This Friday the 13th dawned fully intending, it seemed, to live up to its bad-luck reputation. Benji, one of the stray dogs that live outside our gate—and whom we thought had been adopted—ran away from its new owner and disappeared somewhere in San Miguel late Thursday. We woke up worried that some horrible thing would happen …
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.
Let it rain. Let it . . . Hey, it's raining!
I've always believed in the power of the written word but I had no idea. Since posting my yearly epistle a week ago about the lack of rain, we've had an inch of precipitation over two nights.Late Tuesday afternoon the southeast skies had darkened—auspiciously or ominously depending on one's point of view—and lightning sliced the …
Continue reading Let it rain. Let it . . . Hey, it's raining!
This mellow "fellow" urgently needs a safe haven
To a stranger's eyes the six to nine dogs that gather outside the gate of our ranch likely looks like an indistinct, motley gang. But after you've fed them several years, the differences in their appearance and personalities are unmistakable. Also, we can readily tell if someone's missing. Negro, a big black dog, disappeared for two …
Continue reading This mellow "fellow" urgently needs a safe haven
Let it rain. Let it rain. Let it rain.
Very rapid housing development and dwindling water resources may soon become San Miguel's next challenge Conscious that water is a scarce commodity in this semi-arid part of the world, when we built our house we included three cisterns to collect rainwater from our roofs. The side-by-side cisterns are located in the back of the house, in the space created by …
When is it time to say goodbye to my old cat?
Some time ago, while Stew was lying in bed trying to read, our sixteen-year-old cat Paco sat on his chest to demand his nightly dose of head-rubbing and general coochee-coochee. Paco doesn't quit easily: He'll purr, meow, shove his head against whatever you're reading, climb on your head if all else fails. No point in …
Continue reading When is it time to say goodbye to my old cat?
Trumpophobia: Rare, medium or apoplectic?
Exile in Mexico has a number of advantages, chief among them that you could, theoretically, try to preserve some peace of mind by setting some distance from the jarring avalanche of political news coming from the U.S.Erik Hagerman, was so upset at Donald Trump's election that he swore that he would avoid learning about anything …
Spring arrives early at the ranch and succulents and cacti lead the festivities
The spring solstice won't arrive until Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. but at the ranch we've been enjoying a spring greening since late February, thanks to the succulents, cacti and other xeric plants already blooming even though not a drop of rain is expected for several months.Longer days and warmer temperatures spur this spring hubbub. Shallow-rooted …
Continue reading Spring arrives early at the ranch and succulents and cacti lead the festivities
Farewell to recycling
When we moved to the ranch about seven years ago we took to recycling with the fervor of tree-huggers from Portland, San Francisco or Vancouver.Of course, we set up a three-bin compost pile. And we also began to separate aluminum, cardboard, plastic, regular metal cans, and glass, which we took to a recycling center on …
Trump: Populist, fascist or opportunist? Pick one.
In America's inflamed political environment today, and arguably in much of the world, complex problems have been reduced to generic political labels, and Donald Trump has become the leading exponent of something called "populism". In Britain one has Nigel Farage, in Italy, Silvio Berlusconi and in France, Marine Le Pen, each offering their own version of …
Continue reading Trump: Populist, fascist or opportunist? Pick one.
Fed up with faux haute cuisine
And now a rant, of as the French might say, a cri de cœur, about all the pissiness that is swamping San Miguel, what with a boutique hôtel or some restaurant with haute cuisine delusions popping up practically on every corner.Last week Stew, a friend and I went to a restaurant that had all the trappings …
El Rancho Santa Clara 