Spring Projects: Destroy Kitchen Shelves

The hot season in Mérida usually blasts in toward the end of April or early May.  This year the temperatures hit 100°F almost every day in March.  The evenings cooled down to low 70's; the brisk nights gave us a chance to reacclimate to the daytime heat.  It seems we haven't had a drop of rain in months, but with the heat comes humidity, and 'heat and humidity' is my favorite weather combo.

In mid April the temps rose even higher.  Being more acclimated to and happy to feel the tropical sun and heat, I got into spring cleaning mode. If you read the previous blog you know I repaired and relocated - and replaced - my desk.  That mission accomplished, I decided to work on the kitchen. 

When I moved into this house in July of 2007 the kitchen had cupboards in place.  I had the top(green) cupboards screened in to allow air but dissuade bugs.  The bottom doors were plastic and I should have gotten rid of them at the time.  They survived about two years. 

Over time I have ripped out the plastic doors as they became dysfunctional and started to bug me.  Once the doors were gone, the lower cupboards seemed so much larger.  Still, the supports for the plastic doors stood there blocking access. 

I took everything out and piled it up on the floor.  I removed the rusty old screws and was able to yank out all the fake supports.  They have nothing to do with the functional Mexican style shelves that were hiding behind that phony plastic shield.

Some people think having all your food, pots, pans, plastic containers and such in the open is not aesthetically acceptable.  I don't like closed doors and I guess that feeling extends to kitchen shelves.  Frankly I think it's the 30 years living in the tropics.  I get a bit obsessive about storing items in jars, being able to use all available space, and I don't like sharing my food with bugs. 

Ropero Closers

What the heck?

It's a ropero closer, Mokito!

When a friend of mine moved away from Mérida, she gifted me the above ropero (armoire).  She gave me keys for it, but not the actual keys for THIS ropero.  One side is locked shut, and the other side doesn't close at all.  It swings open.  I thought I'd use my macrame skills to create a ropero closer.  The first one I made fell apart before I got the photo taken, and the dreamweaver replacement below might have been made after too long a day of macrame-ing..  I might have to change it again. 

Here is a photo of the second one I made.  Merida Mikey loved my prototype and said his ropero doors swing open all the time too. So I made one for him and gave it to him this morning.  He sent me this photo of it on its new home. 

The first macrame project I started recently was new window pulls for the tall windows in the front living rooms.  The beads are those we found at the elderly Lenca Indian woman's home in La Calma, Honduras, and later painted.  When I first moved in I made pulls using plastic beads and thin wire and they didn't pass the test of time.  That inspired me to make new solid pulls out of strong jute-like material.  Below is an up close shot of the simple swirl knot and the colorful beads. 

Here's a pic of  the window wearing it's new ornament.  After making two of these the ropero closer idea occurred to me.  There are still more beads, so I think I will replace the tall ceiling fan extender pulls....in the same style. 

Plant Life in the Patio

The hollyhock is still flowering after several months.  It continues to bud deep wine colored flowers. The white petunias are still flowering and the purple petunia my neighbor gifted me is also in bloom.  We trashed the basil after it spread from the garden to the sidewalk.  What you see above and below is the NEW basil that has grown up in its place.  It smells delicious from inside the swimming pool.  It's almost time to collect a new large ziplock bag full of seeds.  Anyone needing basil, I have lots of seeds to spare.

Then there are the confused poinsettias.  Here they are called Noche Buena, or Christmas Eve (flowers), because that is when they usually bloom.  I remember lots of poinsettia in Hawaii.  Their leaves turn red in November and they flower around Christmas. The season is the same here, except for this year.  We never really had our rainy season last summer, and by the time rains came they were accompanying cold fronts.  This semi-wet weather pattern started in October and has been hanging on ever since.  The result is our three poinsettia bushes are all abloom and happy in February.  I remember that poinsettia should be pruned in the "A" months...April and August.  But since this is blooming in February, I guess I'll have to rethink the cutbacks for maybe June and Oct. 

One of the plants is dwarfed because for the longest time we had a giant ugly flower taking up its earth and its air space...so it is a bonsai poinsettia this year.  These two were planted from the same size little plant a year ago Christmas.

Cilantro seeds are now planted once a month in a different pot, sharing the atmosphere with another plant.  It is great to pick fresh cilantro as needed, but the plants don't live too long so it's good to keep young ones coming up.  The jalapeños are not pictured here, but they are keeping us in hot chiles.

This is diffenbachia, or dumb cane.  Have you ever seen it flower like this before?  This was a tall plant in the zen garden so I cut and moved most of it out back.  Now it is thriving in both areas.  But isn't this flower reminiscent of a spathiphilium?  The plant has had a couple of these appear already.

Hammocks

I love hammocks and have a collection of them. Below is a woven cloth hammock from Brazil. The photo is from Kona. It is too hot here to use it until around December, but it is still part of my collection. From this angle you cannot see the beautiful embroidery work on the hammock itself. Our friend Bill brought it from Brazil for us in the 90's and it's seen a lot of use, but it is still strong.


A man named Saturnino in Akumal made the first hammock I acquired. I picked out the light and dark blues and stopped off to see its progress on the loom every day for weeks as I walked to my studio garage apartment from the dive shop. Below, Pablo shows it's still usable upstairs outside on the patio. I've been toting it around the globe for over 25 years. It has seen its better days, but it keeps hanging.



When I furnished this house I counted hammock hooks to buy hammocks accordingly. I found enough hooks to hang 25 hammocks, but I settled for ten.


I think the hammock is the most practical and versatile piece of furniture. We watch TV from our hammocks. I wrote this piece in the hammock. Pablo prefers to sleep in the hammock. We roll up our hammocks and can easily pitch camp between two coconut palms OR two monterrey pines!


My research on the history of the hammock produced weird results. First the NYT article puzzled me. Wikipedia said Philipinos invented hammocks, but there was no information to support that theory. Most reports state they originated 1000-3000 years ago in the Mayan world. They were found along their extensive trade routes in all of Mexico, Central and South America. One source reported Amazonian Aborigines (?) wove hammocks from the bark of the hamack, hamak, or amac tree. Thus, its name, the hammock or in Spanish hamaca.


I read that Columbus was credited with discovering the hammock, but all he did was take some back to Europe after seeing how comfortable the Bahamians, or per another source Dominican Republicans, were lying around in them in the tropical heat. The sea faring men found them practical and they became the preferred bunks on many European ships. The ships used canvas hammocks, narrow, uncomfortable, and spaced only inches apart from one another.

Yucatecan hammocks are intricately woven, usually out of cotton, nylon, or a polyester combo. They're all the same length. It is the width and the weave that make the difference in quality. The more threads in the weave the better. A 'familial' (literally big enough for a family) size hammock or a 'matrimonial' (double) is more comfortable than a 'doble' (single) or 'individual'(just barely there). The trick in sleeping in one is to lie diagonally. The hammock supports the spine nicely if you manage to get yourself situated in there correctly. It takes some kicking and pushing and pulling for me to get it right, but I can get there. Pablo is a pro.


The other most comfortable sleeping position is crosswise, like this:

Russell concentrates on a creative moment sitting in the hammock. If I am going to sit in mine, I usually grab a couple of pillows to support my back, get my feet up, and put my work on my lap.

A hammock cools you off in the heat. Air can circulate through the weave. Add a few fans and you are in a pleasant comfort zone. A hammock keeps you up off the floor where humidity, mold and PESTS abound. The mosquitoes however use the hammock to their advantage. I believe they use the grid pattern to zero in on my most vulnerable parts!

In the cold you can wrap in a blanket and the hammock around you like a cocoon. If it's really cold you can have someone put hot coals underneath you which generate heat up through the cocoon. Try doing that with a bed.

Remember, 90% of all Yucatecans are conceived in, born in, spend most of their lives in, sleep in, and die in their hammocks. It's a fun statistic and often a conversation maker.

I like the hammock concept so much that I have other hammock furniture. Below is a hammock chair for the house. We used them outside for a year but had to have them restrung and the wood revarnished, so just a wise tip, keep them inside and they will last forever. This is a small chair, just my size.

Some of the kitties like hammocks, some don't. Moka and Mokito love them. The other cats don't feel secure in them at all. Kitten Mokito played a part in the destruction of the chair pictured above during the height of his kittenhood. He is sitting in one of the bigger models. The larger chairs are great for sunbathing or laying back. But they shouldn't LIVE out in the sun either. They are in for repair now. This repair wouldn't have been necessary if foresight was 20/20.

Don't think that I quit there! Below are two hammock stools. Mike picked up the one on the left in Tixcocob and I found the one with the folding backrest when I took the chairs to be repaired. These are great for indoor and outdoor use, but they live indoors.


There are hammocks for your personal items. These hammocks are not strangers to anyone in the boating community. Here they are easy to find and inexpensive. I like to use them in a variety of places.

Last but not least are the hanging hammock chairs. There are two outback on the patio behind the pool. You can stretch out and put your feet up, and I had a great photo showing exactly that, but it was accidentally deleted. If you had any idea how long it took me to work on this hammock article, you'd understand. I do own some regular furniture. There are a couple of beds, several tables and chairs, and accoutrements, but a visit to my house is definitely a trip to Hammockville.

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Succulents and the Zen Garden

This is one of the permanent planters at the corners of the pool. Below are stick cactus, jade plant and two Mayan gods from Copán protecting them. The geranium that used to live here didn't make it.

I am still working with the Zen garden (and catbox). While the backyard has more fruit and flowery plants, it also has Pablo, who enjoys his meditation time watering the plants when rain is not abundant. I take care of the little front patio. Therefore the plants must be of the ‘throw and grow’ variety, or very low maintenance.

The Zen garden has gone through several changes since its creation. The ti plant, papaya tree, sago, diffenbachia (dumb cane), philodendron, and the palm tree are doing great. The sand, pounded nearly into cement by the harsh rains, no longer interests the cats as a place to relieve themselves. The driftwood and canoe are happy there. The two plants in the hubcaps are surrounded by seashells and river rocks; you can hardly see them.

The plants have changed a bit since the first attempt. I planted some melon seeds and they rapidly spread. But there was a sweet potato (camote) sprouting in the hanging basket in the kitchen, so I buried it in the Zen garden. It seems to be stronger than the melons and may just win out. I like vines, but only the kind I know I'll be able to control later. This is a small area and they can’t take over like the throw and grow squash that consumed our property in Kona one year. I really made a bad decision tossing one innocent squash in front of our coffee shack. We had squash growing up the side of the house. (Ok, that is an exaggeration.)

We recently brought one spider lily home from the beach. They can grow in lousy soil, and they flower all the time. They have only a faint scent, but the white flowers can add dimension to an arrangement or cheer to the Zen garden. Once they start spewing seeds, I will have to be watchful. This is another plant I had experience with in Hawaii. In the long run I like spider lilies around me, I just have to keep up with removing the seeds. This one pictured above looks sad, but it will revive itself once it's familiar with its Zen-ness.

The spearmint in the pot below didn’t survive my watering plan, which is basically rainfall. But I have hope for the Serrano chiles planted in here now, as several seeds have sprouted and it is the rainy season. The light green vines are the sweet potato.

Below is the melon vine. There is some aloe vera hiding behind it and a few other things. Oh, and the chayote that grew in the frig. I thought I'd see what happens to it in the throw and grow garden.

Along the wall in the carport I planted a variety of succulents. We brought some nopal home one day, and some of the cuttings have sprouted interestingly shaped arms. It reminds me of one nopal I had in Kona a long time ago that grew little arms and a little head, and we put a little hat on him that came on a tequila bottle. Ah tequila memories….

Here I am with my pet cactus, Pancho, in 1989, in Kona, Hawaii.

I spread out some mother-in-law's tongues along the lengthy narrow garden. I had lots of them in Kona, and after a while they were like weeds. Once you plant one you can’t get rid of them. But they are very low maintenance and they look good.

There are lots of jade bush cuttings. The planters in the back patio are supposed to be bonsai, but they grow so fast! There is one more little cactus mixed in here. One day I bought a plant from a little Mayan lady downtown for ten pesos. The day I brought it home was the day the succulent garden took its shape and all its components were assembled. I think it looks pretty cool. Not too bad for a throw and grow low maintenance gardener.

You can see below that the pineapple plants have not embraced their location. This is one of two that look pekid. They are alive and have a Mayan god to aid them in their search for chlorophyll or whatever it is they are lacking. I think they look good in the giant planters that square off the pool, especially with their flowering miniature succulents.

Pitaya Flowers - and Dragonfruit

This is a pitaya flower. Earlier today it looked like a wide stalk of asparagus, and this evening it opened up into this:



I saw my first pitaya flower in June, and I posted these photos: Iguanas and Pitaya.
That flower AND its fruit bit the dust. Later another bloomed and it is now developing into a beautiful fruit. Tonight three more flowers opened up and the plant is looking quite healthy. I have high hopes for these new additions to the tropical fruit garden in the patio.

Pitaya is grown in Southeast Asia, Mexico, Central and South America and Israel and is known by several names. I knew it as dragonfruit in Hawaii but never tried it. It is also called pitahaya or strawberry pear. It is the fruit of the climbing cactus hylocereus undatus, and it tastes like a combination of a kiwi and a pear. Others describe its flavor as light and melon like. The fruit is best eaten when chilled, cut in half, scooping out and eating the seeds and flesh. It is also made into a pitaya refresco (blended with ice/water/sugar), which I am anxious to taste.

Dragonfruit is good for you! It is low in calories and high in nutrients like vitamin C, phosphorus, calcium, fiber and antioxidants. It has been said to lower glucose levels in type II diabetes sufferers.

Here is another post about it, and I hope the comments appear on this link...be sure to read Merida Mikey's. Those seeds do require consideration for those with a certain health condition. I am just looking forward to trying it, and out of my own yard it will be so exciting. The truth is the cactus plant grows on the other side of my wall, but it is moving over to my side where its admirers are.

I have been trying to get good photos of the pitaya bloom since the first one appeared in June. Tonight I think I hit the mark on a few shots. I wish I could include the fragrant scent of the beautiful white flowers.

Nighttime magic!

After the flower drops off, this is the fruit. I can't wait to see how big and colorful this gets. Watch future posts for a full report on the harvest. It should be a short report with just 5 anticipated fruits!

Wishing for Water in the Well

I probably shouldn't read my horoscope at all, but definitely not in the morning. Today it said that the planets would cause a disjunct day and due to unexpected occurrences I would not get my work done. My work is writing. I have been writing most of the day, but the average is two paragraphs or half a page of notes before I get distracted and stray off on to another unrelated topic and start writing something else. That is often how my day goes. I am getting used to that.

But then there was this: we had a water overflow problem this weekend and a plumber fixed that yesterday. Today we ran completely out of water. Japay, the water company, sent two guys out at 4pm. They asked if it was maybe the 'flotador' (bobber) in the 'tinaco' (water storage tank) and I said "No, that was repaired just yesterday and the plumber noticed the low pressure."

So one guy walked across the street,assessed the situation, and said, "Well, we are going to have to dig up the street and change the tubería (pipes) as there is probably a leak." Probably? Wouldn't they want to check the actual tinaco and house piping, at least take a little peak, before tearing up the street on a whim? Then they asked if I would be home in an hour so they could return with the equipment they need. I was thinking: Oh great! Jackhammers at the end of the day should please the neighborhood. Well they came back in fifteen minutes with an axe, a mallot and some pipes and tubes. Guy #1 had the street ripped open in a few hacks of the axe and sure as hell, water was geysering up into the sky. I snuck a few photos. When I went back out a few minutes ago, Guy #2 showed me the rotten pipes. They look like they may be from the Mayan Pre-Classic era. New pipes are being installed as I write this.

Look at the monster I created!

The remnants of pipes sitting next to the mallot below are the ancient tubes that were discovered here today.

So they are finished and gone. The water pipes from house to across the street fresh and new. The problem is we still don't feel the water pressure going up the other tubes and into the tinaco. I am going to have to just have faith, hope and keep my fingers crossed on this amazingly rapid and extensive road/water pipe repair and hope that due to the time of day, lack of rain, and high heat, perhaps water pressure is low everywhere right now and with some patience we will back on track in the morning. If not there may be another chapter to add.

If my neighbors are reading this, the guys said tomorrow someone will be by to patch the asphalt on the street and my sidewalk. I am not placing bets on the mañana plan, but I am hopeful.

To top off my day without purpose, I was expecting to spend the afternoon writing and reading, and three students who had abandonned swim class a month or more ago called and wanted to return to classes. Today. The weather held out and perhaps they all just felt like a swim in the 'hood and needed Pablo's great exercises and obstacle courses.

La vida te da sorpresas, sorpresas te da la vida. Wish me luck. Use water sparingly.

Wow! What Weather!

It happened so fast. At 2:45pm Saturday it was 36°C (96.8°F), sunny and hot. Pablo was teaching a class and in the pool. I looked at the sky and saw clouds in the distance so I went to the computer to check the weather satellites and the cloud cover looked dense. I went upstairs to rescue the laundry before the rain, and saw big black clouds marching toward us. As I collected our clothes the wind picked up. It picked up the mats, the balls, and the pool toys and flew them around the patio. It tossed big tree branches into the back yard.

Then the rains came. By 2:55pm it was 25°C (77°F). The temperature had dropped over 20°F in just ten minutes. It poured down hard, sideways…directly into the living room, bypassing the door’s double rain guards, gushing in at the corners of the door creating a lake in two rooms. It rained hard for about half an hour, accompanied by sharp lightning and earth rattling thunder. The rain lightened up but it continued to rain steadily for at least an hour. It’s the longest hardest rain we’ve experienced this year. The streets were flooded, as usual. It was the first time the entire back yard became a swimming pool. I’ll admit we have one trouble spot in the yard where rainwater collects for a while after a heavy rain, but the ground was saturated yesterday and the water had NO place to go. The swimming pool is nearly full to the brim. I would venture to say we received nearly four inches of rain in less than an hour.

At 4pm the 24 hour temperature low was recorded at 21.5°C (70.7°F). This is a typical low temperature for us IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. Not in the middle of the afternoon. The rainy season, adrenaline fodder.

Home Improvement: Adding Air Conditioning

The upstairs guest room is officially air conditioned.

I hadn't thought about adding a/c to the house until one day I decided to spend the afternoon up in the guest room, writing. It was the hottest day of the year at 45°C (113°F). The windows and door were open and three fans blared. I tried writing in the hammock, at the table, in a chair, and the bottom line was....it was a fiery fucking furnace in there! The fans simply whiffled my papers around the room while the fans blasted hot air in my face . It was a Thursday afternoon so my 'heat-relief', the swimming pool, was occupied by a class of splashing little boys.

All of a sudden the sky turned black and a mini-cyclone seemed to form in the patio. Winds whipped up the mats, swirled leaves into tornados, people ran to hide under the roof, and then the rains came. It poured and lightning flashed and thunder roared. It was May 28th and the first measurable amount of rain this year. It had been an extremely dry to date, so the rain was welcome relief. The rain didn't cool us off that day, instead the air was heavy and wet after the storm.

Today is June 21st, and we've had three weeks of rainy season pattern weather so far. The rains usually start in July. April through June are typically hot and dry. This year it was rather cool in the mornings and evenings until the rains came. Now it is hot and humid all day and all night. It still cools down enough in the hours before dawn to cover up with a sheet. But when that sun comes up, it gets hot. So much for the weather report.

The guest room is expecting an occupant. Via the coconut wireless a fellow writer looking for a place to retreat found out about the room upstairs, which I'd said I'd like to rent. (The kitties voted to adopt another human too: two more hands to feed and pet them!) Our new friend was all set to jet down here and then I wrote to her about the fiery furnace. She freaked. She lives in Minnesota, and really, folks, Mérida is HOT. Some of us prefer the heat to living in an icy freezer half the year....so we don't complain MUCH. The Yucatán is a pleasant place to live so we learn to work with the extreme weather instead of against it.

In my attempt to work with all the conditions at hand, I bit the bullet and bought an air conditioning unit. The gal who cleans the house knew an installer, and he came out yesterday to give an estimate. "Easy job," he said, "900 pesos total." ($66US) Erick arrived on a motorcycle with a folding ladder stowed on the side and a tool box bungeed to the back. He assessed the situation and began to chisel a hole in the wall.

Within a few hours he was testing the electrical mainswitch and completing the instalation. He did a nice job, worked quickly and efficiently, and we were quite satisfied. The unit operates easily with a remote control switch, and the room cooled down rapidly. We got cold!

Before and after....on the outside looking in.


While I was up on the roof I decided to get a new angle on the patio. It occurred to me I have never taken any photos from outside the gate, so to speak, and you know I am crazy about pictures! So I took some to share.

A look at the upstairs enclosed patio from beyond the solar panels on the roof.

Ok, I should have cleaned up all the fallen cement first, but as you can see, we are working on it. If you notice the air conditioning unit is directly wired to the electric box. There's room to hang a hammock out here or laundry, but there is no shade and it rains!

Looking down at the swimming pool. Inviting, isn't it?

A partial shot of the patio. Scattered about are lots of flowering plants, like jasmine, miniature roses, hibiscus, oleander, succulents, desert rose (hah! Lisa! I remembered!), all sizes and colors. They thrive in the rainy season on their own, and Pablo likes to meditate while watering the plants, so the "garden" always looks really clean and nice.

The Guatemalan papaya (fingers crossed - sweet little papaya like the Hawaiian Strawberry kine'), the basil bush (smells fantastic), and the ground cover are the highlights here. The palms could be happier, there is an unidentified vine taking root...stay tuned for melons or cucumbers.....and we are anticipating a few annual flowers too!