Randomness

I have no idea why but today is one of those days when it's hard to focus or feel attached to my surroundings.  I usually have these days following a productive day - which yesterday was.  So today I plan to just go with my mood and post some random photos.  And maybe a thought or two.

First, I have a request from my daughter, Diana, who wants to see some pictures of our dogs - maybe she thinks we lost them.  But not to worry - they are treated like royalty around here.

Citlali's favorite perch is Diana's and Laura's old crib,which I filled with blankets, etc. and then covered with fabric, that now resides in my new "office" in the second bedroom upstairs.  Yes, the decor needs some work, but for the moment it functions and it is all mine.  And Citlali's.

Poukie's spot is on the floor of my office.  Luckily, he is a resilient little guy and he makes the best of whatever scraps Citlali leaves for him.

Now I want you to see the beautiful bougainvillea that I pass by every morning while walking the dogs down our street.  It's dry season in Mexico City right now and this is when the bougainvillea is even more vibrant than during the rainy season.  It's always been one of my favorite shrubs - unfortunately it doesn't exactly thrive in Chicago.

Remember the pyramids the other day?  The ones in Ihuatzio, Michoacan?  That's where I took this photo of a pretty cute horse.  Or a good looking horse rather.  One of the things I love about Patzcuaro is that every day I see people from the nearby ranches on horseback going down our street, right alongside the cars.  They are simply part of the daily life there.

And finally, these two photos from one of the plazas and outdoor markets in Patzcuaro.  The little boy was chattering away to himself while he played with his toys on the bench.  His parents were next to him selling seafood at a food stand.  In the other photo, I watched the couple for a few minutes while she bargained over buying some dishes.  After awhile her husband got bored and walked away but she persisted until she got the price that was right.  Like husbands everywhere, he just shook his head when she gave him the bag to carry.

Since this is a random sort of day, I'll leave you with this rather long quote:

"Most of the time - 99 percent of the time- you just don't know how and why the threads are looped together, and that's okay.  Do a good thing and something bad happens.  Do a bad thing and something good happens.  Do nothing and everything explodes.

And very, very rarely - by some miracle of chance and coincidence, butterflies beating their wings just so and all the threads hanging together for a minute - you get the chance to do the right thing."

Lauren Oliver

Bye for now,

Naomi

Autumn Treasures and Condesa, Mexico City

First, I want to share beautiful handcrafted items, paintings and other treasures from the "The Art of Autumn" treasury list that I curated today.  I have such fun doing these treasuries (I just wish I could get the hang of pasting the list here instead of a link)!  Autumn Treasures.

Yesterday we went to a great Mexico City neighborhood called Condesa.  I love it there and it is my fervent hope that we will sell or rent our house in the suburb Satelite and go rent an apartment in Condesa.  It has gorgeous parks that are super dog friendly, the kind of 1940's Mexican architecture that I love, tons of cafes and small ethnic restaurants, bookstores, small shops, and this is very important - no shopping malls!  You can walk and walk there and not get bored.  It's the kind of neighborhood where you meet people from all over the world and can get together for book clubs or just to chat at one of the local coffee shops.  I really want to move there right now!  I didn't take many pictures while we there because I was too busy looking for "Apartment for Rent" signs.  Here is one picture though of Arturo and the dogs while we took a rest in one of the parks:

I almost got Arturo to smile!

We had lunch is an extremely popular Korean owned restaurant and the kudo soup was to die for!  I could eat it everyday - it had those thick noodles that are so good!  To walk off all the food we went to another nearby neighborhood called San Angel.  On Saturdays they have a huge marketplace with every sort of hand made item you could ever want.  On Saturdays and Sundays artists set up their paintings in the park.  I found a couple paintings that I wouldn't mind owning!

My brother-in-law, Alfonso, is in the plaid shirt

Right alongside the park you can buy any type of art supply - canvases, frames, paint brushes, oils, acrylics, pastels or watercolors.  Seeing all those supplies made me wish I could paint or draw but no such luck.

By the time we got home the dogs were exhausted.  Poukie barked at maybe a thousand dogs after Lali alerted him to each and everyone.  She barks once when she sees one to let him know and then he goes nuts.  Fun.  Lali was so tired last night that she fell asleep with the tip of her tongue hanging out.  In all of her 13 years I've never seen her do that!