THE BABIES ARE HERE!! THE BABIES ARE HERE!!

For those of you who know Sam, her baby ducks are her life during the summer.  She feeds them at least twice a day and sometimes more.  As time goes on and the babies get to know and trust her, they follow her around the yard.  Sam knew it was time for the ducks.  She mentioned the other day she thought she should be seeing them anytime.

So yesterday Sam went to the bread store and purchased her "bird bread" that she uses to feed her baby ducks.  She gets about 30 loaves of bread for $3.00.  Sam has been looking for her baby ducks and today was the day.

Just before dinner Sam looked out the window and saw a mama duck and her babies floating upstream.  She grabbed her bread and ran for the stream.  Sure enough mama was there with seven baby ducks.  Sam was right, the babies were born about two weeks ago.  However, today was the first day we saw them.  She fed them and then came back to the house.

We ate dinner and cleaned the kitchen.  We went out on the patio for a glass of wine and sure enough the ducks were still hanging around.  Of course, Sam grabbed her bread and headed for the stream to feed them once more.  They ate an entire loaf of bread.

As time goes by, we will keep you posted on how the baby ducks are growing!!

JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED!

Today one of my good neighbors invited a group of ladies to her home for lunch and to relax by the pool.  The water was a perfect temperature and crystal clear.

This is definitely just what the doctor ordered after spreading seven yards of mulch in our yard on Monday and Tuesday in the hot and humid weather.  It was indeed refreshing.

Now this is retirement!

DRINKS, DINNER, AND GOOD COMPANY

Last Thursday, our good neighbors had us over for dinner.  They asked that we bring a salad.  Sam is known as the "queen" of salads.  Everyone enjoys her salads because she makes them with love and adds a lot of good veggies.  Also, a salad is not a salad in Sam's eyes unless it has blue cheese.

It was a beautiful evening and we all enjoyed a casual dinner outside.  When we arrived, Nathalie and Claire Bear were picking lilies of the valley and making center pieces.  Nathalie will be 10 years old this summer and Claire Bear is 28 months.  Joey will be 8 in a couple of months; he was packing for a camping trip with his mom.

For dinner we had salad, bread, pasta with bacon, cherry tomatoes, and shrimp.  Of course we had plenty of refreshments and delicious cheesecake.  As you can see, Claire Bear likes her pasta.

The evening was very enjoyable.  It's nice to have good neighbors/friends.  By the end of the evening we were all ready for a nice rest.

GONE FISHING

A few days ago Sam mentioned to one of our neighbors that there were several large minnows (at least 5 to 6 inches long) in our stream by the bridge.  They have a seven year old son, Payton, who loves fishing.  We talked about him coming over with his fishing pole to fish off the bridge.

Well, the next day the local heron was hanging around the bridge for several hours.  By the end of the day, the heron was well fed.  We actually saw the heron catch a large minnow.  He had it in his beak and was trying to swallow it.  Sam was cheering for the minnows because she didn't have the heart to tell Payton that the heron got all of his fish. 

It has been a couple days since the heron started his feeding frenzy and it has continued.

HIGH WIRE ACT

The other morning when Bob went to the kitchen to make coffee, he saw this amazing spider web.  The sunlight was perfect to catch a shot with our camera.  We both thought about the very long path this spider took to find this spot to make his/her web.  The little things in life that are beautiful.

A BEAUTIFUL DAY

BRIGHT BLUE SKY

It’s a beautiful day in Michigan. The sky is bright blue and it is 80 degrees. It reminds us of a Sanmiguelian sky. There are a lot of things we like about Michigan and our property.

We put up our bird feeder and have our first bird.

Our first male ducks have come up to be fed. In a week or so, we should have the mama ducks and their babies. That will be exciting. We will have to get to the wonder bread outlet store to get our duck bread. We can get about 30 loaves of day old bread for about $3.00.

We planted our vegetable garden today. Now starts the feud with the groundhogs. Yesterday we planted the sunflower seeds so within the next two weeks, they will be transplanted into the garden.

We also have our first iris of the season.

There are things we miss about San Miguel, like walking to the mercados and tiendas, chatting with the storekeepers, having casual conversations in the jardin, having dinner with our many friends, and teaching English at Los Ricos. Last night we were chatting about the price of limes. In Mexico they are very inexpensive. The other day, we paid 99 cents for one lime here in Michigan. In San Miguel, we could get a BAG of limes for about 50 cents. Do you believe it? When we got the limes home, they weren’t even juicy. We had to use a couple of limes just to make two mojitos. On the other hand, during the winter I would have paid almost any price to have a good real yellow lemon in San Miguel. Here in Michigan, the lemons are still pricey at about 90 cents each but well worth it.

Whatever you have bountiful…enjoy!

BOB'S SNORKELING ADVENTURES

While on vacation in Puerto Morelos, Mexico, Bob would go snorkeling twice a day. He would chart his course and let Sam know where he was beginning and ending his adventure for “Treasure and Trash” hunting. He found a variety of things such as sunglasses, masks, snorkels, shoes, room keys, clothing, money, drinking glasses, syringes, rope, metal, broken glass windows, etc. He also saw a variety of fish including barracuda, star fish, and stingrays. His special fish spotting was a “Lionfish”.


The Lionfish is a beautiful fish. Bob came back from snorkeling and was telling our friends from Argentina about his find. The next day Lourdes and Peteco went on a snorkeling trip to Isla Mujeres. They were talking to the captain of the boat about the possibility of lionfish being in the waters. The captain gave them an in-depth explanation about the lionfish. He told them that in 1992 Hurricane Andrew in Florida destroyed a fish aquarium that had a half dozen lionfish in it. These lionfish got into the Atlantic. The fish made their way over the years to the Caribbean. The lionfish multiply very rapidly, laying 30,000 eggs two to three times per year. Lionfish are predators and nothing will eat them. They have venomous spines. The Mexican government will pay $100 for each live lionfish so they can study them. However, the government wants them dead. Many of the local marinas organize lionfish hunts.

When Lourdes and Peteco told Bob all of this information, he wanted to go out and hunt this fish. Of course, he wanted the lionfish alive; he wanted to collect his $100. Each day Bob would look in the same place for the fish; each day it was there. Since he didn’t have the proper equipment, Bob decided not to catch the fish. Instead he enjoyed his daily adventure of finding it.

PARADISUS, COMPADRES, AND BACK TO REALITY

Well, it has been a while since our return from San Miguel de Allende and our last blog posting. We spent four weeks in Puerto Morelos, Mexico at our favorite resort, Paradisus. The first four days we had a lot of rain. It was raining so hard that the jacuzzi on our balcony was filling up with rain very rapidly. This is very unusual for this time of year. We had several nice days and then we had four days of heavy winds. The winds were so strong that the authorities closed all of the ports for water sports and small craft. The winds blew the sand into drifts just like the snow in Michgian.  We both said if one travels often, one is likely to encounter all kinds of weather. So we enjoyed meeting people and reading our books.

Our friends, Lourdes and Peteco, joined us for 8 days from Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Lourdes and Sam have celebrated their birthdays for the past four years at Paradisus. We met them in April 2006. Lourdes’ birthday is the day before Sam’s. The hotel staff decorated our bed for Sam's birthday.  They spelled out, "Feliz Cumpleanos" in rose petals.  They also delivered a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  For dinner, the general manager had a nice chilled bottle of champaign for us.

Bob snorkeled as often as he could. Many times he snorkeled twice a day. There will be another blog posting about his snorkeling adventures. In the morning after breakfast on most days, Sam would swim a mile in the pool. One day she was so ambitious that she swam two miles; one mile after breakfast and one mile after lunch. All this exercise was enjoyed but was necessary due to the abundance of food and wine.

Two weeks into our trip, we were informed that Sol Melia was no longer managing the hotel. The new management company is AMResorts and the new name of the hotel is Now Sapphire. AMResorts is an American company headquartered in Pennsylvania. They also own Apple Vacations and the airlines, USA3000. At present, all of our friends and contacts are still there. However, we both have been through mergers/acquisitions/buyouts, etc., during our careers. We will have to wait and see what will happen at our “Beach House”.

The highlight of our trip was a visit to our compadre's house one Sunday afternoon.  We saw Robertito and his two brothers, Ryan and Uly.   Robertito is growing up fast.  He is 11 1/2 years old.  He doesn't want to be called Robertito anymore...just Roberto.  It was a nice afternoon.

We really enjoyed our trip. We met several nice couples over our four week stay. The employees always treat us very well. On several occasions, the chefs would prepare special dinners for us that weren’t on the menu such as racks of lamb, lobster thermidor, and a very special dinner on our last night.  The chef at the French restaurant prepared three different appetisers, lobster ceviche, shrimp and basil, and scallops with bacon.  All of these appetisers have been on previous menus.  For the main course we had short ribs.  And of course, the captain of the restaurant presented us with a nice bottle of red wine from Spain.   That evening, we had our favorite waiter and the table was beautifully decorated.  We are so very lucky and count our blessings every day.

We arrived home on April 12th to cool and rainy weather; however, everything is very lush and green. For the past four days, we have been pulling weeds. We have never seen so many weeds in the spring. We now know that April showers bring WEEDS!! And there has been a lot of rain. We still have a few more days of weed pulling before we are ready to put down mulch, plant the flowers and vegetable gardens.

The good news is we rewarded ourselves each evening with a refreshing cocktail after a hard day’s work in the yard.  This cocktail is a very delecious Mojito...Sam's specialty!!  Now back to reality.