This winter of 2010/11 was one of many changes - First off I drove to Mexico with my 2 sisters instead of my husband, that was the biggest change, or so I thought until we got to my casa on the west coast of Mexico, near Guayabitos in the state of Nayarit. Not one problem did we have, and actually had the US Customs Officer laughing when we told him we didn't need directions to the Buffalo airport as we were driving to Mexico, with 3 dogs and a cat! He wished us luck and sent us on our way. While Iwas confident upon our arrival 5 days later, that I could rehook up the generator, hotwater tank, propane, and reposition the fridge and stove, there ended up being a couple of problems that 3 tired, sweaty, and thirsty female drivers couldn't deal with upon our hot and humid afternoon arrival. So, we did the next best thing - left Blanca the cat in the casa with all her paraphanelia, dropped the 3 dogs off at an understanding and very dog tolerant friends' place, and we got a hotel room!

The hotel had air conditioning, a pool, the internet, and best of all a little store across the street that sold all manner of ice cold (bien fria!) beverages.

The generator had to be fixed and that took 2 days. In the meantime the propane was giving me some problems - a quick internet call to my brotherinlaw the propane guru had me sticking a piece of high tech propane accessory (a piece of wire with a little kink at the end of it) into the propane line about 2 feet since there are little mud waspy type bugs that builds its nests in these kinds of places (who knew???). Another problem solved.

The electrical tape that David had used to cover over all the openings, water/propane, had all broken down during the summer's heat and humidity and was now all over me. I then found out that the orange oil organic cleanser I had brought down the year before was perfect for removing the sticky black gunk from me as well as the braided waterlines and propane fittings.

My sisters helped me out during the daytime but the casa really was not fit for company so we found them a lovely room overlooking the beach in Guayabitos. The hard work Barb did on one of the larger windows was immediately destroyed after Blanca (who's name should now be Little Miss Murder!) used her nightime wanderings to find and maim a gecko who promptly crawled all over the window and its white frame and I did not realize it until the sun had baked the blood onto the vinyl!

So, that was my trial by fire (that southern sun was hot!) my first week in Mexico. Oh yah, the weeds were, I kid you not, 12 feet high! The only redeeming features of them was the incredible number of beautiful butterflies flitting about the bright orange flowers of these weeds, and the sound of many happy bees visiting these same blossoms. As a surprise for David when he arrived about 10 days after me, was that I had managed to clear an area in the yard to park the truck. All the weeds had to be pulled by hand, then piled up to let them dry, and then one lights them up! The true Mexican way of getting rid of a plethora of stuff one doesn't want around one's property.

The girls spend their last night in Mexico in Puerto Vallarta at a quaint mexican posada near the beach in old town. The laugh was on them though as the place was filled with young and partying Mexicans! Not much sleep was had as the busy pool was just outside their hotel door. Adios hermanas!

Winter in Mexico is the dry season. We had not one drop of rain for 5 months! The weather was cooler than normal, but as we didn't have to shovel snow we were not complaining, just saying... We put up the pool anyway, and enjoyed it pretty much every day.

My weeks were filled with yoga and painting and photographing birds. The hummingbirds were so numerous at times that the 2 feeders we had put up were being emptied twice a day! While at home in the north I see maybe one species of the little flying jewels, down south there must have been at least 8 though it was hard to tell as many were juveniles.

This is my first post all the long winter, and now it is spring again. The internet service, we ended up getting rid of the usb stick and subscribing to a service which put an antenna on our roof, was not the greatest, and it was just too frustrating to write online only to have it disappear too frequently. So, please bear with me friends as I get back in the saddle, so to speak, as I manage to compose my thoughts and then my fingers over the next several weeks.

Please return frequently for photo and art updates. There will be many! Today I posted several of my award winning photos from last summer's Kinmount Fair photography contest.

Hasta pronto!