Senor Goes Poking

Buenos tardes. It is raining, nice and gentle, just a little chipichipi.

Good grief, have you wondered where we were? where we are? why we have not posted?

Very simple, very busy.

Senor has been up on the roof. And last week he hired two additional workers to help out. Imagine that!

Humberto got to stand around and mix concrete and get it into the wheelbarrow, while the other two workers got it from the wheelbarrow into buckets and carted it up to the portal roof, where they poured it and Senor smoothed it out. Fortunately, it was somewhat overcast those days. I have been in the laundry room/work room. In the last two weeks I received several custom glass orders. I cannot just fire five pieces of glass. I have to cut, grind, cold work, and file and prepare enough to fill the kiln. I have mentioned this before, so in order to get the custom orders done in as short amount of time as possible, I have been going pretty much non stop.

The little thermometer in there has been reading around one hundred, so I had to set up a couple of portable fans in order to work.

So, now the kiln is full and it is firing as I write. And it will fire for twelve hours each day for five days. HOT in that room. I will not even go in there but to peek around the corner so I can read the digital screen and make sure everything is on schedule.

So, we took a little break a few days ago and left town for the day. The roadsides are covered with wildflowers, yellow and orange buttercups and the pink vine the bees love so much.

The hills are jungly and emerald green. Someday I will learn how to photo shop telephone cables out of the photos, but you should get all fuzzy just looking at the green hillsides.

And we ended up here.

I am a shell collector. There were very few shells this trip.

Senor is a poker. There was a lot to poke this trip.

If I get too near and in his way or ask him about what it is he is poking at, he will poke at me.
Above, he is poking at the blue eyed crab in the photo below. That crab kept flipping over, trying to scurry away from the poker.

Here Senor is poking at a dead seahorse. I wanted to pick it up and keep it. He poked it and smelled it and said............no.

Here he is just fixing to poke something else. He needs to study it for awhile before he pokes it though. It was just a little blue jelly fish that he flipped back into the waves before I could get close enough for a photo.

Then he poked at a dead fish he called a rooster fish. He poked at a bottle filled with sand. He poked at some ring pop tops from a can. He poked at sea weed. He poked at a broken beer bottle. He poked at a buried rope. Then he walked on down the beach.......walked on down the beach looking for more things to poke. He is such an easy person to go to the beach with.

What a lovely day at the beach.

adios, linda lou

No Cool Title, Just Stuff..............

Buen dia! We are seeing brilliant sunsets at night. After the sunsets and late into the evening we have been getting chipichipi rains and bright displays of lightning.

And we are paying dearly now during the day. The humidity this week has been hovering around eighty to ninety percent and the temperatures have been well over a hundred. Now this would not be so bad if we only had some wind, but there is not any at all.

I have received a number of custom glass orders and as soon as I return from my walk or ride in the morning, I have been retreating to the laundry room to cut glass. It is stifling in there and we are down to one small working fan. There are no ceiling fans in that room. I have been working with a wet rag around my head, but I don't think that helps at all. When I cold work, or grind glass, I use a face mask and goggles, now that is suffocating as well. I look like the creature from the black lagoon with a towel around its head.

Both Senor and Humberto continue to put in a good four hours and Senor retreats to the bedroom and the mini split for short little breaks while Humberto hides briefly under the mesquite.

Below you can see Senor up on the roof where the beams are now in and ready for the vigas. The first section of vigas will come out above the door for about eight feet.

In the second photo, from last year, you can see how far the original roof extended and then, you can see the Hilton Garden Room, which was under the old roof. I am hoping to recreate the garden room, temporarily of course, once the vigas and the roof are in. Oh, you know, Senor may have other plans, but I hope to win out.In addition to cutting glass, I did make it to the clay sculpting class at the museum. There were only a handful of us for the four day class. The fellow in the blue and white shirt is the instructor. This class was the mask sculpting class and the calaca katrina class will be in the fall.
The instructor, Jorge Mendevil, is a very talented sculptor and Ana, next to him, is a clay artist as well.

Across from our class, young teens were sculpting clay jewelry.

And down the hall, the violin class was being held. A little screechy, but some very determined kids were there every day.

In the mornings, the kids come for clay class and their work is spread out to dry on the museum floor. This will all be fired soon out at the Uvalama kiln and I believe you can look back through my labels to see the actual firing we did last year.

Here is my first mask below. I put it on the floor in the kids' section, had a look around and realized that most of their work was so much better than mine. So I picked it up again and moved it away from all that professional looking stuff. Then the ears fell off my guy and I wondered why in the world I even put ears on him to begin with. Maybe I can glue them back on after the fire or maybe they will get lost in the kiln, which might be a good thing.

Well, the rest of the mascaras I made were really no better. I hope they will look better after they are fired, so I will show them to you at a later date. However, Jorge did say all my eyes have good, soulful expressions. Do you see that? A soulful expression? I studied it for quite a while, but I don't see it.

I am just glad the kids are not in my class. Their work is incredibly creative and mine is just well, created.

Okie dokie, I am off to Navajoa to buy a new floor fan for the laundry room work shop. The problem with custom orders is I cannot just put six or seven pieces in the kiln. I have to keep cutting and cutting to get around sixty items, which is what fits in the kiln and justifies a fire. So, a new fan will help cool down the room a little. Maybe a pretty head towel, too, something with flowers on it.

Air conditioning in new old car, a K freeze for the drive, a lovely morning.

Que tengas buen dia! linda lou

Gracias, Thank You For Coming, and Adios

Hola!

I feel like I am living in a jungle here. The coyote fence is covered with thick green vines. I did finally get the yard mowed and the weed eater devoured what I could not cut. I slashed one of Senor's bouganvillea, so that is what I get for calling him a name under my breath. I will try not to do that again. Now I have to baby this little plant and try and convince it to live.

Talk about feeling guilty, whooo-wheeee. I should have been more careful.

When I told him about it, and believe me, I pondered that one..............tell, do not tell, tell, do not tell.................he looked so sad. He inspects those vines daily, in the evening. I don't watch him, but I suspect he pets them and talks to them.

All this rain, and I calculate by my gauge slightly over twelve inches, continues to bring out all the wildlife. We are seeing so many birds, many of them babies, like the little male cardinal below. I even saw a small covey of baby quail yesterday morning, running under the portal. They were on a mission and scurried through before I could grab the camera. Cookies was quickly on their tail, but they made the highway crossing easily. Now I do think I would have really felt guilt had he caught one and I had not tried to prevent that. Here is the little guy again against the backdrop of Senor's socks on the line. The laundry was there for three days. I now have a lot of photos of birds and socks.

Yellow bellied sapsuckers were around Sunday morning as well as the Gila woodpeckers, warblers, mockingbirds, house sparrows, flycatchers and magpies. Hummingbirds, a couple of frogs. I saw all of these yesterday.

But, come with me. I want to take you somewhere...............

We are going out to the big palm.

I was out here the other day and standing near the palm I heard what sounded like a rushing stream. Certain that one of Senor's drippers had broken and was gushing water, I checked the hoses and found nothing. I stood under the palm. Stand under it with me. Can you hear that noise? Rushing water, swooshing sounds, rustling.

Now look straight up into the palm branches. That is the sound of hundreds of baby birds, chirping, hopping, rustling, fluttering, flittering, cooing, shooing. They sound like a rushing stream. I have never heard anything like it.

The monkey man comes around once in awhile. He cuts the palms in town so they look nice and pretty like the one below.

A few people have asked us why we don't cut our palm. And indeed, we did have Monkey Man cut it our first year here.

Look below.

In the middle and right half of the photo are three gray -white objects. Two are along the tree line and a third is right in the middle of that bushy business in the center. Multiply those three objects many, many times and you will have hundreds of bats that come out of that palm at dusk. It is fascinating and a little frightening at the same time. But we know they are eating all of our mosquitoes.

I just make sure the bedroom doors are closed and try and sit very still. The air is thick with them. For around half an hour, they fly under the portal and in and out of the columns and right around our chairs.

I am getting more and more used to their neighborly visits, and they are good neighbors because they keep their visits short.

Of course, there is a lot more going on at night. Thankfully, most of it I do not see. I found what look like raccoon prints the other morning. A snake was rustling in the grass between our place and new old Jesus'. I know there are skunks and opossums next door.

And we are seeing tarantulas and scorpions as they have again taken to their well travelled highway under the portal. Now these guys are my least favorite and I have made many posts about them. I just cannot seem to get used to them coming around to visit. And I especially do not like it when they just come right on in and don't even take the time to announce their arrival. They are really just bad neighbors. They come and sit and hang around, look at your stuff, eat your food and blow their nose in your bathroom.

Senor has adjusted quite well, with his feet over the rebar bridge. I drag my chair as far away from the route as possible. I want Senor to keep the shovel close by. I just don't know if I can be neighborly toward them and leave them alone.



Cookies on the other hand, the perfect host, comes out from under the chair only after the bats go home to the palm and if a fast moving tarantula or scorpion comes along, he turns his back on it and walks away. He is a very smart cat.....oh, did we have guests?..............gracias, thank you for coming and adios is his attitude.

Last night he could have cared less about any creatures on the little highway, as he had knocked himself out earlier in the day by first eating the little mouse and then, the lizard for dessert.

Several months ago, two men came by, one with an important red metal box and the other with a hook with a noose on one end. They were giving rabies shots to animals. After much hesitation, and discussion about their jobs and equipment for doing their jobs, we finally caught Cookies, who had seen them coming, and allowed them to give him the shot. Cookies was not happy, but it was over quickly. Before he jetted around the corner of the casa, Cookies turned and glared at them and then, us...........gracias, adios and now, get the %#*^ out of here, is what he said in cat language. True to himself, again a nice host.

I am glad we let them shot needle him. Sometimes I think I need to grab him and get him away from the little things he likes to chew up and eat, and sometimes after the feast, he looks pretty drained for hours. But I never do. That's his thing. Besides, some day, he may protect us from something really, really big.

So now that I have whet your appetite with Cookies' delectable menu, I will show you those crab cakes. On top is sour cream mixed with a little sugar and Sonoran hot sauce and huge caperberries. Martha Stewart oven fries and Navajoa grapes add some crunch.

Oh me, oh my, it is almost three-thirty and Senor and Humberto are still pouring cement into the first viga that will go across the space outside the West Wing. I might show you that tomorrow.

I feel kind of guilty that I did not remember that Humberto's water jug went empty and he came to ask me twice for water and I did not remember to fill it for two hours after he asked. I had an ice cold topochico.

Senor is just drenched with sweat, my t shirt is all nice and clean and smells like Suave soap. The tamale kid did not show up this morning and I don't think either of them has eaten anything. I had a nice bowl of rice mixed with salsa verde and red tomato.

It's only ninety-six degrees out there, but they have been up on the roof all morning. I should feel guilt, but cannot make up my mind if I do or not, it is just so nice and cool in the bedroom where Cookies and I are. I really need to take a siesta and wake up all refreshed so I can decide just how neighborly I will be tonight.............gracias, thank you for coming and adios. linda lou

Name That Casa

Buenos dias. We got over two inches of rain last night. Quite a grand storm, lots of trelampagosa, lightning and truenos, thunder, right over our bedroom. It lasted for hours and hours.

Poor Cookies got caught out in it and during one brief lull, I was able to coax him inside, but before I could dry him off, he jumped up onto one of the beautiful yellow Pier One cushioned chairs, well, you can only imagine what that looks like now.

The good news is we used several very thick towels at the doorway and as a result we did not have any pinacates, the stinky, black beetle type bugs, in bed with us last night.

Even with all that racket through out the night, I slept well and was out on the street at five-thirty.
All of the arroyos are running. Here is La Aduana below. If you recall, during the last big storm the Chalaton and Escondida arroyos were running, but the Aduana was not. There was evidently enough water last night to kick the Aduana into high gear.These guys below just did not want the hassle of going up and over the bridge. Yet for the longest time they could not commit, bridge? water? bridge? water? Finally the one in the plaid shirt just walked through and the water was up to his knees. The other one shook his head, laughed and took the bridge. Almost all of the vehicles did not skip a beat and just plunged ahead.The dozer kept shoveling dirt into the arroyo, for what purpose I am not sure.

Here along the left bank, in the photo below, the city is building a tall stone wall and a lighted malecon that will go for quite some distance along the arroyo. It will be nice walking when there is water in the arroyo. I keep hoping they might find a river to divert. When the water is gone, I will go over and take a photo of what the finished malecon will look like. There is a construction board near the workers showing an artist's rendition.

My purpose for going out this morning was to get a few more photos of some of the lovely wall plaques around town. Many of these plaques just show the street address of the casa, but quite a few of the creative ones tell the name the owners have chosen for their casa.

Now I tried several years ago to convince Senor we should name our casa. We had a little turtle in the stable at that time. I suggested La Tortuga, House of the Turtle............no, he said..................Casa de los Quatros Vientos, House of the Four Winds, because we are one of the windiest spots in town.................absolutely not, he said.....................Casa de Las Campanas, House of the Bells, because we have so many dollar store wind chimes....................NO, he said.................Casa de los Limones, House of the Limes, three lime trees......how about Casa de Construccion, no need to say more about that.............no, he said, we don't need to name our house, we know what it is called, it is called our house..................Okay, I just let that go. No big deal, we do not need to name our casa.

Below are some of my favorite plaques, some I like because the name is pretty, others because they are more creative in style and even others because of where the owner chose to place the plaque.

House of the Tangerine or Mandarin Orange......................

The Beautiful House.....................

Robert's House.................

House of the Fourteen Little Angels......................

The Lovely House........................


I believe this is the House of the 'family name'.................

The Chocolate House........................

The Hummingbird House..................

The House of another family name.....................

And the House of Sucess or Victory.................

Imagine our surprise just a few days ago when we returned home to find that the telephone pole outside our gate had been named.................9.............and below it Humberto (I now know I have been misspelling Umberto's name).................next to the large H in smaller letters is umberto. So we are Durango 9, House of Humberto.....................jajajaja...............trust me, Senor is a funny guy but he found absolutely no humor in that at all. I am surprised he has not been at that already with a can of black paint.

No, I am not bored! I really thought you might like to see the wall plaques.

All right I am fixing to go and make crab cakes. Did I tell you the fish lady came by with bags of fresh crab? OMG, unbelievable, a kilogram for under fifty pesos. That is two and a half pounds for a little over four USD and it is all cleaned and perfectly good2go.

Then I am going to the bike shop. The gear shifter contraption thingy on the right handle bar fell completely off new old bike this morning. Plop, just like that in the street in front of the Palacio. The guard was not there to see it, thank goodness no one was there to see it. I got off and picked it up and threw it in the basket.

It will be my last visit to this bike shop. A friend sent me a link to fixing it all myself. He said I would probably need to read it through a couple of times. Well, after reading it for the 5th time, I said to myself........there is no way in heck i can do that............... but Senor can, he can do anything............except name a casa................gee whiz..............


Below is a very early in the morning photo of the church steeple, the fresh water covered streets and the green hillside beyond, very picturesque morning. Not many folks out and about, but the street workers were everywhere, sweeping up dirt and garbage that came with the rain. The vendors were wiping down chairs and putting up their tarps. The sweet smell of pastries cooking was on the air. Someone was whistling over here and someone singing over there, very nice. Que tengas buen dia! linda lou

A Pondering I Will Go

Hola, Buen dia.
Look at this. This is crazy. It happened while I was napping. And look at this. This is at the back of the yard, near new old Jesus' place which has been taken over by his nephew, Ivan. This is where Senor has his little orchard and you cannot even see any of the fruit trees back there. Umberto had piled big hills of sand, dirt and adobe chunks back there. Even a mower will not help.

So, we went to Obregon to buy a weed eater. Senor says I broke the other one. Well, I think he broke it. He bought one that does not have to be tapped on the ground to extend the line, which is how the first one broke.
He took it out of the box, showed me all the details, showed me the brand name, showed me which extention cord will work best to get myself out to the fence line, told me how to tie off the cord so I will not lose power, told me not to accidentally cut down any of his little trees. I called him a name. But it's okay, I have noticed his hearing is a little off lately.

I went and tried it out. It took a long time to get it all set up. I got hot, so I quit. I put on a ball cap, put a wet towel around my neck and tried again. Still hot. I walked around to Allende to my favorite little store and bought a frozen Snickers bar. They are very big on two American candy bar names here. Snickers and Milky Way are what you get. I walked home.

I tried again and by now, it was cloudy and around five. I thought it would be a little cooler. Not. I read a Phoenix Home and Garden that I picked up at the thrift store. I tried again. It started to rain. I stopped and took a little siesta. During a lull in the rain I went and took a look. The grass was even thicker and higher. I put the weed eater in the laundry room.

Just looking for something more exciting to do I interneted myself. I put in my first and maiden names. I did this about ten years ago and got, my name, just me. I have a very unusual maiden name.

I would never put in Senor's last name. I know there are hundreds of me. In King County, where we used to live, I finally returned my library card to the library because I was so tired of getting late book fines that belonged to all those other Linda's.

But my maiden name, now we're talking, it has always belonged to a special select few of us. Not.

Now there are five of me. Really no information on any of me, I am from Ohio, I am from Florida. I am in Louisiana and Montana. I can get more information on me if I pay a monthly fee to the people finder company.

So I interneted my maiden name alone. Jeez, the country is over run with us. But again, everyone wants money to tell me about us. I could easily spend a fortune to find out about me and my kinfolk.

Today Senor is playing bridge. I get to do anything I want to do. But sometimes, I just make trouble for myself, especially now that it is like an oven outside and I am cooped up in the bedroom with the mini split on high, looking for ways to entertain myself.

So, I entertained myself by facebooking me. At least that's free. There are four of me. In the profile photo of one of me, I have a black eye. In another I look like I am ready to give a black eye to somebody. In the third of me I am a different color. And then, there was the real me. Well, I think it's the real me.

Then I facebooked my maiden name. I saw my siblings and relatives and a lot of potential aunts, uncles and cousins I never even knew about. From all over the world. I never knew we were so many and it really surprised me. I can hardly believe it. This, a last name that came as if from a fairy tale, but truly attached to a castle in far away Scotland, maybe to royalty, my Big Mama used to say. I want to ask all these people if they really belong to my name and how did they get it.

My parents and I went to new York City once to a Yankees baseball game. I looked in the New York City phone book. Two of us. Two of us living in New York. Now there are more than forty of us. Where is our original special select group? I could have called up both those New York City guys then and said, hey, my great grandfather's name was so and so, you ever hear of him, and they most likely would have said yea. I want to set up my people finder account. Everyone is scrambling to get my maiden name for some reason.

You know what? I should let it go. It's just a name. I have ownership in it, but it's just a name. But, I could just friend them all. Slowly, of course, slowly. Otherwise who knows what they might think, who is this nut. But maybe I will find out things I don't want to know. I mean, who is this me who looks ready for a fight? How did I get that black eye?

Okay, this is good, I need something to ponder so I will not be bugging Senor about all this construction mess and believe me, it is a whopping mess after last night's big storm. And don't even get me started about these little black stink bugs that crawled under our door last night to get out of the rain and ended up in bed with us.

Before I start to ponder, I am going to get outside and I am going to walk around to Allende and get a frozen Snickers bar, come back home, put on my hat and wet towel and plug in my new weed eater and go and weed eat that grass back by new old Jesus' nephew Ivan's little casa. Then I might pick a lemon off one of Senor's trees.

Que le vaya bien and I hope it's good! linda lou