Lunching with Peacocks and Birds of a Feather

Yesterday we went to a new (for us) place, The Peacock Garden, just a couple of blocks toward the lake from the plaza.  You wouldn't know it was there because there's only a narrow entrance with a white boards announcing the day's specials.  There is a sign but it sort of gets lost in the rest of the signs above.  You walk back along a long brick pathway until it opens up into a wide, spacious, beautiful garden.

To our right was a huge mango tree with lots of air plants hanging from it.  There are several seating areas, under the pergolas or out on the lawn.  All kinds of tropical plants, including orchids and bromeliads, fruit trees--orange, limes, lemons, grapefruit.  The garden takes its name from its resident peacocks who apparently stroll the grounds when they're in the mood. But we had to go in search of them yesterday; they were hiding out behind a large wall fountain.  We also found free-ranging chickens and roosters, but nobody seemed to be in a sociable mood yesterday.

We did find a more sociable bird.  He didn't have much choice since he was in cage.  Pancho the parrot didn't talk much although he did do wolf-whistles when women walked by.

Lunch was pretty much forgettable.  Bob had shrimp tacos which were ok but not as good as the tacos we get at Lake Tacos--yummy.  I had a BLT, but I should have known better.  Bacon (tocino) isn't always the "streaky" (as they call it in the UK) bacon we know; this was more like strips of Canadian bacon--hard to eat and not at all what one expects in a BLT. Oh, well. Live and learn.  But the margaritas were good!

And Bob is getting downright hairy.  Already had to trim his beard.

What have we been doing all this time?

Well, I'll tell you.  I haven't been blogging because we've been busy house-hunting.  We wanted to pick up where we left off last summer when our plan was to come down here and look for a place to spend at least a year to see if it might be the place we would want to live for a few years.  Of course, other events overtook those plans, but we're ready to start again.

Order of business then was thus:
1) Find a place that we would like and be comfortable for a year or more
2) Go back to Louisville and put the house on the market again.  This time, we hope to market it more aggressively than last year.

So we've been looking at rental houses--a lot of them--and rejected most for various reasons. But we finally decided on this one:

54 Galeana

That link will take you to the sale listing (it just sold in January, I think) and there's a YouTube link for a virtual tour.  I don't know what the final sale price was, but yes, you are looking at a half-million dollar (USD) house.  There are many of these and upwards, difficult to sell since the crash.  These new owners are a cardiologist and an accountant who live in Atlanta, who've bought the house for their eventual retirement.  Many people do that.  Meanwhile, they want renters to keep the house occupied.  The furnishings you see in the pictures are mostly from the previous owners.  The new owners are refurnishing the house.  Right now, the living room is the same, there's a dining room table and chairs, beds in all the bedrooms, a couple of recliners in the study, and some patio furniture.  They plan to come down a couple of times during the summer to continue the refurnishing and the lease won't start until 1 September for a year. That timing was also an important consideration as we didn't want to start a lease right away. Of course, we'll be coming back to the US during that year and hope to have visitors here!

It's a big house with huge rooms, but very reasonable.  We happened to be looking at rentals with the agent who had just sold the house and knew they wanted to rent it, so it never went public. We like the location: walkable to shops and restaurants; the view: of the village, the lake, and the mountains; the garden and the pool; bathtubs!!; the fantastic kitchen; views of the garden from every room.  This is one of my favorites, the view from the study:

There are two master suites, one up and one down, both with huge bathrooms including separate showers and bathtubs, another guest room with two queen beds and full bath across the hall.  And the study and a living room and a dining room.  Lots of room for company and plenty of privacy.

So, now we're relaxing, enjoying the weather going out for dinner or lunch a couple of times a week, meeting up with friends.  For me, I'm trying to get used to retirement.  I know I don't want to work, but it seems strange not having work--like I"m supposed to be doing something. I read but get restless.  I think I need some kind of schedule.

Anyway, there's the house.

Canadians in the Pool, or What in the World Are Gooeyducks?

The community clubhouse, gym, and pool for Riviera Alta are only about half a block away.  Since the weather has warmed up considerably, so has the pool--which is heated also by solar panels, currently at the temperature of 91 F, just the way I like it!  Anyway, we've taken advantage of the facility recently.  Bob has been using the stationary recumbent bike to strengthen his leg muscles, then joining me by the pool where he swims a couple of laps, increasing every day. (Yay, Bob!)

Yesterday while Bob was biking inside, I relaxed under an umbrella by the pool to read a little.  A young couple were there with their very young children (maybe 3 and &).  Daddy was in pool in giving very loud directions and encouragement to the kids.  Then another couple who were sunning climbed into the pool to cool off and swim.  Conversation ensued (again, quite loud) and they exchanged where they were from--the young couple from Vancouver (which they pronounce something like "Vancyouver, " the other couple from Ontario (where I think 9 out of 10 Canadians down here are from; sometimes they say more specifically "Trano," translated to the city most of know as Toronto.)  Anyway, the strangest conversation ensued as they played the game of who do you know in Vancouver:

 "Oh, my brother lives there."
"Oh, yah? Where?"
"Surrey."
"Oh, we have lots of friends who live there. They like it, eh? What does he do?
"Oh, he's a "gooey-duck" diver."
"Oh, yah? I know somebody who does blah-blah-blah....." also related to :gooey-ducks.

So, by now, I've given up reading because the loud voices are so distracting and I'm amusing myself listening to the accents so like the ones that people imitate and make fun of.  But at the word "gooey-duck," I began to pay closer attention.  What in the world are gooey-ducks and why do you have to dive for them? They mentioned growing vegetation on the ocean floor to improve their habitat.  I'm thinking, that makes sense, but ducks don't dive that deep, why do humans have to?

Thoroughly mystified, I recounted the bits of conversation I had overheard when Bob came out to join me.  We joked a bit about the Canadian stereotypes, and I puzzled over how I would look these ducks up since I only had a phonetic spelling in my mind.  Nevertheless, as soon as we got home, I went straight to my buddy Google and typed in

What is a gooey-duck?

Be my guest.  Hint: it doesn't have web feet and go "Quack, Quack."

Baby Steps

Things are looking up today! I drove all by myself somewhere. Freedom!

I hadn't really missed driving.  In fact, I didn't know it made a difference until I was out on the carretera, having successfully navigated the left turn across traffic at the bottom of the hill.  I was on my way to my first yoga class all by myself. And as I settled into the (relatively) easy Mexican road, I realized that the radio was on, tuned in to SiriusXM to one of my favorite stations.  Wow--instant happiness boost!

Later, as I was prepping pico de gallo for our dinner of black beans and rice, it occurred to me that since Bob has unraveled the mysteries of streaming Roku etc. out of the US, maybe we could get Pandora streaming on the TV as well.  Yes! So (of course you'll never guess my cooking dinner station), I happily chopped away.  The rice is ready, the pico de gallo is ready.  All I have to do is heat the beans.  And even more daring, I'm going to have a Corona with dinner, maybe the whole bottle.  Too soon to say.

Bob is reading with his feet up and we have plans to watch last night's Downton Abbey and maybe the James Bond Spectre we've been saving--pirated copy from the market.

And I think I'm going to create a Dean Martin station for our Pandora. Even more happiness. The power of music.

(Somebody please comment so I know you're out there??)

Super Bowl Sunday: A Cloudy Day

Not that one has anything to do with the other, but for some reason I had the blues today: missing my own home where I know where (most) everything is and if I need something I know where to go shopping to find it.  Most of all, I'm missing the kids and friends--all y'all, including Susannah and John who aren't where "home" is, but it feels different here somehow even though we communicate the same way--at a distance.  As the day wore on, that feeling of displacement, dislocation, whatever it was just hung over me like the overcast skies today--the first cloudy day since we got here about 18 days ago.  We got to talk to everybody which helped a lot.  But I really found my own personal cloud lifting when I started cooking tonight's dinner--risotto and shrimp.  Maybe the familiar movements, having everything I needed at hand, doing something productive, but it helped a lot.

Super Bowl? Only the background to my cooking. Time to eat dinner.

....a little while later...

Monday, January 25, 2016

I haven't exactly been faithful about posting here this past year, but I think it might be time to start again.  Maybe?  We'll see.

So I'm not going to rehash what's happened since last summer because whoever is reading this already knows, right? So, backing up to a few days ago, we left Kentucky just ahead of the "blizzard" allegedly headed in our direction.  Taking five relatively short days, we got to Ajijic Wednesday afternoon, January 20th.  We drove straight to our house where Antje (pronounced "awn-cha"), the property manager met us.  Antje's parents resettled from Germany to Mexico in the mid-70s when she was a young girl, and she's lived here ever since. She speaks English, Spanish, and German fluently--possibly others--haven't heard speak any others.  Her family has developed several communities in this area.

Riviera Alta, where our house is, is 400 meters up the mountain (north) from the main highway in the village.  Going laterally (back toward the east), it's about another 600 meters to the gate and our house is just inside on the first street.  We don't have a view of the lake, but we can see the mountains on the other side of the lake.  The community reminds me a lot of Florida areas, with about 40-50 homes.  Each straight is flat but they progress up the mountain in tiers.  Obviously, the higher you are the better the view--and the more expensive the home.  There's a large clubhouse with a very large covered terrace, kitchen, library, gym, and so on. Large beautiful pool and two in-ground hot tubs, plus tennis courts, and, yes, a shuffleboard court.  Sounds just like home, huh? Well, that's the idea.  Most of the residents are American or Canadian, with only about a third who live here year-round.

One of the things I like about this neighborhood is that, unlike some other gated communities, the houses are all different.  There is no cookie-cutter pattern which makes for nice variations.  One thing they all have in common, however, is that none of them are more than a single level.  I think that was probably mandated when the development was first started to insure that nobody lost their view to someone new coming in and building a multi-storey home and blocking the view of the lake.

Our house is like a patio home, about 1500 sf (I'm guessing because they deal in meters here and I'm not very good at converting them; also, here they count all the space that is covered by a roof, including terraces and carports).  Imagine a box with a small green lawn surrounding it on 3 sides.  The 4th side is the double carport and entrance. You come into the house on the west side (carport side) into a wide entry way.  Directly ahead of you are doors to the atrium right in the middle of the house.  To the left is a full bath with the guest bedroom next to it.  The bedroom opens onto the atrium and has a full-length double window that opens onto the back lawn--sort of a private little garden view.  If you turn right from the entry way, you go into the open living area--living room with gas fireplace, kitchen with granite countertops and laundry room and pantry beyond.  (You've now come in a circle from the front door.  Off the living room is a very large sunroom, used as a dining area and additional sitting room.  From there, you step out to the small tiled, covered patio.  The living room opens onto the atrium as well.  From the living room you continue around the atrium to a small TV/sitting room That also opens onto the patio.  And from there into the master bedroom with the 4th entrance to the atrium.  Voila--the box! Through the bedroom are the master bath and walk-in closet.  Very liveable floor plan.  I like it a lot.

Today is a little overcast and the temperature is about 70.  This is the first day since we got to Mexico that the skies have not been a cloudless blue.  The daytime temps have been in the mid-70s, evenings in the 50s. We sleep under the duvet and wear a sweater or long sleeves in the morning until we get outside.  Outside the house is surrounded by fencing covered with blooming bouganvillas that provide privacy from the street and the neighbors.  Along the back, on the mountain side is a wall that serves both for privacy and retaining wall for the houses on the next street up.  There's a cactus garden, a fountain, a large rosemary bush, but not a lot of other blooming plants because this house has been empty for quite awhile.  So the gardener has only had to do minimal yard maintenance.  Today we went to a nursery we had used before and I bought some thyme, oregano, and basil to pot.  There are lots of empty pots around the house.  I also bought two blooming African violets that I couldn't resist.  I broke my vow, after my obsession with them in the Frankfort house, that I would never get hooked again.  It's so pleasant to look around see flowers in bloom and trees with green leaves.  I'm sitting in the sunroom and just glanced outside.  There's a rubber tree right outside the window, about 20 feet tall.  Through a different window I see a ficus about 15 ft tall.  In the atrium are lots of potted palms which are our responsibility to keep watered.  Fortunately, there's a faucet and a curly hose in there.

Reviving the blog

Life in general is changing--again--for B&B, so I'm thinking about reviving the blog.

For us, it represents a journal in its true sense of the word:. The words “journal” and “journey” are derived from the same root, the French word, “jour,” which means “day.”  The original function of a journal was to record day-to-day living which often included business transactions, weather, nature and travel observations, births, deaths, and so on. 

So, this will be an incentive to me to write such accounts as well as a means of sharing what's happening with us to the people who care to know and those I want to know. With that in mind, I'm hoping that you will subscribe through the RSS feed rather than have me notify you that I've posted. 

So I've added you as readers.  Please comment or respond in some way so I'll have a clue as to whether it's working the way I want it to!