Saturday Morning in my New Place

These are some plants in front of my landlady's house.

I am all moved to my new/old place, and starting to feel settled in. I am living in the upper floor of a small house. I have a bedroom with room for my projects, a nice bath, and a terzasa where I eat, cook, visit, and so on. Very nice.

My landlady mostly lives down near the beach at her little restaurant, but sometimes she and her husband and daughter sleep up at the house, downstairs. I lived here for six months, during my second “winter” in Chacala. Winter being low to mid-80’s, no rain. I learned alot about everyday life in Chacala, especially to do with water and electricity and plumbing. Hopefully this will be a more relaxed experience.My plants have a good location, not too much heat and direct sun. And it’s easy to water them. The town water line is close, and there’s a nice little bit of hose to spray with. And a big trash can that we keep filled with water for the days when the water isn’t running.The next time I go to town I am going to buy some more pots/buckets. Then I can start separating out the succulents I crammed together when I got back from my vivero/plant nursery trip to San Miguel de Allende .There are alot of big black birds around here. I just re-read a Don Juan book and I am really noticing birds and the breezes these days. This morning there were more than 200 of these birds on the big power lines. There are so many of them that when they all take off to move a bit, they cast a pretty big shadow. This photo was from this morning, maybe about 7am.

All the plants around this house are looking really healthy. They have grown a lot in the last year and a half, since I lived here before. I am not sure if it’s my landlady or landlord, but things are looking pretty good. Last night we all sat on the stoop and talked about me making a hammock place and maybe place to do laundry under two small trees on the north, shady, side of the house. I don’t have running water up on the teraza where I cook, so being able to do laundry downstairs, and near the hose, would be great.

My landlady has a really large succulent plant out back. It looks sort of like an agave, but it’s not. We talked about moving it out front, where it could get more sun.I am glad there is actual dirt to garden in here. But I am going to stick mostly to pots for now. I feel like every time I walk around the house I see plants I didn’t see before. And hear birds and feel fresh breezes. The little path Beto and I made a few years ago still runs between this house and Aurora’s, so it’s easy to run back and forth.

This is where my plants are for the moment. I think I will move them around later, after I feel more settled, and can see how the sun hits things. The shrubs and trees have grown so much that it’s almost like gardening in a different yard.

The chili pepper plant has really grown. Before I moved down here, to this house, I decided not to have any plants upstairs, mostly because the water draws cockroaches and god-knows-what-else. Last night a large varmint was up on my stairs, looking for the garbage bag, I think. He ripped it open a couple of nights ago and made a large mess. I am being more careful now.

When I lived here before a family of tejones (like badgers, sort of) started visiting every night. One night I woke up and heard something on the teraza. I reached out the window in the door and flicked on the outside light. The mama and two little ones were actually “sitting” on the chairs around my eating table, sharing my bananas. I flicked the lights off and on and banged on the metal door and they left. And returned again and again, until I finally convinced them they weren’t welcome.ThThe front steps to my new place.