Time to go home....

We fly back to California today.  It seems very strange. We have been in San Miguel for 7 weeks and before we left, were both apprehensive about being away from home for so long.

But we have truly loved it.  San Miguel De Allende is a wonderful town.  We have always felt so safe here - and within a very short amount of time, felt "at home".

We've tried so many new things from different classes, to horse riding, to new places, to acupuncture, to new foods, to different types of tequila, to...... We've enjoyed gorgeous sunny weather and met some wonderful people.

It is sad that it is coming to an end, but I know it'll also feel good to be home and I'll get to see Harold my parrot again!

Don't be put off by all the bad press Mexico has - there are some real treasures of towns here - well worth exploring. 

The photos today are collages of a few of my favorites photos from this trip.  I hope you've enjoyed following along with our adventure!  Somehow, I think we'll be back :-D

Teotihuacan Pyramids

On the way to Mexico city with my parents this week, we stopped to see the Teotihuacan Pyramids.

Our trip there began with some Papantla Flyers - "Voladores de Papantla".  This is a group of 4 men dressed in traditional Indian costume gathering around the top of a tall pole.  They climb the pole and one plays a flute. Then they all "fly" down the pole, supported by a rope connected to their ankle.  The guy with the flute keeps playing all the while.

The origins of Teotihuacan are uncertain but it is thought that construction of the city started in the first two centuries BC.  The civilization reached its high point around 500 AD.  One of the great mysteries is that no one then knows where the huge population that lived there eventually ended up.

The original city was about 10 square miles but the ruins are now about one square mile.  There is citadel, the main avenue "Calzada de los Muertos", Templo de Quetzalcoatl and two large pyramids - Piramide del sol and Piramide de la luna. 

The citadel, city and avenue of the dead

The pyramid of the sun is the third largest pyramid in the world.  You can climb to the top of it - so both John and I did that. Mum started the climb but felt a little uneasy without handrails. And dad stayed at the bottom taking photos!  The climb wasn't too bad - easier than I had thought - and the views at the top - along with a nice breeze, were definitely worth it.

The sun pyramid

The moon pyramid

It was a great place to stop so if you are ever in Mexico city - make sure you take in the pyramids.
They are only 30 miles northeast of the city.....While that sounds like nothing, it wasn't quite our experience however, as it does help if your driver knows where he is going!    Hours later....we arrived at our hotel in the city - all with crooked necks from trying to peer out of the van to look for signs to at least the district we wanted! But that's another story.......

Cactus grow everywhere!

The cactus grow everywhere around here! After my close encounter with one while I was horse-riding - I keep a warchful eye out for them - but as I'm not inclined to walk on the roof, I think I'll be safe from these!!

More New Year traditions

Following on from yesterday's "eat 12 grapes with your champagne toast for good luck in the new year", you may have read as a comment on yesterday's blog, that my friend Lorena from Mexico added another local tradition for New Year so, along with hers, I thought I'd share a few more for you to consider!

The first involves underwear! The ritual is that underwear that is worn on the last night of the year must be new and given to you by someone else.  The color should be red to attract love and passion, and yellow to attract money and success.  You can indeed where both red and yellow underwear to attract it all!

And as Lorena mentioned as a comment on yesterday's blog, if you want to travel in the New Year, you should keep a couple of suitcases ready at the door of your house, stuffed with clothing. In the first few minutes of the year, take them out of your house and walk them as far as you can, to attract lots of trips in the new year.

Photo by malias

A couple more:

• eat at least a tablespoon on lentils to attract wealth and prosperity in every way, especially for a business; 
• with a broom, open the door and sweep out the bad vibes and let the good vibes come in; 
• have a lot of coins and money on hand that you can count when the clock strikes midnight which will bring you a lot of wealth.  Some place it in their shoe to bring more prosperity!

So what are you wishing for in the New Year?  Do you need to get someone to buy you some new underwear tomorrow or will you be packing your suitcase???

Whatever your hopes and dreams,  enjoy making them come true!

I posted my 365th blog post yesterday! Phew - a full year's worth! and two extra - this one and tomorrow's! Thanks for reading and sharing my year with me!

New Year Rituals

We've enjoyed learning about the New Year Rituals that go on in Mexico and hope to include some of them in our celebrations this year.

Our favorite one involves grapes - so is perfect for us with our vineyard.

The ritual is that when making a toast with champagne for the New Year, you should have 12 grapes for each person, one for each month in order to attract good vibes throughout the coming year.  With each strike of the clock on the final seconds of the year, you have to eat the grapes - one on each strike with the wish that your projects and hopes will come true.

The grapes can be presented as little bunches for each person, either green, purple or a mixture or you can put all 12 grapes on skewer and place that in the champagne glass ready, as shown in the above photo!

What New Year rituals do you like to participate in or what is traditional for your country?

Whatever you'll be doing - I hope you'll be sharing the time with special people in your life.

Weekly Bird in the hand

Here is my weekly bird in the hand - the things I am grateful for this week:

• our friends D and K - for their friendship and for sharing their home with us in Mexico
• cultural variations
• the colors and music of Mexico
• safe travel
• sunshine
• interesting foods
• Mexicans who understand English better than I understand Spanish!!!

Hope your week has been different too!

Pastures new

I'm heading off to Mexico tomorrow - for 6 weeks! I know - it does seem like a long time. But it's going to be busy.

We will be in San Miguel de Allende for that time - up in the mountains in a colonial town.  For most of the time, we will have family joining us. John's sons with their girlfriends will come for Xmas and New Year and then my parents will join us at the beginning of January.

In between all that, I plan to take some classes. I'm thinking - but this may change - of trying clay/ceramic sculpture! Yes, being able to sculpture things larger than an inch tall may actually be quite fun! I also have some new knitting patterns too...so who knows what will come about...and also some aluminum!

There are lot of classes happening in San Miguel so it's a time to learn, explore and play too!

While there is a little trepidation about us being gone for so long - we are also excited.  A friend is going to stay here and look after Harold for us so we don't have to worry about that.

I am taking a few silver birdies with me so will keep my stores open but limited and just see how it all goes!

I'll keep blogging and let you know what fun things I'm trying. I hope you'll keep reading.

I made the cuff shown in the photos here as a commission for a wonderful customer in France.  Yes- she requested purples and pinks!!! I'm afraid the photos look more blue than purple - why is it that purple is such a difficult color to photograph?

Merry go round - Inspirational photo challenge

It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of 10 artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.

This month's topic is: An inspirational photo challenge. The idea is that we take a photo of something and then use that as an inspiration to create a new piece.

For my photo, I used one that I took while we were in San Miguel last week.   On the main plaza, in front of the church, there were always people selling things - including a few people will lots of lots of balloons.  I so wanted to see them lift off and fly into the sky......

But they stayed on the ground ;-(

However, it seemed such a great image and as I'm always looking for ways to include color in my pieces, I thought I'd try the balloon man idea:

and thus "Anyone can get carried away" was created!

It's a brooch and good reminder that sometimes it's good to keep hold of those strings, even if it seems a little scary, and just get carried away and enjoy the ride! 

Hope you like him.  Now head over to the other "merriers" and see what they came up with.  As we are all on different time zones, please be patient if someone has yet posted their inspiration!

Alison at Tweed Delights - http://idreamoftweed.blogspot.com
Mitsy at ArtMind - http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com
Kim at Vilt a la Kim - http://viltalakim.blogspot.com
Sara at Crafts of Texture - http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
Fabienne at Easterya Jewellery Creations - http://easterya.blogspot.com
Mariana at Florcita - http://www.florcita.eu/
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent - http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com
Lily at Lily Pang Art and Design - http://lilypangart.blogspot.com
Wendren at Wren Design - http://thewrendesign.com

Murals and Sculptures from San Miguel

When we were in San Miguel this week, two artists' work really stood out for me.  The first was Rodrigo de la Sierra.  He creates wonderful large sculptures using resin.  It doesn't look at all like resin to me - but when you see the photos (sorry, only from my phone so not great), you will tell instantly why I like them.  His work can be seen at the Fabrica La Aurora which is an old textile factory, and now houses 40 artists studios, plus galleries, a restaurant and all in a wonderful setting.

The second artist is David Leonardo.  His work is all over San Miguel but I was really taken with the murals he painted on the walls of one of the rooms in the Bibliotheca in San Miguel.  It took 2 years to paint all the walls. What color!

There was so much wonderful color and art there - it was very inspiring. I think a return visit is in order one day....

National bird of Mexico - Friday's fascinations, facts and folklore

I'm sure everyone reading this knows what the national bird of the USA is - even if you don't live in the USA.....but how many of you know the national bird of Mexico???

No - I didn't either, until I looked it up.  As I am visiting Mexico this week, I thought I'd check into what birds I might see.  The national bird is the Crested Caracara and is used as their emblem. 

Photo by catmca

You can also see them in Florida, Texas and Arizona in the US, and then south into central and south America.

It is often known as the Mexican Eagle and is in fact a falcon that eats more like a vulture! They catch most of their prey by walking around fields and shallow wetlands, but sometimes they watch for prey from fence posts and trees and look for dead animals along roads.  They eat mostly grasshoppers and beetles, but other animals too, and eggs, fruit and seeds.   

A couple of interesting facts: Like vultures, they don't have feathers on their face as they would get matted and stuck with blood etc when they ate roadkill! 

Photo by Leppyone

You can see their crops showing in this photo

And my friend Colin just commented on Tuesday's post letting me know that the phrase being "fed up" with something originally was a falconry term.  If you gave your falcon too much food, it wouldn't need to fly and catch something for you, so it didn't bother.  It was fed up!  (Thanks Caulie!)

So do you know the national bird for any other countries?  What about:

• United Kingdom?
• Canada?
• Germany?

Please send your answers written with a feather, on a bit of roadkill - oh and mail it  to my Mexico address!