The Night of the Pitaya Flower

Pitaya (dragonfruit) in May?  The last time I wrote about the dragonfuit growing it was early September. I think July is the normal beginning of its season, but I could be wrong. I'm not sure the first two fruit will survive.  But this time I did remember to take photos of it on its big night out.  This is a series of photos that tells the story itself.  All it needs is the follow up when we see if we get two fruit or not.

The first pic below was taken at 5pm

This photo was taken at 8pm.

10pm

midnight. all opened up.

4pm today, finished, now it'll work on developing the fruit.

If you checked my link above from a previous pitaya post, this is what the plant looks like now.  It seems to like it on our side of the wall.  And we like it!  

Project Gone Wild: The Jardín

The two photos below show the front patio area when I first cleaned it up, filled it with sand, and planted a few plants. The driftwood Pablo and I brought from El Salvador and the seashells were from local beaches.  Later it became overgrown with many of my throw and grow plants I put in.  I can't find a photo of it as the jungle it was of late.  The philodendron has grown up and provided a natural kitchen window curtain, and the papaya tree lived its life and is no longer with us.  

This is where the project called bed, bath and beyond got a little crazy and out of hand.  . When the workers made a mess of my yard with concrete and paint, leaving half my plants in a sorry state, the contractor asked if I wanted them to clean up the yard.  I said I would love that.  Frankly it needed someone else's attention since I haven't been able to get to it.  This project was on the back burner for a while and I thought the cleanup ended when they trimmed the bushes and cut off dead leaves and pulled weeds, etc.  Good old miscommunication.  I must have given permission for a complete landscaping job.

I was surprised when Juan, the contractor, showed up  the other day with Jorge Junior, of Jorge's Organic Farm, here I've linked a copy of an article written by Beryl Gorbman about the productive family farm .  First Jorge brought a huge pile of consumable vegetables for me.  Fresh leafy lettuce, a huge bunch of radishes, bok choy, a huge bag of chaya, several beets, a few mangos, a watermelon and a huge bouquet of spearmint. We are eating a lot of radishes and I have to decide what to do with the chaya, but the rest of the goods were real good eatin'!   Fresh organic veggies and fruits, the best.

In the back yard he planted cilantro seeds, radish seeds, habanero plants, an epazote plant, two sunflowers, other flowers I've not seen before, re-used and replanted all the rootbound pots I had. Jorge got rid of my mosquito collecting plants and replaced them with more useful greenery.  The back yard pics will look better after the new plants get used to their new home.  I'll post them later. 

The front patio, however, went through a major overhaul.  I think the guys just really got into it.  They tore almost everything out.  Now there are roses lining the walkways. They started a flowery vine with yellow flowers to join or replace the philodendron.  Plus they planted grass.  It's a small area of grass but it will be so nice to have ANY grass that I'm looking forward to it. I am also being good about watering.  That's the toughest part for me, being a constant gardener.

I've seen tuberose in the flower market, but now I have one growing in my yard.  They are beautiful and the most fragrant of flowers. If you look closely you can see the grass.

I thought this mix of plants with the canoe and driftwood was quite clever. It proudly upholds and honors the story of the original Dorton canoe, which began back in the early 90's.

Beautiful and fragrant roses.

Chile parado.

Juan is a great coordinator of work projects and Jorge is a very talented landscaper - quite knowledgeable about plants.  Although I wasn't planning such a major change and elaborate garden, it's beautiful and if we have a kind rainy season should look really good in a few months.  If not, pray I become a more constant gardener.

Fan Coozies

The summer heat is kicking in here in Mérida, with temps reaching mid 30'sC°, or around 95°F.  We haven't yet reached 40°C, so the hot season is just beginning. The temps are more like March temps, and March felt more like winter than any of the winter months.  We've had bizarre rainstorms, very few of them, but crazy nonetheless. One day we had a mini-hurricane, tornados for sure out of the blue. The wind started blowing crazy from all directions and the lightning and thunder were zero seconds away.  The wind blew the double iron gates of my front carport wide open.  I tried to push them closed in the downpour and was pushed back by the winds. Finally I got them closed, after the filthy flooded street water rushed in.  As you might imagine, this became another facet of the bed, bath and beyond project.   Had to have one lock replaced and another installed.  I found out the winds hit 93kms an hour during that storm.  It damaged several areas of the city, but tornado style, lots of damage in small areas.

This blog is not about the heat however. It's about beating the heat. In this case I mean floor fans and protectors.  Inspired by Lindasita's covering her fans with netting to help keep them dust free, I finally spent several hours to clean each of my floor fans with tweezers, a toothbrush, and a small paintbrush.  My fans don't open. Maybe they are supposed to but they don't anymore.  After collecting half a trash bucket of dust and cat hair, I gave up and gave the fans a little shower.  I was desperate. I let them dry and evidently did no damage to the motors.  Whew!

That same day I took the netting Lynn brought for me and decided to cover ALL the fans while they were ALL clean at one time.  I've seen the results of this practical and simple solution, and decided to just sit down and do it.  Here are some photos.  This project was a success! It may seem a little Aunt Sally's 'toaster coozie' but it was a very useful and worthwhile effort.

Project Two: Paint Bedroom Completed

The tale of the bedroom project is just about finished.  In a previous post, Project Two: Paint the Bedroom I believe I told you about the history of the unattractive room.  I also provided photos of the before and after the paint job at Project Painting the Room PHOTOS.  It took me a few weeks to think about what to put on the walls and where.  I confiscated my collection of items from Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji from the front room after discussing with Lindasita how I missed my memorabilia from the South Pacific. I tried to hang some of these things myself, but whacked my thumb and decided I wasn't able to penetrate the concrete wall after all.  I can with a little nail, but the heavier ones, watch out!

 Above the back window hang two of Pablo's paintings. No need to remind me Chac Mool is crooked, and one of these days I'll straighten him out.

 The room looks a bit crowded but I do have clothes hanging on the door and my blanket in the hammock. The idea was to make the room feel bigger, Have room to sleep in our hammocks without the bed in the way, and have space to hang out.

 Need to hang one more painting above that closet. No the colors don't all match - but the hammock chairs do! The joys of living in the tropics where color is king!

It's too hot to sleep in the bed this time of year, so I tucked it out of the way.  I haven't finished deciding what else to hang on the wall in this corner, but I like it bare for now since the other wall is so busy.

 The storage space above the bathroom allows for more memorabilia.  I didn't have the ladder handy to get that black plastic bag out of the way. Use your imagination. It looks better than that plastic stuff, that's for sure.

The bedroom project is now officially finished.  There are still some decorative touches needed,  but the bed, bath and beyond project -as it grew to such proportions - was well worth it. I have peace of mind that my roof would withstand high winds, my screens, when used properly, will help keep the mosquitos out, and I enjoy the soothing brown in the bedroom.  Only one problem, it makes me want to eat chocolate.

Project Two: Paint the Bedroom, Part One

As home repairs often go, a simple plan of  "I want to paint my bedroom" can open an unexpected can of worms.  Unexpected or not, it is part of the SURPRISE! factor of living in México.  The good news is that these pop up home repairs cost so much less than they would in the USA that 'surprise' does not necessarily mean 'shock'.

My bedroom was not properly completed when I moved in the house in 2007.  I arrived in late July and the workers started in early August.  It's a big house, and of course I wanted them to start with the swimming pool so I could escape dust and construction inside, but no, that isn't how they do things. The pool had to wait til they got to the rear of the house. Most of the rooms still look pretty good.  But my room got lost in the original shuffle and chaos. The electrician changing the wiring got way behind the workers so they went ahead and did their thing without his repairs, including the painting. I think at some point they get tired of the project and want it finished, so they just say, 'ok, feeneeshed'. The guys painted my room, and it wasn't anywhere near the color I wanted, so I've been waking up to a hideous dark pink wall for five years.  I don't even like pink.  It was supposed to be Bali berry red, a strong rusty red.

Months ago we brought in albañiles to fix the ceiling and roof of my room. It's necessary to put an impermeabilizante on the roof, a weatherproof paint needed to protect these thick cement roofs and the re-bar that supports them.  When the '07 workers tried to finish the roof, the rains started.  They must have painted three coats of weatherproofing and it all washed away three rainy afternoons  in a row.  So the roof overhead in my bedroom felt unsafe and looked horrible.  Water had welled up in a couple spots, meaning it would be soon seeping through to the ceiling during rains. Yikes!  The first guys fixed SOME of the problems, but ignored the worst ones. They left my pink room with gray patches of cement all over the walls. The patches and the pink were driving me crazy.  Plus, I felt like the only person in my own house with a crummy room!

I lucked into finding a thorough and detailed contractor with a hard working crew.  They had repaired and painted the pool for a very reasonable rate and they seemed like the right guys for the next project.  Paint my room.  I showed them the ceiling, where it had been recently but poorly patched and the areas that still had me concerned.  They immediately inspected the roof and found that it was quite 'soft'.  They started up there, pick-axing away the soft dust and rocks that were 'muy antiguo'.  They must have taken off four or five inches of depth in a large area. Much of the dust that flew can now be found on every item in the house, as you might imagine.  Of course we've had some very windy nights, perfect for redistribution of dust.  Next they mixed the new concrete in the patio and hauled it up by buckets until they covered a 10x20 ft (approx) area with five new inches of protection.  That would have to dry for fifteen days before the weather proofing could be painted over it.

While up on the roof, they examined the rest of it, found the tinaco, or water cistern, to be filthy and some of the tuberia blocked. They emptied and bleached out our two tinacos.  The one on the third story rooftop was even worse than the first one.

They did some plumbing.  New faucets for my bathroom, the shower one with the hose attachment. I love that idea you can rinse your hair and massage you tired head. That was my luxury item.  They repaired a leak under the kitchen sink, my continually running toilet, and the fixtures in the main bathroom.  They replaced all the mosquito screens in the house that had holes in them.  Anything they saw, they asked if I wanted it fixed. They were great.

They thoroughly cleaned the pool, as the weekly 'vacuum-the-pool-guy' I'd hired did a lousy job, and the system needed attention.  The filters were cleaned, the tuberia, again, was flushed and the solar heating works great as well as the filter system is more efficient.

Finally they started on my  room. Ceiling repair.  Primer. More primer to cover the pink. And rather quickly from that point on the room was magically transformed.  The bathroom door seems to be missing?  It's GONE.....it was a pain in the ass. It was broken. I asked them to tear it out and get rid of it. I'd rather have a curtain than a plastic door. The panels would slide down and the door wouldn't close.  There were plastic curtains in the storage area above my bathroom and I had them rip those out too.  I don't store that much stuff up there. It will hardly be visible back in the corner, it's a good sized space. It makes the room look so much larger (and cleaner).  I had begun to destroy that door, it's been months since I enjoyed ripping out the plastic doors covering the shelves in the kitchen.  I really hated that plastic, and I'm not done with it yet. I just need a little more time.  Project-wise we are advancing at a good pace.  The house had a serious once over and it seems to feel better too.  The pictures are self explanatory on the blog below.

Project: Painting the Room PHOTOS

Project One: The Pool

 The month of projects.  The reasons I haven't written are twofold:  I have been working so much and have had workers in and around the house for several weeks now. Projects are officially finished for now, for now being the usable word here, because an old house like this is never lacking potential projects.  

First of all, Pablo and I painted the pool a couple years ago but the sun and chemicals took their toll.  This year the pool was left dry from October til mid February when I found some great workers to do the repairs and paint.  As you can see from the cement, there were a few cracks in the pool where water was seeping out.  There were chips of cement broken off the sides that have now been repaired. 

 The rust colored pole you see here doesn't' have a top on it and it was full of water, oxidating the pole and rotting the pole from the inside. They fixed it and built a cement platform for it, as well as topping the pole so rain doesn't enter.  The cement had to dry for several days.

 And then came this day. The paint job. No more nicks, rust, low spots for water to collect along the wall  and a beautiful new white acryllic surface around the pool  to finish the new look.

 I promised to be in that pool by March1st and by God, the photos below are taken March 1st,more or less.  Close enough. 

 My office opened up that day. The step in the corner is my favorite desk in the house. I do my best writing out there.  It was so hot here in February I'd wished the pool were full and heated.  By the time I got it finished a minor cold front came in and I could only use the pool a couple times, since it was windy and cool during the day.  Now I am  happy I have my pool and i've begun exercising.  My flabby Polish arms were showing, time to do those pool exercises again.  Bring on summer, I'm ready.