Garden Club

Meeting Jane at the BBQ was really fortuitous. Barb had noticed when she had her blood test last Wednesday that it took a very long time for the blood to clot. However, when she got the result, surprisingly it said that she was just about exactly where she should be.(2.7) and Dr. Leon said to stay at the same dose of warfarin for a month. However, suspicious, she reduced the dose a bit. On Saturday, she was out gardening with her pants with the knee pads and kneeling a good deal. When she was taking a bath, she noticed that one knee was all blue and bruised looking. She had not banged it and with the knee pads had not noticed any discomfort; she concluded that it indicated that her blood was too thin. On Monday, she called the other doctor, Dr. Garcia. Although she could not get an appointment until Friday morning, she could go an get another test at their lab. This lab reported that the INR level was 3.5 (too high), even though she had reduced the warfarin she was taking even more over the weekend. Thus, it appears that Dr. Leon’s lab is not very dependable. She sees Dr. Garcia on Friday. His office is not as convenient as it is a good 3 kms and a bit too far to walk. However, it is on the Carretera (highway) so is only 5 minutes or so by car.

There is a garden club that holds monthly events--a tour of someone’s garden and then lunch at the Nueva Posada restaurant. Barb decided to join. Because this month’s garden was in West Ajijic, I drove Barb there. It was a really spectacular place--a big, luxurious house with 2 story casita (guest house). The couple are both avid gardeners, but also have 2 full time and one part-time gardeners employed! Among many different types of flowers, they also specialized in roses. They apparently propagate many themselves. At the lunch, Barb sat with and got acquainted with some other ladies. Two of them have offered her plants from their gardens. One said that her garden was overgrown and that Barb was welcome to take any and all that she wanted! This is very good timing. On Monday, we arranged with Rosendo to dig out the hard clay soil in 2 of her beds, because it is hard to believe that most flowers would do well there. He took a load of it away in his pickup; he finished that today. He also arranged to get a pickup load of good composted soil, which was delivered today. This will allow Barb to get started. One of the beds just under the kitchen window, she wants to use as a herb garden. She has cilantro, rosemary and a very ‘picante (i.e., hot) pepper plant that she discovered in the corner by the wall. However, she also wants to get and experiment with a number of others. Every time, she wants to reduce the grass for more garden space, I expect that she will have to do the same (i.e., dig out the heavy clay dirt and get good soil).

There are so many clubs, organizations and events that one could be going somewhere all the time and have no time at home. It is hard to decide and choose.