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This is a property in Pozos; it goes back at least 300 to 400 years. It shows the usual influence of the Spanish and of course the Arabic influence upon them. It is an appropriate picture at this moment because my home in California is going to be Auctioned on November 9th. I look at this photo I took years ago because I loved the moorish influence and wanted, at the time a home that mirrored this architecture. I now have a home here that at least has some walls that goes back that far, but more importantly to me, has a garden that mirrors that long ago time.

It seems that in retrospect, that I have left a trail of gardens that begin in 1975 in Sauasalito, California and spread their trail from there to at least 6 other spaces between there and Humbolt County, Calif. Now here there is another, but it is only 4 years old and is still promising so much more. I think of Santa Rosa, and my house on the "proverbial block" and that garden goes back to the turn of the 20th century. I planted, as I did here in Mexico, everything that caught my eye at this and that nursery and hoped for the best. The best was splendid, but the very best was what came up that had been planted so long ago that even the lady that knew the origianl owners (way back when) did not even know the heritage. The Garden continued to surprise me with its gifts of surprise and wonder. It is this I miss and worry about, in terms of new owners, greed, auctions etc. who will care who was there and what their dreams may have been?
So yet another garden, and given my age, it may be my last, and yet another trail and what I have left behind.

Seems like California today

There is a hurricane coming off the Pacific and although I have not been able to bring up a computer image of its path, I am guessing it is swirling up the Mexican coast and then down through the Central Highlands. It is a very blustery and semi rainy day today, as it was yesterday. I have built my first fire of the season yesterday and need another today. It feels so much like January or February in Northern California where lived most of my life, I am surprised when I look out of my windows here and see Adobe walls and cobblestones,cactus and spanish inspired iron work. It is Sunday and usually there are lots of families and tourists visiting Pozos, today there are very few. It is almost as quiet as it is in the late evening and predawn hours. I almost always wake up in the middle of the night to absolute silence. This amazes me as there are over 7000 people in this village. What ever sounds do break through the darkness are always of the nature variety. My favorite are the donkeys/burros, always with a complaint about something. There is one that had me fooled for years, his favorite time is early morning at day break and his complaints are heartbreaking. You would think that he must carry concrete, dirt or bags upon bags of firewood everyday for his daily ration of alfalfa as so many of his friends must do. But no, he lives with his wife a life to be envied by all beasts of burden in a lovely paddock shaded by ancient Pepper trees and many choices in the gourmet donkey deli of the surrounding fields. Perhaps they are not complaining at all, it is just the tone of their communication. I have grown very fond of listening to them either at midnight or morning. I love imagining what they may be saying to each other or to other donkeys nearby. Thus is my amusement on any given day of my Mexican life.

Posting from Pozos

Hola, this is my courtyard in the Central Highlands of Mexico. My home is in the semi ghost town of Minerale de Pozos in the State of Guanajuato. I ended up here 5 years ago as a result of my inability to handle one more minute of the Bush Administration. Originally I fell in love with San Miguel de Allende, which lies about 45 minutes from Pozos. Unfortunately, it seemed everyone else was in love with it also. Feeling a bit hemmed in by too many people and just as many automobiles, buses and trucks; I decided to investigate what I had heard was a ghost town in the higher ground overlooking the valley that sweeps down and then up again to become San Miguel. I had heard about Pozos from the wonderful book on this area of Mexico written by Tony Cohen called On Mexican Time. I call it a semi ghost town because although there are ghosts in and about the enchanted adobe ruins of this town and time that stuggles to be remembered; there are at present 7000 flesh and blood residents and of those perhaps 15 full time expats like myself and then maybe 30 more part timers who come and go through out the year.

It is my intention with this blog to write about what life is like here as I understand it and to hopefully be one more voice that encourages anyone who can escape the talking heads and scare tactics media, that Mexico is full of wonders and enchantment and unless you are dealing drugs or fond of the border towns, It is as safe as anywhere in the world (if safe is a meaningful word for you). This is a test run for blogging for me and so ends my first post.