Bienvenida a Mexico

Practicing bull fight moves in the Viveros Coyoacan. We came upon this sight, which was totally amazing for us. We really knew we were in another place, for sure!

Passersby were oblivious to the practicing matador, while we were enchanted by it.

 Aw, a missing Gato, named Planeta. I hope someone found him or he found he way home. He has a flea collar on and a in his left pupil. Pobrecito.

We stopped for coffee at this cafe, not far from Frida Kahlo's house. It's very well known. We pulled plastic garden chairs from a stack set against the little building. We sat outside and had delicious coffee and watched the people going by and listening to a street musician. It was lovely.

We saw so many different types of flowers in bloom, everywhere.
Lots of succulents, of course, and palm trees. Plants seemed big! I'm sure that having so much vegetation was good since the city still has problems with bad air, though I think they're doing better. I think the pollution has lessened.

For me, in the beginning, it was hard to breathe because of the altitude. I had to slow down, but after a couple days, it wasn't noticeable. When we returned to Mexico City, after staying in San Miguel de Allende for a number of days, I didn't notice anything at all. Altitude in Mexico city is over 7,000 feet, I think.

We were so happy to be there. The trip we hadn't thought we'd take!!

W day, day 319, autumn leaf color changing day

 Yesterday afternoon, before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at Green Sage for coffee. My barrista made me an autumn leaf on the top of my cappucino. Delicious.

 This morning, I got up early and made the daily mail art. More scraps from brochures. There is no lack of local material to glean.

 Yesterday morning, we took a walk up the hill behind our hotel and came on this hand hewn wood cross by a little church that looked like a house.

 We turned to go down the hill and found this sign on a fence. I think we are amongst some religiously inclined folks.

 Here are a few things that we saw in Blue Spiral gallery yesterday. I loved this ceramic bunny with funny images on it. I left the artist name in the photo so you could check her out yourself, if you want to see more of her work.

 This chicken plate appealed to me. It's so folk and happy. The artist is Sue Tirrell. She had cool mugs, too.

And how could I not be attracted to this plate of letters, letter writer that I am. You can actually read the notes.  Jennifer Kincaid is the artist. It's called Scattered Notes. It's a nice sized ceramic plate.

I didn't buy any of these pieces, but it sure was tempting. In fact, there wasn't anything I wouldn't have liked in my house in the exhibit called Clay as Canvas, at Blue Spiral.

Mail Art #16, plus an idea.

"Mainly Red"

 I decided that today's card would be mainly red, since it's white outside. Yes, it snowed for most of the day. It's stopped falling, it's on the ground looking pretty, only 24F/-4C so I'm staying indoors. Perfectly happy making mail art, which my mail carrier will pick up from my door and get it on it's way. I used some things from my NYC trip and from my studio stash.

Angry kitty?

This morning, as the snow was starting, I went off to meet with my friend Thea, who is a fab tattoo artist and part owner of an art gallery. She makes some very nice Mail Art. We'd gotten it into our heads to do a mail art show and wanted to start making plans. She got a cup of coffee and it had this foamy top, which Thea turned into a kitty face. Kind of angry looking, right? Or a Persian Cat? We'll work out more details of our show, which will be in 2012, and will post details in plenty-o-time for all of you to enter. Fun thinking and planning and making Mail Art. More soon.

More snow....Ridiculous

Yesterday, we had a gray but okay day. Hard to believe that more snow was predicted. After Spanish class, I stopped by Lamplighter cafe and coffee roastery. It's owned by some folks that I'm related to by neighborhood and friendship (mom to mom.) They have a yummy looking menu, the dishes and cups were made by Zach's mom! The doughnuts are the home made ones from that east end place that's nostalgia provoking for my family. Because more snow was predicted, and it was sooo cold out, I decided to turn that cabbage in the refrigerator in to some soup. I put some potatoes in it, and diced tomatoes, a dash of lemon juice and a tad brown sugar and it kind of tasted like mom's soup.
I got a new cake pan. I'm crazy about shaped pans. You may remember my "cathedral" cakes with the powdered sugar snow on them. Here's my newest pan. I tried out a box mix in it yesterday, just to see if it worked! And it did! Wow, what a gorgeous cake. Today, I might make another cake just for the fun of it. Come on by and have a piece of cake! Call first to be sure I'm not outside taking more snow pictures. I can't stop myself!

Really, c'est vrai, the last of Paris....for now.

We spent our last two nights in Paris at a small hotel with the grand name of Grand Hotel du Loiret. It's a few streets away from the Cite. Our friend from Brussels was in Paris so we had dinner at La Perla one night, a spinach, corn, pineapple filled burito with goat cheese, yes it was very yummy. And we had breakfast each morning at Brioche Doree. See what we got for 2,75 euros! Our last night in Paris, we had ice cream for dessert. Big creations with Berthillon ice cream and whipped cream. We didn't bring our cameras!! What were we thinking? They were quite large, beautiful to look at and even better to eat.
Our hotel room was small, with a flat screen tv on the wall, a tiny modern bathroom, and a view. Those are my toes and my Moleskin journal with the decorative skulls pattern on it. (you can have one, too, here)
Getting to the airport was easy as we arranged a Parishuttle pickup. The 2E terminal was quiet and we got through security, passport control and customs quickly. The ceiling of the terminal had a lot of wood, not as metalic looking as some of the other terminals. Very Scandinavian, we were thinking. The flight to Detroit (or Dee-twa as they said) was uneventful, yay, and took only 8 hours and some minutes. I watched 2 movies and read half of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Passport control, customs and security there flowed nicely, no hassles, like in Philadelphia last year. We had a 4 hour layover and spent most of it in the gate area, which was a "meat locker." It was freezing in that part of the terminal. We got back to RIC early, touched down at 10:35 p.m. and were home by 11:15, so were able to toast in the New Year with family in our own kitchen. Our house seemed HUGE after seven weeks away in 600 square feet of living and working space. We've sorted out most of what we brought back, or at least put it in places where we can go through it, the brochures, the postcards, the notices, and such. We opened all our mail, sorted the junk mail, paid the bills, and we've only been home two days. We're on Paris time, still, so get up early. I just changed the time to our present time zone, which will help me adjust, I hope. Well, back to life in Richmond, VA, USofA.

Dinner with friends.

Last night, we had dinner with our friends in their neighborhood near Pere Lachaise cemetery. I had an omelette with cepes (wild mushrooms) & potatoes in it. It was buttery delicious. Chuck had coffee and cassis glace for dessert and I had a noisette (small coffee.) The other dishes were duck, duck and duck. Three different versions of duck, which they all enjoyed. (Sorry no visuals as they turned out too blurry. So much for the "food" setting on C's camera or could it be...me?)

Honey Cake

Today, I made honey cake. I posted the recipe here.
It turned out really good. I used Virginia honey and instant Italian espresso coffee, the recipe calls for strong coffee, and organic flour and eggs from free range chickens. The cakes were baked in loaf pans and one got this strange shape on top, oval within a rectangle. The texture was really nice and the taste, okay, I cut up one of the cakes already, delicious. Try this, you'll like it and it'll lead to a sweet year ahead, so they say.

NYC memories of the weekend.

Lots of candles at El Diablo Royale in the West Village and excellent Mexican food. We had a good cup of coffee and a honey sweetened muffin at a shop by Washington Square on Saturday morning. We popped into a nice little place on west 10th, a glass of bubbly, a view of the rainy street, cozy us enjoying being together.

More Ireland (retrospective)

Here are some very Irish things...the double deck city bus, they were everywhere, and so very tall! Irish cofee, perfect on a chilly, rainy night. We were at a small market in Temple Bar and tasted homemade chutneys, and cheeses. We didn't get any samples of the Christmas pudding, however.

Elflog update

I have Saturday and Sunday morning photos of the shelf to share with you, plus a photo showing how the shelf is located near the bus stop, and also, the BIG news - what I learned on Saturday morning.

A neighbor, who lives on that side of the block with the shelf, saw me taking a photo Saturday morning, and said “Isn’t it a shame?” I thought “oh boy, she's the one who cleans off the shelf.” She then told me how she found the “Make Art Not War” in the gutter and put it back on the pole, as well as returning other items she finds tossed down. She said “I put this here,” pointing to a red leaf. She went on to say “some mean person is doing this.” True! When I told her I was photographing it regularly, she said that she was, too. I asked if she knew about the shelf itself; here’s what she told me…some man put it up to hold his coffee cup while waiting for the bus. When he got on the bus he’d leave his cup there. Wow! I never saw a cup there! This was amazing news to me. How does she know this? Next time I see her, I’ll ask if she saw the construction of the shelf. This is getting even more interesting. I’ve started dating my contributions (the paper ones) and writing “Elflog” on them. Now that I know there is another “friend of the shelf” I’m feeling supported in continuing the effort of placing surprises on it.