Finally

We planted the garden pretty late.



So all we're getting now, in the way of vegetables, are long, skinny things.



Japanese Eggplant, Zephyr Squash, Cucumbers. No tomatoes yet.



The little cucumber that could. We bought what turned out to be an amazingly good plant, I think from the local Ace Hardware. Never bitter, despite my horribly uneven watering. And really, really prolific! This amount is from one day. (One plant.) I see cucumber-pushing in my future.

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Don't forget the Friday Ark.

Cancun El Centro

Last year I was in Mexico for work and had the chance to spend extra days traveling in the region for pleasure and leisure. I went to visit Chichen Itza, the Tulum ruins, spent a day in Playa del Carmen, and stayed in Cancun as well. Since my previous employer sponsored us a luxurious stay at an exclusive resort near Puerto Morelos which means I had enough of the sun and sand and the all-inclusive hotel resort food (this is worrying my eating habits), I decided to stay at a hotel in Cancun El Centro and not in Cancun Hotel Zone for the rest of the days that I was not working.

Except for the food, architectural ruins and the language, Mexico reminds me a lot of the Philippines.

I find the old centre of Cancun a bit raw and less touristy compared to the Hotel Zone where its a chockfull of (north) American holidaymakers and partygoers. I did wander around the old centre and even went to the mercados to look for something to bring home but I did not find anything I like.

My only souvenir in Cancun was a Maya tile calendar given to me by the hotel personnel who were wearing, interestingly, thick winter coats because it’s -+18C outside while I am wearing a short sleeve blouse, thin leggings and slippers. They were very nice people, they helped me book my last minute trip to Chichen Itza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Check out my collage fotos of Cancun El Centro below:

Cancun El Centro scenes. I ordered Nachos at the hotel and look what I got, some rolled tortillas with frijoles refritos - not really a Mexican food fan anyway. Nachos I learned is a Texan thing and not really Mexican. Upper right foto you can see a street food vendor selling tortillas. Below foto with the tall buildings is my hotel room view.

Rotunda monument in Cancun. The Mexican Peso. I did a little walk into this park and saw this colourful row of houses. Bought myself some nachos to munch in my hotel room.

And I sauntered into this concrete park as well with a covered podium. There were a number of stalls selling native Mexican items.

Daily life on the streets of Cancun El Centro. The buses, the traffic (scary to cross the streets there!), the roads, as well as the people there remind me of the Philippines.

All fotos are uploaded to my online Multiply album, and to see them one by one, please go here: Cancun El Centro - Mexico

What the Rest of the Family Is Up To

While we hang out in South Carolina, the rest of the family is doing their thing in Florida and Illinois. The princess is growing up, like little ones tend to do. She is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. Ashleigh is fantastic at sending me pictures and videos of the little peanut so I can see her smiles almost daily. Ashleigh is working tons of hours and still cooking up her daily feasts. I don't know how she is juggling it all, but she is.



Ambir is busy working, being a girlfriend and modeling. Yes, our super model is doing some formal modeling now which is no big surprise to us. She has always loved to be in front of the camera so it's only natural that she be paid to do so!



Aric is busy working and taking care of his own house and all the things that go along with that. He is also attempting to get thrown out of stores every chance he gets by having too much fun there by playing like a child (or fun adult). I don't have any photos of his craziness like dressing up like a cat, so I'll just have to visualize it. We are looking forward to seeing him very shortly.



Auburn is working two jobs and in her little bit of spare time she does things like jet skiing. It's a rough life! I thought it was so sweet that the only thing she wanted for her birthday is for Austin to come and visit her. Who would have thought that they would actually pick to spend time together someday?



We are here, still soaking up the goodness of South Carolina. We are enjoying it and we are also looking forward to seeing our Florida kids soon!

More from Washington DC

Tombstone Tuesday :: Rest in Peace

On the campus of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College near Terre Haute, Indiana
Winter of 1981I didn't read the other side of the stones so don't know who is buried there.Copyright © 1981/.. by Rebeckah R. Wiseman

St Patrick's Day Weekend Fun

My schedule has changed so I now have one weekend day off each week. That has been a wonderful thing and it worked out very well this past weekend where we had lots of things scheduled. Saturday night Rich and Donna invited us over for dinner. Tom and Karen joined us. Karen brought the shamrock above.



I thought I had pictures of the food, but somehow I don't. We had chicken kabobs, potato salad, another salad that was a slaw salad, potato skins and dessert and Margaritas. Everything was delicious!! Along with the great food, we had fun getting to know each other better. I loved hearing more stories about how each of us met and became engaged. We had a great time!



Sunday Nathan and I slept in and then took one of those Sunday drives and this is one of the things we saw:





It's hard to see exactly what it is from my pictures but it was a truck with a seat like they have on the airboat rides on the back. Too funny!



After our Sunday drive, we stopped and picked up pizza and headed to Rene and Mira's rig where Bob and Vicki joined us. They added Ceaser salad, drinks and strawberry shortcake to make it another great dinner.



We went to see some of their Alaska trip pictures. We always love spending time with both of the couples and to get them together is a double treat. Their pictures were incredible and the scenery they captured was amazing.



We left in the middle of this to go and see Mike Thomas perform here at the park. I have been to one of his shows before and really enjoyed it. This was Nathan's first time seeing him perform. He enjoyed it too.



We then went back to see the rest of the pictures and chat for some time afterwards. Weekends like this are perfection for me! Loved all that we did and hope to have more time with our pickleball friends before they all head out.

Watermelons

It wasn't that we didn't plant watermelons early. We did. It's just that they were part of the straw-bale gardening experiment that went horribly wrong. And we didn't re-plant until the first of August. A race was on between the vines and the first hard frost.



This was our first attempt at growing watermelons.

My planting method went like this: "Oh, that was a good watermelon that we got from the farmer's market. I'll just toss some of these seeds onto the unplanted garden area and see what happens."

My husband's planting method was more sophisticated: "I'll plant some of these seeds that Aunt Polly gave us a few years ago. I'm even going to weed the area first, and plant in mounds. But I'm not going to use any fertilizer, because this dirt is so good. It's all a matter of mind control, anyway."



You might be surprised to learn that we did actually manage to grow a few excellent watermelons.

They were very tasty! We had a two or three week window between the first ripe melon and the first hard frost (around the first of November).



Did you know that melons can suffer from blossom end rot? It's a common problem with tomatoes, but for melons I get the impression that you really have to be trying. Oops. I blamed it on not fertilizing this end of the garden at all. Hubby blamed it on not watering enough (and improper mind control). It was probably the result of both. (I don't subscribe to the mind control theory of gardening.)