The Coatepec hit and run

While it is very interesting and plenty of fun to be working in various parts of the world, and an undoubted privilege as well, global work definitely has its downside just now. That downside is spending far too little time at home, in Mexico. When we are there it is rush, rush, rush to do the maintenance -- to say sorry to the house and the apartment and the gorgeous 3 hectares of coffee bushes for however weeks or months of neglect it has been since the last time, and to rapidly set about putting things to rights. There is little time to sit back and enjoy the environment and to take pleasure in the work done.

I had 10 days in Mexico in late October through early December. This was enough time to organise Pastor to clear the first half of the coffee land, which he did using a weed eater, and did to excellent effect. For me it was enough time, barely, to deal to the gardens at the house in Coatepec -- getting in soil and mulch, clearing overgrowth and cutting back bugambilia -- cleaning the place, doing a bit of painting, paying the bills, visiting friends, and getting out and about just a little in Mexico City.

The following pix get a little of the front courtyard garden. It survives well, given how little attention it gets. And as for the coffee, it is worth remembering that by the time those lower branches have cleared the orange wall they are already more than 3 metres tall. These coffee bushes are now nudging the powerlines, around 18 feet above ground level. That's a fair way up a ladder to be dropping the beans into a bucket at harvest time.