Peek-a-Boo Pigeon

Along Homobono (the street that becomes Cuesta de San Jose about half-way up the hill):
Several pigeons call this little nook "home".

This is the scene downtown:The gazebo in the Jardin has been converted into a large creche, complete with life-size Holy Family and sheep.


Billy and his family invited us to their Christmas dinner, which happens on the day after Boxing Day, the 27th. Madison, Joel, and I played RISK for hours. Joel eventually won- Madison was out, and my fate looked pretty sealed...so I surrendered in lieu of playing for another hour or two.
The RISK board Joel received for Christmas is tri-lingual.

From the roof of the apartment we watched this Christmas Eve sunset. When I stood close enough to the edge, I could hear smooth-jazz-esque Christmas songs floating up from one of the other home gardens off the Callejon.
The sala fireplace, complete with festive a poinsettia.

Yesterday Madison gave a Christmas Morning puppet show for the garden occupants. The landlady's caretaker also invited her grandchildren to come. Madison worked his few Spanish phrases into a lovely performance- everyone got several good chuckles out of the act. The Little Vampire was a big hit, as was Sammy.
The Little Vampire, asking me to be so kind as to untangle his strings from his hands.

Madison and Charlotte, performing on the steps outside our apartment.

Posadas, Festivities

the church in the neighborhood (Colonia Guadalupe) where Billy's studio is located.

Walking home from the studio on Monday, we stopped by Bonanza (the super-market we go to) for a few things. Coming out of the store and heading up towards our hill, there was a commotion in the street, a crowd was gathering, a cop was directing traffic. We had stumbled upon our second Posadas procession of the season. The bed of a large pick-up truck was festooned with banners, pine boughs, and spanish moss. Children dressed as an angel, the Virgin Mary, and Joseph stood (a little shakily) in their little diorama-like environment. Revelers (families with children) carried star piñatas behind the truck, singing from the Posadas song books.
The Posada Procession

Christmas Eve-Eve

A toy owl ("buho") and frog ("rana") riding our Christmas Donkey.

Yesterday, Madison & I went to the Tuesday Market- Tianguis. We've been meaning to go since we arrived in San Miguel, almost two months ago, but yesterday was the first time we managed to leave the studio and go up the hill (The market is actually just a bit further up and over on the hill where we live, but we have this addiction to going to the studio more or less any and everyday that we can. )
birds in cages stacked as high as I am tall.
Tianguis is an enormous market: part flea-market, part mall, part vegetable market. It makes me think of the "Portabello Road" song from Bed-knobs and Broomsticks- section after section of vendors selling clothes, radio equipment, tools, vegetables, fresh honey (one man had part of the comb in the wheelbarrow from which he was vending)... The vendors aren't grouped by the merchandise they're selling- a stand selling nail polish and hair ties will be next to a stand selling medicinal herbs and across from a taco stand. There were cardinals in cages for sale, beautiful roosters, turkeys, several long tables sacked with knock-off Pumas and AirJordans. All in all, it's a little overwhelming. The "tents" under which this is set up is actually just a patchwork of tarps, contributed and set up by the vendors.
A package of "SKERPLE" markers I purchased at Tianguis for 15 pesos, maybe a dollar and fifteen or twenty cents. I haven't opened them to see if they work, yet.

It's Christmas Eve. We still need a few things for dinner, such as chicken and herbs. I'm hoping someplace will be open. I'm making Chicken & Biscuits for our dinner. I think I'll be able to get away with baking biscuits in our little toaster oven. Our kitchen is so tiny, I wanted to make something that would be feasible on two burners (or less!).

More Dogs on Roofs, and a few rings

This is one of the dogs from an earlier installation of "Dogs on Roofs"... This pup, and its roof-top pal- a dalmatian- are some of the barkin'-est dogs on our walk from Callejon de Chepito to Colegio Militar. Dog sweaters are big here. I have yet to see a pooch sporting a super fancy sherling jacket (like in NYC), but I have seen more dogs in sweaters here than even in Massachusetts. I rather enjoy seeing the packs of dogs roaming the streets, some of them decked out in little sweaters or vests (sometimes a sweater intended for dogs, sometimes a hand-me-down from one of the kids). With the sweaters, you can then easily tell which dogs in the "pack" have a nice roof to which they can go home.

These are the rings that I made that I actually wear-- mostly first-run experiments.
Left to Right: Inside-out ring with shibuichi and wire, a sterling 1/2 round band, a mokume-gane 1/2 round band, a sterling 1/2 round band.

Today is the last day of class for X-mas/Winter break. We'll probably just be in the studio for most of the break, working. I'm getting immense pleasure just from watching preparations for Christmas, here. It's much more light and joyful than Easter. The grim and graphic Christ images haven't disappeared entirely; but now there are Creches, plastic animals, tinsel & light shooting stars (the star above Bethlehem), ice-cream shaped ornaments and pinatas. Humorously enough, the children here keep calling Madison "Santy Claus!"... The other day, we were in a small store and this little girl, maybe three years old at most, couldn't stop staring at Madison with this look of confusion and wonder. We think she might have been trying to figure out "What is Santy Clause doing in this store? Buying iced-tea? Is he watching me to make sure I'm being good?"

Callejon de Chepito, at night, with some singing Christmas lights in the background.

Las Posadas

Shrine for Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Artisan's Market, at night.

Tonight is the second night of Las Posadas...At about six this morning we awoke to canon fire from the pirate invasion fireworks. It took walking through the market for tamales to remember "oh! Las Posadas! Oh! X-Mas is a big deal here, right"... Las Posadas is a celebration over a week long (a Mexican week, eight days)... During which children (accompanied by adults) act out Mary and Joseph's search for lodging during the census. Two kids play the leads of Joseph and Mary, the children in the procession with them are pilgrims. The kids go to the doors of families, sing songs about the shelter-less Holy Family, and the kids are invited inside for a party and snacks, sometimes a pinata.

A collection of songs and stories for Las Posadas, purchased in Mercado El Nigromante

Mary and Mariachis

Yesterday was the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Thursday: Jenny (our garden-neighbor) and her boyfriend invited us out to snacks and drinks at a restaurant where classmates of ours work, and then to a 11pm Mariachi Mass afterwards. "The Restaurant" (actually its name) was overly overpriced... and the church where the Mass was supposed to be seemed completely deserted. We ended up watching karaoke (mostly Mariachi songs, Mexican pop and ballads) at another restaurant/bar...

The next morning, however, Madison and I ran into several Mariachi bands just on the way to class. About every block or two there seems to be a shrine to the Our Lady of Guadalupe- there are several inside and out of El Nigromante (the market where we shop and buy our morning tamales), and two along the Artisan's Market (also part of our morning walk to class). Mariachis were serenading the crowd at the tamale stand (which is right in front of one of these shrines). I'm glad the tamale vendors recognize me now, and know that I always get "cuatro tamales verdes." To get close to the stand I had to stand directly in front of one of the horn players- there was no hearing anyone speaking. In the Artisan's Market was another Mariachi band... ad this shrine had a large group of people listening, adding new candles to the shrine... and there were also folks passing out steaming cups of some sort of cider (with a prune floating in it), hot atole (sweet, slightly spiced, condensed milk), and bread rolls.... The folks even handed the steaming drinks and bread to the gringos (us) who had accidentally wandered into their celebration.

The Immaculate Conception

more from on top of Billy's roof- Antennas

I woke this morning, a shortly before seven, to the sound of canon fire fireworks, bells, and a large marching band. Mads asked what the commotion was about, but i had no idea.... Google answered my question for me- it's the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In Mexico, the Virgin Mary is bigger than both Jesus and The Beatles. The celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe is
coming up on the 12th.

Print by Jose Guadalupe Posada, depicting St. Juan Diego and his miracle.

I don't imagine we'll be able to sleep much, for all the fireworks.

From Billy's Roof

dried out lime

from on top of billy's roof... our apartment is on these hills... somewhere

panning to the right from the hills

laundry, trees, water tanks, looking out over Colonia Guadalupe.

Red Bird is Back Again

(although, I still haven't figured out what type of bird he is). While perusing the puppet books up in one of the other apartments, Mads found a bird identification book (from 1966), and brought it back for me to use. (Betsey- the landlady- has her book collection spread through-out the various apartments in the garden.)
the garden. The sand-colored domes cover the outdoor sala. The pink building towards the back is the land-lady's.

So... every morning at around this time (8:30 ish) someone nearby honks their horn for a couple minutes. If their honking overlaps (is drowned out by) the 8:30 church bells, then they repeat the honks. The horn sounds like it is on its last legs- nasal and whimpering. I'm hoping, anyway, that it is on its last legs.

We have two more weeks of class this month, before Billy (and Anna) take their Christmas Break. Being the understanding silver-guru that Billy is, we (the students) may come in for those two weeks and work in the studio, I'm telling myself that I will get a lot done-- maybe some Mokume-gane with shaku-do (4% AU 96% CU) and shibu-ichi (30% AG 70% CU), these in addition to sterling silver and copper....

Somewhere, further up the hill, someone is setting off fireworks.

sunset the other day...

this is that house I posted a photo of before, the one with the abundance of cats and pigeons... well, a large dog also likes to sleep up on the roof, with the kitties.

Boris and Birds and Itzcuintlis

three chihuahuas on a roof... if dogs aren't roaming the streets (quietly), they're barkin' at you from a roof. The indigenous peoples of Mexico used to eat a small, hairless dog: "itzcuintli"... Billy calls it "meat you don't have to refrigerate."
Boris wants to eat the little bird outside the window, a little brown spotted bird. I think it is taunting him, perched about five feet away from the screened window, making a loud, rattling, chirp-sound. He also wants to eat the hummingbirds that like to feed on the hibiscus outside the window.


Boris and Tomatillos and Garlic, this past Sunday- in our kitchenette

"The Hive", the tiles next to a door in town.

Scorpions, Birds, Clowns

The internet was out last weekend + a day or two... so several of these pictures are from then-abouts.
From a large, flowering tree in the garden.

Last weekend, several of the streets in Colonia Guadalupe (where Billy's classes are held) were closed off & filled with little carnival rides and tents with food. It had something to do with a mini-marathon between SMA and Atononilco (a tiny town and shrine).

Last Sunday we went to a (kids) puppet show. It was... yah. The best part was the reaction of the 10-and-under audience "That's a Real Man!" "Es un hombre!"... tough audience. This was the scene in the jardin that we exited into...
This was a clown, making normal people do silly things for a large group of onlookers. He was advertising for the Festival Nacional de la Risa (The National Festival of Laughter- a show of dozens and dozens of clowns).

The bright red bird is still hanging out in the tree outside our window. I got some more pictures of him on a sunnier morning.

Oh! and this morning I accidentally/unknowingly killed another scorpion.
This scorpion was only 1/2 the size of the first one.

up the hill, down the hill

white house, big white satellite, further up the hill than our li'l apartment-compound-garden.

bright red bird

For several mornings now I've seen a red & black bird hanging out in the garden, perched on the branches of the trees outside our window. I assume it's the same bird, and I'm quite excited at the idea that his perch tree is an indication of his territory. Really, I promise, his chest and cap are BRIGHT red, with black wings and a little black eye mask. These pictures don't do him justice, but they are the first images I've managed to get before he flies away.


(I'm kicking myself for not bringing bird books with me.)

Buratino

Circus-vertizing... It was like having the county fair drive around and advertise by towing the "world's largest hog" along.

Every other day (it seems) I hear a parade going by, somewhere in town... Most of these are to promote one of the various circus groups that visit San Miguel. Another way they advertise is driving around in a truck with speakers, towing behind them some of the circus animals. Last week, I saw a lioness being towed. This past Monday it was a camel (bicameral), mini-pony and a spotty-faced llama.



Somehow, Mads and I got talking about Pinocchio the other night. This led to me wiki-ing "pinocchio" and reading, aloud, a summary of the plot--- the story Disney doesn't tell. I, needless to say, prefer the more disturbing, original, version. This thread led to Buratino- Tolstoy's strange re-telling of Pinocchio, with a Russian twist... and this led to me hunting the internet for illustrations of Buratino. I'm in love with these illustrations. It seems like it'll be easy enough to track down a copy of this version via ebay (once I return to the states & a reliable mailing address).
Buratino burying gold coins outside the city of Catchfools, as the fox and cat (secretly) watch.

So. That was a fun diversion.

This is one of my favorite results from the second day of patinas....The pinks and purples were awesome, as were the egg blues and sea blues.


My other fun diversion this week has been the Japanese alloy Shibu-ichi, and the lovely patinas I can get from this copper-silver alloy.

My li'l set up for testing patinas the first day. The second day I called in the big guns and used the hot plate.

I'm excited about the full potential of these alloys and patinas. Next week, I'll play chemist and mix up some of the traditional Japanese recipes- such as the patina that calls for sake or beer and some (preferably rusty) nails. hooray!

an aside: one laptop per child, or buy one give one...

sunday, again...

It is Sunday, again. So, I suppose I will post some pictures from the past few days...


I noticed the pigeons here before, due to the loud coo-ing of the birds... But Friday was the first time I noticed the cats. You can't see all of them in this picture, but there were at least six cats--- including one kitten about the size of the pigeons.

We took a walk yesterday evening, heading down the other side of the alley and further up the hill. This is some dried vines and leaves on a chain-link fence surrounding an empty lot

Where the hill evened out, stood several houses, a store or two, and this language school (note the long-haired chihuaha in the doorway).

Magic Hour (dusk), and the lovely light it brings.




How Testing Atomic Bombs Changed Trees (and us...)

and on a related note...

How Many Trees Does Each Person on Earth Get?