A tough bride, a decorated burro

Not such a great photo, but I was in the Jardin a few days ago and I saw a wedding party leaving the Parroquia. Nothing unusual there. I did like the decorated burro - he is carrying baskets of baby's breath. I had to hustle out of the way, so the shot is pretty poor quality, but here you are anyway.
It is unusual to see a bride in a strapless dress in San Miguel, and she is also enjoying a refreshing beverage. The bride did not appear particularly blushing or innocent, but I wish the newlyweds all the best, of course!

You never know what you'll find here in San Miguel

Yesterday I got my hair cut, and then I was walking over to pick up some shoes I had had repaired. A side note on that - you can get anything fixed here. I broke a heel off some really nice boots. Replacing a heel is something that literally cannot be done in the US. Here in San Miguel, no problem at all.
Anyway, as I walked down a street I don't usually take, I passed a printer's shop. I saw some printer's trays out of the corner of my eye. I have one in the US that I use as decoration. Here they were still in use - a real, old-fashioned printer's shop where they set the type by hand!
I asked them if I could take some pictures, and they said that I could. So great!

Springtime in San Miguel!

I arrived here last night. On the way from the airport, we stopped at the drive-through giant beer can (drove through the giant beer can?) and I bought myself a beer and the driver a water. Lucky man. That first sip of ice-cold Modelo after the plane trip is a lovely way I welcome myself to Mexico!
The weather is spectacular. The Jacarandas are coming into bloom. I will try to get a photo of them, but I only have my telephone with me, and it has been overexposing the photos.
HOWEVER, I did get a shot of what looked a lot like a Carneval celebration in the Jardin. I don't know whether it was something else, or whether San Miguel decided to ignore Lent. I did see ashes on foreheads last night, so I'm not sure what's going on. Come to think of it, none of the ashy foreheads were in San Miguel. . . .

It was a big change

I thought I'd post these photos of the house being painted. It was quite a change!

If I'm going to link to it, perhaps I had better post to it. . .

I'm headed down to San Miguel on Wednesday - I can't wait. I don't usually get the treat of being in Mexico in March, and it is an absolutely lovely time of the year.
I arrive in the evening on Wednesday, and Thursday will be busy with renovations - to my body and spirit. Haircut, hair color and a massage. After which I will be ready to face the world! I am meeting friends for cocktails on a rooftop bar - La Azotea. We go there so often we call it The Club. It's a fabulous place to watch the sunset, just of the Jardin.
I will be there only a few days (better than no days!) and I'll see how much I can squeeze in. I want to catch up with friends, follow up with an electrician and hopefully get to a hot spring.
Last summer we repainted Casa Colina. I say "we" because each of us had a job. Norma found the painter and supervised the job. Jose painted his heart out. And I chose the colors and paid. I think that everybody was okay with this division of labor.

Photos from Day of the Dead

Some more photos: I think the real problem is that I just have a lot of stuff running on this computer.

I love the top photo because you can see that this is a current activity shared by the whole family - even the muchacho with the sunglasses!

The bottom picture is a shot of the altar at Sarah Murillo's Centro Bilingue. Chris and Mary Alice helped to build and decorate this altar in 2006. Some people will build their altars in a front window of their homes.

Day of the Dead is a spectacular event. I'll be here every year if I have the opportunity.

Day of the Dead

Very tardily I wanted to write a little about the Day of the Dead. I went first a few years ago, and I am totally done with Halloween now. What a marvelous celebration! It is an Aztec ceremony with a very thin veneer of Christianity applied to the top. If you would like to read more about the ceremony itself, you can click here or here.

I took the photos I have attached at the main cemetary in San Miguel. It was completely packed with families who had come out to clean and decorate the graves of their relatives. They bring a picnic along and spend the day. It was quite a scene!

The whole town has an intoxicating smell of marigolds and incense. The marigolds are a traditional flower for the Day of the Dead, and incense is burned on the altars that dot the town.

Families make altars to their dead. The altars range from simple to extremely extravagant. Most are in homes, but some are in the Jardin and in other public spots around town. The Spanish School my children have attended, the Centro Bilingue, turned its entire courtyard into the most elaborate altar I have ever seen. They invited my kids to help in its construction. The folks at Centro Bilingue are a great group.

I am trying to put on a few more photos but I'm having no luck. I'll cut this post short and post more photos on another post.