Oh, Mexico

We've returned from a wonderful, relaxing beach vacation near Zihuatanejo, Mexico. The casa we stayed in was several miles from town on the long, soft sand beach of Playa Blanca. There was day after day of hot sunshine and it was glorious. It was quiet and remote and just felt great. Why do we live in the cold, boggy Pacific Northwest again?

There was a whole lot of swimming every single day.

And a lot of this:

And a lot of this:

The casa had a nice private inner courtyard. We were amazed to see a hummingbird nest right out in the open, about waist high, in the yard with a newly hatched hummingbird inside. It grew noticeably in the week we were there. So cool!

The caretaker, Gabriel, told me all about the many iguanas that live on the roof and in the surrounding trees. He said there were five in this tree alone. I spent a lot of time looking for those iguanas but never spotted one. "Huh," he said, "maybe someone took them." Oh, Mexico.

The house had a part-time cat who showed up daily to be fed and attack our ankles. She definitely ruled the roost and had me out buying cat food and cooking special cat meals. The owner named her Jessica, but we all agreed it didn't suit her, so we called her Gatito (little cat). She was absolutely lovely when she wasn't biting and scratching us.

Every night was a beautiful sunset. One of our last evenings, Gabriel and his family came for a visit and Gabriel fished for sardines (to feed his own cat, Panchito) in the setting sun.

Gabriel, Lenora, and Gabrielito

I'll admit that I've checked out a few Mexican real estate sites "just to see" if there's a perfect beach house for cheap on Playa Blanca (no luck, drat!). So if we should disappear, look for us on the beach just south of Zihuatanejo. [That's a Shawshank Redemption mention there--we even watched a bootleg DVD of it while we were there!]

Fall into winter

After a beautiful summer and fall, we are settling in for the dark, rainy months. The key, we've found, is to get out every day despite the rain. It's easier said than done, but we did attempt a rainy hike last weekend. And it was fun!

We appreciate the nice days when we get them, too. We played for a long time at the playground across the street. It was more exciting with the addition of his scooter. "No, you can't ride your scooter down the slide!"

Ole has joined the baton club at school. They're working on a routine for the Christmas program, I hear. He's certainly been practicing--twirling everything! Luckily I think Santa will bring him a "real" baton this year.

We made our traditional trek to the Christmas tree farm and chose a real beaut this year. It's our tallest tree so far (almost 10 feet!) and just lovely.

Memorial Day

Each Memorial Day, we make time to walk through the old cemetery next door. The caretakers spend the weekends before mowing and trimming, and just before Memorial Day, they add sweet bouquets of flowers. It's a quiet country cemetery, with graves going back to the 1800's, and we talk about what life must have been like here so long ago. Tough and wild.

Back at home, the weekend was all about the garden. We tilled and raked the beds smooth, planting a little of everything, plus a lot of tomato plants--25 or so of the Cordova variety for canning and salsa making (and my favorite--homemade pizza sauce). The zucchini, corn, and cucumbers we planted last week are already up and growing like crazy.

Radishes and snap peas

This year's beehive is doing great! We've had a rough few years with bees, so we've got our fingers crossed for a bounty of honey this summer. Alex has taken over the beekeeping as I've become less gung-ho about it, but I do stand nearby giving "helpful tips." I imagine eventually he'll tell me to buzz off.

He's just hamming it up, though it looks a bit like he was stung in the butt.

And I'll end with a couple photos of the happy kid. We disassembled and moved the trampoline back outside for the summer and even put the sprinkler underneath on a particularly hot day.

Walking on sunshine, yeaaah

Birds and beaches

We're welcoming spring in the usual way around here--new baby chicks. We put our incubator to use again and hatched out six fluff balls.

Then, because I'm crazy, I stopped at the feed store for "just a few more" chicks. We've got a soft spot for Ameraucanas with their gentle personalities and neat blue-green eggs. So now we have eleven.They're brooding out in the garage this go-round. The dusty mess in the house was getting to be too much. We don't spend as much time fawning over them out there, but they still get quite a few cuddles.

A few weeks back we spotted this cool bird nest about 30 feet up a big leaf maple in the yard. Luckily, our top floor deck gave a perfect view to snap a photo. We saw it moving so we know someone was in there, but we've yet to see who. Any idea what bird made this?

There were no grand plans for spring break this year, but we did have a couple small getaways to two very different beaches. Ole and I visited Hood River with our friend Lisa and her crew. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we played in my favorite riverside park. lunched at pFriem, and topped it off with ice cream at Mike's. Perfect! I was happy to show her one of my favorite spots.

Our other beach getaway was a pre-Easter post-birthday weekend at my parent's in Westport. We always seems to catch a lucky dry break to visit the beach; this time we went back to Westhaven State Park. I love how Alex and I are freezing in our jackets and Ole is barefoot in shorts.

A friendly Dungeness crab was nice enough to take our photo.

Mostly we're just enjoying spring: waking up to songbirds, bright green grass growing like crazy, and the adventures of a new season.