I'm catching the bird watching disease?

A Cacique just outside the window of Rancho Primavera,

 eating away at a hole  the local birds have punctured in a ripe papaya. I'm only three feet away from him. What a thrill!

I've always loved observing the beauty of the birds that catch my eye. I've also sometimes felt that the bird watchers I encountered were just a little over the edge.  If you know what I mean. Skip wrote a few engaging stories about birders he had known —That was then.

Since I met Art I began to take more notice of both birders and birds and their endlessly confusing names. The birds, that is. Regarding birders — I've come to feel that they are among the smartest people I've ever met. They're special in a way I find it hard to describe. So I won't even try. But, bit by bit, over the last two years I find myself more and more glued to the view of my feeders on the back porch and to the birds that fly over my car as I'm driving along, and to the movements in the high trees that surround my bedroom. I am in Oaxaca now and my bedroom has a wonderful courtyard, trees, bushes and an awesome wall of volcanic rock with ferns growing out of it and water trickling down from the top. Could you imagine a more heavenly spot for some birds, big and tiny, to hang out? Especially in the early morning and at dusk around 6:30.

I have fallen in love with the calling of a particular bird that shows up each evening and sometimes in the morning around 7:30. He is so elusive, diving between the palm fronds and over to a neighboring yard that, until the last few days I've not been able to get more than a "just before dark" profile sight of him. Our friend Fernando, an active birder, finally began narrowing him down to the Thrush family. If we go by the books, he could be a Rufous collared (my choice) Thrush or a Rufous backed Thrush. A local bird banding expert at the Botanical Gardens told  Jim, another birder friend from the hotel, that he is probably a Rufous Backed Thrush. I thought he had told me that he might be a kind of Robin, American or Mexican but he tells me that is not what he said.The bird has a glorious range of calls from single level, long plaintiff pleas to much more lyrical trills and acrobatic sounds. I almost got a photo of him last night just before dark, but when I looked at what I had, it was not anything like proof of being.

So I guess the question is, am I becoming a hopeless enthusiast of what I used to think was "a little out there" or not?

Preparing for last week of class

Front courtyard fountain festooned for Valentines Day by the "other Jackie"

A fun bunch

Humboldt group — Latest arrivals from Arcata and Eureka

enjoying the space just outside my room in the back courtyard

Well, in my studies we're beginning to hit all the old difficulties that pop up seemingly every year.  How to spell numbers, how to say numbers and letters of the alphabet. Yesterday we worked on ser and estar for this year and today we went over names of clothes and the worst stopper always — por and para. That seems to be the one everybody has the most  trouble with. Starting tomorrow and all of next week we'll be working on Subjunctive. I'm not good enough or energetic enough to even go there in this discussion. But I have wanted to begin getting into it for some time so I'm reasonably excited and nervous about finally doing it. More whenever it becomes "old hat."

I went to El Sol & La Luna again last night and had a delicious salad with a little empanada and a small glass of vino tinto. Finished with a nut and chocolate crepe that was from heaven. At about 9:00 beautiful young people began streaming in and filling all the chairs in this tiny five table room. Dave, a friend from years past was there with another man. Soft piano jazz was playing when I entered.

I love everything about what they have done to outfit this diamond in the rough. The windows are all part of a thought but each is somehow different. The lighting is well thought out with three drop lights over the small bar. A lovely understated chandelier hanging centrally and several wall sconces finish the treatment with all appearing to be subject to dimming. A generous bowl of flowers hides the only view of a computer below the bar and a partially "distressed" combination of off white and green treats the wooden walls with various other greens on the harder surfaces. Tranquil yet engaging. Just right for me.  This charming destination is only two blocks from Hotel Las Mariposas, our little paradise in Oaxaca. I'll be back tonight with friends for another salad.

Best breakfast ever!

Gorgeous salad

The amazing egg and eggplant dish

The welcoming owners of El Sol Y La Luna

Our gorgeous chef of the day

Good poster as you enter this five table little jewel

Carol, Mike and Brad, a happy, well fed group

I just returned from having the loveliest brunch I've ever eaten at a very small but classy "hole in the wall" (Carol's words) that is only two blocks south of Las Mariposas on Pino Suarez. Friends had a lamb burger that was to die for, cooked to absolute perfection. I had a special salad that wasn't on the menu. It featured gorgeous baby greens, small chev cheese balls, fresh beets, chopped jicama and violet colored pea blossoms with a light lemon dressing. I also had an egg dish and I can't remember what its name is. Several poached eggs cooked over a sauce with eggplant slices that had been grilled and placed over the sauce. I can't even begin to tell you how satisfying a dish it was. Actually I'm determined to TRY to recreate both of these dishes when I get home. I've already invited the chef, a beautiful young woman who works as a private chef for most of the year in Brooklyn to visit me on the north coast. Maybe we can convince her to cook for us while she's there. I'll post some photos I took this morning when I get them from my camera. Come back, please!

It's now the 18th and I went there again for dinner last night. Really good and unusual pizza and a great Greek salad.

I now have new photo card reader and am about to post the pics I promised. FINALLY!

Fifth day at Instituto Cultural Oaxaca

Military Macaw — Rancho Primavera — Heaven for a bird

One of the many feeders at Primavera — A bird's paradise

Rooster and flock at Rancho Primavera

Week number one of my classes at ICU has whizzed by like lightning. After the first day's class I requested a third week instead of two and I'm ever so glad that I did. Mary Carmen is my "maistra" and she is both knowledgeable, fun, hard working and a really good instructor. I am able to walk in with a page full of questions which she patiently answers with examples and clears my mind of a few more of the endless blank spots regarding this beautiful language. She definitely believes in "tarea" — homework, and gives me plenty of it. What I am keenly aware of at this moment is how much I don't know and how much more there is to learn. I really wasn't aware of the rich complexities regarding habitual vs. unique, completed vs. ongoing along with all the obvious agreements of gender, number and mood. It's a mouthful. I don't really expect to ever know it all but it sure is fun trying to make a little headway each year.

Now that this weekend is beginning, I find myself thinking back about the amazing bird watching we experienced before my time in Oaxaca this year. Five bird filled days in Yelapa and then Art's two weeks at Rancho Primavera while I was in El Tuito at the tapestry retreat with Yael and Jean Pierre. I really had not known the pleasures of seeing and beginning to recognize so many birds in one little area. I'd love to go back with a few friends to the river at Yelapa for a few days and then up to Rancho Primavera with a guide to take us around the nearby area and then explore the outskirts as well. Pat and Bonnie are so welcoming to bird lovers and really make life staying at the ranch a pleasure. They know so much about the local birds themselves, prepare incredible meals and generally make it a fun place to be. We'll see what happens for next year.

Today is Skip's birthday. Hope it's as great for him on the other side as Pattie relates it to be.

Tomorrow is Valentines Day. Much love to all my dear ones.

Sunday's Trip For Stone Soup

End of a Sunday outing

Site of after meal exploration

Friends Pat and Jim among those waiting patiently

Definitely a touch of roadside Oaxaca

Inserting the stones into the bowls 

Looks like a smokey place to work

Fires heating the stones while soups are being assembled

Awaiting the big event — Jesus at middle left

First stop of the trip — to see the park in the ravine

I spoke briefly of the trip we were to take on Sunday to a roadside establishment where they serve "stone soup."  It was an interesting trip. Our driver was super enthusiastic about showing us some of the sights before and after the soup eating event. So, just after we entered the main highway, he stopped and urged all of us to get out and get a peek at an interesting park which is in the city but definitely a bit secluded and out of the way. It is a deep ravine which has been turned into a park with handsome plantings, a lake, picnicking areas, possibly a skating area, etc. We were looking at it from the highway sidewalk but the entry is somewhere near a baseball field I hear.  Looks enticing but remote. I've included one of the two pics I took in the short time allowed.

On the way home, despite a possible vote against doing so, Jesus turned off to the right and took us up a steep hill to another site where there were two lakes, several crowded restaurants and many people enjoying a lovely Sunday "in the park." Several pics from this side tour also.

 The actual event at the "Caldo de Piedra" site was very interesting. The soup was not what I'd call spectacular, but the process definitely was. So I'm very glad I decided to go. We were all invited to go up to the area where there were two serious fireplaces glowing with impressive coals. Soups were being assembled in half shells and then hot, hot rocks were dropped into each bowl, causing the contents to bubble like mad. That was worth the whole trip. The soup contained a slim bit of veggies, four shrimps and one piece of white fish. My fish was loaded with bones but others said their's were not. So I was just the lucky one. Soup had a nice taste but was quite thin. I ate every bit of it.

I'll insert a few names on the extra locations in the excursion when I find the correct spellings.

Last Pics From El Tuito

2015 Retreat group just before leaving

Art and Pedrito at pozole party

Pam making beautiful food for us at Casa Tejedora

We didn't suffer eating at Mario's

Gabriel Canales from Guadalajara and Jean Pierre at Mario's

We eat lunch at Mario's Patio Restaurant each day

Entry way to Rancho Primavera

Mango tree tops at Rancho Primavera

Joanie and Pam said it felt like an early morning coctail party

                                                          Chadilla, our lovely provider

Beginning of the morning at the milk drinking fest

Cacique at the Papaya

Golden-cheeked woodpecker working on the papaya

Two golden-cheeked woodpeckers going for a hole in a growing papaya at Primavera

Chayo and much loved  Yadin, her son we've know since he was a baby

Chayo, Yael and Jean Pierre the morning we left El Tuito

Life is moving on at the usual off and on and pretty fast pace in Oaxaca. Yesterday was the big market in Llano park. Tomorrow a group of about 14 of us is taking a van to an outlying village that holds a big "soup" kind of festival. Our trip to it is being organized by a French Canadian couple who love to cook here at the hotel and cooked a lot here last year. I'll be back in a day or two about how that whole excursion transpires. But first I'd like to post some of my last pics from El Tuito and Rancho Primavera. The pictures of the birds with the papaya at Rancho Primavera are substandard and taken through a closed window but I think they're worth seeing. I couldn't stop watching them.

One event I didn't really elaborate on was the early morning (6:30 am) trip just before the end of our stay, out to a dairy farm where Pedrito had arranged for JP and Yael's group to enjoy an early morning drink straight from the cow. Pedrito and his wife, working in semi-darkness at the back of their pickup, gave us each a plastic glass with grated dark chocolate and organic cane sugar alcohol in the bottom of the glass. Then each glass was handed to the man milking the cow, which, if I remember correctly,  was named Cadilla. Each of us was asked to state how much fresh hot milk we'd like and the appropriate "squeezing"  took place. A little trepidation was displayed here and there until everyone took the first drink. Simply put, It was incredibly delicious. No doubt it helped that the drink was warm and the morning was cold.

I'm also adding a few more pics from the bird refuge at Rancho Primavera, etc.  Hope you enjoy.

More From El Tuito

Pat, Bonnie and Elaine at Casa Tejedora pozole night dinner in the garden

Kissiah's mama and baby pic

Kissiah's pic of milking for drink at early morning farm  visit

Jenny thinking about her law practice or rowing?

 Kissiah still pondering after a job very well done

Donna contemplating her very difficult weaving

Cande toward the beginning of her tapestry

Pat and Bonnie out for a ride at Rancho Primavera

I'm in Oaxaca now but it isn't quite time to walk away from El Tuito yet. Before I go any further, I want to thank Jean Pierre and Yael for giving us the gift of Casa Tejedora once again. It was more than magical. I also want to thank Pat and Bonnie for hosting Art and providing him with one exciting bird sighting after another. I'm sure we'll be back before long. Rancho Primavera is an amazing place. Check out their website when you can.

The group from this year's retreat at El Tuito had an extraordinary time both in the studio and out. When many of us returned to Vallarta for one last night at Hotel Rosita, it was like old home week. We were  joined by Donna's husband and some very dear friends from days gone by. Elaine shopped 'til she dropped (nearly) and had to make a trip back to the airport check-in when she finally hit the baggage  inspection station upstairs. It seemed they didn't like the idea of her carrying her newly acquired hanging seat any further. We waited for her in "Henry's" restaurant and were relieved when she finally reappeared and hadn't been swallowed up by the downstairs gang of officials. Actually, they were pretty nice to her and didn't charge her additional fare.

Art and Elaine joined me at my gate because I was first to leave. What a process this traveling business is. Sometimes perfectly ordinary and sometimes full of surprises. I'm not a big fan of the Mexico City airport because I've experienced so many last minute but not well reported changes there. So, with some trepidation, I entered, had an offer to carry my day pack upstairs immediately and all in all experienced many kind and thoughtful gestures. No glitches!

That flight from MX was the quickest seeming I've ever experienced and the collectivo was right there and ready to take me to Las Mariposas. I'm all signed up at the Instituto Curtural Oaxaca for classes to begin next Monday. I've paid my tuition there and rewarded myself with a delicious late lunch/early fish dinner at "Marco Polo" on my way home. Spent the morning visiting with old friends and will head out for the Textile Museum this afternoon. I'm going to post a few more pics from the retreat and reunion before moving on over the next few days.