Flores Silvestres

On Sunday we took a walk with friends along a small river below Santa Rosa. Wildflowers greeted us all along our way. The rainy season has finally urged the flowers to 'show off'.



This kind of photo opportunity makes me want a better camera than my digital Brownie. But, my little no fuss camera is so easy to carry and it is waterproof.

The brief shower that caught us was no problem, and I then felt I had made the right camera choice.

Hummingbirds in the Jardin

 

It is very dry here in Guanajuato. Birds flock to our bird bath and bees desperate for water seek out any puddle from our sloppy plant watering. All of the nearby creeks and rivers are bone dry and everything is waiting for the season to break, for the rain to begin and for the brown of the countryside to turn lush and emerald again. 

The hummingbirds are particularly thick right now. I suppose they are concentrated to anything wet, and that there are some additional birds coming through on their migrations.

 

We have in the past had a great deal of difficulty here feeding hummingbirds this time of years as the bees swarm so thickly around the feeders that the hummingbirds can't get near the feeders. The bees even crawl inside of the feeders through the too large feeding tubes and totally clog up the feeders.

 

Our friends Janet and Ron brought us a wonderful gift on their last trip down from Canada. It was the hummingbird feeder shown in the video. It has a special feature, bee guards - the little yellow cages over the feeding tubes. They work beautifully as you can see in the video. Makes us want to shout with joy, but I employed Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee to do it for me! Woo Hoo!  

A Summer Swim

Rudi's Neighbor, the Hawk

Thursday, July 15, 2010

I drove over to Leon today to visit my friend Rudi. When I drove up to his house I discovered that his neighbor has a beautiful hawk on his front porch. Rudi doesn't know the hawks' origin, but I suspect the bird has been "rescued". Perhaps it is the victim of a car hit. The bird was quite docile and allowed me a very close look without any signs of being nervous.

The Lake

After visiting a while, Rudi suggested we hike up a canyon between Leon and Guanajuato to a lake he has found. He assured me that the water was very clear, clean and cool. It was a hot day so we took bathing suits.

The lake was beautiful and we had a really refreshing swim.

On our way back down the mountain we walked along with some local boys - probably 12-14 years old. They had been out hunting and had killed a rather large lizard with their slingshots. They were very interested in the "extranjeros" and they had lots of questions for us.

Purple Rain

This time of year in Guanajuato the jacaranda trees are blooming and their purple/blue blossoms are raining on the city.

Maybe Prince has been to Guanajuato.

Introduction to the Casa Museo Gene Byron

Gathering in the Jardin after the Concert

Today Alice and I went to a concert in Marfil, a suburb of Guanajuanto. We met a couple, John and Sue Cocoran, at Escuela Mexicana, and they told us about this concert to be held at Casa Museo Gene Byron.
The Concert Program read as follows: Concierto de violin, piano y contrabajo

Three young men performed. The piano player was very young – we heard only fifteen years old. He carried the concert playing in most of the segments sometimes by himself, a couple of times with the violinist and also with the contrabajo player. I thought that the segments with the contrabajo player were the most interesting. It turned out that the contrabajo player performs with the University of Guanajuato Orchestra. The music was wonderful.

The setting was more than wonderful. The concert was held in an old hacienda that had been converted into a museum/performance center. The grounds were lavishly planted. Flowers were blooming everywhere and were complimented by lush greenery clinging to the walled gardens.

An old man named Virgilio and his wife met us at the entrance and introduced themselves and welcomed us. It turns out that Virgilio was once married to Gene Byron