The Peruvian Pepper Tree

I have received several emails inquiring after the welfare of the Peruvian Pepper tree next to my patio, I suppose because it has been some time since I mentioned it. I can report that the Peruvian Pepper, with which I enjoy a special relationship, is thriving in this rainy season.

Cosmetic Surgery?

It is time once again for me to renew my permanent resident status with the Mexican immigration authorities. I carry a little card that attests to my legal residence here. It is called an FM3. The first year that I lived here I carried an impressive little booklet that looked like a passport. Things have changed since. Now I have only this card. In 2010 I neglected to renew my immigration status on time. I was an illegal immigrant in Mexico for two or three months. I do not wish to repeat that experience. I fear above all things being deported to the north.

Greetings Today to My International Visitors

Saludos today to the visitors to this blog from the great and historic nation of Russia. I know only this. There is more than one of you, and more than one of you has been returning here to this blog often of late. I simply wish to let you know that I have noticed your recent advent and am delighted that you have found something of interest amid all of this. Welcome.

Plaza de Toros From Above

The point here is not only the Plaza de Toros but also the detail on the roofs. Some explanation for visitors to this blog who have never been to Mexico; the rest are excused.

Independence Day Approaches

Independence Day on 16 September is almost upon us. Already the flag merchants are busy. This counts as a fountain photograph, also.

Calle Correo

Calle Correo now from its intersection with Calle Reloj. Cumpanio Coffee and Pastry is on the left. Great coffee and great pastry, although it is a little pricey because of the proximity to El Jardin, the main plaza. I keep referring to El Jardin as the main plaza. It is really only one among many. It is the main tourist plaza.

Clock Tower

Clock tower atop the old City Hall . . .

. . . which works, by the way.

Plaza El Parian

Plaza El Parian drying off. It is down by Mercado San Juan de Dios. Plaza El Parian is a plaza that I have never mentioned before here. It is not all that picturesque, but I like it down there. Lots of action usually.

Good Old Boys

Good old boys gather in the morning in Plaza Cívica to compare notes.

For the Welders

A special feature of limited appeal for the one or two professional welders who visit here on occasion. That pipeline consists of what appear to me to be four or five foot sections welded together over its entire course. Occasionally, one bumps into a special joint like this one.

Have I Mentioned That It's Been Raining?

The Canyon

A photo of the canyon yesterday. As a matter of fact that stretch of pipe that you can see clearly in the upper right corner is the stretch that is giving me trouble. When you are walking down, there is a great deal of air out there on your left side. (Slideshow here.)

Calle Aldama Again

Looking uphill now.

 Looking uphill then.

The Pipeline Revisited

This is where it makes the last turn and heads up the canyon at El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve.

Vulture

San Francisco Church with a vulture above, in from the reservoir for a visit.

Snapshots

The first day of school was Monday. This required a shopping trip last Friday down to the market called Mercado San Juan de Dios. I am in no danger of bumping into any other gringos at Mercado San Juan de Dios, I'll tell ya. (Rick, it is where you ate the ground goat.)

Final Fountain Foto

Context of the fountain pictured here and here at 8:17 a.m. on Sunday morning at the corner of Calle Hospicio and Calle de la Barranca. There is an old boy up there sweeping off the rooftop patio, and he looks like a gringo to me.

I cannot promise that this will be the last photograph of a fountain, but I will do my best on that score.

Date unknown. There is an electrical wire, however.

The Crust

I do not believe that I have put up many photos of the homes of the well-to-do. I am not speaking of the super wealthy, but rather the upper middle class, I think we call them.

The well-to-do tend to take the high ground so that they can more easily look down. It was cloudy and hazy at 7:53 on Sunday morning.

The Bells

The bells in La Parroquia at 9:43 a.m. on 19 August 2012.

The Fountain Thing

This is a gated community Mexican style. Where is the gate? My camera lens is poking through the slats of it.  Down there at the circle drive you can see the obligatory fountain. So this would be a private fountain. My point is this. There are 45 public fountains in the central historical district--what I call "uptown" because one hikes up to get there from where I live. There must be four times that many private outdoor ones. But I am not interested in fountains that were built within the last hundred years. The public ones are the old ones.

My Final Choice

Calle Baeza, Núm. 7

at 8:19 a.m. on 4 August 2012. 

I know. I know. I said that I like that other newer one. However, after giving it a great deal of thought, I have to say that I am convinced that this house is more suitable to my station in life. I walk by this one often. Every time I do, I must stop and stare. Do me a favor. Click on that photo, and make it bigger.

Roof Drains

Not a bad picture, huh? I am kinda proud of that one. Taken at 8:21 a.m. on 9 August 2012 in Calle San Francisco. Very arty. Do me a favor. Click on that photo, and make it bigger.

Sierra Gorda

I have given short shrift here to the expedition into the Sierra Gorda in the neighboring state of Querétaro that Michel and I undertook during three days in late July. I took this photograph just as we were getting into those mountains. It was a white knuckle ride in the passenger seat of Michel's souped up Passat with the special suspension and wide, low profile tires of which he is so proud. The mountains became considerably more rugged as we proceeded deeper into them. I would characterize this as a photo of the foothills.

Disclaimer Redux

For me there is nothing more boring than visiting a blog wherein the blogger writes incessantly about blogging. That strikes me as a kind of exercise in masturbation. Nonetheless, I am going to do exactly that with this entry in order to review the bidding as briefly as I can.

Diego Rivera Again

The subject of Diego Rivera again. A couple years ago I had the opportunity to see his murals in the National Palace in Mexico City. You have to go to Mexico City to see those murals because they never take them out on tour. They are spectacular. I say that without any exaggeration. I only wish that I had been a bit more skillful with a camera back then.

As far as framed paintings are concerned, there are paintings that I like as much as "Nude with Calla Lilies," but none that I like more.

I have put that painting up in this blog before with a photo of my calla lily connection in San Miguel de Allende from whom I learned that the Spanish word for calla lily is alcatraz. At least hereabouts it is. I put an image of that painting up again for this reason . . .

Homemade Oars

The other boat. 13 July 2010.

Encore

See previous entry of  9 August 2012.

?

Awaiting the fiesta on the plaza. 17 June 2012.

I vaguely remember facing a similar dilemma as a young man. It is a good-news-bad-news situation. The good news is that the young lady has not yet walked away. The bad news is that he does not have the faintest idea what to say next.

A Cornucopia of Subjects

This photo allows me to accomplish several things. On the left is Saint Anthony's fountain on the corner of calle heroes and calle 20 de enero in my neighborhood, colonia san antonio. Down the street on the right is the house that I am fond of and wrote about previously. (I realize now that it is on calle 20 de enero, not calle 28 de abril.)

Plaza de Toros Oriente in August

Residential Security

Here is a middle class home on calle 28 de abril about three blocks from where I live. I like this one. It is complete with a cupola skylight. Obviously, not a single electrical wire, television cable, or telephone wire in town is buried, but that makes them easy to work on.

San Antonio Church

Finally, after more than three years, I took a decent photograph of San Antonio Church a half block up the street. I am enormously fond of that little plaza and the church. I do not attend, but I can listen to an outdoor mass when one is conducted in front of the church while sitting on my own patio. Sat in the shade up there in the plaza this afternoon and dozed off a bit before buying some hot dogs and bananas and heading home.

There is nothing artsy about this photo, but it does convey pretty well in a straight ahead way what the place looks like in good light, which there was in abundance today. Click right on the picture to make it big. I am proud of it.

The Moron Brothers

I am going to take a break and mail one in this evening.

Far and away most of the videos posted hither and yon in this blog are homemade by me because I like homemade entertainments best, the less professional the better. However, some months ago my friend Rick sent me a link to the video below that had previously been provided him by a mutual friend named Dixon. It is well done, but the content is the delight of it. Every once in a while, when I want to kick back myself, I play this video and watch it.

Parque Benito Juárez

In the early morning of 4 August 2012.

Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

Calle Aldama

. . . and off to work in the opposite direction early on the morning of 25 June 2012.

Calle San Francisco

. . . early on the morning of 25 June 2012.

Día de los locos

Waiting for the fiesta to start on a Saturday.

The Last Extreme Closeup

Six-year-old Lucia with me and ten-year-old Yvón behind the camera. Yvón loves the extreme closeup. I have explained to her that this is last closeup that will be taken of me for the duration now. Those days are over.

Irrigating Mexico

Nearby vegetable fields, broccoli as I recall, in the early morning. 

12 June 2012

My Street, Callejon de San Antonio

17 June 2012

For the Interim

After more than three years of pasting up photos here, I have run out of storage space with Google. They are demanding money of me for more storage space. Instead, I have been busy tidying up and deleting superfluous old photos to clear up more space while at the same time being careful not to destroy old blog entries. I shall be back here regularly as soon as I have completed this project. In the meantime my blog at Wordpress continues apace.