Another Year Over and a New One Just Begun

 

San Miguel Christmas 2012

Courtesy of Todd McIntosh Photography

 

I have taken a page from the blogs of Marc, at An Alaskan in Yucatán and Steve, at mexpatriate — in the key of steve and have decided to take a look back over my experiences of the past year. Having moved from Patzcuaro to San Miguel de Allende not long before Christmas last year, 2012 was year of changes and discovery for Todd and I.

After several years in Patzcuaro, we had developed a comfortable lifestyle with lasting friendships and memories. I had become quite involved with the kitchen at “El Sagrario”, which feeds the poor and elderly. Todd and I had also become involved with a large group of girls from the Esperanza Orphanage in Mexico City. We had developed ties.

When we first moved into our house in Manjerrez de Mexiquito we had two households worth of furniture. The rental property, which is considerably smaller than our previous one, was furnished and we already had furnishings for a full house. Although we had a storage locker, the furniture in the house sat stacked half way to the 30 foot ceiling for almost 3 months, until we were able to negotiate the removal of the landlord’s furnishings.

Somewhere along the way we discovered that among the pile of furnishings lived a little gray kitten. His coat has now turned jet black with a little nutrition. For him, it was an ideal cave out of the cold, with 3 square meals a day pilfered from the ever-full dry food dispenser. In the post Finding The Feline I described how this little fellow became a member of our family, which already included 2 cats. After a great deal of scrapping and jockeying for position they have now settled into a (reasonably) happy family unit.

 

Kashmere (with a K)

 

We now have just a tiny walled back yard, and with the weather being so much warmer here than in Patzcuaro , I thought that what little gardening I was likely to do would be a snap. Think again! The post Gardening 101 San Miguel de Allende tells of how shortly after moving somewhere in the vicinity of 50 potted plants and trees, in many trips in a tiny trailer, from Patzcuaro to San Miguel, we had a cold snap in November of 2011 and most of them died.

 

The Resurrection

 

A Day In The Life describes, what I can now look back on, as a hilarious episode in which I was moving cartons of soup from the kitchen to the freezer, that could only have been improved upon by the presence of Lucy and Ethel. However, Another Day In The Life… shows just how much things can change from one day to the next.

 

Wildflowers In Bloom

 

  Finally, I think San Miguel de Allende sums up how the year has brought new opportunities and surprises. We are enjoying life here and are looking forward to whatever 2013 has to offer.

 

Bar at Hank’s Louisiana Cafe

 

Good Morning San Miguel!

 

Happy New Year!