what's new at the beach?

Last Friday as I was strolling home along our cobbled street I spotted a truck in front of our house. At first I thought it was Juan and Jose bringing bags of dirt for the garden. But when I got closer I saw that it was Gustavo and his son unloading my new escritorio. I had designed a desk to fit right into the nook between the living room and the kitchen, gave Gustavo the drawing, and three weeks later got the finished product. Three nice roomy drawers, a place for the printer that's out of the way, plus a shelf in the back. Ever so much better than the rickety plastic table with the grooved top, don't you think?

Gustavo is a retired engineer who likes to build things ~ he's also a whiz at plumbing and wiring and will be here this week to put in some new electrical outlets ~ who moved down here about three years ago. He's a very popular gentleman and his work shows up in lots of houses here.

Monday and it's tiangues so off I went at 9 AM with Marie and Carol to see what's for dinner this coming week. Nothing unusual in my usual first stop for veggies. A nice piece of broccoli, a few redondos, but no chard and no good beets. Too wilted. Then down to the chicken man for a few legs and thighs. Across the road to the grape tomato lady for two little bags to slow roast for a kind of tomato marmalade to serve with a dab of goat cheese on a cracker. But look what I found at the fruit vendor's stall!

These watermelons are about the size of a bocce ball and have bright pink flesh and tiny seeds. The little greet fruits next to the melons are the first mangoes of the season. Hard as rocks. Probably sour as all get out. Too early to buy. But a harbinger of good things to come.

I know I have nothing to complain about down here in the tropics, but we've had quite a spell of cold nights. Three blankets worth of cold. Unseasonably cold. In fact, Jack remarked that "this is the coldest it has ever been in all my years here." But he says that about a lot of things.