Rain

We had a nice little shower at some point during the night.  I have no idea how much as a rain gauge is not something we have here, not really a necessary thing usually.  It was enough to settle the dust anyway.  It is cloudy this morning and a bit cooler so we have the windows and door open.  The temperature at 8 AM was 27 C. with 84% humidity and the "feels like" temperature was 31 C. so it feels great.  Nicer weather than Saturday afternoon when we had a big dust storm, my allergies did not like that so I was really plugged up yesterday.  Great to have a bit of rain to get all the dust off of everything.
No rain pictures as I slept through it all.

Summer session art class starts today so I will be busy for the next month as I think class is 4 days a week.  We also will be taking our paintings from the last class over to the gallery sometime in the next week for the Mar Bermejo Festival.

Raining

I returned home last night from my class at the Casa de la Cultura just after 7 PM. As I walked past the corner store across the street from us the store owner came out to chat. He looked at the sky and told me that it was going to rain at 9 PM or so. I told him I hoped so. He laughed and we chatted for a minute before I came home.
Maybe 20 minutes later we were sitting out on the patio and it began to pour rain. I was glad that I had made it home before that started as I had carried home my finished painting. Not a good time to be standing and waiting for a bus!
It poured for an hour or so and then gently rained off and on all night.
This morning it is still sprinkling and is overcast and cooler, (27 C.). Wonderful! It is a break from the heat for a few hours and everything will love the refreshing rain. This is the first rain of the summer so I am sure everyone is enjoying it. Hopefully, no one got flooded out last night, that is always a concern as it doesn't take much rain to start a rushing river down the hills/mountains.

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.

Rain

Happy Thanksgiving to all the readers in/from the United States, hope you all have a great day. It has been cloudy here the last few days, which is unusual for us. Last night I woke up to the sound of fairly heavy rain. This morning it is wet and muddy looking. Odd weather for this time of year for us.
Nothing exciting going on, just the usual everyday round of errands, etc..
Roys computer gave up on working a few days ago, it is now in the hospital and we may hear something today about it.
This rose is blooming today. It looks pretty with the raindrops still on it. It has the most beautiful scent, just lovely and it was tough enough to survive the summer.

Countdown To The Cruisers

The other day when I was downtown I had my camera with me, so I took another picture of the countdown to the cruisers clock. That was Tuesday, so today there would be only 33 days left before they come. I guess they are having a contest and there will be 2 winners who will each win 2 tickets on the cruise. They will be flown from Hermosillo to San Diego, stay in a hotel in San Diego and then sail on the cruise ship to here. The contest is that you have to come up with a slogan to greet the cruise ship with. Good luck to anyone who enters the contest.

Last year we had a couple of parrots on the loose around here and then they just disappeared. Well, yesterday either a different one escaped or one of the originals was back. I don't know which; but he was sure making a noise. Haven't seen him this morning; but then we have been having rain showers off and on, so maybe he is trying to stay dry somewhere.

Storm

It was very warm and humid here last night and we didn't spend much time sitting outside until about 9:30 PM. A storm was coming up and we went and sat out and watched the lightning and listened to the thunder. The wind came up, knocked over a couple of plants and we headed indoors.
Shortly after the wind started blowing strongly the rain came down. We spent some time mopping up water from around the windows. The wind was driving it, so it was coming in all the windows. It doesn't seem to matter how much caulking you put around them, they still leak. Oh well, it was nice to get the rain, everything is fresh this morning.

After The Rain

We were awakened this morning around 2:30 AM by loud, booming thunder and bright, flashing lightning. Shortly thereafter it began to rain.

This morning it was still cloudy and a bit cooler, so we had everything open wide.

All the plants look happy and are covered with raindrops.

Went uptown and now it is again hot and sunny; but the forecast is for rain showers until Friday. Hope so.

Rain

As we sat outside last evening the clouds were slowly building and the lightning was flashing. We thought we just might get some rain, often this happens and then it just passes over us. Around 10 PM we started hearing some thunder and then it began to rain hard. It was great! It came pouring down the hill and our street river was reborn. We watched and listened until it slowed down some, then we opened all the windows and let the fresh, cool air in. This morning it is still cool (27 C./81 F.)as the sun hasn't made it out from behind the clouds. Everything is washed clean and everyone is happy.
The shiny strip in the bottom, center of the picture is the water in the bay, sparkling from the sun peeking out from behind the clouds.

Rain In The Desert

Friday morning when I had to go uptown shopping it was cloudy and drizzling rain here in our colonia. When I got uptown it was raining quite hard. Nice to see the rain. Returning home again it was still drizzling; but it cleared off and was nice later on for the birthday party. It cooled things off a couple of degrees so it was nice to sit outside for the party.

Yesterday morning we woke up to a gray morning and a fairly steady rain. It rained for a few hours which was great. It started clearing off and warming up after lunch though, getting back to our regularily scheduled weather of hot and humid.

It is so nice when it rains here, it washes all the dust off of the trees and it smells so fresh. It doesn't happen that often, so we enjoy it when it does.

This morning it is partially cloudy, so we will see what the day will bring; but I really don't expect more rain.
According to MSN weather our July average for rainfall is 1.52 cm or 0.6 inches which I think we have already had so far this month. July and September are the months of heaviest rainfall here according to them and that seems about right from our experience.

Another Rain Shower

When we went to bed last night it didn't look too much like rain. I woke up in the middle of the night I thinking that I had been dreaming about rain; but when I got up and looked sure enough, it was raining. Yipee!!
It was a pretty good shower as it made little river channels in the street and the roof has big puddles on it. The birds are chirping and happy and the trees and plants are all fresh and clean and covered with raindrops. It is still cloudy and much cooler this morning at 25 C./76 F.. We have all the windows and the door wide open and it is great. Gotta love when it rains in the desert.


Yucca loving the raindrops.

Rainy Morning

Rainy Morning

I went shopping yesterday while Roy was having his football Sunday. Headed to the El Vigia mall where I wanted to look for a floor dust mop at the Ley grocery store. While wandering around I came across a young lady handing out samples of a new pizza. It is one of the type that is prepared and you take home and cook. Up north there are tons of these types of convenience foods; but here there are very few. I think we eat better, as in healthier and less additives, here because of this lack; but sometimes it would be nice to be able to have some of these things on hand for a lazy day. It tasted not bad, for a convenience food, so I bought one, thinking that it would be nice to have for lunch when I got home.
When I finished my shopping and returned home, I cooked the pizza and we ate it. I had forgotten how nice and creamy mozzarella cheese is when melted. The cheese was so yummy and the rest of the pizza was OK, not great; but after all it is a convenience food and you don't actually expect much from it or I don't.
Later on in the evening we were both getting the munchies and didn't know what to eat. We hummed and hawed and thought about it until Roy suggested that we go for a torta. We decided that we should walk over to the torta place that we had gone to the other day. It was chilly out, so Roy had to go hunting in the closet to find his denim jacket with the sheepskin lining. I had a sweatshirt on already so just wore my fleece jacket. We would have been wearing short sleeves at this temperature a few years ago. We have really become wimps, weather wise.
The lady at the torta place had been so nice the other day and had cooked for us when she wasn't even open so we felt we should go back when she was actually open.
We arrived and she was open for business this time with a flashing light over the window. She just grinned at us when we arrived and told us to come in and sit down. Roy thought the torta especial looked interesting so I asked her what it had in it. Ham, pork, 2 cheeses and all the fixings we were told, so he ordered that, while I stuck to the ham and cheese. The tortas arrived piled high and were of course served with all the extra fixings that are usual here. We both managed to finish them; but were stuffed. I think that we have a new favorite place and it is close also, so nice for the late evening munchies. The bill for the 2 tortas came to 43 pesos, about $4.30, makes you wonder why you ever bother to cook at home.
I woke up last night around 1 AM to hear it pouring rain, strange weather for here. It just rained hard here a week or so ago and normally, according to the weather archives anyway, there is no precipitation here in December at all. Well, it was still raining this morning; but quit before noon and the sun has come out now. It is muddy though and people are having trouble getting up the street with their vehicles.
It was a dreary looking morning and also chilly at only about 16 C./61 F.. Brrrr.....

Here is a video of the rain this morning.

Baking Buns

Baking Buns

As I mentioned before, we had rain most of the day Thursday and Friday. Late Friday night it began to pour, and as usual when it rains heavy here, it began to run down the street, making a stream bed. As Roy lay sleeping, I watched the rain pour down and listened to the water gushing down the street beside our place. After a while I crawled under the covers into the nice warm cocoon and attempted to sleep as well. Dozed off for a couple of hours and was awakened by spinning tires right beside our bedroom window. Some poor young fellow coming home late had gotten too far over to the side of the street and his back tire had drifted into the stream bed formed by the running rain water. He sat and spun and spun and spun to no avail. I guess he finally decided that he wasn't going to get out by himself, so he got out of his truck, got out his cell phone and proceeded to talk to someone as he started walking. Not a nice night to have to walk home.

The next morning, he and some friends/relatives returned with a pick and filled in behind his tire until he was able to back up and get out.

I had thrown some stuff into the crock pot for beef stew for lunch yesterday and as it was bubbling and sending out its aroma, I said to Roy that some nice fresh homemade buns would taste good with it. He, of course, seconded this motion.

A month or so ago Nancy, the landlords daughter in law had come up and asked for my bun recipe so I had translated it and given it to her. She tried to make them one day and then brought one up to show me. It was small and rock hard. Roy took one look at it and laughed along with her and we decided that it would be a good missile, (to throw at Roy). I went down with her and we went through the process and couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. I thought perhaps her yeast had not been good, so gave her a package of mine to try. A few days later, she again called me downstairs to see the latest results. Same thing, rock hard lumps. She was a very good sport about the failure and we laughed about them, and she suggested that they be given to Roy, as he had laughed so hard over the previous ones. We again went through the recipe and couldn't figure out what the problem was. Unless her water had been too hot and killed the yeast. I told her that the next time I made them I would call her and she could come and watch.

When I decided to make them yesterday I went down to see if she wanted to watch. She did. She came up and watched the whole process and noted that she had dumped all the flour in at once which might have been the problem. By this time Irene, the landlords wife, had joined us and when I turned the dough out of the bowl to begin kneading it, they looked at each other and noted that when Nancy had gotten to this point the dough had been very duro, tough. She decided that she will try again and just add the flour a bit at a time. We will see what will happen the next time. Nancy is a very good cook and this must be frustrating for her; but she has taken it well, lots of jokes and laughter about what her resulting "rocks" are good for, again Roy comes to mind.

Today, it is still cool, so I may make cinnamon buns. Like I need the extra calories; but it is winter and you always bulk up in the wintertime. The newspaper is telling people to take precautions for the cold when going out, as the forecast is for extremes between 16C./70F and 25C/77F. Funny to us; although I am chilly also; but "extremes", that is going a bit far I think.

It's Raining

It's Raining

We needed to pick up some groceries yesterday, so naturally we stopped and had shrimp tacos first. On the way home Roy stopped to see if he could get a haircut. There were a couple of people in front of him he told me after- I had left him there and continued on to another grocery store, so he was going to leave and return later. The hairstylist wouldn't let him leave though. She smilingly took him by the arm and motioned him to sit down. He said that everyone was grinning. It turned out that the others waiting were with the one person getting a cut, so he was actually next. He was still grinning when he came home and told me that the stylist had "grabbed" him. Too funny.

It started raining this morning, well drizzling anyway and it continued on throughout the day. Unusual weather for here.

It was the first day to go to the orphanage for english classes for the children. I met the other ladies there and we had the first class together. We went out for lunch and then returned to have a class with some of the older children who had been in school in the morning. An interesting afternoon.

Shrimp Festival

Shrimp Festival

The annual Shrimp Festival is being held in San Carlos is this weekend. The weather was not co-operating today as it was cool and windy. This morning it rained hard in Guaymas and our landlord told us that when they were at the tianguis in another area of the city it had even hailed abit. There is a cold front in Arizona and snow forecast in the higher altitudes there, so it was chilly here also.
They had the opening ceremonies and some things going on last evening; but we didn't go to them. The things I wanted to see, the dancers/singers and of course the food tasting booths were happening today.

We headed out there around 1 PM, picked up our friends from the RV park and arrived just in time to see the dancers begin. We found a good spot to sit and enjoyed watching all the dancers and singers. We also enjoyed sampling some of the many shrimp dishes. Of course, there were so many booths and lots of options at each booth, so we did not get too far in the tasting before we were full. What we did sample was good though.

They also had an art display and craft display; although there were not as many crafts on display as there were last year.

This is the third year that we have gone to this and each year the venue has changed. The first year we really didn't enjoy it very much as it was set up right along the busy street and it was very congested. Last year they moved it to an area close to one of the hotels and it was much better. Lots of room to move around in; but not enough seats in the shade and it was quite hot. This year they moved it to the Golf Club and it was set up very well. There were lots of tables and chairs set up under shade canopies, (although this year it was chilly and people were searching for a chair in the sun, can't seem to win with the weather). They did a good job of setting it up regardless. I think that no matter where you sat you would have had a good view of the stage.

We met up with a few people that we knew and also did some visiting. The lady that we had meet in the restaurant at Thanksgiving dinner, who was raised in the town where we lived before moving here, was also there. We spent some time chatting and it turns out that she worked with my mother in law and also knows 2 of my sister in laws. Such a small world we live in these days.

We enjoyed the entertainment and the food for several hours before heading back home. It was to end at 6 PM, so we didn't miss much by leaving a bit early.

We visited with them for a bit at their motorhome and said our goodbyes. They will be leaving on Tuesday so we will not be seeing them again. We have enjoyed their company and hope they have a good time for the rest of the winter in Arizona. Thank you again M. for all the goodies that you brought down here for us. We will miss you.
More photos here

Meteor Shower Or Rain Shower?

Meteor Shower Or Rain Shower?

Last evening we decided to go to San Carlos for dinner. There is a restaurant there (Mexico Gourmet) that is run by a group of students, learning the trade. Everything that I have heard about the food and service has been good and I have wanted to try it out for some time. We arrived there early, around 6 PM and it was closed!! We ended up going for pizza at our friends restaurant (Marias Pizza) instead and it was a warm dinner. One of their air conditioners had broken down and they couldn't get it fixed until today and the other one, just could not keep up with the heat. Regardless of the warm temperature we enjoyed our pizza and visit and headed home to sit on the patio to watch the Perseid Meteor showers.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/11jul_greatperseids.htm

We drove home past the Delphinario and the beachs at Miramar. It was wall to wall cars parked and lots of people in the water. Busy place during the summer.

It had been getting more and more overcast as the evening progressed and by the time we got home we couldn't see any stars at all. Our landlord was disappointed and we were also. Instead we sat and watched a beautiful show put on by mother nature. The lightning was impressive as well as the thunder. Better than any man made pyrotechnics. I unplugged the computers and TV and unhooked the cable, just to be safe. We turned off the air conditioners and opened all the windows to let the breeze flow through. After a couple of hours, we actually got a rain shower, so we went to sleep listening to the sound of raindrops. Not a usual occurance here.

Hopefully it will be clear on the 28th as there is supposed to be a total Lunar Eclipse.

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?

More Rain

More Rain

Thursday night we had another rainstorm. This one was quieter and I slept right through it, waking in the morning to a wonderfully fresh landscape. We had about 3/4 inch, more or less, I don't have a rain gauge so I just measure what is in a container I have on the patio. Today it is again cloudy and it was misting rain for a few minutes; but not enough to wet your skin even.

I have been wanting to try a restaurant here called Las Flautas for many months. The first time we went it was closed and a passerby told us that they are not open Saturday evenings. OK, last night (Friday), we decided to try it. We had been told that they didn't open until 7 PM so we went after that. When we arrived, it was again closed. The 3 benches that are in front of the restaurant (cemented in), have been pulled up and are just laying on the ground. We are assuming that the restaurant has closed, who knows, anyway we will not bother going again. We walked down to one of our favorite places called La Barca and had our dinner there. We are not heavy drinkers and I had never had a margarita, so I tried on last night. It was OK; but nothing that I would go too far to get. For 2 meals and 2 drinks our bill was $13.50.

I am always interested in the price of food in different areas, Baja California Sur was much more costly than here, of course, considering the freight costs. I looked online at one of the grocery stores weekly flyers in Alberta, Canada yesterday. Most things were higher, except for the products that I buy that are imported like the Kraft sauces/salad dressings. Not too big a surprise.

Comida (lunch) today is going to be Chicken Carbonara with a tossed salad, hopefully it will be good, as I am getting hungry.

Rain Last Night

Rain Last Night

We have been watching the lightning every evening; but until last night it has not rained in our colonia. Some of the other colonias (neighborhoods) in Guaymas had some rain a week ago Wednesday; but apparently we did not.

I was awakened around 1:45 AM last night by very loud thunder and bright lightning. The thunder rolled and boomed around the mountains and the lightning lit up the room. The regulators on the TV and computers were clicking, so I shut everything off, unplugged it all, including the cable line and sat down to watch mother natures show. It was raining hard and by 2 AM the water was running down the hill. This morning there was about an inch of water in a container that I had sitting outside, so we had a nice rain, the first in a very long time. I don't remember any rain since the hurricane came close last September, so this is very welcome. Today it is cloudy and breezy and is the first day that we had not had the air conditioning on since we returned last Friday; although it is still quite warm.

Otherwise, we haven't been doing too much. Settling back in, getting caught up with laundry, dusting, the usual everyday chores.

I have been doing a little more cooking than I did on the Baja. I found a new pizza dough recipe, tried it and we liked it better than my old one. I made biscuits from a new recipe also and today I am baking buns (with my old recipe) and trying a recipe for parmesan chicken for our comida (lunch).