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The weather has been cold here especially at night. Saturday night it was 1C here at the house. The days are sunny and warm, warm enough to move around without a jacket.
We spent Christmas Eve with friends, having a fantastic dinner of baked ham, baked sweet potatoes, green beans with bacon, mushrooms and small potatoes and a wonderful black cherry dessert from Julia Childs. The conversation was the best, meeting a new to us friend. We were in bed early and up early on Christmas Day.
Good friends are hard to come by. Barbara found us and took us in. She's something special.
Somebody has to carve the ham. I have no idea what I am doing, but the ham was delicious!
Manón, a new friend, helped me pop the top on the champagne.
There is never enough to talk about especially when it is happy hour.
First order of business was to go for a hike around the lake at the botanical gardens. The water levels are the lowest we have ever seen. Water has become a big issue here. Many would like to put the blame on the housing boom although most of the housing is being purchased by Mexicans from Queretaro and Mexico City who only come occasionally or on weekends. The big issue now is corporate agriculture. They are literally pumping the life of the aquifers and some wells are now as deep as 500 meters. There are two sides to every debate. On one side, Mexico needs food, the exportation of agricultural products, supplying jobs to local farm workers and on the other hand, we need to think about the local population and housing is a good thing also supplying jobs and the sell of construction materials, furnishings and the like. We're not attempting to look for a viable solution for both sides. Sides are now pitted against one another pointing the blame on the other.
The egret wouldn't raise its head. We waited patiently and quietly to no avail.
Sad to say, three of my brothers are avid birders. I have all the books but either I don't have the true desire or I'm lazy.
Such beauty and it's right there on the edge of town. 10 minutes from the main plaza yet hardly anyone goes there. So disconnected from nature.
There are plenty of birds to watch and identify. We also came across a huge flock of sheep grazing and being moved by two shepherds. We didn't actually enter the botanical gardens because we haven't paid our yearly membership plus the fact that there is some construction going on and we didn't want to see the mess. The hike is worthwhile and the views are incredible. So much to see and the air yesterday was clear with cottony clouds and blue skies. What is even more impressive the fact that there is little to no trash along the trails. One thing we have noticed during our stay here is that you can see down into the city drains and they are free of debris. In other cities in Mexico, the problem with flooding during heavy rains is trash accumulating in the sewer drains and clogging them up.
I saw a documentary on corporate hogging of water in Mexico. Apparently corporate farmers are ousting out small community farms. I read about the Mormons who were assassinated in northern Mexico over the Mormons pumping water and drying up the aquifers.
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