In the light - The market in Etla

Obviously, I love the market in Etla.  I feel so lucky to be able to shop there, to experience market day. 

Normal life bathed in light.

Always the best produce in abundance.

This is one of the produce stands I always visit.

Breakfast fare.

And always, amazing sights....

What in your basket this week?

Here's what's in my basket from shopping in the Etla market this morning.  A large purchase for me, but all very nice quality.... four big avocados, eight large carrots, four tomatoes, six bananas, four breakfast rolls, three pan dulces, two apples (from Chile), two kilos of small potatoes, a kilo of the best quesillo (cheese) and a partridge in a pear tree.  OK, not the bird, but everything else for $210 MP or $11.13 US.  I am always interested in what others are buy and their costs.  Of course, Etla is simply a wonderful market... more on that in a bit.  But just look at how good these things look.

How does your Garden grow - Within the Walls

Happy to share shots of the outer garden, but much has happened within the house's courtyard.  I have to say, even out here in the country, it is nice to have walls enclosing the house.  As with the large outer garden, I pretty much started from scratch with soil that was like cement.  It was so hard, I removed all of it and filled the kitchen garden with compost and worm casings. Incidentally, those wind chimes are tuned to a C major pentatonic and D major pentatonic scales, which gives me a nice lydian vibe with all the wind we get.  There is a small front garden, which is still a work in progress.

Oh... uh.. I kinda have an obsession for solar lights, a little out of control. 

Those humming birds change colors.  They're the best.

A narrow space behind the house.

Of course...

Gardening... What a joy.  So much peace, learning and hard work, all together.

How does your garden grow - Found plants

Lots of the plants in the garden come from a single cutting or from plants found by the side of the road.  It cracks me up to see how they have grown and spread.  And I remember where each came from.  Like this beauty.  I confess to doing a Jack Nicholson from "Chinatown," when he coughed and ripped a page out of a registry.  Years ago, I coughed and broke off a tiny piece of this when I was in a courtyard in the city.

It has thick leaves and a strong fragrance.  I think they call it Mexican oregano, but I really don't know.  From that one cutting, I learned it was very hardy, could last through the dry season and was a good ground cover.  It has taken over certain areas.

And these beauties, the large leafed plant, Elephant Ear, I luckily found by the side of the road on one of my walks.

It musta been fate, because I had just seen some amazing ones in the inner courtyard of the church in Etla.  It had no leaves, just a stalk and now, it is thriving.  I have several in pots, as well.  The other, I snagged from the parking area at the paper-making studio in San Agustin Etla.

Again, one tough plant that does well in sun and shade and works as a ground cover.  I have other "found" plants, agaves, cacti, plumerias, and others that just reseed themselves, like lavender, lettuces, zinnias, even the papyrus.  Really, it is that it is easy to grow things here although there are many lessons to be learned about growing thing when the may be six months with nary a drop of rain.  I'm slowly learning.

How does your garden grow?

Plants are some of my best friends.  And they have rewarded me with a lifetime's pleasure and many, many lessons about the nature of existence.  I remember at an early age, being sent out by my mother to weed the garden and discovering that I liked it.  I was hooked.

I discovered I had a "green thumb." I read "The Secret Life of Plants."  I was even more hooked and I have had a garden everywhere I've lived for the past fifty years, always trying to leave the place better than when I found it.  Here's how this current garden looked just after starting.

And now.  Lots of good stuff goin' on.

I know where very single plant came from and most of them were cuttings or really small or inexpensive plants and then propagated.  Then, all they needed was time.

I believe that a garden is a reflection, an insight, into the gardener and I think that this is true as this garden pertains to me. 

Yes, there are rocks and weeds and some plants that will make you bleed - the agaves get me every time - but, all-in-all, I like it.

Today's market basket.

I am lucky to have a Wednesday market just down the road, which I hit when I don't head over to Etla.  I admit to being a fussy shopper.  These were today's purchases, all for $51 MP or $2.71 US.  How does that compare with where you shop?

'Tis the season...

I love watching the weather move in.  At its simplest, Oaxaca has two seasons, rainy and dry.

This is a bit too simple given Oaxaca's incredibly diverse geography, beach, coastal plain, rain forest, high desert, desert, mountains and fertile valleys.

We are coming to the end of a strange rainy season with heavy rains every afternoon and evening.  It has been dry in many areas and every drop is a blessing.  There are also such things as micro-climates, where it rains in one area and only a few kilometers away, things are dry as bone.

This was yesterday.  It was pouring with blue skies overhead the the sun shining in the distance.

Arbol de Cerebro? .... Ah, yes, Braintree

It's a small world isn't it?  This one goes out to all my New England folks.  Here's Domingo with his wife, Angela and his daughter, Denise.  Domingo plays a very good game of pool and above all, is a always a warm and gracious gentleman.  I get to shoot a little pool with him every now and then.  And today he was wearing a shirt from Braintree, Mass, a town just south of Boston...... not that he had any idea of where or what it was, but smiled when I told him.  Braintree?  You know, arbol de cerebro.... I guess you kinda hadda be there.  Today, he won more than I did... but there's always next time.

All that glitters..

Is not gold.  As a gardener, I spend many hours enjoying the company of plants.  They are a bit of an obsession and, no matter where I am, I'm always checking them out.  I am fascinated how varied and tough they can be.  Often, it's all about survival and propagation of the species. And when it comes to tough, pernicious plants, this one is right up there with kudzu.  I have no idea what it is, but believe they call it "lidia" here and if you look closely, it's everywhere.

It is a parasite that attaches itself to trees and gradually completely covers its host. 

The seeds can stick to anything, steel, concrete, birds, you name it and so it spreads.  There appears to be no way to stop it.  And now it's on trees all around me like this big one that overhands my garden, which is already covered with air plants.

And just like the leaf-cutting ants here, there ain't no stopping it. 

To the market....

Every time I return from El Norte and shopping for food there, I am struck by how lucky we are to have the local markets here.

It's a healthy slice of normal life.

Not only are the prices very reasonable, the freshness, the quality, is always just wonderful.

This is Etla, where market day is Wednesday and always worth the short drive for me.  Look at all those taste treats!

And here is Doña Melisa, who makes the fattest and most delicious tamales.  Her rajas are my absolute favorites.

She has been feeding me for over ten years!  And, oh, the aromas, the sights,  the temptations...

Thumbs up all around.

A tree grows in Brooklyn...

But this ain't Brooklyn, it's Oaxaca, where corn is a way of life.

It used to be a god and it still is. No matter how you look at it, it is amazing plant.

One of my favorite moments at my reunion was talking to a farmer about corn.  He said,"My wife doesn't want to ever hear another word about corn."  I responded that people in Oaxaca could talk about corn for days.  After all, they developed the original varieties.

You can go home again...

You can go home again, it's just not quite the same.  Yes, that is the old family farm.  It looks the same, but the vibe is not there.  The prodigal returns?  Not quite...  However, upon returning to my hometown in upstate NY,  Clinton, for my 50th High School reunion, I discovered some things never change, my love for people and places, all rushed back as I drove through the gap that led to the Mohawk Valley.

Looking through the windshield, I savored that Upstate is unique and just being there, with the Erie Canal on my right, generated so many flashes of memory, I knew it was gonna be worth the 17 hours getting there.

This area used to be the home of many factories.  I actually drove past the iron works where I had worked as a kid.  The region has been through tough times, but Clinton, the home of Hamilton College, seems as pristine and bucolic as ever, really a dream Upstate village.  It's dairy country, too, so my classmates came from all of the above.

And, oh, what a feeling to see them.  One never knows how one will respond, but, for me, it was that rare combination of happiness, joy, amazement, sadness and nostalgia..... and some other stuff, too.  The Class of '68 had just under 130 people in it and about 70 showed up.

I had to laugh at the juxtaposition of being in Teotitlan del Valle just recently for a quinceañera and then last Friday, walking into the local VFW bar for the first get together.  "Whoa, where am I?"  The thing was in an adjacent room.  There I was presented with my name tag with my Senior pic on it and a very well done booklet with everyone's current photo and bio.  The committee who put together the weekend, worked for over a year preparing and... well, it was absolutely perfect.  Saturday, a tour of the high school and wow, what a facility.  I taught in a rich Yankee prep and this school's facilities blew it outta the water.

Amazing science classrooms, language labs, athletic facilities and this amazing theater, yours for only 29 million.  Graduating classes average less than one hundred.  I hope they know how good they've got it.

A 50th is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I had to take it.  You should, too, if you can. Alas, there were dear friends who never even got the chance.  Fortunately, Muertos has taught me how to continue to think of them, to know that they are still with us.

So no photos, no blogging, it was just one of those things where you have to simply live it, savor every moment.  It's all a blessing, all the people, places and those wonderful memories, frozen in time, at least, in my mind..... ahhhh...and all the hours cutting that lawn...

"Uh... who were all those old people, anyway?"