Though the landscape now is a brilliant Irish green, thanks to about 14 or 15 inches of rain so far this season, there are dozens, probably hundreds of white cedars and certain types of pines all over San Miguel and in our ranch that are turning up dead, as if struck by lightning. Hey, has anyone …
Author: Alfredo Lanier
My husband and I live on an off-the-grid ranch outside San Miguel, along with the challenging but dear company of four off-the-street dogs and three cats. My interests lie in politics, writing, photography and sundry forms of spirituality.
Mao says "Let a thousand (wild) flowers bloom!"
During the past three weeks vegetation around the ranch has gone through a startling yin-yang cycle, swinging from somber brown to a myriad shades of emerald. Trees and bushes have leafed out, and hundreds of wildflowers appeared everywhere, each a unique celebration of the near-constant rain we've had. In years before I have tried to triage the …
Continue reading Mao says "Let a thousand (wild) flowers bloom!"
Wondering about the inevitable: Who's going to take care of us when we can't?
While on a cruise to Antarctica in 2007, we had the good fortune to befriend a woman from San Miguel with whom we have remained close even as our life situations have changed. It's those kinds of friendships that make San Miguel a special place. Sadly, about three years ago she had a stroke that initially …
Continue reading Wondering about the inevitable: Who's going to take care of us when we can't?
Early spring brings blessings along with caution
Forget the old "April showers bring May flowers" ditty. In San Miguel that seasonal sequence is backward; summer heat comes early in the year, anywhere from March through May, and the springtime showers, and the flip-of-a-switch greening of the landscape and burst of wildflowers, don't arrive until late June. This year the rains started in late …
Continue reading Early spring brings blessings along with caution
Sad migration stories from the U.S.-Mexico border and closer to home
Driving to San Antonio, a 12- to 14-hour tiresome but otherwise unremarkable marathon, takes a grim turn as one nears the Colombia International Bridge over the Rio Grande, the last stretch before entering the U.S. Up to that point, the roads are mostly first-class expressways, particularly Mex 85, north of Monterrey, recently resurfaced though repair crews can't …
Continue reading Sad migration stories from the U.S.-Mexico border and closer to home
Momma Lucy's final wiz
This man-meets-dog story began with a puppy in a rusty birdcage. While I volunteered at the Sociedad Protectora de Animales, a local animal shelter, an impatient young Mexican woman walked in and matter-of-factly placed the birdcage and the puppy on the reception desk, as if it were a FedEx package. She said she had found a cardboard …
Travel during the pandemic on the Netflix Express
Compared to the worldwide suffering wrought by the Covid pandemic during the past year, our personal complaints may stand as frivolous, even self-indulgent: Stew and I miss traveling. So albeit a poor substitute, Stew and I have turned foreign television serials and movies into a vicarious travel jamboree. So far we've visited Brooklyn, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, …
Continue reading Travel during the pandemic on the Netflix Express
Oh, how I wish it would rain!
This morning, around seven o'clock, I drove to town and noticed heavy, slow-moving masses of dark clouds tightly hugging the tops of the mountains on the horizon. In other locations or under different circumstances, the sight may have been considered an ominous sign of imminent thunderstorms or other inclement weather. My first reaction, though, was one …
Wait for the Covid vaccine is over, but followed by still more waiting
On Friday, about a year to the day after the World Health Organization officially upgraded the Covid-19 "disease" to a worldwide pandemic, the Mexican government's vaccination campaign rolled into San Miguel to an expectant and excited popular reception you'd expect for the arrival of the circus. The local Mexican media was abuzz and flyers went …
Continue reading Wait for the Covid vaccine is over, but followed by still more waiting
Everything's coming up roses, more or less
Don't you love the peace and quiet nowadays when you wake up in the morning? Ever since the Former Occupant's departure from the White House on January 20, we can safely open our IPad or Kindle tablets and read the news without fear of getting knocked over by reports of demented overnight tweetstorms from the White …
El Rancho Santa Clara 