Patzcuaro Time Lapse

 

Earlier in the year, I updated my camera. Yesterday I have finally found some time to play with the new bells and whistles.

The results, a time lapse view of the clouds that have been hanging around over the lake, and around El Estribo. This is only my second attempt at time lapse photography, but I think this has potential!

Clouds  Dancing over Janitzio, on Lake Patzcuaro

 

 

TExt to add space before the end of the post

Drool – The New Black

So, are photographers who chase around taking pictures of those still in diapers called the Pooparazzi?

Just got back in the door from doing a significant amount of running around. I have a ton of pictures backloged for lots of fun posts including some really neat places. Until then let me just pop up a picture of a very charming young lady I recently met. Apparently all the hippest young ladies agree that drool is the new black.

A couple of blog items to update, the blog now has it’s own domain, so update your bookmarks to…..

http://www.life-in-el-corazon.com/

I have also just noticed that my list of blogs I like to visit, that I keep over on the right, seems to have disappeared. I don't know if that happened with the domain move or was caused by something else, but I will get that fixed this week!

SpongeTodd SquarePants!

 

Just got back from a whirlwind trip to Mexico City. I was lucky enough to be a part of the quinceanera for four charming young ladies. These are the girls that I have met through Esperanza House. We often have long talks, covering many areas.

It was in the midst of one of these conversations when Yadira (who's 15th birthday I was there to attend) stops and looks at me very seriously and says “You are an amazing person” and gives me a big hug. My heart swells, I am deeply touched. Clearly this is a brilliant and insightful young woman.

The Beautiful Yadira…… and some  (Possibly spongy)  guy.

Not being one that wants to miss out on hearing how great I am , I ask her what makes her say that. She looks at me, takes my face in her hands and after a dramatic pause says…..

“Even though your body is old and spongy, your heart is very young”

Please keep in mind that this conversation took place in Spanish, and trust me “esponjoso” actually seems worst than spongy. Now, to a young woman of 15, anyone over 30 is old and out of shape, but still…… Well, perhaps I could use a little more exersize.

In the past, whenever I heard someone say “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” I use to remind them of the Trojans. Now I know better. I now stand firmly in the Trojans camp. I now know I shouldn’t have asked why I was amazing.

Oh, for those of you who don't get the title of this post, ask your grandkids about SpongeBob SquarePants and all will become clear.

Excuse me, but I have to go do some push-ups now and then run 5 miles!!!

A Patzcuaro Flashback

Look what I found!

Surfing on the internet I came across an old photo of Patzcuaro that I thought I would share with you. I am not sure of the date of the original photo, but would guess early 1900’s.

Can you count the stereotypes?

I decided I would go reshoot the same spot so you can see the changes. There was surprising little difference beyond the power lines and the red car that I photoshopped out of the picture.

Back to the future!

Sorry, but when I went there, the guy with the sombrero and the donkey cart was away for siesta, maybe next time.

So, who can tell me where the picture was taken? Just leave a comment

I found this fun to do, and I have some other old Patzcuaro shots I can redo also, would that be of interest? I wonder….

Patzcuaro, Pueblo Magico

More on the saga of the broken femur!

As you may remember, about 4 years ago Shannon broke her ankle rather badly. At that time we bought her a wheelchair, to use until she was able to put weight on that ankle again, or at least until she could use crutches. It was  a very handy thing.

Shortly after the wheelchair was no longer needed, a notice went up on the local message board. An elderly woman in Morelia was in need of a wheel chair in order to continue to make a living.  We quickly make arrangements and the wheelchair is off to someone new who can really use it.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago. I am bringing Shannon home from the hospital. I pull into our driveway and there , in the middle of the driveway is a wheelchair for Shannon to use.

One friend provided the wheelchair, and another delivered it.  Maybe it is karma, or maybe just kindness, either way  Patzcuaro truly is a Pueblo Magico!
Thank you!

4 Star Dining, with none of the work!

With the ankle break 4 years ago, we were very new here, and were amazed and the outpouring of kindness, support and more than a few meals from our brand new neighbours. I talked about it in the post “Welcome To Mayberry”.

Now we have been here longer and know many more people, and if I thought what happened 4 years ago, was amazing, I really don't have the words to describe the response this time. Kind words, offers of assistance coming from so many directions, more flowers than we can count. Thank you!


When we left in the ambulance the dining room was a mess, with a pint or two of blood pooling on the floor, but returning , there is no blood, there is no mess. I did not clean up, our neighbours did.  Thank you!

The ladder, that had been left sitting in the garage, had been hidden about the back, they did not want her first sight, arriving at home, to remind her of her accident.  Thank you!
 
Patzcuaro truly is a Pueblo Magico!

Sadly, it seems my reputation in the kitchen is well known, so friends and neighbours were bringing us our dinner every night. So many that, one of our neighbours here had to set up a schedule so we wouldn't be swamped with meals. Thank you!

We have eaten like royalty, globetrotting royalty actually. In the last few weeks we have eaten, Mexican of course, American, Italian and even German!!! The picture above was a meal from the other night. Garden fresh salad, homemade lasagne, and a bottle of wine, oh, and don't forget, for dessert, home made tiramisu. Thank you!

Patzcuaro truly is a Pueblo Magico!

We are very lucky to live in a place as beautiful as Patzcuaro, with a heart as big as Patzcuaro’s .It is not just the stunning landscape, it is the people that make it so.  Thank you!

Patzcuaro truly is THE Pueblo Magico!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times!

Dickens is too long dead to resent my stealing his line, but if I took all the time in the world, I don’t think I could come up with one more apt for the last couple of months. As you may have noticed we have been to busy to keep the blog up, but that has now changed. You will have a great deal to read as I catch up on the our goings on.

We have had the best of times with a group of young ladies from Mexico City you may remember then from this post.

http://www.life-in-el-corazon.com/2009/05/my-dusty-love-note.html

A road trip to Texas, house sitting in San Miguel, and just working and playing in the garden. Many of these things you will be updated on shortly on this blog.
But…..

We have also just has the worst of times. You may remember our adventure with a hummingbird stuck in our skylight some time back. Here is that post.

http://lifeinthecorazon.blogspot.com/2008/03/lion-witch-and-wardrobe-it-aint.html

Well, it just happened again. So Shannon, my wife, goes to use the same technique that worked last time.
Sadly, this time it did not go so well. The skylight is a bit over 20 feet off the ground. While at the top of the ladder, suddenly her world turns upside down, and she falls to the floor.
She hit the floor hard, really hard. I hear her scream and I come running. I find her on her back, blood gushing from her head, and her femur sticking OUT of her leg.
A quick shout out to my neighbour to call and ambulance, then I am at Shannon’s side, holding the leg stable and doing what little I can to reassure her.
The additional gruesome details I will omit, but let me give you a summary.
The head injury looked much worst that it was. The neurosurgeon on hand at hospital stitched her up after making sure there was no damage to the skull.  A quick CAT scan confirmed no  other head problems, although we will have to be a little wary for the next little while, and keep her on anti coagulants.
Oh, and the scar she will have on her forehead, is the shape of the Mercedes Benz emblem. I just hope she doesn't want to get the car now to co-ordinate her look!
The surgery to repair her leg took twice as long as expected, as they has quite the jigsaw puzzle to put together. Below you can see the results.

OUCH!

There was a great deal of blood lost, first from the head wound, then from the surgery. Sadly Shannon’s blood type is AB-, very rare back home, and even rarer here! This has lead to Shannon being very week and tired, but she has been receiving injections that are helping with this.
Prognosis for the leg: it will be a long haul, and a great deal of hard work to rehabilitate the injury, but we are confident she will be able to walk again. The area of uncertainty is the damage to the knee. The knee cap was broken, but the knee also hyper extended in the fall so it will be some time before we know if there will be full range of movement or not,  if there will be a limp or not. That is assuming no other complications.
While this has been a rather nasty accident, we are feeling very lucky. The knee hit first, if it was the head that hit first the outcome would have been death or paralysis.

A Busy Month!

Vanessa and Me
Vanessa is one of the girls from Esperanza.
And before you ask, yes, my eyes are different colours, I am a mutant!

 

Okay, a busy week has turned into a busy month!

Our week with the girls of Esperanza was amazing, I will have a blog posting on that once we are home again.

Then, we had a quick run to Austin in the states.

Now we are finishing up a week of house sitting in San Miguel.

But we will be home soon, with lots of posts to catch up on.

I hope it is worth the wait

A Busy Week!

Hey folks, you probably wont hear from me much this week, and emails may not be answered quickly, but do not worry, all is well . I will be spending the week at camp with the Girls of Esperanza.

This is when I know that I am getting old. They keep us very busy. I think it may take me the rest of the month to recover!

Here is the blog post I did about the girls last year.

My Dusty Love Note.

 

Brenda’s very first horse ride, last year.

Bloodshed In Morelia!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Sometimes I get emails from people who have images of us living behind bars, dodging bullets/or flu viruses and generally living in a battle zone. In fact that image is about as far from the truth as it gets.
Sometimes , on occasion we are puttering around the “hood” and we forget to close our door. On one such day last week, we can home to find we had been visited while we were gone. How did we know? Our neighbor had left us a bottle of wine on the table that is just a foot or two inside our door.  Good thing our attack bunny rabbit Larry was on patrol!
If you havent met Larry the rabbit yet, have a look at this older blog post.

The Cat and Bunny Show.

Okay, back to the bloodshed! We had an early run to Morelia, that had us out of the house before breakfast and coffee. After parking the thing first on our minds was food and coffee, or perhaps, more accurately; coffee and more coffee then food.

As we strolled along cobblestoned sidewalks overlooked by colonial edifices; we encounter a sign promoting this months special at the local medical lab. Get your blood tested for $299 peso ( less than $25 bucks), this special for the month of March only. As it was the last day of the month, we took this as a sign. Well of course it was a sign, but you know what I mean, not just a sign but an omen.
A couple of questions, name, address, when did we eat last, drink last. 15 minutes later and a few vials blood (that was the bloodshed I warned you was coming) and we were off to breakfast.
 

What was included?

 

 

Returning 2 hours later, we pick up our results, a clean bill of health; with just a couple of things to keep an eye on, or talk to your doctor about. I am thinking that I will have to cut back on the three egg breakfasts, damn cholesterol!
What would that have cost north of the border; I really have no clear idea. But whatever the cost is, you would still have to make a doctor’s appointment before the test, have him send you for the tests, and then you wouldn't get the results till the next appointment with the doctor. Is a bill of $400 out of line for something like that? If you have any idea, please leave a comment, I would love to hear.

Lemon Tree Harvest!

I think most people who move south to Mexico occasionally have a little something special that they miss, food wise, from life north of the border. Me, I really enjoy Greek food, and to me it’s not worth it if it isn't made with fresh lemons.

Well there are no Greek restaurants in Patzcuaro or Morelia, and lemons only show up in the stores once in a blue moon. Maybe once every second blue moon.

The only solution, grow your own! Well, easier said than done. Looking everywhere we ended up finding a couple of eureka lemons ( reportedly ) from Morelia that have never fruited. We also sourced out a Meyers lemon in San Miguel. It was lovingly transported from there to a place of honor in our back yard. That was June of 2008.

Our First Harvest!

Yesterday we had our first harvest. It was not a large harvest, but a tasty one.

Then for dinner, Greek chicken( with lemon of course), rice, roasted spuds and fresh beans, and , fresh home made tzatziki !

It was a dinner almost 2 years in the making, and it was worth the wait.

Actually, I think I am going to have some leftovers for lunch now, who wants to join me?

Yum!

Patzcuaro House For Sale – Back to square one.

Hey, long time no see.! What have I been up to? Well since last October, when we received a deposit on the sale of our home. We have worked through numerous delays and excuses to finally make to the closing in February.

Then, on the day of the closing our buyer has a complete mental meltdown. The details I will not go into at this time, but if you saw it in a movie, you would find it difficult to take seriously.

Oh well, back to square one.

So, stay tuned for our new adventures!

Check out my house here.
http://wow-nice-house.com/