Household

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This climate is amazing.

My last post was about Tropical Storm Rick and how all my plants had been affected.  Everyone said they would recover, and while I was hopeful, I was somewhat skeptical, especially with regard to the bamboo.  Take a look, above.  I am amazed.  I guess I knew the banana would do all right, but after just 4 days it already is sending up a new leaf! The handkerchief plant is recovering already. This is the bamboo that shows above the...

The project is finished!

I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to call this room our sala fresca once the windows were installed, but it is actually way more open feeling now than it was with the wrought iron! The only time the windows are closed is when we are sleeping or when it’s raining! I think it’s interesting too that the streetscape in the mural is at the same perspective as the new windows…it is quite amazing, really. See the equipal chaise, above? ...

…around the house

There were a number of comments on my post about salitre, I am really no expert.   I think it has a lot to do with how careful your house builder was with the amount of salt in the sand used in making the concrete.  Less salt, less salitre, I think.  But certain spots in your house might just be inclined to it, and you will probably repair it over and over again. I’d only put a couple small photos...

Salitre 102

When you buy an brick and cement house in México, you will quickly get up to speed on Salitre.  Salitre is kind of acne for walls, and it’s a fact of life here. I wrote about it before in the post Salitre 101. It took us a while to be ok with living a little salitre here and there on the walls, our NOB (north of the border) perspective was hard to change.  But finally we realized that you can’t...

The secret is out

Ok, so a couple of people asked about the secret project and it just doesn’t take much to twist my arm! Our sala fresca is a lovely room, if you remember it’s the one where we had the mural painted.  One side has windows on either side of a double door to the new back patio, and the other side is open to the courtyard, with just wrought iron and some beams. There were a couple of things going on. ...

Comfortable as a pig in mud

The rain came a couple of days ago and we have been experiencing cooler than normal temperatures – not humid and VERY welcome. Paul and I went to a hotel in Nuevo Mazatlán for an overnight for Paul’s birthday.  We had a nice time swimming and lounging around the pool and had a very good dinner. But it was quite a shock to hear so much English spoken, as every waiter or bell boy spoke perfect English.  I think the...

I’m really spoiled now…

I wear a lot of cotton.  Paul’s favorite shirt is a guayabera.  This means ironing.  I don’t mind ironing, but if I don’t have a tv show to watch, it can be pretty boring.  And hot. So when blogger Jennifer told me about ” Arco Iris”, the planchaduria that advertises 12 pieces for 50 pesos, I didn’t hesitate for a minute.  I gathered up our clean clothes that needed ironing and headed over there.  And for those of you who...

Being spoiled isn’t easy.

I love a clean house.  And I know how to clean a house.  I challenge anyone to a house cleaning competition, and I would suggest you put your money on ME! I can’t say I love to clean, but I love it clean, so somehow the two come together, anyway. Now that we live in Mexico I have help in the house.  Help everywhere, really.  Our car is washed once or twice a week.  Our groceries get loaded into the...

Our Sunny Mazatlan Patio

Our upstairs patio is hot and sunny. Last week it was time to get going on changing it from a bare wasteland with a few lonely pots to our own private oasis. Above is a picture of the patio, before. Last week I wrote about buying the pots in the post First Step In The Patio Improvements. Once the pots were all upstairs, Scott and Coco came over to arrange them and finalize the plant selection. We wanted some nice...

First step in the patio improvements

Our upstairs patio is only used in the evening because it is so sunny.  Well, in the winter we do go out there during the day, but evening is  when it sees us most, once the sun has gone down.  It’s a great place for lounging in the evening, looking up at the stars and listening to the sounds of the neighborhood. We’d discussed adding some sort of shade structure, but we came to the conclusion that we have plenty...

Everyday life in México…

I thought I’d do a little series about how I know I am adapting to life in México. Here goes! 1. I like covers on things. Washer, Dryer, Mixer, Blender, whatever. Why not? It is dusty here and the geckos like to run around on things and it’s just neater. (above) 2. Below is a picture of the little coin bag that we keep in the car. In the car you need coins handy for the random stoplight purchase, window...

Gardening in the city

Paul and I love plants and gardening.  When we lived in the US we had ten acres and we worked outside all the time.  Part of the time we loved it but there were times where we realized we were working in the garden or yard so much we couldn’t do other things we enjoyed.  With our move to Mexico we decided that we’d try to be a bit more in balance. Our central courtyard was planted just about a...

Sparkling clean

The picture above is some produce that I just cleaned with mycrodyne, an iodine based cleaner. Here in Mexico most people soak fruits and vegetables for around 15 minutes, and then rinse them with purified water before putting them in the fridge.  It’s important to do everything, even produce that will be peeled, since the peeling or cutting would drag dirt/germs from the outside of the produce into the meat. Back in the US I would cram all the produce...

The body remembers

Lucy heading home from a walk – Nov 5, 2006 It’s November today.  I was loafing on the couch listening to music on my MP3 player and knitting.  And all of a sudden I realized that all the music I was choosing was kind of moody, fall-ish music.  And even thought it is a beautiful sunny day here, my body remembers fall. It’s the time of year where leaves swirl in the air and then land to make colorful arrangements...

Fifteen days…..

Our 120 year old home has some wonderful old features, and four sets of these lovely cedar doors are some of my favorites.  When we bought the house they had been cleaned and restored, but had no hardware!  And since three bedrooms need their privacy, we had been looking for the appropriate type of hardware. It’s hard to find hardware that would look right on these doors.  We didn’t want to use normal locksets & handles since we didn’t want...