Wondering the New Year

Jan 28, 2015

Happy New Year!  Those words are a bit stale, but they feel correct for me.  Christmas in Oaxaca lasts until Jan 6, when the biblical Three Kings reportedly arrived with gifts. 
Most folks are not in a hurry to remove the elaborate nacimientos, and I'm not in a hurry to see them packed away, either.  This is prime snow-bird migration season, so in addition to the city excitement, we still have the holiday excitement, and the arrival of old friends.  It seems that this past week life has settled into a New Year routine, with hikes and meals with friends and lectures at the library and adventures.  My last blog post, already a month old, reminds me that I'm going to spend more time on this blog this year.  Taking a cue from Jess and Sally, over at 100 Stories blog, I'm going to try to post about every two weeks.  There.  Now I'm accountable to you all!

I'm wondering about lots of things so far this year.  First, I'm wondering about food pairings.  Studying combinations, even casually, with Jose Luis, has me making a list of recipes and food combinations to try.  He combined guayaba, basil, cream and chocolate to make a memorable dessert.  Catch me while I swoon with the memory!  We had another opportunity to cook, and sample mezcal, with him in January at Michelle's house in Teotitlan del Valle.

We prepared salsas, salads, stuffed squash blossoms and chicken, all made with locally produced ingredients.  Meeting Michelle has been one highlight of 2014, and connecting with the enthusiasm of Jose Luis is another.  I can't wait for Jose Luis to open his new restaurant, location in Oaxaca yet to be revealed.













Friends Joan and Bob arrived from San Francisco, and Joan and I jumped right back into our routine of visiting and exploring textile techniques.  Micky and I had connected through our volunteer committment at the Oaxaca Lending Library, while we talked about sewing and art, and we immediately accepted an invitation to form a sewing group here with Joan and Nancy.  More wondering occured!  We experimented with cloth and beads to build a necklace; wrapped perfectly clean cotton cloth around dirty, rusty metal things just to see what pattern would happen; and dunked more cloth in indigo dye, twisted and pinned and clipped to create resist. The Cinco Senoras wandered through the beautiful Museo de Textiles Oaxaca more than one time, crying becuase of the beauty of the photos and exhibits and words of the people who are working so hard to create beautiful fabrics.

 All the while, wondering, "What if...?".  Micky has me wondering, too, what I'm going to do with the beautiful embroidered aprons I've bought.

 










Wandering in the mountains around Cuajimoloyas and Benito Juarez causes me to wonder about the lives of the people who live in this high, remote place.  We hiked between the two villages, through fields of corn, potatoes, mustard and squash, with beautiful vistas across valleys.  I bought a jar of pickled maguey blossoms from the small tienda in the village.  People living just a few miles away don't eat these local flowers.  The women in Cuajimoloyas serve them with eggs, or with tortillas.  The window of harvest time is small; the maguey grow wild up here, so harvest relies on paying attention.

All this wondering is contagious. No conversation with friends local and snow-bird is complete without wondering why we return, or choose to live in this part of the world.  No one has a single answer.  Stuart and I will continue to wonder, as we board a bus Friday heading for Tuxtupec, and on to Veracruz to explore.  We are sad to leave our friends and our second city, but eager to wander.

Gift a Day

This is the time of year many messages are related to thinking about life in a new, better way; new beginnings; clean-slate sort of thinking. Resolutions and forming new habits.  I guess I like to think of a new beginning as the winter solstice, when the days begin to get longer again. In NC, when the darkness begins by 5:00 in the winter, I look forward to longer days. In Oaxaca, we'd better be on the roof by 5:30, or we'll miss the sunset. But, I also think of spring-green leaves on the oak trees, daffodils, first tomatoes of summer, and picking grapes in September as new beginnings.  And, I think of Jan 2 as a new beginning, when life gets back to normal in places that use the same calendar I use! 

The past couple of weeks have been so fun.  Jess and Sally's visit was a gift.  Two years after meeting them in Peru, they came through Oaxaca on the way south, and it was a wonderful week. They left all sort of other gifts with us:  laughter and conversation; stories of wonderful things they've experienced in the past two years traveling around the world; Sally's minty trail mix; hand-made paper from Thailand (Jess, correct me on that, please!); a watch for Stuart and the box it came in for me to play with; meals and drinks; socks!; and knowledge of all kinds of things! 

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I took one more cooking class at La Cuisine, with my friend Allie.  See the fun we had, after eating one of the best meals I've ever tasted! Jean Michel gave us good food, and he gave us the power to create on our own.  Thanks, Jean Michel!

 Jess and Sally, in the weekly market in Ocotlan, eating empanadas con amarilla y pollo.Rico! 













In the Parque San Felipe del Agua.  It's the mountains above Oaxaca, with trails meandering in multiple directions.  A bread crumb trail might help get you back out, if you don't know north from south!  Stuart and Sally, pausing by the small stream, just before we found the Snuffy Smith part of the trail. 

A hike through the fields of lettuce, cilantro, radishes, state-fair-sized cabbages and flowers, between Zegache and Ocotlan.













Sally and Jess at the San Pablo textile museum.  More about that in another post..












New Year's Eve on top of the ruins at Yagul, one of my favorite places in the Central Valley.  Sally, Stuart and Jess, high above the fields, watching the caracara's flying below us.

New Year's Day.  Dozens of city buses were lined up by the church at Llano Park, decorated with flowers and bows, for the blessing from the church.  A prosperos New Year!  This is Horatio's bus...

 ...and this is Horatio.  Like many young men from Oaxaca, he lived a short time in the US, made some money, and happily came home.  I'll look for bus 336 from now on!

 Adults with giant sparklers on New Year's Eve!  What a great party!  Thanks, Ellie and Carol!

New Year's Day found us at the beautiful home and gardens of Jan and Pierre, in Xoximilcho, where we ate very well, and enjoyed mimosas with friends.  Here, friends who were helping cook and serve show off the beautiful brunch. A perfect way to begin the year!


My New Year's Resolution?  To spend a little more time on this blog.  I'll start with the next post.  Happy New Year!