from my lips to his ear

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to Fernando that the shrubs/trees in the lot across the street had gotten so big over the past two or three years that they obscured our view.  These "trees" start out as spiky shrubs that grow into spiky trees and are almost indestructible.  This is what the walled lot across the street looked like.

This is from the 3rd fl.; view not so affected

Our plans for tomorrow were to head off to Tecoman to our favorite big hardware emporium to buy two faucets to go with the new sinks.  Eve showed up right on time but we thought it would be OK to go anyway.  The next thing was a phone call from Fernando asking how many of the trees I wanted taken out.  What?  Yes, he had arranged with Javier (who lives next door and runs a saw mill in town) and a couple of his workers to clear cut the lot.  Now this complicated things.  One has to respect the sensibilities of various workers.  Enough said.  So we changed our plans and decided we'd go in the afternoon, although the store closes at 3 PM on Saturday.  Well, needless to say we didn't go anywhere.  The cutting took about 4 hours, using machetes and a chain saw.  But what a difference (even though it's the ugliest wall in town).

There's more clean-up to be done but it seems so much lighter and airier in the living room.  The piles of greenery you see inside the lot will be hauled out and, of course, burned on the street after it dries out.  As long as I'm not doing laundry on that day . . . All of this work cost about $75 and worth every penny.

One of the setbacks to this operation was that the electric lines ran right through one of the trees.  Fernando was very careful about cutting out the branches surrounding the line but we think it was being held up by the branches alone!  Sure enough, we lost power to the downstairs.  But a couple of hours later one of the electric company workers was fussing around the lines up on a cherry-picker and restored power.

Meanwhile, Eve was finishing up the downstairs bath (it looks fabulous!) and moved on upstairs to start the demo on the second one.   Since we need more tiles and the faucets, he won't be back until Thursday.  We're going up to Colima on Wednesday to visit a terrific tile place that sells the handmade artisanial tiles we love. 

One new addition to the furniture mix:  new table for the upstairs.  I had a ratty old square equipal table that was an embarrassment .  I got a local carpenter to remove the top, save the woven base and add a round top to seat six.  Perfect for dominoes!

I listened to "The Merry Widow" yesterday.   Enjoyed it greatly.  Made me want to get up and waltz!  Next Saturday, "La Boheme" to jerk your tears.

A beautiful and colorful winter sunset.