Five fishermen

 

Walking along the seawall the other day I snapped this photo of a couple of boats with guys out fishing.  It wasn't until I looked at my shots that I saw I had captured another fisherman--the brown pelican.  These are the most beautiful birds.  They often fly in groups of five or ten or more, swooping and diving like squadrons.  We call them the Mexican air force.  I think of these five fishermen, the pelican may be the most successful.

Hacienda vignettes

 

This is the view from the outdoor dining room at Hacienda las Moras.  We went there again today with our latest visitors, Mark and Linette.  This place works its magic on everyone who goes there.  It's so peaceful and beautiful.  Here are just a few of today's photographs.

Can you see why we just have to keep returning to this special place?

The painting of Old Town

There's a lot of painting going on in Old Town and I can't decide if it's a good thing or not.  I happen to really love the look of the plastered buildings as the old paint flakes off to reveal underneath layers of colour.

 

Plus I love the golden look of the whitewashed buildings when the sun shines on them.  But a crew of painters is slapping new paint on some of these treasures and I'm not liking it much.

This building is so beautiful with its golden tones. Now with the new purple and green paint it just looks like another painted building to me.

Then there's this one that had weathered to a soft multi-coloured hue like green tea ice cream.

Last week it was transformed to baby blue and white.

 

Maybe I'm just being too precious in my aesthetic.  What do you think?

These buildings are vacant and in need of restoration.  If this is the first step to protecting them, I'm for it.   But I wish they'd consulted me about the colour schemes. 

Patriotic Mexico

I took this photo of the new flag that's flying along the Malecon where the cliff divers ply their trade.  This flag is just enormous and the silk looked so stunning fluttering in the wind that I had to stop and take a few pictures.  This is the one I like the best for the intense colours against the blue blue sky.  It's straight out of the camera so I'm linking this post to Marietta's blog where she hosts a meme called Straight Out of the Camera Sunday.  Check it out to see a variety of bloggers' images.

The salad drying system

If you walked into our little utility room any day after we've been to the market, this is what you'd find.  It's our setup for drying the greens after they've been through their purifying wash.  That's cilantro in the red strainer and lettuce on the right. 

Here in Mexico it's advisable to disinfect all fruit and vegetables that will be eaten raw to make sure there are no traces of bad bacteria that might cause tummy problems.  Some people use a little bit of bleach or iodine but we use the newer purifying drops called Microdyn, which are ionized silver (whatever that is) because it doesn't leave any residual taste.  Then we lay them out on a towel to air dry.

Harry got the idea of a fan system for the curly leaves that take longer to dry.  Lettuce and cilantro go soggy if they're left too long with water on them so Harry rigged up this fan system for the curly slow-drying leave. Let's just call it tropical improvisation.

The lanterns of Old Town Mazatlan

 

The other day when I was reviewing some of my photos from the historic centre of Mazatlan I found all these photographs of lanterns.  They're set here and there around town and they're all made from the same ornate mould.  They are in fact functioning street lights.  Aren't they lovely?