Happy to be in Chacala

Left: Veranda packed with pots of plants
Below: Ginger in the ground next to the door














It was a big relief and kind of a let-down to have Hurricane Juan go out to sea, just before the high winds and rain would have hit Chacala. It's up in lower Baja now, doing some damage, I think.

Chacala is dreary and humid this morning, at 8am, but not into the 90's yet. It was overcast when I woke up, but now the sun is starting to come out, after three dreary days. Everything is back in place around the house.

The potted hibiscus plants were starting to become infested with ants a few days ago, but the ants seem to be gone now. Maybe they didn't like being stuck back in the shade.

The Desert Rose plants are not happy. Almost all their blossoms fell off yesterday, just as I dragged them back out into the sun. Well, not really the sun, since it was overcast, but at least out of the shade.

The portulacas are pouting, since they blossom under the theory: no sun/no flowers.

All the starts are looking great. They seem to enjoy the cooler (not cool) overcast weather. The jasmine cutting I thought I killed a few days ago, have accidently cut off the new cut, seems to be doing okay. I am afraid to dig down and see what's going on with the roots.

All the other potted plants look good. And the bouganvilleans, gingers, etc etc in the ground seem to be loving the overcast weather I guess. They are all putting out new growth.

This morning my son and I are going down to the wouth end of the beach to borrow some high-speed/wireless/internet access from a friend. Erik figured out how to piggy-back onto my dial-up connection thru my laptop, using my wireless card, to get his Dell laptop on-line. So we can both compute on-line at the same time, on the one dial-up line here at this house. But, of course, it's slow. And he has some work he wants to do, so we are going down the beach.

I am hoping there will be seashells on the seashore, after the "stormy" weather. It never was really stormy in Chacala, but maybe it was out in the ocean. The only time we get seashells on the beach here is after big waves. So, maybe.

When we get back I am going to transplant the portulaca's I found a couple days ago, volunteering in the dirt below the house.