joypix

Comillas

2012-01-03T22:47:00.000-08:00

In mid December we were in northern Spain, in the province of Cantabria, for a two day invited seminar hosted by the Comillas Foundation. The Fundacion is housed in part of the old Pontificia University that was financed and built in Comillas by the Marquis of Comillas in the late 19th century. By now it is long out of use as a theologically based university under Papal administration. Part of it has been restored by the Comillas Foundation and serves as the site for the foundation's administration and teaching work in Spanish as a Foreign Language and related subject areas. It is where the seminar was held.

Some of the following photos show the restored part of the old university, as well as part of the unrestored but still well preserved (on the inside) interior. About two thirds of the large campus remains unrestored, although there are hopes that money will come from somewhere and make it possible to preserve what is really quite a magnificent complex.

Other photos show parts of Comillas township -- older and newer -- as well as the local beach, a restaurant that hosted one of the truly memorable meals of all time, a section of the historical centre of the town, Gaudi's incomparable "Capricho" (Caprice), and the ambitious summer house built by the Marquis of Comillas.

Some recent work at the Cove

2011-08-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

We've managed to do a bit of painting and a bit of early landscaping and a few other things about the place in Bottle Cove. The following pix will help to update the story.

Some of the pix show interior painting in the barn, getting some colour onto the walls, as well as a bit of cupboard building and some simple devices for hanging tools up. Michele did the painting and I did the 'building'. The paint looks great, and there's been a bit more since these photos were taken. There is also a shot of the back of the house showing a new coat of paint. We've bought a long ladder and the top third of the other sides will be completed in short order. It was a bit hairy painting the back of the cottage using the ladder we have had to date. Some other random shots show the new workhorse (car and utility trailer), and the original workhorse (Mustang), now enjoying a calmer lifestyle.

Other pix will show some uses to which off-cuts of timber from the deck extension have been put: a small 'deck' to house some pot plants, and a couple of planters (a hanging planter and a sitting planter).

There are also a couple of pix of an experimental retaining wall built to a description of a design our friend Dennis saw in Florida and related to us. It involves making shallow trenches where you want the wall to go, and then stacking bags of ready-mix concrete (qwikcrete), and driving some steel rod through the bags and down into the ground to tie them in place.

Digging up the past in Ferryland

2011-08-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

Last week we were over on the east coast visiting friends and taking in the opening night of the George Street Festival in St John's. At the end of the trip we went past way down the Avalon Peninsula so that Michele could go see some puffins and whales (I'd seen a small whale the week before from binoculars at Bottle Cove, so I waived the whale trip and spent a couple of hours walking around the Bay Bulls wharf area and reading a bit of Newfoundland history. The following day we visited Ferryland, the colony of Avalon, settled by a British group in 1621.

While the peninsula and surrounding areas have been settled continuously (with the exception of an especially harsh winter late in the 17th century), the original buildings had long been lost to sight and memory. This changed in the late 1980s when a team from the Memorial University of Newfoundland began excavating the area. To date they have have recovered more than a million artifacts, ranging from a pair of gold rings to some locally minted (in lead) coins, via a wide range of pottery from Devon, Portugal and China, and much else besides. An impressive sample is on display in the information centre at the site. Local people have given permission for the excavations to proceed, some whom take a very active interest in the work.

We paid our entrance fees and got the written guide to the excavations, and followed through the more than 20 sub sites of the overall dig. After that we explored the downs at the end of the peninsula and walked to the lighthouse that looks out over the North Atlantic Ocean.

You can take a Virtual Walking Tour of the site here

Hiking from Bottle Cove to South Head

2011-08-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

The committee responsible for developing tourism in the area around Bottle Cove have added some great hiking trails over the past few years. This has involve cutting tracks through the bush and marking the way with ribbons on trees and other signage, as well as making small wooden bridges and causeways from pressure treated timber to go over boggy terrain and streams. The trails are of varying lengths and degrees of difficulty.

Today we decided to walk the trail to South Head over the saddle at the foot of Grassy Gulch. Harvey had often mentioned this hike and it was always a favourite of his. He'd been going to take us, but got sick before we had created the kind of time and space away from building to be able to take leisure hikes. But today we got stuff around the house finished by early afternoon and decided to make the hike. The information said to allow a couple of hours each way. We began at sea level and around 4 kilometres later were at 330 metres. Sometimes the trail was steep, other times it was reasonably flat, but always it was challenging under foot. There were lots of roots and stumps to trip on and loose rock to slide on if we weren't careful. We passed lots of birds and frogs and saw plenty of moose hoof prints.

Setting off from the beacon we first passed the waterfall that constitutes a short hike in its own right. The waterfall hike goes to near the base of the falls, but the South Head trail passes above the falls. There was plenty of bush and occasional small breakouts into grassland in areas where streams and glacial action had levelled some of the land out.

Reaching the half way point we saw that someone had remembered Harvey by scribbling his name on the sign. That was nice to see. From there we crawled our way up Grassy Gulch, getting great views back to the south, including of our house and barn and the gulf and back to the Port a Port Peninsula, which we could see through the gap of Cedar Cove.

Once over the saddle at Grassy Gulch we could see the Bay of Islands, but were almost blown over by the wind blowing up the valley from the west – across from York Harbour, blowing clear up the Humber Arm – the same wind that terrorises the whole “Blow Me Down” area. A few hundred metres on we reached the end of the trail. We could see the South Head Light through binoculars and got a great view of a wood chip boat that had sailed up from Corner Brook Mill and was making its way south toward Nova Scotia.

After having a drink of water and eating some trail mix we turned back, making a few rest stops on the way back, feeling the pinch even though the hike back was mostly down hill.

We got back around 6pm, having left a little after 2pm. It was an honest 2 hours each way, allowing for photo-taking an occasional rest stops. Once back at the cottage I took a couple of photos looking up to Grassy Gulch to give a sense of where we had gone in relation to the house. The saddle at Grassy Gulch is near the centre of the top of the hill line in the photos.

The pix don't do justice to the walk. It was fantastic.

And here's a very raw video of the hike (apologies for the laboured narration).

A little deck building at the Cove

2011-07-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

The fine weather just before we went back for the second week of teaching provided a chance to build the extension to the original deck out the front of the cottage overlooking the Cove. The first deck was built small because in those days we had the fanciful idea of building a built in sun room with maximum views of the Cove. Those plans have now given way to building a verendah that runs the length of the cottage, providing shelter for using the deck when the weather is not so good but we want to be outside nonetheless, and providing protection for the lower half of the front of the cottage which bears the brunt of the storms that blow in from the Cove entrance. The verendah will also provide an excellent platform for painting the top parts of the wall, just as the mudroom and planned smaller verendah out the back will do there. I can reach the top row of siding with a brush from the mudroom, so what works at the back should work at the front as well.

So, the first phase of the plan involved extending the original deck. Michele took a few pictures of the building in process, and I took a few once everything was done. Some of the pix show the long grass growth of the spring, which others catch what it looks like now the mower has gone over it, following the first scything with the weed eater.

Driving the US-1 through Maine

2011-06-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

For years I have wanted to drive the US-1. It "runs" from the Maine border with Canada to Florida but, like Route 66, for example, has now been usurped by stretches of other routes. So it's not a simple matter of getting on at one point and having a relatively straight forward run like with a modern interstate (e.g., the 95).

This summer, with a day or so up our sleeves we thought to pick up the US-1 in Maine and follow the coastal route up to Calais, and cross into Canada at St Stephens by that route. To maximise anticipated enjoyment of the 1 we rode the Maine Pike to exit 52 and hopped onto the 1 near to Freeport.

We were not disappointed, except by the weather after arriving at Ellsworth. It was an exploratory ride, just to get a sense of the road and how to make more of a meal of it on subsequent occasions. We took in the gentrified historical elegance of Freeport with a slow pass through the town, but decided to make Bath the look around spot. It was a good choice. We spent a couple of hours walking the streets taking plenty of pix, before heading off east. We made notes along the way, and will spend plenty of time on subsequent trips exploring towns like Camden, Rockford, Bucksport, and some of the small coastal settlements east of Ellsworth.

Meanwhile, here are some pix of Bath and the spectacular bridge and memorial plaque at the Penobscot Narrows.

Well top and new gardens on the coffee land

2011-06-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

The past few months of work on the coffee land have mainly involved trying to get a few small flower gardens started and, of course, upgrading the well. Here are a few pictures taken in June that give a sense of where things are. The flower gardens are still pretty sparse, but they will be filled in gradually, in conjunction with laying some turf. The wall surrounding the well will eventually be plastered and painted to give the area there some colour.

It all takes *so* much time, and often it is hard not to feel discouraged at the snail pace of "progress". Mucho trabajo, pero poca diferencia.

Return to the French Shore

2011-05-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

On our recent teaching trip to Nova Scotia we had two fully free days for looking around. On the first of these we headed back to the French Shore. I took a few pictures of houses that ribbon the road from one settlement to the next.

Sea captains' houses walking trail in Yarmouth

2011-05-31T07:49:00.000-07:00

On the day trip to the French Shore and Yarmouth we decided to look at some of the houses on the Sea Captains' Houses walking tour. Once we were in amongst the streets and houses, however, we decided just to walk a few blocks rather than just look at the houses on the trail. As a result we only saw a fraction of the actual sea captains' houses, but saw plenty of other architecture we really enjoyed. Michele was invited by the owner to look through a house, now a Bed and Breakfast place.

Cape Split and Hall's Harbour

2011-05-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

These are right on the Bay of Fundy shore of Nova Scotia. To get to them from Wolfville you have to climb a hill that offers some nice views of farmland in the Annapolis Valley. We got to Scott's Bay, from whence there is a 5 mile walking track to Cape Split, but had arrived too late in the afternoon to attempt it. So we took some pix of Scott's Bay and then headed to Hall's Harbour.

Recent work on the coffee land: Part2 (April 2011)

2011-04-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

Some more.

Recent work on the coffee land: Part1 (April 2011)

2011-04-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

It's has been a big couple of weeks for doing work on the finca. There have been three main activities. First, rebuilding the well, which is ongoing, and we'll add further pix as it comes to fruition. Second, general gardening work. And finally, building a decent set of paths around the building.

The following pix capture this recent work.

Working on the finca

2011-02-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful warm and sunny day for the final day of a short working trip to Coatepec, so we decided to take the whole day and get a few things done.

The first task was to fit the hose connections for the water supply and see if it worked. The sound on the video is pretty faint, so the basic facts are that the well is about 50 metres from the limits of the garden area and work area where we need water (e.g., for watering flower gardens or mixing cement around the buildings. Walking to the well to get a bucket at a time is a pain. The well is about half a metre or so above the level of the land, and so we built a concrete block platform beside the well that gets us up a full metre or so above the land level in the gardens. We bought a large domestic plastic rubbish bin and cut a hole at the bottom into which we fitted a plastic threaded arrangement, siliconed in and wish washers to keep it watertight, that ended with a conventional hose fitting on the outside.

A short section of clear plastic hose was fitted to the bin end, so we can check for water flow from the bin. Another hose fitting connects to a 50 metre length of garden hose, which is threaded into a large hose reel made from timber. We unwound the hose and cut it to the required length -- and can add further hose if required.

Filling the bin gives up to 15 minutes of good pressure. And fitting a shut off device at the watering end off the hose means we can turn the water off when we don't need it. The pressure is not great, but a typical bucket of water -- for a small mix of concrete, say -- fills in a minute or so and when the bin runs dry it still leaves water in the hose, so a top up gives immediate fresh flow.

We were thrilled with the results, and it will make it a whole lot easier and more convenient to do work requiring water, even though there is a certain charm to carrying water by the bucket.

I made a short video of the set up.

In this second sequence, Ana -- one of the neighbours' children -- carries bricks for soaking before they get laid as a garden border. Ana is 4 years old and loves to come over whenever we are on the land. Often her older sister and brother (10 and 8) come as well, but Ana is always the first one there and she just loves watching what is going on and joining in.

A few weeks ago we started laying small brick borders for paths, digging shallow tranches, laying mortar in the trench and then mortaring the bricks together. Ana was over by herself for a lot of that and she'd just watch and imitate and ask a few questions. The next two videos show her carrying bricks from the small building to the "brick soaking bucket".

The second video that follows shows her spontaneously remembering from some weeks previously that we tamp the mortar in the trench down just a little before leaving it to dry. She never asked if she should tamp it, just found a small piece of wood and spontaneously began doing the work.

Last of the Dead

2010-11-04T12:56:00.001-07:00

These pix conclude the sequence of our 2010 Day of the Dead posts. We took many more pix than we can justify posting here, but the ones we have posted are pretty indicative.

Day of the Dead, continued

2010-11-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

More Day of the Dead

2010-11-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

While the commericalisation of halloween proceeds here, as it does in other places like Australia, it nonetheless faces some serious tradition competition, TG.

Day of the Dead in Coyoacan

2010-11-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

The next few posts will comprise photos we took on Sunday in the old plaza in the heart of Coyoacan. It was a lovely warm sunny day and the plaza and immediate surrounds were packed. The colour and vitality of the scene belied the grim realities in so many other parts of this magical land.

Che's childhood home in Cordoba

2010-10-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

On our first full day in Cordoba we went on a trip with Joel, Marcela, Horacio, and Gustavo to a town called Alta Gracia, about 35 kilometers outside of Cordoba. Joel and Marcela had arranged for a mini van and driver for the day and we set off at 10.30 and got back around 7pm. We visited two places and had a memorable meal in a restaurant in the mid afternoon, before visiting the childhood home of Che Guevara. Che's family moved there on account of the very dry climate which they thought would be good for his asthma. The home was one that had originally been built as a weekend getaway home for executive employees of the railway system. The Argentine railway system had been developed and was run by British companies from the early 20th century. Not surprisingly, the homes built for the use of their employees were very British looking. We have seen thousands of such homes in Australia and New Zealand and, of course, in Britain. Now a small but popular museum, the house proved to be a most enjoyable visit. There was an interesting short video presentation featuring childhood friends of Che. It was nice to get a sense of him as a child growing up, aside from the heavy ideological emphasis that usually accompanies museums in his memory. Apart from the room dedicated to the visit by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez in 2006, and the souvenir shop area, the rest of the house was full of quotidian things -- notably the power assisted bicycle that Che rode through 7 or 8 Argentine provinces, and the 1936 Norton 500 cc twin motorbike that featured in the film of the Motorcycle Diaries. It was a couple of hours well spent.

Downtown Cordoba

2010-10-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

On our first evening in Cordoba, Argentina, we took a walk with Joel and Marcela around the downtown blocks near the hotel. Near the plaza was a plaque in the form of a thumb print of names of people who had been "disappeared" during the years of military rule. We took photos of the restored cathedral, of the university, and small parks and streets and buildings as we walked down to a modern art museum. The light was not the best, but the pix are indicative.

A quick visit to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

2010-07-16T05:52:00.001-07:00

After class finished on the first fine afternoon in North Sydney we made a quick run to Louisbourg to take a look at the fort. The fort is a reconstruction of the original edifice built by the French in the early 18th century as part of their defence infrastructure for Quebec City. The British sacked the town and the fort on two occasions. The Canadian government funded the reconstruction of the fort on the original scale and location, following the traces/ruins that remained and the massive documentation records (after all,this was a French establishment) that exist). It is the largest Canadian reconstruction effort, by some distance eclipsing the Viking village reconstruction we saw last summer.

Here is a sequence of photos taken from the short walk from the bus leading to the Dauphin Gate,and going on to look through the Governor's residence and on to the Engineer's home.

We'll take in the rest of the complex at some other time.

Cove update

2010-07-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

We leave tomorrow for a week working in Cape Breton, and it is high time to catch up with the small amount that has happened this trip to date. Much of the time, in between the rain, has been spent painting the barn, building a small mud room in front of the main entry to the cottage (Lawrence doing the "fine" work and us doing the easy stuff), and -- well -- looking at the tide roll in and out of the cove.

Mustang Utility Vehicle

2010-06-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

I was working away building some cupboard space in the barn up here at Bottle Cove this morning when I suddenly realised that getting the large sheets of plywood for bracing the walls on the small addition we are currently making to the cottage was not the only challenge to be resolved, so far as transporting the building materials from the city is concerned.

The thing is that Bottle Cove is a long hike from the hardware supply stores in the city. Arranging transport is a drag, partly because costs are high, but also because you have to wait until the next truck is coming out this way. In these circumstances, the dearly loved Mustang is a considerably less than an optimal solution. Well, that is not strictly fair. There is, of course, the “in principle” possible option of fitting a tow bar to the car and using a trailer. But for reasons that will remain unspecified here, that is strictly an “in principle” possibility. In practice, the possibility simply does not exist.

The challenge of transporting large sheets of plywood was resolved yesterday when Lawrence, our builder friend, replied positively to my query of whether it would be OK to cut the sheets in half long ways. That way could slide through the space between the trunk (or boot, as it used to be) and the folded down rear seats. By the time they pushed up against the driver and passenger seats there would be less than a metre of length hanging out the back. By the time they were bound securely together with plastic film from the roll provided by the store (think: 20 metres of Glad Wrap wound round and round the load), and the trunk cover pulled down over the protrusion as far as possible, and held there by rope running from the spoiler under the load and back to the other side of the spoiler, repeated multiple times, we'd be reasonably good to go.

So far so good. But we had forgotten the door, hadn't we? The 32 inch wide door that comes in a wooden frame. Unlike the plywood, it cannot be cut down the middle.

In a “senior” moment I had forgotten about the frame. The door itself, at just 32 inches, would not be a problem, I thought, because the gap between the trunk and the seats is close to 33 inches wide. So the door alone would fit much the same as 4 lengths of half-width plywood. Jackpot. At that, we could get the various lengths of 2 inch by 6 inch timber needed for the job(8 foot lengths) as well. They could sit under the door and give it something nice to lie on.

With this naive faith to guide us—having forgotten about the frame—we headed for the city and the store, and made the purchase in the shop. On the way in we had been delighted by a typical instance of local creativity. As we approached Frenchman's Bay Michele exclaimed: “Is that someone water skiing? Why, yes it is. That's a first. They must be freezing!!” The brute fact is that the Humber Arm is almost as cold in summer as it is in winter. Well, there might be 10 degrees or so in it, but that's not a lot when you consider that for the winter months the Arm is frozen.

The initial exclamation was quickly followed by two statements of extreme delight. “Hang on, that's not a fishing dory towing the skier, is it?” Sure enough, it was. And second: “It's OK, they're in a wet suit. Mind you, they'll still be freezing”.

Now, we've seen some fishing dories moving at pretty good rates before, but this one was fairly screaming. If there were Formula One Fishing, this lot would have been heading the pack.

With the image fixed in the mind's eye, we were still chuckling when we reached the hardware place. And the memory soon turned too inspiration: at the precise we were presented with the door, fixed inside a frame, blowing it out to 36 inches wide, and 6 inches deep, AND the several solid hunks of framing timber. Our aspirations were met with bemused looks on the faces of the two guys working out back loading hardware into Dodge Ram Trucks and the like.

I suggested that if we put the door in first, with the door itself to the bottom and the frame opening facing up we might be able to load the timber into the available space and have it sticking out over the end of the frame, somewhat skywards of the Mustang's roof level. The lads in the loading bay reckoned it was possible, but the way they said it did not inspire confidence that they actually believed what they reckoned. They were more than ready to assist, however. One said that if we drove slowly and watched out for the bumpy parts of the road around Curling, and that if “the authorities” were in another part of town during the next hour or so, we might make it.

By the time the stuff was loaded, the Mustang Utility Vehicle was doing a fair impersonation of a Dash 8 airplane tail section profile. If we'd nailed one of the timbers at right angles to the apex of the load there'd have been little in it. The yard bay lads found us a bit of strapping to add to our assorted ropes and bungee cords, and they came to light with a couple of lengths of day-glo orange ribbon, which they attached to the end of the load. We ran some rope from the trunk catch round the back of the load and through the car to the passenger seat. Three times round the seat and back again to the end of the load and, finally, back to the trunk latch, completed the exercise—that is, apart from the second rope trick, involving the trunk spoiler and the load itself.

The water skiing had ended by the time we crawled back through Frenchman's Bay. And "the authorities" were, indeed, passing time some place else. In this wonderfully un-normed part of the world no one really seemed to even blink, and the cars following showed admirable faith in our packaging, being quite happy to sit reasonably close in behind until there was a chance to pass. I'm not even convinced the officials would have seen it that much differently, had they happened upon us en route, but was nonetheless pleased not to have to put that hunch to the test. But it stands to reason that wherever a fishing dory can morph to a high speed pleasure craft, a Mustang Utility Vehicle might be excused for imitating the aerodynamics of a Dash 8.

For the record, the aerodynamics were pretty good.

Lunenberg, Nova Scotia

2010-06-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

After finishing the teaching in Halifax yesterday we decided to look around the south shore, notwithstanding the rain. I'd seen a bit of information about Lunenberg from a 2002 Lonely Planet guide and thought it would be worth a look. What we didn't know was that since the Lonely Planet edition went to print, the town centre of Lunenberg has been made a UNESCO World Heritage site, on account of its buildings. It is a long established fishing town that still boasts the largest fish processing plant in North America. As the rain pelted down along the 80 kms from Halifax to Lunenberg there were thoughts of giving it away and turning back. We didn't, however, and were rewarded by the rain stopping for a couple of hours while we looked around.

It was one of the best afternoon look-arounds ever.

Finca videos

2010-05-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

Here are a few videos shot yesterday when I went out to the finca to pay David and to check out progress on thinning the tree shade. I was not alone. I did an hour and a half of bucketing water onto plants and the well level held up nicely. It will be great to get back for some extended time and create a nice garden and a cricket pitch and get the living space working well. But the plants were all thriving and it looks like there'll be a nice coffee harvest come Christmas time, if the white flowers on the bushes are anything to go by.

Tree felling and weed clearing

2010-04-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

We have had David and some of his socios on the job of opening the coffee land up to a bit more sun as well as clearing the weeds away and mounding them up as compost around the base of the coffee bushes. Over the many years that the land had been left to abandon before we bought it and began using it for small scale coffee production, the trees had grown to the point where the canopy blocked so much light out that many of the coffee bushes could scarcely produce fruit at all -- even with the careful tending they have been getting,

With David and his family moving in next door and looking for work it has been a good opportunity to make a start on taking some of the "high risk of falling in windy weather" trees out, and thinning branches on other trees. We will plant fruit trees and more banana palms and some smaller and manageable decorative trees to replace what is coming out.

I took some pictures today of David's recent work -- all done with axe, machete and hoe. Two big trunks he has taken out will be perfect for making timber to strengthen their home. A friend with a chain saw will come on the weekend to cut the large trunks into usable timber. The rest is going for firewood, because there is no electricity, and Cecilia does all her cooking and water heating by fire.

I also took a few random pix of some bushes and trees we have planted recently,

Cottage interior 2

2010-03-22T11:39:00.001-07:00

A few more pix of the cottage interior

Cottage interior

2010-03-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pix of the cottage interior, following Judy's painting work of last summer, and some stairs and tiling work done on this trip.

Around the Cove

2010-03-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some pix of the walks to Trail's End and Island Cove, as well as of the newly weaned seal pup at the Cove during the 10 days we were there.

House and Cove

2010-03-15T06:51:00.000-07:00

Just a few quick pix from cafe

Still more from the ex Hacienda

2010-03-06T14:57:00.000-08:00

This sequence of photos shows the huge interior "salon de fiestas" -- room for celebratory type events -- and looks outside to part of the aqueduct water system that drive the mill wheels and other machinery further "downstream".

February fury

2010-02-26T14:52:00.000-08:00

The news and weather channels referred to the big snow storm in the tri-state area as "February fury". There was plenty of snow: enough to stop us making the trip to Toronto to teach . That has been postponed til next weekend.

Clearing the finca garden

2010-01-24T16:57:00.000-08:00

Today was a long day of clearing weeds in the front part of the finca. I was glad of the shade from all the trees, and went more than 6 hours without a break. These pix may give a bit of a sense of the work done during the day. They are taken with a low res camera -- an Olympus, that we bought last time there was an AERA conference in New Orleans -- but hopefully there is enough definition to give a sense of the work involved.

The only pic that merits a specific mention is the first one showing a plant propped up by a stick. This propping was the work of David's young son, Jose Alfredo, who I talked about yesterday over at everydayliteracies A closer up pic would reveal that he had chosen a branch that had in turn spread out into three branches, such that there were like 3 sawn off finger stumps at the end. He had used these to wedge the plant stem so it would stay secure. Jose Alfredo would be maybe 6 years old. Great kid.

More from the hacienda

2010-01-12T16:26:00.001-08:00

How civilised. There is now a wireless hotspot at the bus station in Xalapa (The CAXA). It lets us cash in on BOTH our mexican internet subscription AND our annual US Boingo international thing -- that's the one that gives you unlimited anywhere there is a Boingo hotspot for $60 a year. It's a total boon for air travel.

Now it's proving quite cool for bus travel as well.

The Incredible Ex Hacienda Zimpizahua

2010-01-11T17:13:00.000-08:00

This post will be a work in progress for some time, because there is so much to write about this former hacienda, in Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico, that dates from 1547 and only ceased coffee production about a decade ago. We have a large photo and video archive. The videos will be used to produce a music video and I am sure we'll go back many times to re-acquaint with Joaquim, the manager, and his family, and update as necessary.

Meanwhile, I'll begin by loading some pix in the order in which we took them as we meandered our way around the portion that is now the hotel, up to the events area, back through the restaurant area to the big interior courtyard, past the various former production buildings, to look at the still-functioning aqueduct, and then out to the former coffee bean fermentation, drying and roasting area and, finally, up to the level of the aqueduct and then out through the entry area to the road.

This first sequence will get us started. We walked in past the check in desk and met the manager. He said we were welcome to look around, so we began with a walk down a pathway in front of some hotel rooms and up some steps to a covered area that looked out over some gardens and over some current work in progress. This sequence gives a sense of some of the gardens around the hotel area.

First bananas

2010-01-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

Something I have long wanted to do is to grow and harvest bananas. I told Gabriel this when we bought the coffee land from him -- in the days when he retained the lot beside ours as a place to play. He very soon had some palms on both lots. This year they have produced.

Gabriel sold his land to Gerado and Jimena, who live in Mexico City. They don't get over and so the past two years we have worked an arrangement with them whereby we clear their land in return for the coffee and bananas. It's a good arrangement because it turns into a kind of "gift that keeps on giving". We pay David and his family to clear the land and to pick the coffee, which gives them some income. In the case of good harvests we get surplus coffee to sell, which pays for what we pay David's family and means our own coffee production is cost neutral. In leaner harvests, like this year, it means we get enough coffee for a decent scale of production. And, it means that all the land is kept looking "occupied", which preserves its integrity.

When we arrived on the land yesterday we found that David had cut three big bunches of bananas. There is another big bunch still to come in the next few days and there will be further bunches later on. So we took one bunch to bring back to the house for ripening and gave two to David. We'll take the next bunch. That will keep us and Dona Angelita's family in bananas for a while. Meantime, the palms will clump and multiply, meaning that in another year there'll be more, and so on.

Here are some pix of the first bunch.

South side of Acapulco

2009-12-25T14:46:00.000-08:00

On our brief jaunt to Acapulco we took photos from Alex's Dad's place, from a walk Michel took to buy a bikini to have a swim in the hotel pool, from the hotel room, and from a walk down the hill toward the main town ahead of flagging a cab.

There were numerous jokes about cartel mansions and trickle down from the narco economy.

On our previous trip to Acapulco we stayed in the downtown and never got to this part of the city.

We love Acapulco. Maximum tourist town that has been postmodern from the beginning.

Fun and sun

2009-12-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

Just a quick vid of the hotel and view in Acapulco. The hotel is Los Flamingos and was a favourite among 50s and 60s Hollywood stars. I guess it made a change from Malibu.

Beach spotting

2009-10-20T05:24:00.000-07:00

I took three days over the past weekend to drive south from Cairns along the Whitsunday Coast, dropping in on some beaches I had never seen before and walking around a few small hamlets that called out to me from the map.

One of the fun things I discovered was how well the Flip Mino takes video at reasonably good traveling speeds. This superb little single function gadget can be turned on to record and comfortably held whilst driving along. It also did a pretty good job of tuning into the freshly burned roms that kept the music coming over the 2500 kilometers covered along the way.

Three of Etty Bay to start with:

Now a few of Mission Beach and Dunk Island

And a few of Sarina Beach, which i loved:

And three of Yeppoon.

I took quick videos of Etty Bay and Cardwell:

And of Mission and Sarina Beaches, and a bay adjacent to Sarina's main beach

And here are a couple of short clips of road scenes. In one of them you may here Bob Dylan presenting a snippet of his wonderful theme time radio show. So we'll start with a segment of the Cassowary drive, south from Mission Beach

Now some typical bush scenery bside the road near Townsville.

Some sugar country south of Ayr

Around here the speedometer clock reached the most notable landmark I was likely to witness on this trip, so I preserved it for posterity.

Here's a stretch of road off the Bruce Highway leading to Hay Point and Sarina Beach

Just south of Sarina someone was pushing a crazy idea of going to Memphis in the meantime, baby: but reason prevailed.

I liked Carmila, with its wide open spaces and country feel.

Camila even had a short stretch of the Old Bruce Highway.

And a clip taken whilst heading toward Marlborough.

And, finally, Yeppoon.

La Fraternidad de Istmeña Oaxaqueña, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico (21 March, 2009)

2009-04-05T07:43:00.000-07:00

"La Vela Istmeña" is an annual festival held in Xalapa by the Fraternidad Istemña Oaxaquena. This club comprises members who were born in or who have ties to the nine areas that make up the isthmus region in Oaxaca state (in south-eastern Mexico).

Xalapa, where this event took place, is due east of Mexico City, almost on the east coast.

The festival celebrates the patron saints of Oaxaca, and includes a lavish meal of regional dishes, traditional music and dancing. The majority of attendees also dress in traditional clothing, with the women stealing the evening in their gorgeously embroidered dresses, heavy gold jewellery (silver is much more typical of Mexico), elaborate coiffures and passion for dancing. The fraternity was established in 1992 with the express aim of preserving and promoting folkloric traditions from the region.

This year I was lucky enough to be in Coatepec at the time and was able to go along (my ticket was very last-minute and I only managed to secure one because at the very moment my friend called to inquire, someone had just returned a ticket because they weren't able to go themselves! Tickets sold out very quickly for this event).

The evening opened with the crowning of this year's queen, Sthpanny de Jesús Frayle Suárez. The opening ceremonies for the evening included Sthpanny dancing with a key member of the Fraternity in a stylised, traditional manner that was mesmerising to watch.

While we were eating, members of the Fraternity moved through the room, tossing out all manner of items to the crowd. My excellent friend, doña Angelita Guzman de Rivera explained to me that this was a custom imported directly from Oaxaca and is still very much a part of Oaxacan festivities. Items ranged from coloured palm-front fans, woven baskets, red neckerchiefs for the men, to large bowls and spoons for the kitchen.

The dancing all night was wondrous to behold! What I especially liked about it was the freedom to dance with whomever—women danced with women, or on their own, or with men. The turning dresses were a living kaleidoscope.

There were two bands on stage, and they alternated sets. One band--the one you can see and hear in this video was a more contemporary danzon-style 4-member band, while the other had a cast of thousands--playing trumpets, guitars, percussion, etc.--and played more traditional dance music.

The main ceremony involved a number of processions through and around the room, and the ritual lighting of large candles in honour of San Vicente Ferrer, patron saint of celebrations and fiestas and la Virgin de la Soledad (the Virgin of Solitude), patron saint of Oaxaca city (what a fascinating pairing!).

Then we continued eating, dancing and laughing into the wee hours of the morning. (Even the taxi ride home for us--six women in one tiny car, all wearing traditional dresses--was hilarious! The policeman at the checkpoint outside Xalapa just shook his head, laughed and waved us through).

The president of the Fraternity and his wife.

This gives a very small sense of how the hall looked. Colour and movement everywhere all night!

Angel and friend. One of the things I especially loved about the evening was how everyone of all ages was there!

The dresses were such a feast for the eyes!

My dear friend, doña Angelita, looking fly in all her finery!

The main ceremony of the evening comprised lighting large candles to celebrate the patron saints of Oaxaca. This included a number of processions involving mostly women.

These are the candles (las velas) that were lit in the main ceremony for the evening.

Me, in all my finery, with good friend Cesar Guzman on the right, and the treasurer of the Fraternity on the left of the photo. Cesar owns "El Tigre" in Coatepec, a leather goods workshop that's been in the family for over 60 years.

Just one example among hundreds of women's hair adornment.

The movement of the embroidered dresses was fascinating to watch as the women danced.

For more videos of the night, go here.

Niagara Falls: Winter Style

2009-04-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

Niagara Falls never ceases to amaze and awe us. Driving back from Toronto to New Jersey late in February this year, we stopped to have a look at the Falls, not thinking that we'd find them quite different in the winter cold. And cold it was! Cold, cold, cold! But, oh! How incredibly beautiful everything was. The spray from the Falls themselves froze as it settled on the trees, rocks and railings, and made everything glitter, sparkle and shimmer.

The Falls themselves were their usual impressive selves--reminding everyone of how puny humans really are. About a week or so after our visit, a bloke threw himself over the Falls ... and survived! Inconceivably true.

Some winter at the Cove

2009-03-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

I had almost a fortnight at Bottle Cover in the latter part of February. After four years of wondering what it would look and feel like there in winter I finally found out. Sublime. The heat generated by the electricity bill helped, of course.

Hit and run

2008-09-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

I have just 2 days in Coatepec and the wet weather has left a lot to be done about the house. Nonetheless, an early waking by the cathedral bells this morning made it possible to gain a couple of hours on the day. So I fired up Midnight and we went out to the finca to check how things are going. The short answer is that the wet period over the last month has really brought the plant life on -- coffee, decoratives and weeds alike. High spot was to see that the splint job Goyo and I did on a broken macademia plantling seems to be working OK. The chili bush is coming along, the banana plants are growing like topsy, and the coffee crop looks humungous and has not been troubled by the wet weather. And there was a white flower of one of the gardenias.

Some of these pix are totally mundane because they portray plants that were struggling at the house and have been transplanted to give them a new lease on life. They are doing well. Meanwhile, the neighbor's home and wall at the entry to our land is now pretty much finished. The entry driveway itself is in need of a major clean up, and one of the main jobs over January and February, after the coffee is cropped and processed, will be to put a permanent driveway in. We'll also complete the well so that it has a concrete interior and a nice clean bottom.

The following pix are low res, taken with my old Olympus camera, but hopefully they convey a bit of how it was out there this morning.

New apartment in New Jersey

2008-08-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

As these pix upload Michele should be signing to take up ownership (with the bank) of a lovely wee apartment in the same complex where she is currently renting. It's early times yet for pix, but here are a few shots taken this morning after the previous owners had vacated. (Actually, at the rate these pix are uploading on dialup in Mexico City there'd almost be time to make a payment off the loan.)

Quick trip to the finca

2008-08-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

After a couple of days in Mexico City I came over to Coatepec today. I got the 10am bus, was in Coatepec by 4pm and out to look at the work on the coffee land by 4.30. The place is lush, green, and the coffee crop is enormous. The poor old trees are laden over with the weight of the beans. The small outdoor kitchen has been completed alongside the bodega, so everything is in place for the coffee harvest in December and January. It was all looking splendid. I'll go out again tomorrow with Gabriel and think about what next. Meanwhile, here are today's pix.

Top soiling the grounds and sowing the lawn

2008-08-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

The many truckloads of rock and gravel that had been trucked in over the past 2 or 3 years to stabilise and level out the ground achieved their purpose at the expense of being an aesthetic blot on the landscape -- the kind of thing that keeps you awake at night when one has run out of academic trivia to angst over.

A few days before leaving we noted that a family down the road had got a load of great-looking topsoil in, so we asked where they had got it from. It came from the same source (Roger Sheppard) as all our gravel. At short notice Roger delivered 8 large dump truck loads of the stuff, along with a truckload of small rock for building up the immediate surrounds to the cottage foundations kin readiness for next winter's inevitable snow.

Once the truckloads were dumped, Roger used a small front end loader to pile the soil nearer the points it would end up in, to make it quicker spreading the stuff. He looked quizzical when we said we wanted it spread and the lawn sown before leaving (2 days later).

Harvey added his back-bending to ours and we had it all laid and sown the evening before we were to leave. It was a close call, and the aches were many and prolonged. But it's down, and Harvey says he'll post pictures of the grass growing, as and when it does.

Painting and flooring the barn

2008-08-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

3 solid days of work saw the top (studio) floor of the barn painted, the clip-together flooring installed, and some of the furniture set up. There are still some details to attend to, but the general shape of the top floor is now evident.

First week at the Cove

2008-08-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

After finishing the summer teaching we have finally managed to get to the Cove to do some work -- although not as yet a lot of time to take pictures. Here are a few pix of a sunset haze over the Humber Arm, some progress in laying flagstones as part of the wall retaining that needs to be done, a couple of shots of harvey and me laying flooring in the newly painted upstairs of the barn, and a couple of pix of the flagstone birdbath and seat that we got from John Tuach's flagstone quarry along with the conventional flagstones for the wall.

Building on the coffee land

2008-06-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

While our June stay in Coatepec was cruelly short there was nonetheless sufficient time to progress work on the coffee land just a little. The workshop/toolshed had been completed a few months ago and we wanted to seal it up with a coat of paint. Meanwhile, Gabriel had put a team of builders together to construct a small open sided kitchen (basically, a concrete and tiled roof sitting on four concrete columns over a concrete tiled floor), that will come into its own for the next coffee harvest at Christmas time. Over a couple of days we went out and did some painting, did a bit of gardening, and generally enjoyed hanging out in these lovely surroundings.

Most of the following pix will be pretty self-evident, but anyone with an interest in building may find the "tree trunk tool" a little different. The rods have been driven into the trunk for bending the steel rod to make the circular stirrups for the column reinforcing. The concrete is all mixed by hand.

Rooftop Meals

2008-06-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

One of the real joys of living in Coatepec is being able to eat up on the roof and enjoy the expansive views over the town. This time was especially special because a pair of yellow breasted fly catcher birds had built a nest in a nearby power pole and they provided excellent aero-acrobatics, especially after their young left the nest and were being taught how to dive and turn. Great birds. Indeed, there were birds everywhere this summer, making a long awaited recovery after their decimation by an evil bird flu some years ago. Meanwhile, simple fare for dinner, but the chili gave it a million dollar taste.

After a long hard winter

2008-06-05T18:35:00.001-07:00

We were told the Newfoundland winter had been harsh this year, but had no idea what that might mean for the cottage and barn. Some photos taken by our friend, Julie, tells part of the story so far as some of the paint that was applied in a hurry last summer is concerned. Nonetheless, the paint is easily fixed. Just as long as the heating system worked well enough to protect the concrete floors and foundations we'll be happy.

Here are the pix Julie took on a day that sported blue sky and sun for a time but was overtaken by mist a little later. It also looks like Harvey has a new ATV.

This year winter's fine day was 24 February

2008-03-02T16:43:00.000-08:00

This year the sun and snow aligned on a beautiful Sunday in New Jersey. If only all of winter were like this.