Found Sculptures and Dear Friends

This fierce shark, pictured above, was once a piece of driftwood that I picked up after a storm.  

I changed nothing other than to paint it, so that you too might see how utterly fierce it is!!!

 

 And THIS, above, is what we see each and every morning when we open our eyes.

 

 This is the one surface I keep solely for interesting objects in arrangement...

 

 ....and here is a close-up of two favorite objects.  We purchased the Shaman, but the merman wielding a fiery sword is another piece of driftwood that I picked up on the beach -- and just can't talk myself into painting... yet. 

OH!  and that Spiderman?  Drift-plastic. He was half-buried in the sand when I found him, too.

 

Best of all..... are these ongoing friendships among the kids in the village.  They are free to drop by whenever we're home.  They know where the toys and projects are, and are free to pick and choose.  It is always a delight to have visitors such as these.

 

¡Ah!  ¡Las Conejas! 

We are delighted to share our love of green salady things with our friends.  Here, mother (Sara) and daughter (Ariana) have come over to help prepare food "for rabbits" as the lovely young Ariana likes to call salads.  And I really MUST add that there have been COUNTLESS times when Sara has invited us over for her delicious home-made meals of fresh-caught fish (by husband Guillermo), home-made blue corn tortillas, and various greens and vegeys, all of them perfectly spiced -- just fiery enough!

By the way, they regard us as their abuelos...... their grandparents.

Los Arcos -- our newest ramada

Morphing from just an elevated water-tank to a gravity-fed shower stall, then to a shaded hammock refuge as well...This newest addition to our little compound of shade roofs is soon to have also a kitchen sink (oh, and refrigerator, shelves, work-benches).... We love our newest refuge.

To make it more unique,Robert decided to add a touch of nature to it -- the arched trunks of beautiful selected trees, which help hold up the roof.  Naturally, we call this refuge Los Arcos.

Here are pix of the work as it has progressed from previous posts -- from putting up the arches to making cement and finishing the little walls...

When we return, we'll paint those little walls, hang up our hammocks and settle into Eden.

 

 

Here's lookin' at you!

¡DIA DE LAS MAMACITAS!

Mothers' Day is such a sweet celebration in the pueblito in Mexico....  The school children present dances and skits, and also involve their mothers in games.  I've written about these celebrations in previous posts.  This year I attended the  middle-school age party.  Here are some photos...

The mothers all sit in in school desks (and a number of their children carved their names in the wood, I happened to notice) -- thoughtfully placed in the shade.

And to get the ball rolling, the MOTHERS are invited to play some party games first.  As I reported last year, a favorite game is (what I call)  "Caca Aiming."  Self-explanatory, I believe:

Then the kids begin their skits and dances.  This is my favorite:  the kids cover themselves up, hoping to be unrecognizable in these big bags,  and dance around awhile.  THEN, the mothers must come forward and fearlessly hug the child they are SURE is their very own darling.

How certain do these mothers appear to be as they come forward to hug their very own?

It all ends with some great and spirited dancing...

THE MANGO DANCE...

In the yard surrounding our humble casita in Mexico, we have four large mango trees, each of which produces copious  numbers of large, luscious, ripe mangos which drop to the ground in profusion every day in the fall.   Well, we just can't eat them all, and certainly cannot give them away.  Why not, you ask? 

Because EVERYBODY seems to have a plethora of large, luscious ripe mangos.  So here is our solution.... We set up our home-grown factory for making sun-dried mangos, as shown in the photos below. 

Alas, we cannot bring the dried mangos back to the States.  It's against importation laws.  Too bad, because they are reallyreally delicious.
 So here is our sweatshop (our ramada).  In the foreground are tree-fallen mangos soaking.  In the background, Robert is patiently peeling & slicing the ripe mangos...

And now -- with  the work kindly shared by our dear friends Sara y Guillermo -- the mango slices are carefully placed on the drying screen (which Robert built, of course).

Excellent work!

....and with that, the screen is put up on the slanting roof where the mangos will dry into crisp, delicious chips.  This takes several days -- and they must be hauled in at night to avoid dew and... furry/feathered friends who would like some, too!

These dried mangos really ARE delicious....