Welcome to Mostly Musing - My Travel Blog

This blog is about our travels to Baja California, Mexico in our Classic 1976 GMC Motorhome. We have traveled there since 2005. I hope any readers enjoy the blog and I appreciate any comments.

This years travels to Baja begin from our Victoria driveway the end of October 23rd, 2013.










Thursday, January 2, 2014

Happy New Year!

Hi there! Happy New Year! Hope you have had a wonderful 2013 and we wish you, and your family a happy and healthy 2014.


The close of 2013 finds us in our home in Los Barriles, Baja California Sur once again. We arrived in November to a yard full of weeds! Pigweed grows remarkably well here, and particularly well in our yard as it is all fenced so neither the goats nor the cows can get in and do what they do best. With much toil we have managed to eradicate the weeds, for the most part, and have been amazed at how well the things we planted survived, and thrived in our absence.





We now have Limóns on our Mexican Limón tree and big crimson flowers on our pomegranate. No figs have arrived on the brown turkey fig, perhaps in the spring or maybe next year. The tiny neem tree is now taller than Lorne and the medajool date, grown from a seed by our friend Gloria last year, is now about two feet tall. The oleander are blooming continuously. Our volunteer tomatoes from last year are growing faster than the heritage ones grown from seed. The chipmunks (called topos here) are sitting in wait to nab the first tomato. Out beans are up – the topos also like beans, and the watermelon and cantaloupe are growing rapidly. It is such fun to have a garden again.






I continue with my music and have been playing almost daily with my friend and fellow singer Susan and our bass player Ray. We have been playing weekly at Open Mic with Pavel, a bluegrass banjo player from Czech Republic and Wolfe, an old tyme fiddle/mando player from the Austin Texas music scene who now lives here full time. At the insistence of the audience and after a number of unique suggestions, we now have a band name – the Gypsy Chicks. It is all a great deal of fun. However, I continue to be immensely relieved that I didn't ever have to do this for a living.

Los Barriles is a very social small town environment; this holiday season in particular has been very busy with parties and dinners. We have been greatly enjoying this, particularly as no matter where we go, it’s no more than a 10 minute drive at turtle speed away!

I have joined a weekly hiking group and we have had some fantastic and beautiful hikes, and once again have been playing mahjong every week. Lorne continues to work in the garden – it’s his fitness program. When he’s not out dancing he also spends time on the computer monitoring the world economy.

Here are some scenes from the Cabo Pulmo hiking trip, just a bit south of La Ribera. This area is a protected Marine Park:









We are here till April before heading north once again. We miss the children and grandchildren, family and friends a great deal. The warm sun compensates, however, I am sure we will be more than ready to head north when the time arrives.