Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Emergency Trip to the Nursery

,I woke up with the sun shining on my face and pillow. It was coming thru the east window. The sun is now rising far enough to the north to come directly in the window. Kind of a mixed blessing. I didn't notice what time it was, but I am going to notice tomorrow, I think. And keep track of how far north the sun rises as we move toward the summer solstice.I am trying to figure out how to make sun shades for both windows. It seems sort of complicated to me, but I will figure something out I hope. Before it gets really hot.

Anyway, I woke up with another undeniable craving to go to the other nursery near La Penita, down the highway. So I got up and ate and took off. The whole trip went perfectly. The collectivo was ready to go to Las Varas when I got down to Juan's tienda. I got out where the Chacala road mets the north-south highway, and waited for a collectivo headed to La Penita. A friend, Checho, was the driver of the first collectivo to come along. He dropped me off at the nursery, and asked if I wanted him to come back for me. But I said "No", since I didn't know how long I would be there.I was looking for succulents, and the only thing they had was what I think of as "fake" portulaca. I think they are really a sedum, but I don't know. They were nice plants, 15 pesos (1.35US) each, so I took five. Four for me and one for my neighbor, Lupita. She helped me out last night when some drunk was harassing me. First time that's happened to me in Mexico.

So I was walking across the highway to head back home, and here comes Checho. He swung around for me, and we headed toward Las Varas. I was the only passenger. He said we could stop at the other nursery if I wanted, and so we did.So I found one plant that looks sort of like a Jade plant, but it's not. It looked like I could easily divide it into four or five plants, so I took it. 20 pesos (1.80US). Checho pointed out they had more sacks of dirt at the nursery, and said he could bring them out to Chacala in a day or two. So I got two sacks, and we headed north.I got out at the collectivo stop in Las Varas, and zipped over to the tienda to get a kilo of peanunts in the shell. My favorite snack these days. I was back at the collectivo stop and about 10 minutes later, Checho came back by with the van full of passengers, heading for Chacala. So me, my plants, and the sacks of dirt made it home in record time. The whole trip took less than 2 hours. A record for a nursery trip. It cost 50 pesos for all four collectivo rides, plus I tipped Checho for his help and the extra stop.

I divided up the "Jade" look-a-like plant when I got home, and am letting them heal over a bit. Then I took Lupita's plant over to her place. Nice day.Later Gracia, a good gardener who grows all her plants in the shade, came by to check out my new garden. She kept telling me she has some little tree starts I can have to get some more shade over my little garden. I'll go over to her house tomorrow.

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