Me and You and a Dog Named Boo: April 2019

April started out with two wonderful settings for lady friends to relax and paint a few last times, before most leave for the season.

Piedras Pintas
We wonder what is going to happen to this beautiful beach as there is a development going in here.

We found an abandoned building on a hot day up at La Manga 3. We
hope to come back here many times. Yes, that's Susan trying her hand at
painting with pastels.

A great spot for getting out of the wind

I'm going to paint this scene next time.

We had a cocktail party with Susan and David and Janet and Vecinos (Neighbors and fellow Clams - we live on Almejas), Tracy and Charlie, and Tibby and Gary Levinson.

A beautiful sunset

Tracy and Susan

Charlie and Janet

Tibby and Gary

I took Susan out to see the Giant Cardon Forest in San Jose one day.

Cardon, Susan and Organ Pipe

Ocotillo

Cardon

Old Man or Bearded Cacti

Creeping cactus

Just mesmerized by the trunks of these things

April blooming time

Prickly Pear

And then we ate lunch and played cards in the local restaurant.

Kayaking the estuary with Susan . The terns were migrating through this area on their way north. The cacophony was similar to hearing the cranes move through Nebraska! It was magical to be in the water right with them!

Great Blue Heron

Sandy walkway through the estuary grounds-so well kept

Sunset happy hour
Janet couldn't come with us as Molly is sick and she needed to stay with her.

Now comes the very hard part of the story! Janet's dog, Molly, was not eating, losing weight and having difficulty peeing and pooping. Saturday, we made an appointment with the vet, Edgar-the best, from Obregon. He felt her all over, said she was not in pain, might be diabetic and something was going on with her lymphatic system. Sunday he came to town again to take a blood sample which he took to Obregon for test results. Molly continued to decline and by Tuesday, we got the results indicating that she was in renal failure and had some kind of gastric distress. He ordered some medicine and we brought Molly to our house where we all sat with her for hours, tried to give her the medicine (which she just threw up) until around 3 o'clock, when we all knew she was suffering too much. She was trying to vomit and nothing but a little bile would come up, she tried to pee and poop but couldn't and she couldn't walk well. We called Suzanne Pinto who got in touch with Edgar and he said he would come up the following day ("just for Molly"), but Janet decided that one more day was too much. We agreed. We asked Suzanne for advice and she found us a lovely lady vet in North Guaymas who would stay to help us say goodbye to Molly. Several friends advised us about the most humane way to put a dog down (two shots, one to anethtasize and one to put her to sleep). It was painless and quick but we were all devastated. I can't describe how hard this was for Janet-losing her husband and her beloved Molly within the space of 7 months. The vets cried with us. We came back two days later to pick up Molly's remains, which they gave us in the most beautiful little pink box with her name spelled out in gold glitter and they gave us more hugs.

Rest in Peace Molly McBean

We took her to the beach where we had a little wake for Molly and threw her ashes to the wind. We still can't believe that she's gone.

Spring has suddenly arrived and with it comes lots of art projects, a trip to Alamos and many celebrations of Jim's 75th birthday.

Isn't this just a lovely, colorful mess!? I took a very appropriately named Dirty Pour class with Rosi and it was alot of fun.
And, boy, was it messy. You fill the cups with different colors of paint in layers and then quickly remove the cups and allow the paint to do its magic while moving your canvas around.

Mine is the bottom one. It reminded me of scuba diving
with all the different colors of the fish, the coral and the
water. I also made the little magnet on the side out of
leftover paint.

We really wanted Janet to explore a bit of nearby Mexico so we went to Alamos for four days with both dogs, Molly and Boo. We stayed at the beautiful Hacienda de los Santos again and had a wonderful time for a bit.

Isn't this the most amazing tree?

Ramon and Mark at the first night's concert

Statues of saints are everywhere.

Dinner during the concert

Sunny Jim and Mark at the 3rd night's concert

You may have noticed that there aren't any pictures of Molly here. Well, remember that Molly has never traveled too far from her New York apartment. Well, this little trip kinda did her in. Janet, too!
Molly barked like crazy any time anyone came anywhere near us-maids, friends, gas station attendants, etc. and wanted to bite them. Instead, she bit Janet and Jim who were always trying to hold her back. Sooooo, she wasn't allowed out of her room except for quick walks outside to relieve herself. Poor Molly! Poor Janet!

Back at the ranch
We do so love our hummingbirds!

The next class was something that always piqued my interest, Zentangle! Now, how wild is Vicky, our teacher?!!!

She always dresses like this!

This was a collection of all of our tiles.
We all did the same patterns, but look how differently
they are put together!

Back to our Plein Air paint-outs on Tuesdays. This day we painted at Margene's terrace in Shangra La.

Margene and Joe are moving to Houston in May, so this might be the last
time we paint here. Today, it was Margene, Beth and Constance (pictured
here) and Judy and I.

Judy

Beth

Margene

Well, after we got home from Alamos, Katie, our landlady (we call her our land daughter, since she is so young she could be our daughter), came up to say hello to us and Molly went a little ballistic and bit her once on her hand and once on her butt. Uh oh! So, something obviously had to be done about Molly's behavior, so Janet hired Steve Guthrie, the local dog whisperer, to train Molly. You can see how crazy Molly is about Steve in the picture below. His secret weapon, besides a heap load of patience with animals, is the special liver treats he makes himself.

We went to the wine festival for the first time this year. It took place at the Beach Club, Club Duo, beneath our house. It was fun seeing them setting up all the tents, the stage, the lighting, etc. You get a glass when you come in with your ticket and then take it to different wineries (most from the Baja) to sample their wine. There were also about 30 different restaurants who prepared noshes to go with the wines. The most fun part was the people watching. It was a mostly Mexican affair and many were dressed to the nines!

And catch this gorgeous sunset taken from our front porch that evening.

One of the first celebrations of Jim's birthday was a double celebration of Bill and Jim, since both have March birthdays. We exchanged gifts and had cocktails on our deck to start and went to Blackies for dinner.

Bill and Cheryl

Yours truly and the birthday boy

Jim and Bill have a tradition of going "taqueria diving"
once a week together. The shirt is just the thing for
those days-one of JJ's specials!

Blackies for shrimp and steak

Another art event with the Plein Air group, where we concentrated on cacti.

The scene

My feeble attempt about 2/3 done-still not finished!

Constance is a fantastic watercolorist. She and her husband
have a house here and own a lodge in Twin Lakes, Colorado.

Yvonne is a great drawer. She isn't here much but we were happy to see
her today.

Laura's rendition-love the birds on the wire!

Beth even did two paintings!

Margene

Judy

Jim chose to have a day at home for his birthday, doing nothing with no one but me and Boo. We did have a great day on our deck, but our friends were not to be outdone. Karen and Dee, with decorations by Margene, hosted a fabulous party at their house, surprising Jim with the whole lot of our friends.

Dee just loves Jimbo!

In between we had a lovely bonfire on the beach with Susan, David and Janetski. AND BOO!

And, the last of the celebrations was a boat cruise at sunset with margaritas, quesadillas and silly birthday wigs! What fun-like old times being on the Hattie Annie!