VISITORS

HOUSE GUESTS

 

The frost has been on the pumpkins.  The wondrously hued fall leaves have been falling like snow.  Turkeys have been about.  We have had deer browsing literally in front of our bedroom window.  And our houseguests have returned to their homes in Georgia.  Here is Rebecca's report of some of the highlights of their visit.

 

 

My sister Ruth and her granddaughter Savannah came to visit us for a week.  It was a lovely visit.  My sister is nice in that we enjoy talking about old times, our families, our silly husbands, our health problems.  I suppose it is because there is so much shared love. Silly husbands some of you might say, I defy anyone to be married 38 and 40 years without feeling their husbands are a bit silly.  (Or if so I REALLY want to meet the husband in question!)

 

Ruth showed me pictures of her latest grandchildren.  She has fifteen!  A bit excessive I know but there you are.  They live in rural Georgia. One of her latest is a black boy named Terrance who was adopted from Nashville, Tennessee, and when her pretty granddaughters suddenly appeared with him and called him their cousin I guess some eyebrows were raised.  Hopefully this will be a growing experience for the whole community.  Terrance is doing well but still a trifle alarmed by the cows who rush towards him when it is time for them to be fed.  Her granddaughter Mia is a cute little baby with red hair.

 

I enjoyed showing Ruth our beautiful little new house.  She cleverly timed her visit and came when the leaves were just turning.  We both love the fall colors.  With Savannah I guess I had forgotten exactly how energetic teenagers are.  But she had a really sweet disposition most of time, although perhaps a mite giggly and squeally.   Savannah went swimming with me and she was really a little mermaid turning somersaults in the water and racing beside me while I swam laps.  Savannah tries to be tactful and when we were discussing dyeing hair (she is trying to convince her mother to let her dye her hair blue) I asked her if she thought I would look good with purple hair.  I do like purple.  "Well, Aunt Rebecca I think you look good in natural colors," Savannah replied.  Ruth and I laughed.

 

We visited the museum in Marietta, Ohio, where one of the exhibits was about coal mining.  As our father and grandfather, not to mention various uncles etc., worked in the mines we tried to relate this family history to Savannah. We also visited family cemeteries with flowers for the graves of our parents and grandparents.  

 

Another day the three of us visited a conservation park called The Wilds where they breed endangered species.  My favorite was Rustus the rhino who lay there ignoring us as the bus stopped right beside him so we got a really close look.  There were all kinds of animals and the bus drove though the fields where the herbivores were which was nice.  The carnivores were penned but in very large pens. It was amazing to see the cheetahs loping along.

 

Some pictures:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157608171895706/

 

We spent much of the visit just lolling around and talking.  Ruth is as voracious a reader as am I and we compared favorite authors.  Savannah who is home-schooled did a few lessons and spent a fair amount of time emailing her friends and trying out our hot tub.  Where was Dan in all of this?  Well the three of us kind of overwhelmed him but he did cook us delicious dinners at the end of each day.

 

 

We hope none of you have been adversely affected by the apparently worldwide turbulence in the financial markets.  Perhaps things will be back to some normality soon.

 

Keep in touch.

 

 

Dan and Rebecca

http://www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

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BIG WIND

"Shine on, Shine on, Harvest Moon"   *

 

 

The full moon in September is the Harvest Moon; its bright illumination allows farmers to work well into the evening to bring in the crops.  This moon is celebrated around the world.  Chinese and Asian cultures have a substantial Moon Festival with special foods and many activities to commemorate the harvest.  We hope many of you enjoyed some delicious moon cakes.  But this year the full moon last weekend will be remembered in the USA for Hurricane Ike.  So let's go back in time to last week, particularly the weekend.

 

When Ike came ashore in Texas, the weather people were already predicting that it would track north towards the Ohio River area and, although diminished, would still be a potent storm – not unusual.  As they subside, storms out of the Gulf of Mexico often come up the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, mostly bringing rain.  Actually we were looking forward to some rain to recharge our cistern.

 

So when we drove to Columbus on Friday to have a bon voyage lunch with Ralph – off on his annual sojourn in the City of Lights (Hope you are enjoying your charming flat!) – we expected the rain, sometimes torrential, that we encountered.  Rain continued on and off while we worked at the studio in the afternoon.  But the weather folks said this was a different system, the remains of Ike were yet to come.

 

Saturday we were able to contact JT who had recently relocated to Houston.  We were relieved to hear that the family had power and water, and were doing well.  Their section of Houston had not been evacuated and escaped relatively unscathed.  We should have been more attentive when she said there had been a lot of wind.  The remainder of the day passed with the usual chores and we prepared to watch the OSU-USC game in the evening.  The weather had been rather innocuous and was calm as we went to bed at halftime. 

 

Sunday dawned without much hint of what was to come.  We were peeved by yet another embarrassing performance by the Buckeyes in a big game, but otherwise nothing unusual was in the air.  The weather people were still warning us to be prepared.

 

And then late afternoon/ early evening it hit. The winds did blow and howl.  The remnants of  Ike had conjoined with a cold front out of Canada and produced a major storm  We could hear trees crack and groan as they strained to remain upright.  We heard thuds from time to time alerting us that trees had fallen.  We even saw a few trees behind the storage shed fall into the ravine.  And then just before 7 pm it became calm for an instant before a truly fierce gust powered through.

 

And then a really loud sound of a tree hitting the ground.  Very close by.  We could feel the force.  We looked out the patio and discovered the tree – on the house.  The wind had uprooted a tree from the bank behind the house.  It crunched a corner of the patio and later we learned put a hole in the roof.  It is a testament to the quality of our house that there was no structural damage.  Here are some pictures:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157607354048670/

 

 

We immediately contacted our neighbor the timber man to get first in line to have the tree removed.  We contacted our builder who was able to schedule us at the top of his list.  (They both would come out Monday morning to evaluate the situation.)   And of course we contacted our insurance company (which has been very responsive thus far). 

 

About the same time Sunday night the electricity went off.  Fortunately we had a generator to keep our freezer working.  The electricity came back on early Tuesday morning.  The tree was removed and the house was repaired good-as-new on Tuesday also.  We had about two days of 'roughing it' but all is back to the usual routines.

 

We know many of you also had your lives disrupted by Ike; some of you probably suffered an electrical outage longer than ours.  We pray that all is back to normal with you as well.

 

*  To listen to a rendition of "Shine on, Harvest Moon" go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yki0xD7VSlo&feature=related

 

 

 

On another note:

 

Nick has relocated to Madison, Wisconsin.  The University of Wisconsin needed someone of Nick's expertise to work their system similar to Carmen at The OSU.  Nick fit the bill and they made him an offer that provided a good career opportunity.  We will miss him up there is the land of cheese heads but know he will do a superior job and will be a great asset to the Badgers.

 

 

Dan and Rebecca

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

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CONSTRUCTION

DETOUR

 

 

A few of you have ventured out here to the holler to visit.  We have very much enjoyed your company.  We think you have probably also found the new place to be rather idyllic.  We welcome all of you to come when your schedules allow and would happily send you directions.

 

However, beginning right after Labor Day and probably going through October a key road, Old River Road, is going to be partially closed to repair the bridge over Brush Creek; you may recall some pictures of the creek which borders our property.  Thus the route is a bit different than normal for 45-60 days.  Should you want to visit at that time, just let us know and we will send revised directions – they may actually be easier to follow.  It is going to be quite colorful here when the leaves take on their autumn hues.

 

We have augmented our pictures.  In the Vases and Bronzes set you will find some more of the vases about town as well as a couple of the original Weller vases at the Zanesville Art Center.  There are many more vases – and bronzes too – around town and we will continue to add more photos.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157606523319131/

 

Previously we mentioned the cacophony of frogs that lulls us to sleep.  It seems that for the most part their time has past.  But there are still a few about and we managed to snap a few pictures of some little green ones.  It is amazing how much noise these fellows can make. 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157606946221701/

 

 

We hope all is well with you and your families.  Keep in touch.

 

Dan and Rebecca

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

 

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A NEW DIRECTION

EXTERIOR ART

 

We have not talked to you in a bit, but we are still alive and well.  We have been busy getting the houses in order.  Most of our art is now in place at the new house.  And we have become involved in the local culture.  Here is one aspect of our current activities.

 

Rebecca and I are taking a different direction in the art we will collect:  we are going to concentrate on works that can live outside.  Because our house is small and we have substantial land, it only made sense to us to adjust our collecting to fit our space, perhaps creating eventually an art park of sorts.  We are looking to create rather permanent installations throughout the property.  Here is a little story about our first major piece and the art scene in Zanesville.

 

One would be mistaken to think that Zanesville is an artistic backwater.  On the contrary, there is significant art activity here.  And we do mean art, not just craft or craft art.  Some of you may know that this area has had major pottery works for over a century.  Although most of the big factories have long since closed, there is still a thriving community of smaller facilities and craftsman producing exquisite works of various ceramic materials – clay, stoneware, porcelain, etc.  While many produce utilitarian works, such as plates bowls and mugs, they also are making objects that rise above 'craft' and are true art forms.  And there are artisans in wood, metal, and other materials. (There are not so many doing blown glass, but there are several doing stained glass and beading.)  And there are practitioners in other traditional crafts, for example, quilting, as well. 

 

Visitors to Zanesville, particularly the downtown area, are struck by the number of large outdoor installations.  Scattered around town and in front of many businesses are tall vases or bronze sculptures.  The bronze sculptures are mostly made at Alan Cottrill's studio located downtown.  His sculptures can literally be found throughout the world.  Many are larger than life size.  His studio is open to the public and he has numerous works in development.

 

The other large objects one sees are the tall 7 foot (2m+) vases.  These are a homage or tribute to the Weller company that until it went out of business in 1948 was one of the premier pottery works in Zanesville.  (Some of you may have heard of the company on Antiques Road Show.)   Weller made a few giant ceramic vases.  They are rare and valuable.  The new ones about town are made of some acrylic/polyvinyl/plastic composite and are specifically made to resist weather.  (Interestingly I think some of the original molds were developed at the Cottrill studio.)  Other cities have had there large sculptures, such as Cincinnati's flying pigs.  We have our giant vases.

 

Here are some pictures of a few of outdoor installations around town.  We will add more as we have an opportunity to take photos.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157606523319131/

 

 

We thought it might be nice to some day have one of these.  On one of the gallery tours we learned that what they were made of and the approximate price – not cheap but not out of line.  As luck would have it, soon after our stroll the Muskingum County Community Foundation announced it would be holding an auction of giant vases to benefit various art organizations around the county.  (In addition to the excellent museum here, the Zanesville Art Center, we know of at least three artist organizations:  Art Colony of Zanesville, the Artist Cooperative, and the Zanesville Appalachian Arts Project.)  The reserve price on the vases was set well below what just the blank would cost and various artists would donate their time to paint the vases.  Here was our opportunity to purchase a piece at a considerably reduced price.

 

But there was a problem.  We had a much more important engagement in Columbus on the night of the auction.  (We miss you SK and MC L)  However, the advertisement had a solution to our dilemma, so we thought.  Vases could be purchased outright at a slightly higher price.  So we went over to the auction site to see if we could make a private preview of the pieces. 

 

Lady Luck struck again as the building was open and one of the artists was finishing a vase he was contributing.  We looked around at the thirty or so vases that had already been delivered.  All the vases were of good quality.  Designs went from abstract to illustration.  There were lots of flowers and nature scenes.  Several showed local landmarks.  But one in particular caught our eye and was our first choice.  It had been made by a well-known stained glass artist; she had put in well over 100 hours of work.  Later we would see it featured in much of the publicity about the event.

 

We contacted the director of MCCF and asked if we could pay the 'buy' price for the vase.  Unfortunately this piece was not available as the artist had stipulated that the vase be auctioned.  But the director suggested he could be our proxy and make a bid upon our offer.  We accepted his generosity figuring that the vase would receive a much higher bid and that we would wait until a later date to purchase a giant jug.

 

Although there was good publicity before the event, the local news did not give the actual event much coverage.  Partially that was due to the fact that there was another significant auction of historical property and artifacts the same weekend.  We assumed our prediction was correct and our vase went to another home.  When the MCCF Director called a few days later we thought that surely he was going to tell us that a much higher bid had won the day.  But no, we actually were the winning bid – and at a lower price than our original offer!

 

Now, how do we get it home?  We drove over in the beluga, but discovered even it was not big enough.  Lady Luck again visited.  The MCCF had a person who would deliver.  We contacted him and he brought our vase down to the holler.  He is a sculptor who was involved in the design of the original molds and has a hand in finishing the blanks.  The delivery charge was quite reasonable.  Here are some pictures of the vase and a few other pieces of outside art:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157606435035494/

 

 

Hope the summer has been kind to you.  Let us know how you are doing.

Best wishes.

 

Dan and Rebecca

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

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HOME

IT IS NOW HOME

 

We have essentially finished our relocation.  Just a few items remain at the old house in Dublin, most of them belonging to our children.  With a little luck we should have the place on the market before too long.  And the movers brought our last delivery.  Now we need to adjust to our new surroundings.  As Mrs. T relates, we have been doing some explorations on and off the property.  We both find it peaceful and idyllic here.   And quite private.  Proximity of friends is missed most.

 

Below Mrs. T provides a taste of our environment.  She does omit that it is a bit of a hike to get around, a half mile up and down the terrain to go to the mailbox for example.  But here is an idea of how we are getting along.

 

 

Things are coming along as we say out here in the holler.  Dan is trying to fit in locally since he did not grow up here as I did.  I noticed him waving at someone as we drove by.  "Is that someone we know?" I asked.

 

"No, I am just fitting in with the milieu," he replied.

 

"Out here we call it the melloo," I corrected.

 

We have done a little local sightseeing down memory lane, going out to Ruraldale to find the one room schoolhouse where my mother first taught in the 1930's.  We visited Blue Rock State park where we were married thirty-eight years ago this August.  But mostly we have been working on finishing touches on the house and the land.

 

The road, which is ½ mile dirt/gravel carved out around and up and over the hilly land to get to our new house is much improved but still could use some more work (and more gravel).  After I got stuck on it for the third time in my 15 year old Taurus I admitted that a four wheel drive vehicle was probably needed. 

 

As our neighbor was getting a new car he gave us a good deal on his wife's five year old Cadillac Escalade which I promptly christened the Beluga.  It is, after all, white and about the size of a whale, but it does climb these hills.  I have not owned a luxury car and this car has buttons for everything.  One day when we were riding I asked Dan if he was too hot.  "No, I am just fine," he replied.  Oh well, just another hot flash, I thought, but no, it turns out I had accidently turned on my seat warmer!  This car is very comfortable and does carry a lot which is useful as we are still carting down bits and pieces from the old house.  However with the price of gas being what it is we use Dan's little KIA Rio for most of our running around.  But once when he got the KIA stuck I was able to pull it out with the Beluga.

 

We are making some progress in getting the amenities to our new house.  Our water is now hooked up so that the water from the downspouts goes through a filter before the cistern, through another filter after the cistern and then by a ultra-violet light and then we can drink it.  We do not have a well here because the strip mining has left the ground water in a poor state.  If the cistern goes dry we will have to haul water.  Right now we could use a gulley washer (Maybe frog strangler – see below – dt) to fill the cistern.

 

I have been transplanting a lot of flowers from the old house and mostly they are doing quite well.  I have also been working in the woods pulling up garlic mustard and multiflora rose which are two invasives.  There are an incredible variety of wildflowers here.  I have also been exploring throughout the property on the logging roads.  I found a way down to Brush Creek which is the boundary of our property on one side.  It is a lovely view. 

 

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157605685206828/

 

Every night we go to sleep to a chorus of frogs and every morning we awake to birdsongs.  I listened carefully and could hear at least four different kinds of frogs singing.  One night I said to Dan "Sweet choirs of froggies sing thee to thy rest!"

Dan replied to the affect that although he appreciated the sentiment he thought Shakespeare said it better.  I have been watching the tadpoles in our mud puddles and they have finally grown legs and are hopping about.  There are zillions of them and they are tiny, about the size of a housefly.  I love watching them.  The last few nights our frogsong has diminished a bit.  Dan says probably they have either found true love or have been eaten.  I am voting for true love.

 

 

Dan and Rebecca

 

Let us know if you would like to visit and we will send directions.  All are invited.

 

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

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Back online

Back in the Saddle Again

 

That is Gene Autry's theme song.  And here we are back online.  After having several more trees removed, the satellite dish is up and working and we seem to have a reasonably fast connection.  So we should be able to respond a bit more quickly (no need to commute to the library) to your emails.

 

Also, we now have a regular phone, more or less.  The connection – via the same internet access – is still a bit rough but we will work on clearing that up.  As a benefit, our telephone number will remain the same as in Dublin.

 

Finally, we also received our art work and now are unpacking it and trying to decide where everything will go.

 

We welcome anyone who would like to visit; just contact us and we will supply directions.

 

More later as we further settle into our hollow.

 

Dan and Rebecca

 

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

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Return is near

Home to the roost

 

Well, we will soon be departing our southern residence for our northern domicile.  We did not mind missing the record snowfall or the cold rains that followed.  But we must return the first week of April to complete the move to our new house and attend to related matters.

 

Important note:  Our telecommunications is likely not to have been completely installed.  We will be online irregularly and telephone communications will also probably be problematic (Our new house is in a nearly dead zone for cell phones.).  Please allow a few days for us to respond to emails and voice mails.  But do continue to send your messages; we will make every effort to respond.

 

 

Easter here is quite an affair.  The town has been crowded.  People have come and gone, mostly to be replaced by another group.  Many have two weeks vacation at this time.  It has been an experience about which we may write in the future.

 

Here is perhaps the last story from Mrs. T about this year's southern sojourn. 

 

 

Chickens

 

When you live in Bucerias there are three important sources of protein.  Beans are undoubtedly the primary local source of protein, and the most boring.  You can spice it up all you want to but after a while beans is beans if you know what I mean.  (I can eat beans and rice everyday. – dt)  The second source is seafood, but Dan does not care for seafood except for shrimp and I don't particularly enjoy digging out those little black parts.  Which brings us to chickens.

 

There are chickens everywhere here.  They definitely are free range.  If you thought much about what these chickens eat, the value you place in your KFC stock would decline significantly.  (AR, you must really come down for a visit.)  These chickens eat rocks, dirt, ants, bugs - just about anything small enough to fit in their beaks.  I have not discovered where they have their nests but I have seen them sleeping in the lower branches of trees.  Every so often you see a hen with a bunch of chicks following her around.  I can't think the survival rate for these chicks is very high considering all the dogs and cats that also free range around here.  But I have never seen the chicks attacked.

 

Perhaps the Roosters protect them.  There are many different kinds of Roosters here and they are quite colorful.  There is a Rooster right down our street who is obviously modern in that he operates on Daylight Saving Time.  He takes his duties quite seriously and begins crowing every morning about 4:45.  This Rooster has a very healthy pair of lungs whatever the size of his brain may be.  (Mexico adjusts time on 6 April; currently Jalisco is 2 hours behind Columbus.  dt)

 

Roosters play a significant part in the art scene here.  In fact Dan won a prize in a Dublin art show with one of his photos of a Bucerias rooster.  I actually sold a little painting in a Bucerias art show I made of a fighting cock.  It happened this way.  I took a picture of this rooster and using the photo as a model painted a small sketch of him in oils.  I did not particularly notice that this rooster had no comb.  At the local art show a cock fighting aficionado was quite excited and bought the sketch.  He told me you did not often see pictures of fighting cocks.  It seems the combs are cut off the fighting cocks so that their opponents can not attack them there because it causes a lot of bleeding (We wouldn't want that, now would we!).  (I think that cock fighting is actually illegal here but it goes on quite openly.)  Luis offered to take me to a cockfight but I graciously declined.  I guess my interest in the local culture does have its limits.  But then I don't go to boxing matches in the US either.

 

I have no reservations about eating the locally cooked chickens.  Almost every block has a little chicken place where they grill them over carbone fired in ½ of an oil barrel sliced lengthwise (or other creative contraptions – dt).  We have had a chicken 'family meal' every Sunday after church.  It is invariably delicious.  The family meal includes one whole chicken chopped into pieces, 2 servings of rice, 2 servings of cole slaw, 2 grilled onions, I bag of hot sauce, 4 tortillas, and 1 grilled green chili, all for 60 pesos (about $6).  The chicken is grilled with an orange sauce which I think contains paprika among other things.  One chicken is about 2 meals for Dan and me because the chickens are smaller and lack the breast augmentation we are used to in US birds.  You can buy larger birds from the chicken man but he explained to me they are really capons.  We do not know where the chickens come from.  There must be a chicken farm – probably several - somewhere because the birds we see wandering around are not nearly enough to supply the local consumption.  (We think over 1000 chickens are grilled in Bucerias everyday!  And there are several regular chicken chains that mostly do rotisserie style.  – dt) (Actually a lot of beef, pork, and turkey is also consumed here.  – dt)

 

Americans and Canadians have come a long way from their roots when most farm families had their own chickens as a cheap source of meat and eggs.  Many gringo children follow the chickens around not to mention the adults who paint and photograph them as if they were exotic.  At Easter time here they were selling little chicks that had been dyed different colors.  I can remember this from my childhood and I never quite understood it.  Dan reported he saw one of these dyed chicks with a little baseball cap glued to its head.  How odd! 

 

Today because of Easter we had Hot Cross Buns; they were yummy!! 

 

Happy Easter Everyone!

 

 

 

Dan and Rebecca

 

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157603660415941/

 

 

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THE ADVENTURESS

Further adventures

 

Mrs. T has become somewhat adventuresome this year.   And she has become surprisingly involved in local activities.  She is doing a splendid job with her Spanish.  She presents some stories below.

 

We are observing the primaries from a distance.  Much of the US election system is a mystery to our Canadian friends, but some of them have a basic understanding of our favorite sport.

 

This year we will be here for Easter for the first time.  We understand that it is quite a holiday.  Many businesses are sprucing up with fresh paint and other decorations.  The city also seems to be doing some repairs, cleaning, etc.

 

 

 

La Nina

 

The weather has been quite changeable for the last month but it is warming up.  The water temperatures have been very cold for diving.  This is due to an ocean current called La Nina.  (I think it is like El Nino but going the other way.  (Just lower rather than higher temp, I believe.  dt)).  Water temperatures have been in the 60's.  The other day I saw a humpback whale swimming by wearing long red underwear.  The octopi are busy knitting leggings out of seaweed.  Just kidding about the red underwear (it was dark grey).  As you dive deeper or move near undersea reefs and rock, you often come to a place where the water temperature changes (a thermocline). The change is quite abrupt, like a wall.   And often it looks like a shimmering wall right in the middle of the ocean.  Many fish like the cooler water and if you are careful you can swim in the warm water and look across into the cold water where all the fish are gathered.  Last week we saw a sea turtle, a lot of fish and eels of different kinds, lobsters, crabs and shrimp.  Perhaps the most interesting thing to me, because I had never seen it here before, was a garden of sea anemones.

 

Anemones are attached to the rocks and come in all different shapes and colors.  Some look like feathery ferns of all different colors.  Some are shaped like graceful trees.  There are anemones with petals shaped like daisies.  Some have long tentacles that wave slowly in the current.  Anemones can sting but they are quite lovely and the garden we saw was a combination of many different shapes and colors.  At shallower depths the visibility was bad last week because it had been windy and the wind pushes the water over the ocean floor where it picks up sand.  The sand here shimmers with a golden color – perhaps from mica -  and when the visibility is low it is as if you are swimming through sunbeams.  When you dive deeper, at perhaps about 50 or 60 feet, the waters clear.  There were familiar fish and fish I had never seen.  When I got back home I looked through my big fish book trying to identify the new fish I had seen, while I remembered my dives,

 

Diving is not the only joy that comes to me from the sea.  I continue boogie boarding and I am improving, although the Wide World of Sports has yet to call.  This week there was a new and wonderful thing on our beach which I believe is called kite skiing  (Kitesurfing or kiteboarding – dt).  These guys have huge oval shaped kites which they fasten to a harness they wear and it pulls them across the waves on large slalom boards. (See:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitesurfing  dt)  Yesterday it was quite windy and there were at least a dozen of them darting back and forth.  It looked like fun to me.  The kites were of bright colorful patterns and it reminded me of a time I saw a whole field of balloons taking off.  But the kites moved much more quickly.  Perhaps it was more like a butterfly dance with humongous butterflies.  The magnificent frigate birds were observing at a discrete distance probably wondering what new creature was invading their airspace.

 

 

 

Espanol

 

My Spanish is continuing to improve slowly.  At a couple of parties I had some fairly involved conversations with the architect, Jorge, who lives in one of the condos in our place.  He is working on the construction of a large new shopping center just down the road.  Also I had several conversations with some giggly young ladies who were in another condo for about a week.  Their father said, "I spend a lot of money to send you to that English school so talk to this nice lady!"  We ended up playing Scrabble in English and eating popcorn.  The grandmother and aunts came over and we all had fun.  I am taking the second section of intermediate Spanish at the bilingual school.  Our teacher this session is a marine biologist who is doing a population survey on sharks!  I found this interesting but did not offer to help.  When I first learned he was a marine biologist I asked him if he dove.  He replied that he did not want to dive with his subjects.  I can see that!  When he showed us the three books we were going to use in our class the main one was an ESL book.  I was just ready to open my big mouth and say no that is the wrong book, thinking English as a Second Language when light dawned.  This book is Espanol de Segundo Lengua.  Still my memory is all filled up with various things and it takes a bit longer to shove a few of them out of the way to make room for new Spanish words.  Alas, my class with the waiters was canceled when no students showed up.  Que Lastima!!

 

 

Supporting the Mexican Economy

 

While living here we feel a moral obligation to support the local economy.  To that end (as well as for aesthetic reasons) I bought a large tin angel.  I wanted to bring her home to put in my garden in Ohio but Dan demurred.  It is true she is about three feet tall and including her wings has a significant girth so perhaps Dan is right.  At any rate she sits on our patio here showering us with blessings and protecting us from evil influences.  I also finally found a green peacock (pajaro real verde) water jar that goes with our kitchen colors of green and yellow.  When I was wandering through the mercado one day I saw a little silver Kokopelli pendant that I really liked.  It seemed a little high and I did not buy it.  The vendor cleverly told Dan that I really liked it and guess what I got for Valentine's Day.  Kokopelli is the Indian flute player that you see dancing through a lot of motifs here and in the American Southwest.  Some historians believe that he might have been a trader who carried goods from the Aztec empire north since the symbol is seen in both cultures.  I always liked Kokopelli because he seems to be enjoying himself so much.  (He should be as he is a fertility deity often pictured with a large organ.  dt)  In case you might be thinking it is unpatriotic for us to support the Mexican economy when the American economy is not exactly thriving, remember we are probably doing wonders for the balance of trade.  Hasta Luego.

 

 

 

Here are some new pictures, including some of the items Mrs. T. mentioned.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/

 

Note on photos:  If you click on Collections or Sets you can view pictures from our past adventures.

 

 

 

Rebecca and Dan

 

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

 

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Special Report

CELEBRATION

 

Last night we had a little condo fiesta to celebrate Luis's birthday.  Joannes did a splendid job – with a little help from Karen and Karla – of putting together a first-rate party highlighted by two hours of music from an excellent mariachi band.  A good time eating, drinking, some dancing, conversing, and even watching the lunar eclipse was had by all.  Those of you that have been here will understand.

 

Here are some hot-out-of-the- camera unedited pictures:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157603953047892/

 

Hope all of you are well and warm.

 

 

Dan and Rebecca

 

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/index.html

 

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Artist at Work

Painting in Mexico

 

As many of you enjoy Mrs. T's stories, it gives her pleasure to periodically provide some insights into the happenings at our southern residence.  Before we get to the current offering, I will note a few other items.

 

Today we had home delivery of fresh strawberries.  That is, a truck farmer passed by with some fresh-picked fresas.  We have numerous visitors with food, wares, and services:  shrimp, watermelons, cheese, peanuts, oranges, bananas.  The list is extensive.  Some, like the peanutman, shrimpman, and pieman, come very regularly.  We have also had visits from the knife sharpener, palapa repairman, and amassage person.  Sometimes we buy and sometimes we pass.

 

About once a year we get to see how the really rich folks live when one of their motor yachts visits Vallarta.  This year it is the Attessa which R spotted when out for scuba.  Here are some pictures, from another source, of this ship which is just under 69m in length.  http://www.pbase.com/timrowland/antibes   And, yes, that is a helicopter on board.

 

And we want to draw your attention to a significant celestial event.  This Wednesday night there will be a total lunar eclipse that should be visible in North America.  Unfortunately in much of Asia it will occur in the daytime beneath the horizon and will generally not be visible in the northern hemisphere in that part of the world.  The next total lunar eclipse will be in December 2010.

 

 

So, on to Rebecca's story, some of which we referenced in earlier posts.

 

I am an oil painter, of sorts.  I make no claims for my paintings as to worth or meaning.  They have to speak for themselves.  But they speak to me.  If they speak to someone else that makes me glad.  Usually when I finish with a painting I love it.  After a little time has passed I may be able to see it more objectively.  (If I don't love a painting after I have finished with it, it probably is a real stinker but I keep it around a few weeks just to be sure.) My husband is seldom reluctant to point out the lacks of my works and usually he is right.  It helps to have someone advise you in this way but it is also annoying.  Dan has learned over the years so that he treads cautiously.

 

In our condo in Mexico my paintings meet with universal approval from our neighbors - from the maids, from the pieman who comes to sell pies at our door.  (In fact from everyone but you know who!  (Decidedly untrue. dt))  This is very gratifying.  It started with the pieman.  Last year he was so taken with one of my paintings he wanted to buy it.  What to do.  In a way I hate to sell my paintings, it is kind of like selling your children but I was very flattered.  On the other hand we do not have a lot of room in the condo and eventually the paintings will start piling up.  I do not want to belittle my paintings by asking for a pittance.  On the other hand how much money could I ask from a man who makes his living selling pies door-to-door?

 

After some thought I told the pieman I would sell him the painting for two pies.  He and I were both satisfied with this agreement.  When I initially told Dan he was happy about the deal (he loves pies as much as I do) but on reflection he thought I should have asked for more pies.  When we returned this year the pieman reappeared and told me how much the painting made his house beautiful.  He indicated that he had several more empty walls.  Both Dan and the pieman were eager for me to get to work.

 

The first large painting I finished was of a beach at sunset.  Dan explained to me that the composition was imperfect, and he was right.  Sigh!  However the pieman liked it a lot and duly traded for two pies.  The owner of a nearby restaurant indicated that he might like one of my paintings.  Dan urged me to get to work so I did.  I was painting a picture of a house in Bucerias with a very large fig tree in front of it.  I am very fond of trees and paint them a lot.  I had thought I would see if the restaurant owner would trade it for two dinners.  But when the pieman saw it he was beside himself with excitement.  It seems I was painting a picture of his brother's house.  He had to have it too.  He stopped by quite regularly to see if it was finished yet.

 

Usually it takes me about two or three weeks to finish a picture.  I have a general idea in my mind and sketch it on the canvas before I start.  Sometimes a picture takes off in an unexpected direction when it is halfway done.  Painting in Mexico is different I have found.  If you look at Mexican paintings you will often see that although they have very rich colors the colors have a velvety softness and not quite so sharp and bright as ones we normally see.  I think this is because that is the way it really looks.  There is so much dust that everything seems covered in a golden haze.  Robert Frost described it like this in "A Peck of Gold":

 

Dust always blowing about the town,
Except when sea-fog laid it down,
And I was one of the children told
Some of the blowing dust was gold.

All the dust the wind blew high
Appeared like god in the sunset sky,
But I was one of the children told
Some of the dust was really gold.

Such was life in the Golden Gate:
Gold dusted all we drank and ate,
And I was one of the children told,
'We all must eat our peck of gold.'

 

In fact another artist told me that Mexican oil paints have this same softness in hue.  I am not used to painting in this style.  In fact when I paint a tree I tend to make a different dab for each leaf, in a Nigglish kind of way (as described by Tolkien).  So far I have brought my paints from the US except for some Titanium white that I ran out of.  I bought an easel here too.  It is a little strange but if you prop a stone against one leg it works fine and does not fall over.

 

I was not yet finished with the house picture for the pieman when Estella, our maid asked me if I would paint a little picture of a rose for her grandmother.  Her grandmother was having a birthday and would be 104!  Dan encouraged me and said he was sure I could paint a rose although I had never done so before.  I promised Estella I would try.  After watching a video on the internet on how to paint a rose, I tried it and by golly after a little practice I did.  I was so excited by this new skill that now I am painting a picture of a rosebush.  

 

When I am done with this I have two more pictures in my head, another beach picture and another tree picture.  These three projects should keep me busy for the next six weeks until we leave for Ohio.  Dan took a picture of the house and tree before I gave it to the pieman.  I charged him two pies as usual although one of my neighbors said he thought it was at least a three pie picture.  You can judge for yourselves.  An interesting note: although I always sign my pictures, the pieman asked me to date this one also so that when I am famous he can tell when it was painted.  Dan had previously told me the same thing, about dating them I mean.  Isn't that odd?

 

A few additional pictures are at the usual site, including a couple related to this story.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/

 

 

Dan and Rebecca

 

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

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