¿What did we do on Thansgiving Day?

OK, so ¿what did we do on Thansgiving Day?

Good Grief but life is so interesting here. And it seems that everyday is so full, and there is so much you plan to do, and so many other things that you actually do, and so much left that you want to get done. How can retirement life be so much full!

So Thursday Novemer 22, 2007 is Thanksgiving Day in the US. We gringos here in Merida use any and all excuses to get together in large groups, prepare food, mix drinks, tell tall tales, laugh, and just in general have a good time. So Thursday was no exception.

I started my day with my routine; get out of bed, slip on my fuscia flipflops, feed the cats to get them out from under my feet and to shut them up, turn on the computer, start the coffee, and head out for my garden stroll. I love to walk out to the garden in the morning; the moisture is on everything, the birds are finding all the tasty little insects or drinking from the birdbath, the plants are shedding off the old blooms, .... it's a wonderful place. And because we have such nice high walls I don't even need to worry about getting dressed. I just stroll out in whatever I slept in and my fuschia flipflops.

So Also on this Thursdays agenda was to prep my contributions for our T-day get-together. I did get dressed as I needed to stroll up to the corner mercado for some stuff to aid in my prep, well actually I needed most of what was required for my 'stuff'. I bought chayotes (a local squash ( http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/chayotes.htm )), potatoes, and parsley. My assignments were to bring the mashed potatoes and a veggie dish. My veggie dish decision was for stuffed chayote. Anyway, while at the mercado I also bought 2 tortas de cochinita (torta is a sandwich made on a french type roll, cochnita is young pig roasted in a marniade of achiote) for Tom and I to have as breakfast and to get us through to the feast which is scheduled to happen at about 2:30.

So I get back and Tom is starting to stir. I took my coffee and torta out to the patio and sat to eat and gaze at the garden, definitly need a small table and 2 chairs out under the kerpis palms. Tom came out to enjoy his breakfast as well, and as he often does he left the door open for the cats to come out for a bit of a supervised stroll. Matt, the old guy (24 years) was making a brief exploration and suddenly started to hiss.

This is very unusual for Matt as he is so docile and passive. Anyway, Tom got up to see what was the fuss and in the corner behind a large potted areca palm he saw a black cat that he had seen several days earlier. This cat has been badly injured and was in serious condition; we bemoaned the fact that we had been unable to bring any of Tom's weapons with us from the US as this cat definitly needed to be put out of its misery. So we discuss what can we do; get the machete?, get a shovel?, this cat's jaw is obviously broken, perhaps even the side of it's head has been crushed as it is obvious that one eye is also damaged. Anyway, neither Tom or I want to have to try to beat this cat to death, but we must do something, it is in pain and obviously starving to death. So what do we do when we need help: we call our dear friend Lida who has helped us in so many ways. I asked if there is any city service that will deal with this type of thing, and of course there is not but we can call the vet. So I asked Lida to call the vet for us; she reports back that he is schudeled to arrive about 12:30.

SO I go about the prep for our 'stuff'. Tom also must scale the orange tree as I need oranges to squeeze for naranjada. A juice made from the local sour oranges, sugar, and water. So tasty and refreshing, oh and darn good in mararitas too. Tom has a massage scheduled so heads out for that.

Anyway, to shorten this - food prep continues, take phone call from friend "Gene" in Colorado, Tom returns from massage, gets in shower, vets arrive:

The cat is a sad story, and I'm a little put out with the vet, who as it happens I know. He is from the vet office I use to buy catfood, frontline, etc, right up by our old apartment.
They (2 Vets, Julio and Carlos) got there about 20 after 12. I explained about the condition of the cat and took them out to see it. They got down and looked in to the corner - They stand back a bit, and looked, and discussed, then grabbed something from their bag and moved forward to catch the cat. Naturally since this was a basically wounded wild cat it reacted. They backed away and asked for a towel, while I was getting the towel and they were watching me the cat took off, not very quickly, the poor thing is in really bad shape. They did not make much of an effort to go after it. It went over the wall, so is still out there suffering horribly, and not even with the little bit of safety from others as it had on our patio. The vets offered to bring a tranquilizer pill if we saw the cat again - the cats jaw is broken and hanging, it can't eat and is starving, how the heck do they think we are going to get it to take a pill?????? I did not even offer them some gas money!

I just hope we don't see it again! It's so disturbing.

Ok so now I need to get a shower, we're already running late to get to our T-Day festivities. I already have everything packed and ready to go.

We arrive at the beautiful home of Geo and Bebe (not their real names), we are the last to arrive; we are 12 total. We enjoyed a lovely day of food, fun, friendship, and laughter. (I think Tom plans to blog about the celebrations so I'll be brief) And as is bound to happen turkey toxicity, and perhaps a bit of drinking takes it toll and we all start heading out to our respective homes. Whew, what a day. Oh, but its not over....

Then last night (4am), so technically today - 2 zorros (zorro means "fox" in Spanish, but zorro in the Yucatan means "opossum") decided to have a fight on the terraza right by the back door, Tom slept through it. I grabbed a glass of water and threw it through the screen on them, one ran off, the other stumbled around I thought it was going to fall over and I'd find it dead on the terraza this morning, but it's gone - thank goodness.

Who knows what today may bring!

¿Why did I squeal like a little girl this morning?

I'm not afraid of bugs, I don't particulary like them, but I'm not afraid of them. In fact I am incredibly mesmorized by the Black Soldier Fly maggots ( http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg226.html ) living in and assisting with my composting. They are extremely disgusting to watch, but also morbidly fascinating; and they are breaking down my kitchen waste into usable compost in record breaking time.

Anyway, back to my original question - Today is cleaning day; Marta comes once a week and we spend the day tearing the house apart and cleaning. On these days I like music, loud music, rock n roll or heavy metal. To that end I opened a dresser we use for storage of cd's, books, dvd's, and miscellaneous stuff in the office. I grabbed an external hard drive that contains what sometimes seems like the sum of all music but I know it is not, thank you Jim for this wonderful gift. As I lifted the hard drive a swirl and writhe caused me to jump back and squeal like a little girl. Thank goodness I maintained my grip on the harddrive. Any way the drawer was infested with LARGE back ants, probably carpenter ants, and their nest of eggs. Eggs larger than grains of rice. ( http://entomology.unl.edu/images/carpants/carpant_queen_brood3.jpg )
Anyway we, Tom, hauled the drawer out and we pulled the contents out then upended the drawer and the three of us did a new version of the mexican hat dance.

Now we are scouring the house looking for any other sign of ant activity, well except those pesky little kitchen ants that keep chipping through the grout around the kitchen sink; but that is another story.

The Orquestra Sinfonica de Yucatan

Merida has a wonderful symphonic orquestra. http://www.sinfyuc.org/ We go with unfortunate infrequency. We mean to go more often but there is just so much going on here all the time.

We went to the symphony this past Sunday, for a Concierto de Rachmaninov. There were actually 3 pieces performed, only one of which was Rachmaninov; the other two pices were by Mozart, and Schumann. After a lovely breakfast at the Hotel Colonial http://www.hotelcolonial.com.mx/, we went to the concert with new friends Ken and Lee. Ken and Lee are our neighbors and only get to visit Merida occassionally as they are still living and working in Canada. They are artists of stained glass in Canada.

The concert was held in the Teatro Peon Contreras. It's a gorgeous building; maybe an arquitect friend will help me to better describe the style after seeing some pictures.

We elected a box seat in the primer nivel (level one). Beautiful red velvet seats, cherubs, and an amazing chandelier and mural. Just look for yourselves:

The concert was great, we all really enjoyed it. There were a visiting conductor and a pianist for this performance. And only $80pesos per ticket. It doesn't get much better.

The Garden

I have had requests for info on the garden,

so this first post will be about the garden.

This first picture will be what it was when

we bought it, May 19 2006!

It's really horrible but has such potential.

This next photo is from Feb 2007

and now Nov 2007. What a difference!!

I started by creating a diagram of the space; it is quite uneven with slopes, dips, divots, and grade. Tom wanted to bring in a machine and flatten the entire space but I really wanted to maintain the existing topography.
I diagramed the foundation pieces; the large trees and design features. Overall we’ve stuck with the plan. Some plants have come to us unexpectedly and we’ve worked them in.

The foundation is in place, now we are adding in the art features, and the color; bushes, flowers, art work, interesting rocks, etc. I want to create pockets of space for rest, reflection, exposure to the local wildlife; well except for the stinky zorro (opossum), and a space where we attract wildlife; birds, butterflys…

I will try to post individual plants with their names as I am able.

Still in the design phase is a pergola and an aviary. The pergola design is set, in fact there are markers in the yard with the corner post set at the N, S, E, and W compass points. I just don’t want to commit to workers at this time. But it may be getting close as I’d really like some hammock hooks outside.