Lovely Lizard if you click on him you will see he has is mouth open, he must be eating something! This was the bigget iguana I have seen here, although I know there are bigger - or so I have heard. His body is at least 6 inches long.
Oriole in the tulip tree, also eats grapefruit and oranges right off the tree!! Before they are quite ready of course.
Heidi the Queen who announces her arrival before she is at the door so it will be opened for her. She then must be accompanied down the hall to her freshly filled food dish whenever she wants it. When ready she must be immediately let out. This of course is night or day. I can't hear her when she does this at night....
Heidi the Queen
Heidi the Queen
Squeaker the Cat lives outside and is the sweetest cat who loves to cuddle, if you stop too soon she will attack you. She is a Baja cat.
Checkers the Dog - does she look familiar? She is a wonderful Baja dog found at the Milles Flores gas station when about 6 months old.
Squeaker the cat
Squeaker the cat
Checkers the dog Los Barriles
I have been very negligent in writing my blog since being here. I guess we have settled into the process of living so its similar to being at home…. We are busy with life and the many activities that lead to a full one.
So what’s making us so darn busy?? Yoga, music - listening to, dancing to, and playing, the animals, gardening, cycling, walking, kayaking, Mah Jong, shopping, painting, looking for stuff on ebay, quading, looking for a house or property to buy....la, la, la.
I am going to yoga twice a week which is so great, I was doing that at home and was very pleased to find a good yoga teacher here. She is not Karen, but has much to contribute to my practice. It has been great cycling into class as well. By the time I’m back home I am quite tired with my morning of exercise. The girlfriends and I often go for lunch after yoga so maybe that’s a contributing factor to the tiredness. The sand road leaves a lot to be desired. Even though I have a mountain bike with the big knobbly tires it is not at all easy. Fortunately there are only about 2 miles of that before reaching the paved road. There are however, two large sand arroyos to pass over as well as a good hill before arriving at class. It takes me about 35 minutes so all in all its not far. Certainly not far at all when I think about what I have to do to get ready to cycle to Seattle when I get home!!
Lorne has been cycling with me on alternate days to yoga, as does the wonderful dog Checkers. We usually ride out the sand road to the paved one then ride up the big Los Barriles hill (apparently written about in cycling magazines) and then come cross country down to our place. Checkers loves running along beside the bike. Lorne has her very well trained. He has a pocket of yummy treats and she will just about do anything for him (well, for the treats). The first time we took her out with the bikes she took off after a quad and ran a long ways. She came running back looking very pleased with herself. Needless to say, she has never done that again!!
Our daily exercise routine is towards the end of each day – around 4. So when not cycling we walk up the hill or along the beach with Checkers, for at least an hour or more. Lorne’s knees have been very good this year, no problems at all for him to cycle, even up the hill.
I have found a number of people in town that play music by putting an ad in the Pony Express (an online local newsletter) for anyone interested in playing Bluegrass. Turned out there are lots of people interested in Bluegrass. So we have been getting together a few times a week and now have a regular Wednesday night open jam at one of the restaurants in town, the owner is one of the players. Two of the musicians play in a local band called El Viejos…. (the old ones). The restaurant is not usually open in the evenings. However, since we have been playing they are open for the people who are listening. This Wednesday they will be open for a special dinner. Yikes! Sounds an awful lot like performing to me….
Our first music get together was at one of the musicians home. When we walked into the house there was a woman (Pam) there who took one look at me and knew me immediately from Banff!! Hilarious! That was some years ago – like life before children years ago. I can’t believe she recognized me just like that, she didn’t look at all familiar to me.
I took a 5 day water color painting class. It was very interesting and fun. Once I had sat down and got myself organized at the big table I realized I had sat down right next to Pam! Neither of us knew that the other was at all interested in painting. We had a great time together painting and her husband (Bruce) and I have a great time playing music together. They are both interested in investing and Bruce taught at UVIC and Pam at Camosun College, so Lorne has lots in common with them too. Not only that – they live in Victoria!! Small world. So we have more new Victoria friends that we have met in the Baja.
I was quite pleased with how much I learned about painting in that short time, so now I am all enthusiastic about painting and am very busy researching paint, brushes, paper and looking for good deals on it all on ebay. Pam taught me how to bid so I can win and not pay more than I want to. Lorne says he wishes that I spent as much time learning about investing as I do learning about brushes and messing with ebay…..!! Well, I’ve saved tons of money on art supplies by buying on ebay – never mind how much I spent!!
We planted a little garden here, it came up almost immediately and we have been harvesting beautiful leaf lettuce and radishes. The first head lettuce was ready today. We have cilantro up and we are eating that. The corn, peas, broccoli and cantaloupe are up and growing like topsy but won’t be ready before we have to leave. The grapefruit, oranges and little Mexican limes are over, I still have some in the fridge, and the big lemon tree has been producing like crazy! While the fruit is almost all finished there are beautiful aromatic flowers and lots of new baby lemons growing. I make fresh lemonade – its very delicious.
We have found a very nice real estate lady (Carlene) who has been very helpful showing us lots of property. I think she can’t quite figure out what we want. Of course we haven’t figured that out either! We have found lots to think about and some very nice and acceptable places. However, we have decided to not buy anything this year. Lorne is certain prices have a long ways to drop yet and we should be able to get an even better deal next year. We have determined that it is much cheaper to buy a house already built than it is to build one right now, materials are very expensive. There are some very nice homes but…. Most need some renos to me. We shall see. Failing that we are content to rent or continue to house sit for friends. I know Paul and Renota want to go camping next year so we may be here again house sitting for them. And realistically, if we can rent a nice beach house for say $2,000 a month for three months each winter we are way ahead financially anyway without any of the worries of owning a home down here.
Much to think about, and now off to play Mah Jong – great game.
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