Music, Music, Music

 

At a musica event in a lovely home

   Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures; taken in the dark and indoors

 with the IPhone camera.

                  
                                         Lynda and Ron-The party was at Lynda's house in
                                         an area of hills and dirt roads.  Hard to find.

The dog had to get into the dancing

Steve Sak and his trio. A lot of good music.

He lives in Alamos.

Martin, our ever popular guitar player. He sings also.

Another charity event at Hacienda de los Santos. Pam McNair had her friend fly in from New York to entertain after dinner. It is Ann Hampton Calloway, Emmy nominee. A great singer who writes for Streisand.   She was just Fantastico! Bought her CD.  Also, as we left our house, a bull appeared on the road in front.  Wish we had our camera ready for that.

 

Tough shot in the dark. Not my head, too much hair.

 

 

Some random pictures in Alamos

 

 

Beautiful horse tied up at our favorite place,

Cafe Terecita. Great almond croissants

 

Barbara coming from Yoga at the El Pedregal.

 

 

Ed's friend the cop. Lots of cops in this town

and pretty friendly. When I asked to take his picture

he wet his finger and ran it over his eyebrow, then posed.

 

 

 

Ed's Very BEST friend.

 He rides his donkey by the house every day and he and Ed exchange Hi Fives.

Supposedly, at the music festival he passes out tequila; we will see.

 

 

Below is our favorite bread bakery in this little house.

 They make bread in a pizza style oven.

Baker and his grandson

 

 

There was another TGIF party which was really swinging.  It was at Sherry Hale's house, which we mentioned was built in 1690.  Really charming!  Her nephew played classical piano.  He can improvise beautifully.  His playing put you in another world. 

 

Went to another house tour.  We saw homes large and small.  Our friend who had us for Christmas dinner, had her magnificent place on tour.  Plus, she baked yummy cookies.

 

We went to another friend's lovely home, Cami and Squier and some guys, Ed included, saw some football while the ladies visited.  Dolly, who will turn 80 soon was born in the Philippines and told us some very interesting history.  She has lived and worked in California for quite some time.

 

Tomorrow starts the Music Festival and we will hear music day and night.  It will be 9 super days to remember.

 

More fun things in Alamos

This is the sculpture that we got through the silent auction for the education charity.
It is made of concrete.

Below are pictures of our friends at Cami and Squier's  home on New Years Eve.
Went to Cami and Squier's lovely home for champagne, onion soup and an Italian delicacy made with cream, garlic, anchovies and something else (very rich).  It was an interesting mix of people and a lot of interesting talk.  It was a wonderful New Year's Eve party.
Then, went to a party at El Pedregal where we sat around a bonfire, talked and met new people.  In the yoga studio they had videos of U2 on the wall playing their music for dancing.  Of course, we did not dance because it was out of our league and loud.
After the parties we were concerned that the firecrackers that they shoot off was going to freak Mojo out.  Not!  He slept through it all.  Go figure.

Our Hosts- Cami & Squier Jones





Some of the guys at Cami and Squier's house

Dewey and Mary Jo Drake at Cami and Squier's house

 

Tried a lovely restaurant called Charisma with Mary Jo and Dewey.  What a beautiful interior and, of course, amazing food.  Eating there is a special treat.

Talking about food, we were invited for Christmas dinner at a beautiful hacienda on acreage, lushly landscaped and very large, lovely rooms.  Dinner was served in a very large dining room with a fireplace and a long table set magnificently.  We had for dinner-turkey, ham, sweet potato, dressing, green beans, asparagus, rice, local bread and a wonderful dessert from our favorite bakery.  It was delightful.

Christmas eve we witnessed a posada which was a beautiful candlelight walk with Mary (on a burro) and Joseph looking for a place to stay.  It was put on by Hacienda de los Santos and, of course we took pictures.

Barbara and friend Corey Waken



Great lunch during the week with the son, Corey of the people who had us for Christmas dinner.  He and Ed spent a couple of hours on their ipads because Corey just got one and needed pointers. Yummy turkey sandwiches with pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

We got to see the home that Mary Astor built.  Like most homes here, no heating just fireplaces. The people who own it are young and have raised their children there.  It happened to be next door to Carroll O'Conner's home when he lived here.

Barbara is still doing yoga twice a week for an hour and a half per class.  The teacher is speciall.
The classes are given at El Pedregal which is a charming resort where people come to bird watch and get away from stress.  In fact, the docents from Tohono Chul were here a couple of weeks ago.

Does it look like all we do is eat?  Hard not to when the food is great.  We had dinner one night at an outdoor stand that serves meat in tortillas with different toppings.  It is one of our favorite outdoor stands.  It's like an outdoor restaurant with one long table and everyone eats together..



This weekend will be a blast.  Lots of music.  Will write about it next time.



The "TGIF" Party at a lovely hacienda with local entertainment

Squier Jones on mandolin & Linda Adams singing

 

Martin on the guitar-Absolute Talent. His fingers

fly and he sings, too

Linda and husband, Bill

Sam Meraz offering up Tequilla

We went to see their hacienda

He wanted Ed to taste some of his 40

bottles of Tequila (see some on table below)

Ed could not drive home so Barbara did. First time

driving and dodging cycles, cars, ATVs

 

A small sampling of Tequila

One is actually named Don Eduardo

Local Artist Fernando Quiroz. We met at Sam's hacienda.

We purchased a piece of his days ago and

were looking for him. Lucky we found him

Barbara & Fernando in Sam's Man Cave

 

 

Things have been hectic the last few days.  We went to a TGIF party at someone's lovely home.  Everyone brought some snack to eat and booze to drink.  What an array of goodies.  It really was supper with all that was there.  Socialized and then next door to another lovely home to hear fantastic music.  Above is Linda, Squier and Martin.  Comments were made that we heard Willi Nelson and Emmy Lou Harris.  They were that good.  It was a total blast.  Martin serenaded us with Spanish songs that were so lovely, plus his guitar was amazing.  The talent here is great.

 

 

Saturday night we heard children sing Christmas carols in English for the gringos and then the gringos sang for the audience, but not in Spanish.  It was delightful.

 

Sunday we paid a visit to Carol and Sam where you see Ed was given lots of tequila.  Sam is very proud of his tequila collection and Ed complied with Sam's wishes to sample different brands.

While we were there Fernando, the artist stopped by and we couldn't believe it was the same person who did the piece of artwork we bid on at the silent auction for the education charity.  Ed promises to take a picture of the piece soon.  Fernando's wife makes beautiful dolls with very detailed dresses and sells them, so Carol bought one to add to her doll collection.

 

Last evening we learned of a Christmas parade around the town.  It was charming with children dressed in red outfits and riding in the back of trucks.  Really sweet.

 

That takes us to today.  Went to Yoga and who knows what's lurking outside as far as fun is concerned.  Tomorrow we have to stop at Terecita's cafe for some fabulous chocolate chip cookies that her staff makes.  As we said, food is great here.  Darn.

 

 





THE FINAL PERFORMANCE OF THE SEVEN DAY FESTIVAL

DECEMBER 9, 2012

THE PERFORMANCE WAS EVERY BIT EQUAL TO ANYTHING

PUT ON IN LAS VEGAS

 

 

 

 

PROBABLY OVER 500 PEOPLE IN THE SQUARE

 

 

 

 

OUR FRIEND FROM BISBEE, AZ MARK

WITH  MOJO

 

THE QUEEN OF THE FESTIVAL

 

NOT THE KING OF THE FESTIVAL

THE LOCAL SHOE SHINE GUY

SINGING AT THE ROTARY CHARITY

EVENT....NEEDS LESSONS & LESS WINE

 

14 YEAR OLD SINGING SENSATION

AT THE ROTARY CHARITY EVENT

 

FESTIVAL WAS HELD ADJACENT TO CHURCH

CHURCH AT NIGHT WITH MOON ABOVE

 

Last week's festival was every evening, but the dancer's were only on the first and last evening.

The other evenings had school children performing plus some mariache bands.  It was a pretty festive week.  There were fireworks first and last nights, also.



Sunday morning we went to Hacienda de los Santos for breakfast.  Mmmm good and what an exquisite setting.  The grounds are magnifico with lush vegetation and charm all around.

We went to a charity event put on by the Rotary.  Above is a picture of the of  the talented girl who has a voice that can knock your socks off.  Where is Mexico's Mexican Idol?  She would surely win.

Going to yoga weekly-great teacher and a nice group of American women and a sweet Spanish young woman.

The other day there was a silent auction benefitting education in Alamos with artwork by high school students done on wood blocks.  We got a great piece showing the plaza in Alamos with the old church plus a donated piece by a local artist which is stunning.  We will have to take a picture of it.

Time to close because we have to get ready to go to a friend's house for dinner.  Life is so hectic in this sleepy town of Alamos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Sunday evening, the Church Fiesta began with A FABULOUS dance company from
Ballet Folklorico from Navojoa,Sonora. This group of dancers,musicians and singers are
professionals.  A great evening! Ed took so many pictures.

 

 

Blurred  to show the motion of the dancers



Hola Amigos,

It's a sunny Sunday in the low 80's.  Been to the open air market and got a bag of yellow peppers (6) for 10 pesos (80 cents) plus a bag of roma tomatoes (8) for 10 pesos.  Food is cheap at the market.
There is a place in town that sells bread, rolls and you have to be there to get any at 1:00 or they are gone.  I have been trying to buy some and went there 3 different times and didn't know about the 1:00 time to buy them.  I just found out today from an American who lives in that area.  I will check it out tomorrow.

Ed got to see another guy roast coffee at his house in what looks like a blender, but it roasts coffee.  Of course, he got to try some with a scone.  I just had the scone.  The house is really darling and for sale.  I believe they are asking $125,000.  There are many other homes for sale in other neighborhoods, but they are asking $200,000 to $600,000.  Don't worry, we aren't buying one, but many Americans do.

There was an all American tour ride to see different places and learn the history in town the other day.  There were 16 of us and the Mexican driver spoke pretty good English.

An American woman had a sale of things at her lovely home.  She has some antiques and new stuff. 

Also, I went to a luncheon at my favorite restaurant/bakery and she had 2 ladies selling their wares.  They were Americans or Canadians.  They had neat painted hats, shoes and purses.  I didn't buy anything at either sale.  This Wed. is a sale of goods from Mexican ladies from another town and that should be more interesting.  I believe it will be items that they make.  Looking forward to it.

Well, tonight starts a week long festival of music that students will perform on the plaza.  I heard there were going to be fireworks, so I'll close for now.

Hasta luego

Friday, November 23rd

Sorry for not posting sooner, but I don't have a good excuse.  We are getting more acclimated each day and finding things more easily.  Since last writing we saw a great parade where the children from all the schools dressed up and performed dances.  It was quite a long parade and the younger children were the best.  Very enthisiastic, not like the teens, bored.  Some things never change.

We went, by ourselves, to Obregon, which is an hour and a half away.  They just opened a new Walmart (2 days open) so we were lucky.  Plus, drum roll, they have a Starbucks there and we were beyond thrilled.  So, the highlights in Obregon are Starbucks and Walmart.

The other night we went to a woman's house that was built in the 1600's.  She was having an art showing of a friend's paintings.  The house was amazing.  The large living area opened to a magnificent yard which she can enjoy part of the year.  It has no doors, so when the bugs are bad, which happens often and it's so hot in the summer, she is limited to enjoy it.

We met more people at her house and joined them for dinner at a local restaurant, which, of course was very good.

Yesterday, was yoga and more women showed up so it was a nice size class.

There really are lots of things to do here.  There is a gringo site listing upcoming events, etc. so it is good to check it everyday.  Sometimes, things conflict, so you have to choose.  The Americans are really involved here helping the community.

Weather is in the 80's during the day and now it is going into the 50's at night-nice sleeping weather.

Bye for now.