Matters ranged from dull and boring to somewhat interesting during the most recent visit to our little mud hut and property on the Corona River. We have had some relatively heavy, slightly out of season rains. Amounts in and around our area ranged from 4 to 8 inches during a period from the last week in January through the second week of February. Temperatures set no records, but very chilly overnights and warm afternoons provoked the expected "welcome to Spring" flowering of the Yucca, along with the flowering of the elegant, ochre-coloured blossoms of the Huizache trees. The citrus also was provoked into bloom, especially due to the out-of-season rains.
The fragrance of several thousand acres of Valencia oranges, along with Persian limes, and various types of red grapefruit can be a bit much....a little too sweet....something like Aunt Beatrice's Nuclear Gardenia Perfume. But, it is generally a positive thing. A bit of wind helps, and at least the dogs all stink, and that balances things out a bit.
The rains have been generally and liberally delivered upon the southernmost part of Texas and throughout Mexico, with a very few exceptions. The "long-range forecast" for all such areas was for continued drought and abnormally hot. Didn't happen.
We had another "visit in force" from the Mexican Army, with essentially an entire battalion of infantry and their helicopters and their armoured fire-power machines and heavily armed soldiers pretty much walking every street, trail, and path of our ejido and every ejido adjacent or near ours. We were honoured by a visit from a company commander and his xo and another junior officer, shortly after a platoon had come through and checked our area. The three officers spent a bit of time in and on the Quinta, even sharing a bit of a meal. It is difficult for a normal person with normal world view and life experience to appreciate the positive response the folks in the ejido (and elsewhere) have when these powerful, battle-tested units make their "visits in force". The locals come out in droves, and sometimes a person can be seen passing a written note to a sergeant.....perhaps with a license plate number, an address of a suspicious house or person's location, or some other nugget of reconnaissance. The biggest complaint is that the troops do not stay.
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| This is a Pencil Cactus that we planted a little less than a year ago. We took a foot-long stem from the Gringo Viejo's Godmother's home, shortly after her passing |
We have reminded the Mexican folks who makes such comments, that "....company and fish begin to stink after three days....". It is also is pointed out that there are many square kilometres, many cockroaches, and very few soldiers and marines. These things don't need to be said, but....they need to be said. This time the troops stayed a couple of nights camped in open areas here and there in the line of Ejidos that form our extended rural community.
Something of note is that El Gringo Viejo left Texas a couple of days after the urgent travel warning was re-issued by the American State Department, saying that all travel must be avoided throughout Mexico, especially the fourteen States of concern.....That advisory was modified with a kind of a map later which had the States coloured in a pukey green. That advisory was modified later with the coloured area changed to colour the States that had been left white, and the remainder turned to green. Then, finally the American Department of State said that the travel warning had not been necessary and that it had been released mistakenly by three former Mexican State governors.
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| The dog Bebe, now about three-fourths grown |
Comments coming up about oil, gasoline, and money.
El Gringo Viejo
