The biggest news of this post is that Molly McBean is in Mexico! She, Janet and Jim flew to Tucson on the 24th where I picked them up. We spent a few days shopping and exploring a little in Tucson and then all of us drove down to San Carlos together. Molly has hardly ever left her little neighborhood in New York. I think once she went to Grant's Tomb with the dog walker's family. Tony and Janet did try to bring her to the beach in New Jersey once but she cried so badly that they had to take her back to the apartment before ever going on the train. This time she was well tranquilized. The two of them stayed with us for a few days until we all got Janet's apartment outfitted (still working on that-not easy getting "stuff" delivered in Mexico). The two pups wore themselves out playing.
Janet's efficiency is in the bottom floor of a new luxury building about a block from our house. These pictures were taken before we did any of the upgrades:
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| She has three lemon trees. We have already made some Limoncello! |
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| She is on the corner of Almejas and Ostras (Clam and Oyster Street). |
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She has a huge patio area which is in the process of being furnished. She
already has some lovely Talavera pots with palms that sit on the ledge and
is considering a fire pit for next year. |
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Janet and Molly usually at least come over for happy hour and dinner, if
not for the whole day. Notice the little heater we are using here. This year
is much chillier than usual, though Janetski is always in shorts-one hot chica! |
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| She is feeling right at home in our little kitchen! |
The sunsets are always just as spectacular as the sunrises, even though we face east.
And full moons are nothing to sneeze at!
And some days the skies are fascinating to watch change color and shape. And then the fog rolls in...
I continue to take part in the Plein Air Painters get togethers on Tuesday. Here, at Beth's casita in the Ranchitos, we are preparing lunch and doing a joint project for a fund raiser for breast cancer awareness.
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| Constance, Beth and Diane |
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Diane, Judy, Laura, Ashley, Rosi, Beth, Jackie and Constance.
Jackie lives in Boulder!!!!! Small world! |
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| This is the group pour we did for the fundraiser. |
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Mine, that I am calling Mariposa
You never have a clue how it will turn
out. This changed many times! |
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| It helps to have a dirt back yard as we created quite a mess! |
Another Tuesday, we went to Diane's ranch. Janet joined us and created her first ever painting!
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| Rosi doing miniatures |
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| She makes magnets out of them. I want to try this. |
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| Look what Beth made of this plant! |
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| Margene and Rosi in the courtyard |
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| Judy, me and Janet in the desert |
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| Constance with the chickens |
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| Margene's fabulous painting of the side patio |
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| All of our creations for the day |
On Sundays, Empalme, a seaside town nearby has a tianguis flea market. It wasn't quite up Janet's alley but it was an experience-especially close to Valentines Day.
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And Jim decided to try a $2 haircut for the fun of it.
We think it looked cute but he didn't! |
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| Lollygaging |
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| Fun at Hair of the Dog |
We all love exploring the desert and painting the changing colors of the mountains.
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| The setting we all painted |
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| Beth |
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| Rosi |
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| Judy, the Queen of Plein Air! Look at those colors!! |
I decided to try watercolors and my creation ended up in the wastebasket!
We enjoyed dancing and listening to the music of a Credence Clearwater Revival at the beach.
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| Bill, Cheryl, Janet, Jim and Kathy |
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| Kathy taking our picture. She is from Gilette, Wyoming. |
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| Bill and Cheryl, always up for dancing |
Jack and Linda Laughlin arrived in town on the 15th. We had some great adventures!
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| There was a huge Bazaar down at the Marina |
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Linda and I bought flowers! Don't the boys just look precious
holding them for us!!? |
Jack had been to this area in the sixties and then again with Linda in the 90s. He was anxious to see how things changed. We drove out through the desert to the site where Catch 22 was filmed. We all got a kick out of finding the old airstrip.
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| Looking, looking, looking-we know we are close.... |
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| What is left of the asphalt air strip |
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| La Manga church |
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| And, our Lady of Guadalupe inside |
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| We had a grand time eating and drinking mariscos and margaritas at La Manga |
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| We all got a little exercise walking to the estuary. |
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| Low tide |
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| Jack and Linda exploring the tide pools |
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| And the birds enjoying their beach. |
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| Meanwhile, Boo admired the jumping cacti |
There's no place like Soggy Peso on Sundays, listening to Son Desierto!
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| I was frozen, even though the sun was out today! |
We were going to go on a cruise to celebrate Linda's 79th birthday but it was too cold and windy so we had appetizers here and then all went out to Tortuga's for dinner.
On the last day, we went kayaking. It was pretty cold and windy in the morning and we almost canceled but we had a lull in the weather and had a wonderful time kayaking around Shangra La Bay. (I have some great pics of Jack and Linda taken with Jim's camera, but for the life of me, I can't get them to upload to the blog. I finally had to give up.)
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| Last morning coffee on the deck |
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| This is how we watch TV and movies in Mexico! This night waiting for the full Snow Moon (below)... |
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| I wish I could figure out how to make these come out better! |
