From Xico

Green Veracruz

I've not been posting for awhile...too much indexing, but by Monday PM I will be DONE for awhile! I turned down a job so I don't have anything for awhile.

In the meantime, Eric Zentmayer, my sometime partner in crime, and I will be getting back to trying to get a project off the ground that will help with the local distribution of local goods. Eric's been doing footwork and has made a contact with a distributor from Mexico City so that we can start a Buyer's Club. We'll see. Eric and I have some dispute between us over sustainability (me) vs. organic (Eric) -- but we're on the same general path. Anyway, mixed in with the photos, I'll be keeping you up-to-date on this.

In the meantime, here is a link to an ad you may all be interested in in that regard.

regard

Alll you purists out there, are you keeping track of the impact your organic has outside of the fields its growing in?

Interesting stuff.

As I Keep Saying, You Don't Know What You Are Missing

Here is a link to a rather good article about Xalapa with a touch of Coátepec thrown in. This is where we live, folks. This wonderful area, though we are in the country. You'll notice in the article that it says we get a third less rain than we used to. I'm not sure this is exactly right, but if it is, I'm kind of glad we get less because we still get plenty.

Here's the link to the NY Times Travel Magazine article.

Our foster dog is getting better. Our friend Susan has declared him a Saluki and has put us in touch with a Saluki rescue agency in the States.

More soon. Back to the indexing work!

Giacometti Notourdog, our foster dog

Due to the fact that I've had a lot of indexing to do and feel guilty writing a blog post when I should be working (though work hasn't stopped me from a lot of other stuff) I haven't posted for awhile. But you should check out Jim's blog at this link. It is really an interesting post.
Also we have a foster dog now. According to my neighbors, some boys in the Colonia stole it and then tired of caring for it and kicked it out. It had been wandering around for awhile getting sadder and sadder and finally turned up on our end of our street where my neighbors Tere and Doña Victoria and I commiserated over its terribly sad condition. And since no one else was going to do anything, we started to feed it. And then I got advice and worm medicine for it from the vet and now it is putting on some weight. Jim named it Giacometti and in fact it looks JUST like Giacometti's sculpture of a dog:

This is the sculpture not the dog.

Jim has posted a portrait of the dog Giacometti as opposed to Giacometti's dog here on flickr:

Giacometti has been putting on some weight and is perkier. He has a nice disposition. BUT his second name is Notourdog. He is an Afghan hound and looks like he's the real thing, a raza, not a mezcla as they say here. So we may either be able to find his original owner or a good new home for him. Our other neighbors are not to thrilled with him hanging out here as he kind of detracts from the respectability of the neighborhood. So now we are letting him in our yard. Since the vet said he shouldn't be bathed or have flea medicine for at least two weeks -- his skin was in really sad shape -- he is NOT allowed in the house. But there have been some incidents in which he's been kicked and so on so he gets to come in the yard for safety. He likes hanging out with the neighbors' dogs on the street, though, so that's what he does during the day.

If you are thinking of retiring to Veracruz, Mexico redux

I thought maybe I'd better clarify my blog. I haven't met a whole lot of Ugly Americans in the true sense. I am no one to be judging people except for the big unpleasant exceptions. And THEY are the ones who shouldn't be here. They tend to play to MY prejudices: to be vitriolic and loud in expressing their sentiments. To be so hostile to stuff around here and so sure they're right that there is no room for moderation. So I do apologize if anyone thought I was making some kind of mean-spirited blanket judgment. I was in a bad mood when I wrote that, but I guess I'm glad I did because I sure got some interesting comments both on the blog and off.

Esther