HISTORIC TRIUMFO, BARRILES ART

Leaving El Moro Hotel, we drove a boulevard adjacent to the bay.  There is a Spanish name for this promenade of art work and I’ve forgotten it.

A quiet resort can just pop up overnight in this vacation paradise.

 

The statuary every block is what you might expect close to the water.

A seabird, dolphins, and so on.

Michal spotted stanchions.  “Oh, this place will be a mad house tomorrow. They are having some big art event.” I laughed because I am an art lover and Michal is not and will avoid such events.

La Paz has a Baleen Museum. A full whale skeleton sits outside the building.

La Paz has some beautiful old buildings. Michal wanted to find a Pier I store to look at furnishings for her new condo. But, those who gave directions were not clear enough for us to follow.

This church looked open but we didn’t tarry. She isn’t close to furnishing her place anyway,  so we moved onward toward Triumfo

Even Michal was shocked to see tourism has come to Triumfo. This beautiful brand new bar with a gorgeous courtyard, newly opened, beckoned. It was too early to drink. But we looked around.

There wasn’t a customer in sight.

The courtyard has a statue of a man and his donkey pulling an arastas that ground the copper ore out of the rock.

The remains of a copper smelting tower is visible through the bushes. It has been closed for many years.

Next to the bar, we saw a For Sale sign with an open house, “Private Residence.” The courtyard was beautiful with many flowers and rock terraces.

The house still had some of the original furniture, or the type of furniture used in its hey day. The owner was a wonderful man who lives in La Paz and is the great, great, grandson of the mine owner. It is his house that is now for sale.

It is a sweet little house.

It has layers of history and kept up with the times.

Within the last five years, a modern bathroom replaced  the old outdoor privy.

Small but comfortable.

The owner framed an authentic poster of revolutionary Pancho Villa recruiting gringos.

As we left the building to see his “guest house” and the well he told us still brings fresh water to the house, Michal pointed out the No Photographs sign. I didn’t see it. He just laughed and said, ” It’s okay. I know you have no ulterior motive.”

All around the well are rusted tools and artifacts  from the mines. We looked deep into the well. It showed water about 15 feet down. He said the water is about six meters deep. A metal  bucket is still attached to the winch, but he has installed a pump and the old oaken bucket is long gone. What an interesting neat place.

He shared with us a copy of an early Harper’s Magazine that mentions the mine and his great, great, grandfather. If your interested, this unique place is for sale.

His guest house was just as interesting as the house.

Some of the original adobe that covered the bricks to reveal what it was like before he restored the building now decorate the wall. He and his wife are Italian.

Some of the roads in town are paved, or cobbled.

The original entrance to town shows a packed sand road with a line of old palm trees.

A sand road in front of a modern little school building.

The older houses are small. Palm roofs do not leak but it takes an old time expert to do them correctly. The hot sun prevents them from decay and they last for many years.

We have no idea what the mural is conveying, but it is quite interesting. A cow, an ore car, a pick and shovel an Indian and this interesting face of a leader, perhaps. No town brochure tells the story.

Some streets are unoccupied and only rubble remains of the hand-made brick buildings.

Everywhere we drove could be heard the chirping of wild birds among beautiful flowers. Triumfo once housed 3000 people.

We continued our drive through the mountains South toward Barriles and suddenly my program refuses to load pictures. I’ll have to get help and finish this post later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RENEWABLE ENERGY INSTEAD OF DRILLING

Great Britain and Denmark have made great strides in renewable energies. Both hope to get 50% of their energy from wind and solar by 2020. Denmark is close at 46.7%.  All over the world, the use of oil and coal is retreating and the hole in the ozone layer is getting smaller. Proof that we can affect climate with cooperation.

Climate change deniers in Florida, anyway, have to consider that iguanas are falling out of trees because they’ve become so cold in Florida’s 40 degree weather.

In Canada, imposing a 5 cent tariff on lattes and offering people the option of reusing their cup is helping reduce the problem.

The White House and many of our fearless leaders deny climate change, so we are on the road to offshore drilling for oil in the pristine Arctic. What is really so annoying about that type of drilling is there are thousands of land leases that go unused, but, shucks, why not drill in the Arctic instead.

I would have to posit, why not ban drilling until wind and solar have been fully developed and given a chance to live up to a better, greener, healthy world here. That is the American way.

Banning single use plastic is one of the single most effective ways of changing our world for the better. It will have to happen at some point and it looks like California is poised to do just that. We can hope.

 

 

DAVID AND GOLIATH

I’ve been accused of being a natural sh** stirrer. But I really think Democracy is still supposed to be “…for the people, by the people…”

Maybe that is quaint. But, geez, all I hear about is fake news vs real news.  Them against Us.  Why can’t we make government work for everyone?

Jim used to say, “I listen to no news. It’s all bad and I can’t do anything about it anyway.”

Segue to North Dakota, a state of ordinary people. A lot of down home farmers, raising their kids. Providing us with healthy food.

The issue was a 1932 law passed by the people banning non-family, corporate farm ownership. They wanted healthy, rural communities with sustainable agriculture practices.  Some clever Big Ag lobbyists and state legislators with the help of a corporate funded Governor decided to overturn that ban.

But the North Dakota Farmers Union recruited some progressive forces, and grass roots volunteers and got a referendum on the ballot last June giving the voters the final say.

The vote was loud and clear. 76% of North Dakotans rejected the corporate powers and restored the outright ban on corporate controlled farming.

Yahoo! David wins again!

Thank you Jim Hightower for bring that to my attention.

END OF A VERY STRANGE YEAR.

Hello friends. And, Happy New Year, 2018.

My resolution is to make 2018  a healthy and productive year. I’ve been missing from these pages and I miss blogging. In the past, it has been my habit to photograph Christmas cards and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. It is a bit late, and this Santa looks a mite sad about it, but the sparkle is still in the night air until the sun hits the street tomorrow and we begin our everyday life anew.

So, I’ll post a few cards and at the end, I hope I can remember how to make an album for you to view some beautiful  Christmas Cards. More people are sending letters or e-cards and I do too. But the days of the real thing are not over yet.

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This one reminds me of the German Christmas Street Fair I went to a long time ago. I’ve forgotten what town.

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This bear was not ready to wake up just because it was Christmas. The imaginative artists who draw Christmas Cards have my un-dieing admiration.

Then I made the cards into a Christmas tree.

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Then I get to toss them and do another next year. I misplaced the key to my Christmas Storage shed and had no tree, nor lights to make Christmas bright this year.

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I could have cut the lock but I was extremely busy and didn’t. The first time ever I have not decorated a tree or put lights up. But, my friend Karen gave me a table decoration and it, along with some Christmas music, made the season cheerful. Plus, Christmas at my son Ken’s, in Reno was a blast. I took pictures of that affair on my new android phone, but I haven’t learned how to get the photos into a blog-YET.

Now for the album:

 

I couldn’t remember how to do the album of 42 cards. I’ll call Jim tomorrow and have him “relearn” me for the next time.

Ciao

 

 

 

 

DRAGGED INTO THE 21ST CENTURY.

If it seems like we are giving thanks on this august day set aside for reflection, we are. Only the pictures are belated. Jim took the pictures so one chair is empty. We are: Doug, with his back to the camera; Cedric;  grandsons, Theo and Owen; daughter, Virginia; and myself. The rest of the family celebrated in their own homes

Virginia is very organized and reported that last year she had to toss half a moldy pumpkin pie among other assorted containers of food that somehow get hidden in the back of the frig. This year, she ordered, everyone takes home anything they brought that is left. That works for me because I love living for a week out of the frig.

Theo peeled thirteen potatoes before Virginia said, “Halt.”  All of us took mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy home.

Doug mashed that mountain of potatoes. It takes muscle to wade through them and get the butter and half & half thoroughly mixed.

Every year, as a tease to Cedric, we set up cranberry man. Doug decorated him with torn napkin snow this year.

Both of Virginia’s salads have pomegranate berries in them.

While the rest of us played Quidler, Cedric spent the entire time at the stove. Watching the turkey. Stirring up gravy with roasted vegetables. Heating up Mary’s gumbo and Doug’s Lasagna.  Virginia put a skillet of  Johnny Cake in the oven, and made pear tart ahead of time. Doug always makes huge batches of cookies from his own original recipes.

Everyone had a hand in the works.

We skyped with Daughter Kristanne, with son Austin and his brother Alec who drove up for the day. And, I HAD a picture of them. Ken called and talked to everyone.

In fact, Jim took 128 pictures on my new camera, plus this video of Theo on stilts made by his brother Owen. (It made me a bit nervous because they are a bit heavier and don’t fit as well as commercial stilts.) He juggled while walking as well. It takes courage to be tied onto legs six feet tall.

Now, I would have liked to add more pictures. There were better ones but my choices were slim. The reason is my brand new camera does not sync well, sometimes, not at all, with my system 7 computer. Hmm! It took two phone calls to Consumer Cellular on the 24th. And, six hours between Jim and Me trying to figure it out from the book we downloaded. I went to bed exhausted. More of the same yesterday. And finally, this morning, an hour phone call with a cellular genius, who got me partially into the 21st century of phones. But, it was frustrating to be dragged into it and not be able to post nor edit anything. Nor even choose from a fat 128 picture album.

The help-line genius said, “Well we say it works with system 7, and it does, sort of. But don’t try it again. You might as well get a new computer that has system 10 on it.”

He was terrific and now, just before Christmas sales, I have an excuse to buy a new computer.

It would have been wonderful to have my first experience with pictures on my new phone be a pleasant one. The learning curve is challenging.

Everyone is smiling. But, they are already using those new-fangled devices with smarter phones than mine.  But, my trusty Sony Camera will accompany me where ever I go for just a bit longer. The 21st Century is still young.

 

 

CATCH-UP BLOG.

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Life has taken some dizzying, and significant changes in my life. I tend to juggle too many projects and responsibilities which keeps me busier than I like. (Self imposed, doncha know.) I’ve been diagnosed with a serious disease and now have to attend more and more doctor’s appointment.

I’m still collecting quotes for those future blogs and enjoy them. They are stacking up, along with unmade quilts and art projects.

I’m a noted Treehugger and this morning, I couldn’t resist re-posting this message that I wish to share with anyone who will pay attention:

It has been one month since Kenya enacted the world’s strictest ban on plastic bags. It took ten years and three attempts to pass the legislation, but as of August 28, people could be punished for carrying, manufacturing and importing plastic bags. Fines range from $19,000 to $38,000, with possible four-year jail terms. All travelers are required to leave their plastic bags at the airport and residents are encouraged to drop off old bags at local grocery stores for collection.

The ban is highly ambitious for a country that used to hand out 100 million plastic bags a year. But as pollution piled up, officials realized something more drastic needed to be done. Plastic bags litter every Kenyan roadway, clog sewers and streams, and damage soil and water sources. Even animals eat them.

“In Nairobi’s slaughterhouses, some cows destined for human consumption had 20 bags removed from their stomachs. ‘This is something we didn’t get 10 years ago but now it’s almost on a daily basis,’ said county vet Mbuthi Kinyanjui as he watched men in bloodied white uniforms scoop sodden plastic bags from the stomachs of cow carcasses.”

There are many reasons to ban plastic bags even though some people hate it. The inability of plastic bags to decompose, affecting soil quality. In some areas, plastic bags block sewers and prevent proper water drainage. They bugger sewage plants.
They damage ecosystems. Many animals and especially sea turtles and other underwater creatures eat them thinking they are jelly fish and die from it.
Plastic bags endanger human health when used for packaging food in particular hot food, baby pouches and cooking pouches.
They release poisonous gas when burned affecting the open air if burned in large numbers as some cities do to get rid of the shear volume of the plastic packaging and disposable bags. Well, I’m done with my rant. Please help enact a stricter ban on plastics. In California, every city and store can choose whether to do it or not. It is voluntary.  Our local SaveMart has given up plastic,  but I still see people buying groceries with shopping carts heaped full with a few items in each bag coming out of Walmart, Kohls,Big Lots, Big 5, Ace Hardware, and just about every other store in the county. Have a heart. Do your part.