Capilla barrio. He was very still. I knew he was dead.

Dawn was breaking and a policeman came walking toward me. He saw the man and used his cell phone to call for help and he said........muerte (dead).

I've seen dead people before, but they have always been in a coffin. And I was somehow prepared to see them. But I had a lot of sadness when I saw this man. He was very very old and very dark skinned and wrinkled. His arm was folded beneath his head and his knees were curled up toward his chest.
He looked like he had just laid down for a brief nap. Instead it became a very long nap.

So, I thought about this all day Thursday and then, I thought about it all day Friday. I thought about how lonely and sad he looked. Then I thought about it all night Friday and this morning I left the house around 5am. On the way down my street I picked several bunches of bouganvillea and I walked to the Alameda.

There were 4 policia at the Alameda, standing around, joking and laughing. I asked them if they knew about the old man who died in the arroyo Thursday and they said they did not.
 I asked them where old people like that get buried, people who might just lie down for a nap and not wake up, old men like that who might not have any family.

The policia said they get put in the Panteon. For a fact I know it cost money to be buried in the Panteon and there is hardly any room in the Panteon. I said................are you sure..........who pays for his grave............who pays for the diggers.
 One of the Policia said something I didn't understand, another shook his head and agreed and one said........no se. (I don't know).

I told them thanks and that I was going to go put my bouganvillea in the dirt where he died.
So I walked on across the cobblestone callejon that leads to the arroyo.

I knelt down in the dirt right where I had seen the old man. I stuck the ends of my flowers into the dirt.

Hola....................I looked up and one of the policia was standing there.....hola, he said again..........Triste, he said................Si, I answered. I was getting teary by now.
He just stood there, towering over me and I wasn't sure what I should do next. I looked out into the arroyo and my palms started to sweat.

Hmmm, puede usted hablar un palabras en espanol para el hombre.................can you say some words in Spanish for the man, I asked him.

 I was thinking maybe he could just stand there and say Vaya con Dios because trust me, the last thing I would ask for is to be seen with a cop, at 5am in the morning, in the dark, in the arroyo underneath a bridge.

 Lots of people use that callejon that time of the morning. I was a wreck when he said, Si and he knelt down beside me. And while I could not count the minutes I was worried I was going to get a 30 minute mass.

He did say a lot of words and I listened but kept sneaking my eyes to the callejon hoping no one would see us.

Finally he did say....................Vaya con Dios..................... and I said Vaya con Dios and then I said gracias to him and we both turned and went our separate ways.

I went further down the arroyo but when I turned around once I saw 4 figures standing there. My guess is they were the policia who knelt beside me and the other 3 policia from the Alameda, the other 3 having come to see what the 1st was up to.

So it was an emotional event in more ways than one.

 Of course, the death of the old man and my wanting to share something with him because I was so sure he was all alone was the heaviest emotion.

But there were also emotions so deep they made me shake, the fear of being seen under the bridge like that.
While what we shared was innocent and spiritual who could possibly know what the policia and I were sharing? What did they think if they saw me with him there in the dark?

I suppose I could say we were saying mass for a dead man.......................but people create their own versions of stories, especially when it is told by you.................okay, then where's the body......................why did policia give the rites....................where was the priest..................how do you even know he was dead, there's no body...............whose yard did you take those flowers from......................

Walking in the arroyo I started to shake and couldn't stop. Then for some reason I got real scared and I started running. I ran all the way home and tripped on a tope. Then I hurt my knee. And tomorrow I think I will just stay in bed...
Linda Lou

Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe

http://glasspondstudio.blogspot.mx/2008/12/guadalupe-feast-photos.html

I hope the link will work for you when you click on it. If not, try and go back to the December 12, 2008, post. This particular day of celebration, in December of 2008, came on the heels of Hurricane Norbert and many festivities were canceled or minimized. But this is a religious celebration that could not be diminished, even after the deaths and destruction Norbert left behind.

The reason I am sharing this with you is today is the celebration of Our Virgen de Guadalupe. It is one of the biggest religious celebrations in Mexico. It is a very big celebration here in Alamos. The fireworks have been going off slowly for a few days, but there were some terrifically loud ones last night over Loma Guadalupe Hill. They lit the sky with their powerful orange sparks.


Here is a brief history.  Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Virgin Mary.
 According to the Catholic religion, on the morning of December 9, 1531, the Saint Juan Diego saw an apparition of a maiden on the Hill of Tepeyac in the village of Guadalupe. The apparition spoke to Juan Diego in her native Nahuatahl language, and asked that a church be built at that site in her honor.  Juan Diego recognized the maiden as the Virgin Mary. He then recounted the events to the Archbishop of Mexico City who told Diego to return to Tepeyac Hill. He was to ask the maiden for a sign to prove her identity. The first sign was the Virgin healing Juan's uncle. The Virgin then told Juan Diego to gather flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill, where he found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico, blooming in December on the normally barren hilltop. The Virgin arranged the flowers in his tilma or cloak, and when Juan Diego opened his cloak before the Archbishop on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and on the fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Senor and I have been honored to attend a number of celebrations on this day in the past. We have been to a ranch where the Priest blessed the animals. We have been to homes where the Priest blessed the household.

The post I am including is one of the most memorable that we were invited to. Our invitation, to a former Mayor's celebration on the outskirts of town, was extended to us by Louisa and Teresa, whom I had been working with at DIF, in the aftermath of Hurricane Norbert.

The fireworks at the Mayor's ranch were something we will most likely not see again because this kind of invitation only happens once in a lifetime, I think.
 The burning castille, the fireworks zipline, the Mayo deer dance, the entertainment and food were all spectacular.
I hope you'll enjoy reading this again, or for the first time, as much as we enjoy our memories.
Feliz Dia de Virgen de Guadalupe!
Linda Lou

Water Hot

 Hola. So, I told you Senor has another new toy. A chili pepper. It is the white box looking thinkie in the photo above.

When we take a shower or use the hot water in the new new old kitchen we turn on the water and let it run for about 5 minutes and it finally becomes hot. The hot water heater is at one end of the casa and all the places we need hot water are at the other end. That is why there is such a delay.

But with Senor's new chili pepper we get hot water at the end of the casa where we need it very quickly.

The chili pepper is connected to the hot water heater. When we push the chili pepper button, the water in the water line pipes are instantly heated. Okay that sounds weird. I have to go ask Senor who just got back from helping someone cut down a tree.

 He says....................it is a hot water recirculation pump..................it makes the water hot right away and sends it to the other end of the house and when it senses the water is about 98 degrees it shuts down and the hot water heater does the rest.

Well, I think that's what he said, but if I go and ask him again he will have a fit.
 So, just take my word for it. It makes WATER HOT.

Okay, I can't stay. I am going to the English festival at one of the local schools. I had to bake 55 cookies and because new new old kitchen is so exposed I have to keep all breads, flours and stuff like that in the bedroom for us to smell all night long. Otherwise Blackie our pet mouse will eat it all for us. I accidentally left out a dozen of the cookies and he got those last night. So I had to bake another dozen this morning. 

Senor set a trap for him, but Blackie is smarter than Senor.

BAJAJAJAjajajajajaajaja.....

Someone smarter than Senor and it's a little mouse.

Hasta luego!

Linda Lou

New Toy For Senor

 Hola! Buenas tardes. Here is Senor's newest toy.
As you know he does not collect boats or cars or shoes or pants. His taste is somewhat more eclectic, possibly borderline weird. 
This is a grill cover.
Personally I think it looks like something you might find lying out in the Scottish moors and you would look at it, hesitate to touch it, but raise the lid, and then, well who knows what you might find inside.

Senor had this made specifically for Thanksgiving Day, although he is excited about using it again as soon as he can. The lid raises of course and its height is to accommodate the rotating spit he has.

The front swings up or it can also be removed. The iron worker wanted to paint it black and Senor nixed that real fast. He is a rustic guy, that Senor.

 In the photo below, which was taken on Thanksgiving Day, he is dressing up the first of two sixteen pound turkeys that he then put on the spit. I found the turkeys at Sam's Club in Navajoa, a store we were saying just a year ago, right before we paid for our membership there, that we would never ever go to shop.

With 24 guests coming for dinner, we figured two turkeys would be just fine. Senor spent most of the morning fixing his brine but after reading the turkey labels he discovered they were already brined. That would only be the first surprise.

The second came when he lifted the grill lid and, as happened to us seven years ago here for our first Thanksgiving, the spit had bent under the weight of the turkeys. So off they came and onto the grill they went to continue a slow cook.

And they were perfect.

Our guests did not seem to mind a lot of tables pushed together in a very long line, under the portal and over the dirt floor. A mix of family china and portmeirion dishes and tarnished silver and colorful napkins seemed to set a good table mood.
It was a great day.

This is not the only toy Senor has recently acquired. But you'll have to wait for another day to see it. There is a lot happening around here and that means another day also.
Que le vaya bien!
Linda Lou

Doors

 Hola! I have finally finished the first set of doors. You saw a photo of these a few years back when I started them. These doors and cupboards will go into the closet that will be in the bedroom. Below is a photo of what they looked like. I am still working on the tops and will finish those sometime in the future after Senor moves them to the closet which is also sometime in the future. He's going to need to cut the upper cupboards apart when he moves them. I don't know how that will work out so I decided to save them and finish them later after they are moved.
There is one more set just like this and I am slowly working on those.

 The inside of each door is a different color since I had a little extra paint. The paint is acrylic and most of it, with the exception of Pthalo Blue and Alizarin Crimson, I bought in town from the Comex Store. I distressed the borders using a candle and painted on a light Pthalo Blue wash. Then I used paste wax over the wash. I painted polycrylic over the backgrounds and the insides of the doors.

Just thought you might like to see what I'm up to.....

It's a holiday weekend, even though the Dia de La Revolucion is not until Thursday, our town is going to celebrate it on Monday. Most workers only worked a few hours this Saturday morning and will now have a 3 day weekend. Of course, they will still take Thursday off anyway because that is, after all, the real holiday.............................adios, Linda Lou

Walking to La Aduana

Hola, you know I love it, walking to La Aduana.

 The night, the stars, the cool air, my Mexican girlfriends prattling off 60 words a minute and walking a pace as fast if not faster than 60 steps a minute. I love the Dads coming down the arroyo carrying their babies in their arms, I love the abuelitas, on bent knees, leaning on their canes, scarves woven tightly around their heads. I love the madrugada dawn as we break through it and onto the narrow path that leads to the church, the sound of the deer dancers bells jingling in front of the church, the buen dias from all the people I know inside the church.

The smell of elote and tamales simmering in huge pots, churros, turning and twisting, barely skimming the hot surfaces of oil, champurada, hot and thick, carne asada on the asador at 6am. It's a unique experience.

Along the highway at 4 in the morning.

The walkway into the town of La Aduana, the church lit in the background.

Inside the church

The cactus growing in the church wall.

And so, once again, this year was a unique experience.

 My Mexican girlfriend did not come to the house. I was worried about her so I went to her house, where she was suffering on Day 15 from denque fever. After spending some time with her and making certain she would survive, I went home................Plan A........... my walks to La Aduana are over. I had enjoyed them all. I will not have a sleepless night and then get up in the dark and be on the highway at 4:30am.

An American friend emailed me..............was I walking to La Aduana and if so, could she go with me................Plan B...............I will have a sleepless night and then get up in the dark and be on the highway at 4:00am because I am walking with my American friend who will walk slower than my other friends.

My friend takes small, but swift steps. She is as fast as the other girls. I remind her that I am older than she is and we are going to slow down.......NOW.................she says fine, no problem, you set the pace and I go..............SLOW. With the other girls we go 6 miles in one hour and 20 minutes and it takes me 4 days to recover.

I am a little apprehensive when we get to the arroyo. My Mexican friends lead and I just go. I look at the sky, look at the sand, look at the brush and pay no attention whatsoever to where we are.

But it all looks different this morning. Now I see there are roads that lead off the arroyo to the left, to the right, to the left again. Which way do we go............. we hang out at a crossroads like we are busy watching the night stars and wait for someone to come along so we can follow them. We do this several times, but decide not to follow 4 young men off to the left and that's good because here comes a family and they go to the right. But before too long the young men come up on the left and I realize there is probably only one way and you really can't get lost after all. But it's really dark and still easy to feel very disoriented.

Finally after my ankles tell me they cannot go anymore and my left knee will not straighten out I see the first lights of La Aduana and just beg my body to last a little longer.

Over 2 hours and we are in.
Some one has forgotten to tell the Deer Dancers that it is time to be there. So there is no Pascola, no deer dancers. No bells, no whistles, no deer or wolf masks, no music, nothing. We go sit in the church. I only see a few people I know. We visit Our Lady of Balvanera in her wooden box at the altar. We go outside where there is a lot of socializing going on. We learn that there was no money for the Pascola. The dancers do not get paid, but there are transportation costs, food costs, accommodations to be paid for. How much can that cost................

We have elote and churros and wait for the Priest and the procession. When it comes, it is a large crowd. They are all slow and sleepy looking. Maybe they are surprised because the deer dancers always lead the procession into the church.

We have a good time.
We have seen the Lady, the candles, the cactus, the food and drink, we have seen our neighbors. We are sad about the Pascola, but happy we made it there.
I have to think for awhile about it all.
Maybe next year I will drive new old car...................................
que le vaya bien............manana.......linda lou

Minnie's House

Hola!
Buenas tardes!

Did I just read that my most recent post was September 7? What the 5247! How did that happen.

I have been busy, honest, and here are some of my excuses for ignoring you:

From May to October I worked nearly around the clock on ancestry.com to complete the lineage for both my dad and my mom's side of the family. And I did it, just in time for a family reunion we had in Texas in October. Senor was so sick of me being on the computer.  I was able to put together a nine generation poster for our family and a book as well that traced many of our grandparents back for fifteen generations. And to put the whipped cream on the chocolate my youngest brother agreed to spit in the DNA tube and find out where the heck we came from. And, that's all another story for someday.

Senor and I took most of the summer off, rarely worked on the house; he read a lot while I was on the computer, and in October he and I drove to Phoenix, where he took a flight to Seattle and visited Ian, and then went hunting in Montana and Eastern Washington, where he got the Christmas goose. 

While he did that, I took a flight to Denver and hung out with KD for a week and then she and I flew to Dallas, and went north to Denton for a family reunion. 

Senor and I hooked up again in Phoenix and traveled around antique shopping in Globe and Miami, Arizona for awhile and then got in our shopping in Tucson and Nogales. We were gone almost the month of October and it was great!

But, that's not what this post is about.............

It's about Minnie's house.

It is being built in the lot next door to us. 

It has been going up for about a year now and it was not until last week when Senor and I took a real good look at it and agreed......it's lovely.....and it's a little close.

Originally we had planned to extend our coyote fence along the fence line between the two properties. The coyote fence, made of varro blanco posts is light and airy and rustic. You can see right through it and not lose the vista, but now as you will see in the next two photos, we are taking down the brush and any trees that are right on the property line and are going to extend the adobe wall. We are choosing to do this because if we don't, we are going to be looking right into Minnie's outside lights and her portal. It wasn't until her workers did the outside electricity that we realized this was going to be the choice.

We spent days on the portal, moving our chairs around..........will we see the outside lights from here?........from here?...............from here?

 Minnie's house did not come as a surprise .

 We knew she owned the property and planned to build there someday. And the house they are building is very pretty, but it did take away some of the views we were so fond of.

So here are our goodbyes, most of them are now behind Minnie's house...... 

Goodbye, to the car that gets driven down Loma Guadalupe Hill each evening at 7pm.

 Goodbye Teresita's tall elegant dining windows clad in sparkling Christmas lights.

Goodbye Lynne's happy and brilliant bouganvillia that covers her walls.

Goodbye to the red tipped glows of the miner's evening cigars.

Goodbye Annabelle's outdoor light that flickers on and off in the slightest breeze.

Goodbye to the lady we don't know who gets up on her roof to set up her easel and paint.

Goodbye to Addy's Christmas tree that glows on a cold December night.

And goodbye to the lush date palm that glows at night with a soft yellow light.

So good to know you, but now we will get to know new views around here that will tantalize our minds and keep us always curious.

Now I am starting to feel sappy, like I just rewrote the words to Goodnight, Moon......

Okiedoke, take a look at Minnie's pretty  house.

The house has beautiful arches .From her portal she has outstanding views of all of Mt Alamos and the hills east and west. Her house is definitely in a pretty spot.

In the photo above I am standing right on the edge of our portal. The property line is about three feet away from the edge of the portal. So right there our wall will be pretty close to the edge of the portal. As you can see, her house is farther down in the lot, right about in the middle and her lot goes from one street to the other.

Above, we are taking down the tree that is right on the fence line.We will still be able to see the beautiful tall palm trees on the right of the photo. And right about where Senor is standing on the ladder I think we will be putting a fountain in the wall and some niches for candles. The wall from this edge of the portal will be about as tall as the fence post you can see, so we should still have our mountain view and even more, the farther back on the portal we are sitting.

Our portal, looking the same with its pretty dirt floor. Senor promises we are going to be putting in the sub floor soon. I have actually grown fond of the dirt and it is maintenance free, very little sweeping.

Our cozy sala which is going to be wonderful when it is finished because it is already wonderful now.

And on Dia de Los Muertos as it poured down rain, we lit our first pinon fire of the year.

Que le vaya bien to all our blogger and facebook friends. I promise to get back to you soon!

 Love Linda Lou

This Name Norbert

 So, a new Hurricane Norbert has been bouncing around off the Pacific coast. I just read that it is still out there this Sunday afternoon, heading northwest now as a Tropical Storm and as it dissipates it may push some heavy rains over Northern Mexico and the Southern US.

As some of you know we just had a Hurricane Norbert that stopped over Alamos in 2008, and dropped over 11" in under 3 hours.

 Alamos suffered heavily.

So I wondered.......why did someone, and who was it, decide to name this new hurricane Norbert....... and I discovered some interesting information.

The World Meteorological Organization

is in charge of the name game.

WMO, which is an organization of the United Nations, has a 6 year fixed list, omitting Q, U, XY and Z, alternating girl/boy. They just run down the list, they don't have to stop and blink an eye.

 When the 6 year list is over, they start again with the first year. 

So Norbert was on the list in 2008, year six was up in 2013, and they started again this year with the first list (that would have been in 2002). 

2014 begins the cycle again and it will end in 2019.

 If there is a hurricane that causes massive destruction, Katrina for instance, it is removed completely from the list.

Isn't that interesting? Well, maybe you already knew about it, but I didn't and my whole quest was to find out why we were having another Norbert (which thankfully, we are not).

So, then, I wondered, what are we having instead.

Senor had heard at bridge that water may be released from the Mocuzarit Reservoir because it is so full.

We have never seen the reservoir with much water in it, but we have had to date, since June, 24" in our backyard, so we decide to take a little day trip and go see the Mocuzarit.

 As you can see, it is looking pretty full.

 There were 4 or 5 fishing boats out and it was the
                    prettiest we have seen it.

      The small town of Conicarit, about 500 people, 
        on the other side of the Mocuzarit, below.

 The Mayo River, as it flows from the reservoir.

 The Mayo, the foot bridge and the stone dam.

.

Back home this afternoon, I read in an online report, printed this morning by Noticieras Televisa, that 150 cubic meters per second are being released at the generating plant, which can be seen in the background in the photo above. The release is being done in preparation for the possible heavy rains from the new Norbert that could have an affect on low areas around Navajoa, Etchojoa, Huatabambpo and other agricultural areas near the coast.

So what a visual pleasure it was to see the Mocuzarit so full, with enough water that it needed to be released.

Who knows what Norbert will leave behind for Sonora as it moves farther to the north, but what a relief to know that we will not have to endure this name Norbert again for six more years.  

que le vaya bien! Linda Lou

Alamos Arroyos after a Good Rain

 Hola.

I want to share some arroyo photos with you.

If you are a facebook fan of Glasspondstudio, then you may have already seen some of these.

 

If you have been to Alamos during the winter season when it is typically dry and brown, but nonetheless very full of life, these scenes may make you want to return in the summer when again, the Pueblo Magico is full of life, but very, very green.

 Alamos has two major arroyos, the Chalaton and the  La Aduana.

 La Aduana, the largest, runs east-west through town, on the north side of the Alameda. 

The Chalaton runs the same direction, on the south side, near the foothills of the Sierra Madres, but merges with a smaller arroyo, the Escondido, and then meets La Aduana, on the west side of town, near the barrio Las Delicias.

Of course, for those of you who remember Hurricane Norbert, in October, of 2008, (after Senor and I had only arrived in June of that year), the merging of so much water and the filling of so many small tributary arroyos are what helped lead to the flooding of Alamos that night of the 11th.

 Above is a photo of a roadway that is in the Barrio Perico. It is a great example of how oddly ordinary little places can fill up quickly with water. And this photo was taken after it began receeding.

 Below is the Arroyo or Aqua Escondido which comes south-north down from the foothill mountains and meets the Chalaton up a little higher in between the Barrio Perico and the Barrio Tacubaya.

 In the photograph below you can see the larger La Aduana as it meets the Escondido.

One interesting thing about the rains that led to the filling of these arroyos on this particular day is there was absolutely no water in the Chalaton. So the water rushing on the right has no other influence, it has just come down from the mountains.

And equally as interesting, to me at least, is two days later we had another big rain and the Chalaton was spilling over its banks and in a huge hurry to meet the Escondido.

 The next two photos are of La Aduana as she flows toward Olas Altas Barrio and then, Las Delicias.

 Below, water from both La Aduana and Escondido.

 Below you can see the two arroyos and the hillsides that are lush and tropical. 

These photos were taken in late July and now, in late August, not only is it even greener, but the San Miguelito vines, which are almost neon pink, will start to cover some of the vegetation and then, if we are lucky, the vivid purple morning glory will do the same.

 Again, La Aduana flows on the north side of town, opposite the Alameda, the merchant area of town. On the higher area to the left, near the blue tarp, is the location of the open air Sunday market, the Tianguis. The market stretches the length of the arroyo as it goes alongside the town. And to the right are only a few of the buildings that were so heavily damaged during Norbert.

 On this day that I took these photos, I said to Senor.........now, drive around the whole town and let's see where the water is. After only a couple of disagreements over which way to turn and who was the boss, excluding the Aduana and Escondido arroyos, we saw over nine little small tributaries that had filled with water. Little roadways and low lying areas in between casas, it was amazing how they all filled up so quickly with water.

And this was not a particularly heavy rain.

 And at last, La Aduana, flows quietly near the Barrio La Capilla, and waits for the sun to set.