from this past week... and "on fireworks in Mexico"

boris, looking out the glass door- one of his favorite past-times (until the doggies run up, barking and frighten him away...

the outdoor sala (living room), the giant rock in the sala, and the door to our apartment.

wilting marigolds, a clack-y skull, and a reproduction of a ralph steadman drawing
black bocho, green smeary wall.


Guanajuato (the state in which San Miguel is located) has the highest ratio of churches to people in all of Mexico. In San Miguel, shrines are in peoples homes, street corners, and there is at least 1 church per neighborhood. Most of these churches feature a bell tower, bells, and bell ringers. A few churches choose to ring the bell on the hour, quarter hour, half hour, and quarter 'til all day and night... Most churches begin the regular ringing at 7am... except on Sundays. Sundays, they start early. Exuberant, and early... For some reason, there were also fireworks this morning between 5 and 7... which is odd, because it starts to get light around then--- foggy and bright light grey--- so i can't imagine you can see them very well. I kept thinking that someone was banging on the metal gate out front--- but it was just two hours of regular firework blasts. This is something I knew would happen. Four years ago, I rented an apartment 1/2 block down from a church dedicated to San Antonio (St. Anthony)... On his feast day there was a huge circus-like event in the square in front of the church. They rang the bells and fired off fireworks all night long... and here, fireworks are more like enormous firecrackers, cherry bombs, and bottle rockets- a lot of noise and flash instead of sparkling colour.