I guess I’m just going to keep posting pictures of this orange dahlia until I run out of angles. Yes, I do have a few more I haven’t presented, but I’ll give it a rest for awhile. This is what Christmas looks like in Mexico! It’s orange!!!
See more flowers here: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/15/flower-of-the-day-december-16-2015-a-painted-poinsettia/
Marilyn Armstrong is a prolific blogger, and this is among my favorites of her blogs. I have tried and tried to reblog it and the reblog button just doesn’t work, at least for me, so here is a little bit of it. To see the rest, go to her URL given below this segment.
“So,” says Uncle Shmuel, who having appeared out of nowhere is now sitting at the table enjoying a nice piece cake. Miraculously he speaks excellent vernacular American English — albeit with a heavy Yiddish accent,
“Nice place you got here. I see you keep your animals in your house. That one there sounds like a pig but looks like a dog.”
“They are our pets, Uncle Shmuel. The oinker is Nan. She just makes that sound. She’s kind of old. I think that’s the dog equivalent of ‘oy’.”
To read the rest of Marilyn’s take on today’s prompt, go to her blog here:
http://teepee12.com/2015/12/15/hes-here-oy/
Intimately Kalanchoe
See Cee’s and other flowers HERE.
After Vespers
I arrived home with much ado,
removed a small stone from my shoe,
took off my girdle, straightened my hat,
smoothed my gloves and kissed the cat!
I believe in proper things––
all the joys good breeding brings.
I do not spit, smoke weed or curse.
I carry breath mints in my purse.
I go to church. I tithe and pray.
I brush my teeth three times a day.
But when I went to watch TV,
I found a strange sight greeting me,
for there sitting upon my couch,
next to my little cat treat pouch,
were two small beings––a her and he––
the lady perched on the fellow’s knee.
They both looked up with cool aplomb
as though they hadn’t dropped a bomb
appearing with no invitation.
What’s more, to my great perturbation,
balanced on the lady’s knee
was the chocolate cake I’d meant for me!!!
She took a bite and gave him one,
then turned to me when she was done,
addressing me, though we’d not met.
(I mean, just how rude could one get?)
And what she said in a haughty tone,
perched upon her human throne?
“I’m afraid this cake is rather dry.
I wonder, have you any pie?”
I’ll tell you no more of this story,
for after that, things just got gory.
My opening words would seem most pale
compared to the ending of my tale.
Suffice it then for me to say
the uninvited didn’t stay.
Afterwards, my gloves came off.
I cleared my throat and gave a cough.
I scraped the cake crumbs in the sink,
mixed myself a little drink,
closed the drapes, unplugged the phone
and stretched out on my couch––alone.
As I settled down to Downton Abbey,
I was feeling way less crabby.
Real glad I hid the pie, y’all,
because I sat and ate it all!!!
The Prompt: Unexpected Guests. You walk into your home to find a couple you don’t know sitting in your living room, eating a slice of cake. Tell us what happens next. What a hilarious prompt! I loved writing this one.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/unexpected-guests/
Blogs I Love
There are many blogs I love and read every day they post. Cee, Mark, Red, Marilyn, Calen, Relax, Geek, Zombie, Lydia, Mom, Jane, Anton, Barbwit, Roger, Okcforgottenman, John, Leland, A. Swiss, Chic and a dozen others that have slipped my memory right now–you know who you are. Many I have reblogged articles or poems from, and I rave about them daily, so those are not the blogs I’m going to mention today. Rather, I’d like to mention a blog i just discovered.
“Transcribing Memory” is a relatively new blog. This URL http://transcribingmemory.com/2015/12/14/the-many-twitches-of-fate-that-bring-us-here/ is from today’s entry, but I would suggest going back to the beginning. There are just a few entries. The theme of the blog is a lifetime of journals of a 96-year-old woman, the mother-in-law of the blogger. Together, they are going through the journals that seem to begin in her teenage years. Babu, the grandmother, comments on them, as does the blogger, who does not give her name. The original statements in the journal, the grandmother’s reactions as she reads them and the blogger’s own comments are so tender and insightful. You see the blogger getting closer to and recognizing new connections with her grandmother-in-law, who has lived in the house of the blogger and her husband for their entire marriage. Who hasn’t wanted to peek into someone else’s diary? This is your chance.
The prompt today asks us to list three blogs we’ve read this week that we have loved and to say why. https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/press-it/
I tried to do today’s prompt, and even chose one person to mention, but then I couldn’t go on. When I went through the list of incredible blogs I read every day, I just couldn’t pick three and leave out the rest, so instead, I am going to tell you about my pretty exhausting day. Later, I will post my long list of admirable blogs along with the mention of one new blog I think you should read.
Two days ago I noticed that one of the lenses of my favorite pair of prescription reading glasses was missing. They are an especially beautiful shade of green—something I have found to be rare in glasses—and a good shape on me, to boot. I looked everywhere for that lens, with no luck.
“I’ll have to take special care of my only other pair of reading glasses,” I thought, as I woke up and put them on to peruse the blogging world. I had them on at the dining room table a few hours later during Oscar’s English lessons and half way through the lesson, Yolanda appeared with my lens to my other pair of glasses, which she had found under my bed! I was overjoyed and put it in the case with my “one-eyed” pair of glasses.
Oscar was finished so we went out to play fetch with Morrie. I’m hoping Oscar and his big brother will come play with Morrie while I’m gone, so was trying to make sure they would bond before I left. When I grew dizzy watching the toy soar out to be brought back by Morrie, I realized I still had my other reading glasses on, so I took them off and held them in my hand. One thing led to another and I soon started seeing dead palm fronds, candy wrappers the workmen had left, and other detritus on the ground. I put the non-organic trash aside to take up to the house on my return trip, but collected the other in my hand, taking it up to the gazebo to throw over the fence into the jungle of my “empty” lot next door. Although I’m on a hill so the ground of the next lot is from twelve to twenty feet below me, the castor beans have grown up taller than the wall and obscure the view from where I stand. I tell myself again that I need to find someone to clear the lot, then go up to the yard and return with another two handfuls of dry plant matter to throw over the wall before I give up and go back to the house.
As Oscar prepares to leave with his mother, I want to check once more that I’ve given him the entire assignment that will keep him busy for the three weeks until my return. It is then that I realize I don’t have my reading glasses! They are not on the table, desk, in the kitchen or bedroom or bathroom or on the porch. I then remember taking them off and holding them in my hand when we were throwing the fetch toy for Morrie. I check the terrace table, the gazebo, the bodega, the bodoga and every outside surface. Then I remember collecting the dead plants in both hands and throwing them over the wall, and I have a sinking feeling that I know where my “extra” pair of prescription glasses are!!!
There is no hope. The spare lot is a huge one with dense undergrowth and castor bean plants too thick and close together for navigation. There is zero chance I would find my glasses. I check my kitchen clock. An hour and a half before I have an appointment with Eduardo to give me an estimate on painting and concrete work. I jump into the car in my pajamas that look just like clothing––sans makeup or combed hair—and take off for my eye doctor who is blessedly open, since he splits his time between Ajijic, 6 km. away, and Guadalajara—a good hour away. I find two pairs of frames I can stand, have the assistant put the lens back in my green glasses, ask the two women in the waiting room to advise me on which frames I should buy, and order the glasses. They will be ready on January 4, when the office reopens after Xmas. I pay my deposit and drive back home, hoping I can keep the green glasses––and their lenses––intact and in sight for the three weeks until then.
I get home at 2 and Eduardo shows up soon after. We spend a good three hours discussing pool steps, the little terraza that needs to be built down around the gazebo to keep me from tripping over buried pipes and tree roots that jut up from the ground around where I have to go to turn off the irrigation system, the paint and salitre repairs and pool repairs. I explain to him that I need estimates and that my present contractor Chino will also be giving estimates. It is hot and I get dizzy in the heat, so pull down the blue canvas “wall” in front of the terrace. It is then that I hear the doorbell. I’ve been with people all day, and groan as I go to once again herd all the dogs into the back yard, secure the gates and go to see who it is. It is Chino, with the iron gate man! I usher them back to the backyard and introduce them to Eduardo, who comes out from behind the blue canvas “wall.” Chino looks questioningly at me and then I see the cans of paint we’ve pulled from the new cabinet to try to figure out paint colors. I feel like a wife caught in the act—with a different contractor!!
We retreat back to our seclusion in the shaded patio, which now feels almost secretive—as though we are trying to hide something. Chino leaves, letting the dogs back into the front of the house as he opens the gate. I offer to give Eduardo a ride down to town, thinking finally I’ll have a bit of time to myself! It is 5:30 and I’ve been rushing around, seeing one person after another all day. I haven’t even finished the Daily Prompt!!! I go into the house to have my first private moment alone in the bathroom before getting in the car to drive Eduardo down to town, and then . . . the doorbell rings again! I cannot answer at the moment and pray that perhaps they’ll give up and go away, but no, the doorbell rings again. Then, a long pause, and it rings again.
When I am able to answer it, the dogs flock around me, barking. “Who is it?” I shout over the wall. I never unlock the door without asking.
“Luis!” someone calls back to me. I have an artist friend named Luis. Plus two plumbers, one electrician and various other acquaintances. I decide it is plumber Luis, who loaned me his propane tank and to whom I’ve been wanting to talk. I tell him to wait while I put the dogs away, do so with some difficulty, having to close two gates behind them and secure a doggie reward along the way. I unlock the gate to find, not Luis Plumber but Luis, Pasiano’s son, five-month-old baby and wife I’ve never met. They’ve trudged up the long hill to show me the baby. I’d delivered a present to Luis a few months before at his workplace—selling rugs along the careterra––and he’d said they’d bring the baby to see me. We stand. I hold the baby. The wife is hot so I turn on the fan. I don’t think to offer them a cool drink, not realizing at this point that they haven’t driven. I am thinking only that I’ve promised Eduardo a ride down the hill and that I’m dying for some time to finish my blog and be on my own without people.
I’ve been with people since 8 a.m. this morning with no space. I am dizzy with fatigue and the hot afternoon sun. I don’t even ask them to sit down! We talk for a while and I then ask where they are going next. They say to his father’s and I ask if they want a ride there. But, when we arrive, I can tell Pasiano is not there. I tell Luis he’d better check and when he does it verifies what I’d guessed. Do they want to come back to my house or to visit his mother in San Juan, I ask? I’m taking Eduardo there and then we can go visit his mother and I’ll drive them back to where they can catch the bus; but they say no, to leave them off at the bus stop. Eduardo asks if I want to see his studio. I do not! I leave him off and go to Ajijic to pay my phone bill, since we have discovered my cell phone has been cut off. By now it is 6:30 and I am desperate to be home alone swimming or blogging or doing anything but driving, making decisions or talking to other people!!!
As I get out of the car, I realize the sun has gone down and with it the temperature. It is actually chilly outside. Luckily, I’ve brought my suede jacket which I put on. I go into Oxxo to pay my phone bill, grab a Coke, and go back to the car. As I do, I absently stuff the phone bill and receipt into my coat pocket, but meet with some resistance. I reach in and draw out . . . my spare pair of glasses! I then remember that I had put my jacket on when we first went out to play with the dog.
I must have put my glasses in the pocket, then taken the jacket off as soon as I got back in the house and so when it came time to look for my glasses, it had totally slipped my mind that I had had pockets to slip the glasses into after all! I turn the car on and drive home cushioned by the security that even though I’m slightly more worried about the state of my memory than I was this morning, at least I have the cushion of three pairs of reading glasses I’ll have to lose before going into a tizzy the next time!!!
Spotted Lily, Past its Prime
Something about this Lily with its fading blooms intrigued me. For so long, I sought to find perfect blooms, but lately I’ve been fascinated by the beauty found in imperfection.
http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/14/flower-of-the-day-december-14-2015-peony/
Christmas Posada
The girls in the belly dancing class asked if they could have a posada. If you don’t know what this is, I’ll explain as we go along. They struck a bargain. They’d provide the pinata if I’d provide the prizes, the bolas and the refreshments. Seemed fair to me, so the planning began.
Although the pinata they brought was very pretty, Unfortunately, it didn’t have an opening, so we had to perform a bit of surgery with the cake knife to get the candy in.
Then they provided a bit of entertainment.
Little sisters asked if they could join in, too and they paid close attention to try to follow along.
After the dance came tamales, horchata, cookies and Christmas cake. When Audrey offered chips and guacamole, girl after girl turned them down. Then we tried dipping a chip and offering it. After that, the girls lined up for their own portions. It turns out that none of them knew what they were supposed to do!!! Looks like guacamole and corn chips is a purely American or gringo custom. They polished off the chips and guac!
I am obviously enjoying my tamale. Believe it or not, this is the best of the pictures of me that Audrey took!
Then came the pinata. I suffered a bit of trepidation over the likelihood that someone would be hit over the head with the stick as they dove in for the candy while the girl yielding the stick was still swinging it, but there were no injuries. I wish I knew how to add the video Audrey took. They had so much fun and were so gleeful. This picture doesn’t quite capture the amount of fun they had.
This is the sad remains of the pinata.
Afterwards was the posada. Usually this consists of Mary on a donkey, Joseph by her side, children trailing after. They go from house to house asking for a place to stay for the night. Travellers sing their roles. People in the houses sing theirs. Finally, someone lets them in and they go in to have a pinata and to each be given bags of candy (bolos.) In this case, half went into a room and the rest of us stood outside. We would sing the words asking for shelter. They would sing back that there was no room. We went back and forth a number of times before they finally let us in. The girls were absolutely delighted with this ceremony and all knew the words by heart, although they didn’t do too well with the tune.
Afterwards, we distributed bolos (bags of candy) to each girl to insure each had a good share of the goodies..
One little girl who had brought these beautiful little origami Christmas trees for her special friends presented one to me, Cynthy and Audrey as well. Very touching. Each was so carefully made with tiny balls glued on. They were formed on top of a baby food jar full of Japanese peanuts and little Mexican candy bars that tasted just like Snickers bars–both my favorites. I was so touched by this gesture, as I was by the hand painted box presented to me by Cynthy, who had made it herself.
I surprised her with a fringed suede cloth vest she had tried on in Guadalajara when we went to buy the bangle scarves for the girls to tie around their waists. I had bought it saying it was for Audrey and saved it for Christmas.
All in all it was a lovely night, in spite of the fact that I forgot to bring my camera. Luckily, Audrey brought hers. Thanks, Audrey, for the photos.. The girls, who each brought a friend, were squealy and excited. As I left the Cafetto Saga where we held the Posada, a little boy and a little girl who lived across the street watched me enter my car with great interest. I asked them if they wanted my bag of candy, telling them it was to share. They quickly accepted and ducked into their house to examine the contents. I went down the block to make a U turn and by the time I drove back by their house, there were six children gathered around the bag, excitedly sharing the candy. I loved this generosity on their part. The Christmas Season is alive and well in Mexico.
Feliz Navidad!!!
Earlier I showed my Xmas tree from a few years ago on Silver Lining’s blog. Now I want to show you my this year’s tree. I had thought not to have one since I’m going to my sister’s house in Phoenix for Xmas, but thanks to the generosity of one little girl, I have my very own very special tree as well.
These flowers are made out of corn husks by ladies in a village across the lake from where I live. I used to love to go to their showroom, but since they’ve closed it, I go to our weekly street market to buy them. I have these flowers in most rooms of my house and still can’t resist them! I didn’t notice until after I’d edited the photos that in the second photo, it looks like the little dog in the painting is standing on one flower to smell another!!!
I already reblogged Cee’s flower of the day, but you can go here to see the flowers of others as well.http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/13/flower-of-the-day-december-13-2015-daylily/
Luis, Hernando and Alejandra. Happy family.
