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.

Chiles Rellenos at San Juan de Dios Market

The woman sitting at the other side of the lunch counter had just completed a five-day traditional Mexican cooking class. She watched the cook (right) carefully and announced that she (the cook) was doing everything just right.

A morning at the Mercado San Juan de Dios

Convent Church on Canal Street

Cool and quiet refuge from crowded streets and narrow sidewalks.

A Monday Concert

I saw this post on the SMA Yahoo Civil List and decided to go.

The 28 singers of Voce in Tempore have arrived in San Miguel after presenting successful concerts in Guadalajara, Leon and Celaya.  Their 25th Anniversary concert tour will end with a concert in San Miguel tomorrow (Monday) February 3rd at 2:00 in the afternoon.  The concert will take place in the Teatro Santa Ana in the Biblioteca Publica.  Tickets are 80 pesos and all proceeds will benefit the Biblioteca.  Their concerts are always delightful and this is a nice opportunity to hear this fine ensemble  in San Miguel.

The library was closed because its Constitution Day, a Mexican national holiday, so I couldn't have lunch in the Cafe Santa Ana. I ate a synchronizada across the street at Juan's...the same Juan who sells pirated TV series on DVD. The food was delicious.

Walk down to the Ancha

"The Ancha" means "the wide (one)", in this case, the wide road out of town to Celeya and Queretaro. I buy most of my groceries and hardware on the Ancha. the Don Pedro hardware store is just at the bottom of this street through the Colonia Guadiana.

Street Food...

...two doors up the street. Literally just steps from my front door. The two sisters who own the property prepare gorditas, tacos, enchiladas, and sandwiches for $8MX (about 66 cents) each. You can have a side of veggies, or chicken or pig's feet.