October again!

I haven’t had as much to report, at least that is my excuse for not doing a post for a while. The watering system has taken longer than we expected. It is mostly finished now; here is the front of the house in the middle. Jose Luis is coming back to make adjustments to the lawn sprinklers. He finally connected the various zones; when he tested them, he was not happy because the pressure did not stay high enough. We agreed to get a new pump. The gasket on the old one was leaking and I was not sure how long it would last anyway. However, I also discovered that Jose Luis had been pretty anxious about whether or not the system would work properly. He had never done one that had to cover such a large area. Thus, he expressed great relief when it seemed to work. After installing the new pump yesterday afternoon, he was beaming because it is working perfectly. There are 4 zones for the lawn and a fifth for the flower beds. For the latter, he has had his worker, Jorge, embed plastic hose a few inches below the surface all through the beds. Then, he is going to go around and beside each plant, punch a small hole in the hose. It will then leak the water underground around the roots. That is certainly a very efficient use of water for irrigation. The control system allows the different zones to be done separately and can be programed to spray whichever days and times you want. Barb plans to have them spray early in the morning before the sun comes up so that much less water is lost to evaporation. The system will relieve Barb of several hours of very boring work. Here is Barb in her hammock!

We had rain surprise this week. We had had no rain for over 2 weeks and I had concluded that the rainy season had ended. However, Wednesday night we had a thunderstorm (over 0.5 inch of rain). The next day, it was mostly cloudy with short brief showers. Then, it started raining about 6 p.m. and continued all night (another half inch). Even today, although we didn’t get any rain here, in Chapala there was a brief shower. It will be interesting to see if we get any more.

Today, we heard from Elizabeth at Love in Action that the girls would not be able to go out as they were sick or just recovering from colds, fevers etc. We went around to see if they needed anything, especially in the way of medicines. We did get some antibiotic for a couple of the girls. Last week, the girls also tried out the hammock.

Last Sunday afternoon, we went to the Lakeside Little Theater for the first production of the season (we got season tickets this year). It is little as there are only 120 seats, but it is lovely and well equipped. The productions are really quite good in spite of the fact that they are all done by volunteers; most of the actors have had considerable professional stage experience in Canada or the US. In so many areas (music, visual arts, drama, science, academia, etc.), there are really talented and experienced people who have retired here and most, probably because they have always been active people, make use of their talents and experience here. On Thursday night, we went to the final (fifth) season concert of Viva la Musica! It was a jazz quartet from Guadalajara; at least 3 of them, are classical musicians. Jazz is not my cup of tea (I don’t hate it, but don’t feel that I understand very well), but Barbara likes jazz. Starting next month, the Music Appreciation Society begins its season of concerts during the winter. Thus, there are classical music concerts here in Ajijic all year round-- amazing for such a small community. Also, during the winter, Viva la Musica organizes bus trips to Guadalajara concerts and ballet; we have not tried that yet. If one has the energy, there are virtually non stop cultural events available.

In an earlier post (September 13), I mentioned the Viva la Musica 4 day trip to Morelia at the end of November. I thought we were too late and were on the waiting list. Subsequently, 4 tickets became available and I snapped them up. Morelia is about 5-6 hours drive south of Ajijic and about 2,000 feet higher in altitude. Jim Cook, who is in my Spanish conversation class, is a terrific photographer; here are his photos of Morelia on his blog.

The Canadian Club has a big Thanksgiving Dinner at the Neuva Posada Hotel each year. However, I was too slow in getting tickets and they were all sold out. Next year, I shall have to be quicker off the mark. Even without the snowbirds, there are lots of Canadians living here. In fact the American Legion in Chapala also puts on a Canadian Thanksgiving Day dinner each year. We shall probably just have a quiet day at home this year.