In two day it will be Candelaria and Parque Juarez will be transformed into a grand open air flower market. In the early morning hours the transformation begins with endless wheelbarrels of stones, flowers and eathern pots being moved from every trucks parked along the perifery to inner paths along the now dry river bed. It is slow and hard work that ends in beauty....
Every morning in the Juan de Dios market, the strawberry vendor transforms an empty table top into
una pirámide de fresas, a pyramid of strawberries.
There is a rule of thumb when shopping for "gringo" products in San Miguel - buy it when you see it, because it probably will not be there the next time. When I found this ready made graham cracker crust in a little grocery I snagged it for the dessert I was supposed to bring to dinner the next night.
Since my Spanish is still not terrific and google translate often makes bad translations, I decided to snap a photo of it so I could show it to a clerk in the future. Through the lens, it suddenly became apparent that I had an O BAMA pie....
The corollary to you never know what is behind the closed doors of San Miguel is that what was there yesterday, could be very different tomorrow. With great regularity businnesses change locations, restaurants move and yesterday's clothing shop is today's yogurt store. I don't remember what was in the new upscale wine shop I passed yesterday, but I will not forget the truly Mexican kind of merchandising.
I never would have figured on the Norwegian language being part of my daily life in Mexico, but recently it has. Under the best of circumstances, remembering Spanish verb conjugations is a challenge. Since I much prefer couches to hard classroom seats, one of the least painful Spanish refreshers for me is watching American TV shows with subtitles. However, it doesn’t take long before Law and Order dialog begins to sound the same from show to show. Happily we found all of the episodes of Medium available on Netflix with Spanish subtitles. Although the story line is totally unreal, the family life is absolutely real and the sentences far more complex. After one season, I was getting pretty good at recognizing those past and imperative forms.
The next challenge was Lilihammer, a series staring Steve Van Zandt, one of Tony Soprano’s capos. Van Zandt plays a New York mafioso who testifies against his bosses in exchange for witness protection in Lilihammer, Norway. He figures nobody who wants him dead will be looking in lily white Lilihammer. When the story shifts to Norway, Van Zandt continues to speak in English, with an occasional word of Norwegian, but 90% of the Norwegian actors speak Norwegian and they have alot to say. Unfortuately neither of us understands a word of Norwegian. Finally, duh, it occurred to us to turn on subtitles, but on Mexican Netflix there are no English subtitles, only Spanish or Brazilian Portuguese. So night school sessions now involve listening to Norwegian, reading Spanish, and watching this Mafioso guy build a new cosa nostra in Lillyhammer. A global education…..
These beautiful stone pavers are an iconic part of the San Miguel charm. The volcanic rock of many colors makes for a narrow, often colorful variegated sidewalks. However, when it rains, they become slick and lethal. After every rain, I find myself walking ever so carefully - constantly reminding myself to attend to every footfall, lest I spend the remainder of my time here in an epic orthopedic adventure.
Students at universities in Mexico City deposit their soda can tabs in special bins on campus and these metal bits are woven into purses and sparkly evening wear.
When I realized how many of our old family images were fading and getting stuck in plastic albums I decided that creating books the next generatrion from digitized image needed to move up on my priority list. So I brought a large number of scanned images to work on here in Mexico. I figured if I did some photoshop retouching every day it wouldn't be too overwhelming.
However, within a few days of arriving in San Miguel when, off I went to a class on photo transfer where I learned how to make a perfectly good reproduction look textured and worn. My head is spinning with new ideas, but I do feel a bit like a cat chasing her tail.
Nannette on a tyvek envelop
Trees are a gift in the high desert of San Miguel de Allende and garden walls are built to accomodate.
On the long ride from Mexico City to San Miguel, the fast moving rain clouds in the distance, a wonderful show.
Winter travels will once again take me back to San Miguel de Allende in the central Mexican highlands. In between catching up with friends and trying to keep my Spanish alive I have several photo projects planned, including a barter plan with a fellow photographer - home cooked dinners in exchange on lessons in studio lighting. There is a never-ending list of things to learn in photography….
In March I will be spending time in the southwest, visiting friends and family and looking for the earthen “s” curves and lines that nature scatters so generously throughout New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. The planned highlights include photographing the gypsum dunes of White Sands National Monument and donning a big orange survival suit to try canyoneering in Zion National Park. No, I won’t be taking my Nikon with me as I repel down cold wet canyon walls, but my first digital point and shoot may come along for a potentially sacrificial ride. Many more adventures will ensue and I am open to suggestions from those of you who know this part of the world.
We all have loads of good intentions that never quite get actualized. Two years ago, as a bold way of making myself photograph and write more, I started a blog and told everyone about it. Then I was compelled to follow through. Over time I graduated from tumblr to a real website and happily have continued to grow as a photographer. But writing takes a different mental space than photography and it has dwindled a bit...So as we head off to Mexico in a few days, I am recommitting to more frequent posts. As always, your comments keep me motivated.