This blog doesn't often stray into the arts-and-crafts area, but Félix and I last week built this clay brick "condo" for our succulent collection that we're both really pleased with, and feel it deserves some celebration.We needed an attractive, and space-efficient way to display the burgeoning collection of succulents we've collected over the past three …
Continue reading A mid-rise condo for your collection of succulents
The New York Times, widely regarded the best paper in the U.S., if not the world, for the breadth and depth of its news coverage, has come under incessant attack by President Trump, and his millions of followers, as a nefarious purveyor of "fake news."We hear that the Times' news coverage is tendentious, if not …
Continue reading One loud cheer for the 'fake news' New York Times
Old age is like a car turning over 150,000 miles; no matter how many times you've changed the oil or rotated the tires, things start going clink, clank and pfft. In older people, a sputtering memory is assumed to presage dementia. We fret about finding ourselves in the day room of a nursing home, drooling and …
I could tell something was terribly wrong when I saw Stew's and Felix' long faces, behind the protective hoods they wear when handling our beehives, as they returned from collecting the honey panels from the beehives."A real disaster," said Stew, in his usual understated manner. "We barely got half a bucketful of honey."Except this time …
Having arrived to the U.S. in 1962, at age 14, I missed much of the cultural iconography that guided American kids who grew up during the 1950s.I missed "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) starring Judy Garland and Bert Lahr; "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed; or even some of the mainstream TV fare …
Expats sometimes shower their help with almost condescending praise for being reliable, honest, polite and some such. Our indispensable man Félix, the central character in many of my blog posts, is much more than that. He's a wiz; a singular person in Mexico or anywhere else.During the ten years he's worked for us, we've encountered …
Expats who have vowed never to leave San Miguel get that final wish by being buried in a special corner of the Municipal Pantheon known colloquially as the "Gringo Section."It's a lovely spot, manicured and carefully laid out, that would not be out of place in any small all-American town. It's also walled and gated …
Unless you slept through junior high school science class, you'll remember that light travels much, much faster than sound, as in 670,616,227 m.p.h. versus 767 m.p.h.That's why during a thunderstorm you usually see the lightning first, but not hear the accompanying thunder until several seconds later. Or if lightning struck far enough away, you might …
When we arrived in Hendersonville, North Carolina, a few weeks ago, to visit some friends who used to live in San Miguel, what immediately struck Stew and me was the sight of so many trees: Stately evergreens keeping such close company with oaks, maples, cypresses and other varieties that, beyond 15 or 20 feet, the …
We didn't adopt Blackie as much as he adopted us. He showed up at our ranch one day about three weeks ago, somehow managing to get under or over the fence, and determined to make himself at home. I first I objected, I thought strenuously, to both Stew and Félix, saying that we couldn't adopt a …
Continue reading The brief and tragic life of a dog named Blackie
El Rancho Santa Clara 