My San Miguel Bedroom.

San Miguel de Allende...

...how it used to look. (Well, except for the automobiles.)

Toy Museum

Garage / Basement / Studio

Cleaning - first pass

Cuba Fest!

Isabel and Lourdes and I stumbled upon a free Cuban music concert in the central square in front of the cathedral. The music and dancing were thrilling. I bought a CD, some wooden hair sticks, and a wooden rhythm instrument. I wonder if they'd be considered contraband in the U.S?

Monthly Crafts Market

Located in the Instituto Allende courtyard....where I went to art school 42 years ago. Lourdes went to the market to meet new venders. I enjoyed it, but I left hours before they did. Lourdes's SUV was half-full when they got home.

Visitors from Guadalajara.

Isabel and Lourdes from Guadalajara and Tlaqueplaque.

Catalyst Quartet

A very talented string quartet played at St. Paul's on Friday night. Jesse Montgomery, one of the violinists, composed "Strum", the first piece they played, in honor of International Women's Day. A fabulous, and well-played program. Bravo!

Some Local Goodies

Menonite cheese

I found this delicious cheese at Costco in Celaya. Mennonites have lived in Chijuajua State since the early 1920's.

It rained the night the water came back on.

Will there finally be water?

All about pumps

The simple orange pump in the basement/garage is activated by an electronic float in the tinaco (large water container) on the roof. When the water level in the tinaco gets too low, this pump moves water from the huge cistern under Johnnie's casita up three stories to the tinaco.

The fancy Danish pump next to the tinaco on the roof moves hot and cold water sideways (to the washing machine), and down into the sinks, showers, and toilets in both houses. Water was running in the kitchens and bathrooms before...but was moved by gravity, and thus arrived in only in a bare trickle.

Fuerte (the dog) and (Santorini) Bottled Water

I used Santorini for bathing, washing, and cooking for ten days while the house water system was upgraded from basement to roof. 

Fuerte's always a good sport.

We celebrated water...but we jumped the gun.

The water isn't moving from the cistern to the pump in the basement. I need some sort of replacement valve at a pipe joint in the cistern (!?!) We're good campers and real troopers.

Oh, there's the original propane tank. I'm keeping that.

Ready to Paint the Garage.

The Painters and their Equipment

After pictures - Johnnie's Studio

Before pictures - Johnnie's Studio

Time to paint Johnnie's two-story studio.

I bought the paint and she paid for the labor. They did a GREAT job.

May as well throw in a new water heater...

Well, at least it's well-insulated. 

I finished planting flowers and herbs the day before the water stopped running

Not to worry. They like Santorini bottled water.

Empty 300 gallon tinaco, or storage tank

The new Whirlpool.

Too bad water doesn't run uphill. On the bright side, if it ever works, it will be very energy-efficient.

It all started with the new washing machine

Installing the New Washer

African Mask

Who'da thunk I'd have to come all the way to Central Mexico to find this gem? The frame is 31 x 18 x 3". Woven fiber, hand-painted hand-carved wood, and shells. Mounted on linen, in plexiglass frame.

Everything is Waiting for You, ©2003 Many Rivers Press

I met a new friend (from Boulder) at the Saturday morning organic market who told me about this poet, who will be here in San Miguel de Allende next week for the (bilingual) Writer's Conference and Literary Festival. I liked this poem and wish to share it.

Everything is Waiting for You

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

  -- David Whyte
      from Everything is Waiting for You
     ©2003 Many Rivers Press

Dinner at Arturo's Downtown Taco Stand

 

Yummy. Tacos pastor and gringas. A gringa is a cross between a quesadilla and a taco; a folded flour tortilla with melted cheese and grilled meat. 

Saturday Night in the Jardin

 

Battles of the mariachis, adolescents break-dancing in the bandstand, huge puppet-people, kids with large bouncy pencil-rockets. Folks come here for the weekend from all over Mexico.

 

Indiginous Music and Dance at El Sindicato

 

Kate and Julie are going to an all-day drum-making workshop with one of these drummers next Saturday.

 

Turqoise Painting in Progress

 

This is the same painting I was working on at the end of January...31x51" Acrylic on Canvas 

Saturday Morning at the Organic Market

 

Check out the kid with the little green guitar. If there's music in town, this kid is there! 

Four More Small Oil Pastel Drawings

Three Small Oil Pastel Drawings

Gangs of San Miguel de Allende...

..."This blog is about expats and rugs, not drugs"...is my favorite SMA blog.