Nothing Much Going On

Not too much going on right now.  Tropical Storm Rick gave us a pass and instead hit Mazatlan and the area around there.  Good for us, not so great for them.  Hope all is well down there.
There were some really nice clouds last night though.


























The local cats that we are feeding are getting quite comfy up here.  They have been sleeping in our patio chairs at night and now come running to eat when they see me come outside.  Spoiling them I think maybe.  There seems to be only 1 baby kitten left of the 2.  Life is tough on the streets.


























Went uptown and bought some fabric today so I guess I will be busy sewing tomorrow. 

Clouds Last Night

There were some pretty clouds last night.  The rain has stopped and it has cleared off, we are back to our regular weather.

Rain

Last night it began thundering loudly and woke me up at around 1:30 AM. I got up and after unplugging all the electronics, went outside to watch the lightning show. It rained nicely and really cooled things off. Felt really good. After watching for awhile I went back to bed, Roy never stirred throughout the whole noisy storm.
This afternoon there are more clouds and they are forecasting thunderstorms again. Most of the time when they are forecast we get nothing; but who knows.
I thought this flat top cloud was kind of interesting.

Below is the newest animal being fed here. He/she has been coming up and sleeping in the shade for awhile now. It also drinks from the water basin that we have out for the birds and animals to use. Today I broke down and gave him some food. He didn't eat much and he is very skinny, so I am not sure if he is sick or just not hungry at the moment. I guess we will see. It reminds me of a cat my older brother used to have years ago. It was a motley colored thing also and he named it affectionately, "Barf". The cat didn't seem to care. Anyway we will see if he continues to stick around or not.

Low Clouds Over The Mountains

Sunday morning there was some low clouds over the mountain that looked interesting. It was also chilly.

Clouds

The clouds build and then disappear without leaving any rain behind them.

The Turtle Returns

A few weeks ago you might remember when I posted about a turtle at one of the restaurants that we go to. Lunching With A Turtle . Well, a couple of days ago we returned to the restaurant and the first thing the fellow told us when we walked through the door was that the turtle was back and having his lunch. We wandered over to see him and to say hello. The turtle didn't seem too impressed with seeing us again and continued eating his lunch. We watched him for a bit and then went and sat down to eat our own meal.


Normally the skies here are clear and bright blue, and that is what it was like the other day. I just happened to look out and see this big cloud rising over the mountain. Looked very odd in the middle of all that bright blue sky.

What's This?

What's with this? Usually we get up in the morning and shortly thereafter so does the sun. This morning we were greeted with cloud and fog. I think it is because our humidity is going up as it does for the summer. This is not really a welcome thing, as with the heat and humidity the "feels like" temperature goes way up. Oh well, that is summer here.
The cloud/fog made for some pretty pictures this morning anyway.
As I am posting this at shortly after 8 AM, the sun is already breaking through.

Girls Day Out

Girls Day Out

This morning around 8:30 AM, five of us "girls" jumped into a vehicle and headed to Obregon (Cajeme) for a girls day out shopping. We headed down highway 15 and made a quick stop to check out a second hand shop in Vicam. It didn't open until 10 which so we had 10 minutes to kill. We headed over to the local corner store to grab a coffee while we waited. While we were standing around outside having our drinks we chatted with a couple of young entrepreneurs. They were just waiting for someone to come along that needed their windows washed, it was a slow morning for them so they had time to chat with us. Shortly after 10 we headed back to the shop and it was still closed so we gave up and headed on down the road.

We arrived in Obregon and began our search for funky little second hand shops. We got directions for a couple and actually managed to find them. We didn't purchase a lot; but had some fun.

Finally tummies grumbling we found a chinese restaurant and had a tasty, filling lunch. I had shrimp in agridulce sauce and shrimp fried rice, other dishes were shrimp in salsa picante and another dish that I have forgotten the name of. We had enough food for double the amount of people so doggie bags were the order of the day, in case you are thinking food poisoning here, there was a plug in type cooler in the vehicle. Hunger satisfied, we again were on the hunt for the ultimate shopping experience. Not too much materialised and we ended up at a Bodega Aurrera and Home Depot, skipping the Walmart. I purchased some kitchen things and some tomato and geranium seeds so did not actually spend the family fortune.

A fun day was had by our multinational group, (1 from USA, 2 Canadians, 1 from England and 1 from Uraguay) and it was agreed that we should plan another outing with a different destination for the near future. Can't you just imagine that strange accents that we all inflicted on the poor ears of the spanish speakers we were communicating with? I am sure it was comical for them. As it was a shopping trip I didn't take the camera along, I just didn't want to be bothered with it.

It was cloudy and foggy this morning and quite chilly; but turned into another lovely sunny day.

A Cloudy Morning

A Cloudy Morning

A cloudy morning, well it was for a few minutes anyway. We opened the door and windows and let the cool, moist air in. Refreshing after the air conditioning being on all the time.

Our view this morning.

I had another photo I wanted to post; but my censor (Roy), dis-allowed it. Seeing as it was of him, I allowed his censorship. Oh well.
One set of my camera batteries went dead on Saturday and when I went to charge them the charger wouldn't work. I am thinking perhaps a power surge damaged it. Luckily I had the other set charged, as I don't like not having my camera handy.
I decided that I would go looking for a new one on Sunday as we had decided that it was just too hot to stand in the sun watching the parade for hours. I have also been wanting to look for a new memory card for the camera as the one I had was too small. I had to be careful if I was taking little videos not to run out of room.
I headed to the Soriana grocery store first as I knew that they carry cameras. Sure enough they also had the card that I needed. I got a 2 GB. card for what I thought was a decent price; but they didn't have a battery charger.
I had looked in our new telephone book before leaving home to see if there was a camera store that sells accessories. It told me that the camera store in the El Vigia mall does. See, we have only had the phone book for a couple of days and already it has come in handy, even without a telephone. Sure enough, they had chargers and I got one complete with 4 batteries so now I also have some extra batteries. A good shopping excursion.
We spent a lazy day yesterday and didn't do anything. This morning I think that we are going to go out to San Carlos to look around.

Parrot On The Loose

Parrot On The Loose

Yesterday afternoon there was a strange looking cloud hanging around one of the mountains. It looked like it had a hole in the middle.

I was awakened last night at 3 AM by the thunder and lightning of an electrical storm. I quickly unplugged everything and settled in to watch for awhile. There were a few rain drops on the window; but not many. Usually our storms come from the east but this one seemed to have all the action in the south. Roy, as usual slept right through it.
Late this afternoon we were sitting outside on the patio when we heard a squawk. We looked across the street and houses and saw a parrot sitting in a dead tree. Parrots don't usually frequent our neighborhood. There are some that people keep as pets; but there aren't any wild ones that we have seen. Our landlord came up to get a birds eye view, so I asked him if it could survive the winter here, he shook his head, no. He told us that there was a flock a few years ago that would come into the neighborhood in the morning, stay for the day and then disappear at night. He said that they hung around for awhile and then left. We are assuming that someone either let this one loose or it escaped its owners. The photo isn't very good as he was quite a distance away. You can see him better if you click on it to enlarge it.

The sunset on the clouds was really pretty tonight. Here are a couple of pictures.

Cloudy Day

Cloudy Day

It was unusually cloudy for here yesterday, which made it cooler than normal also. We headed to our favorite taco stand for shrimp tacos and then we went downtown to the plaza to feed the pigeons and people watch. It was nice to sit and just enjoy the coolness for a change. Our cokes gone and the pigeons fed, we headed back home.
It rained for awhile and then drizzled on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Very strange weather for us. We also got another shower sometime during the night. We have been having some clouds the last few days; but until yesterday no rain. It is cloudy today and cool enough that we have our air conditioners off again, that makes 2 days in a row. CFE (power company) will not like that. Smile.

Here's a couple of cloudy sunset photos. Take note of the crazy wiring system we have on the pole right beside the apt. and this is only part of it. Yet everything works well and our power rarely goes out and when it does it is just for a minute or so. Go figure.

Roy figured out a way to get some of the high limes off the tree yesterday and of course the trees are still loaded with mangos. I should be making cake using either one today while it is cooler, instead I am being very lazy and doing nothing. Oh well, it is Sunday, isn't it?

Storm Clouds

Storm Clouds

We had some interesting looking storm clouds and lightning last evening; but no rain here. Reports of rain in Empalme, the town south of us and also in Hermosillo, the city 125 kms. north of us; but as usual it went around us. Oh well, Mañana.

I went and paid the cable/internet bill yesterday. Finally got smart and paid for 2 months this time, so I won't have to head up there in the September heat. I also went to the bank, bought a new pair of shoes and some groceries.

Later on in the afternoon, I finally made the cheesecake type cake from the recipe I got from Irene the other day. We tried it out in the evening after it had set and it was quite good. It is so simple to make, that it is laughable. Recipe follows, try it out it is good. I don't have the name for the recipe though, so just call it "Irenes Cake".

Irenes Cake

1 can cream (for you in the USA/Canada, that would be 1 cup heavy cream)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (the thick sweet kind used for baking)

1 pkg. cream cheese

lemon juice to taste

Mix the above together.

Marias cookies (USA/Canada, use graham wafers)

Layer cookie/wafer crumbs in pan, cover with a layer of cream mixture. Alternate layers ending with the last layer being the cream mixture. Number of layers will depend on size of cake pan that you use, the more layers the nicer it looks when serving.

NOTE: Irene didn't tell me to mix any butter/sugar with the crumbs; but next time I will for the first layer in the pan to make them more solid when cutting/serving, subsequent crumb layers are fine without it.

It is very good, go ahead and try it. If anyone knows the name for it let me know, it is apparently a common recipe here in Mexico.