Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it. ~Author Unknown

Gardening doesn’t come easy for me in Santa Rosalia. I wallowed with indecision throughout our first year’s planting season, and thus missed the opportunity to plant the millions of flower and vegetable seeds I brought with me as I didn’t realize that November and December, the coldest months, are the time to start planting. And I could never settle on where to plant anything at Casa Boleo. So much of the usable beds are in the shade of mango and citrus trees. But in that I could never get organized with the watering of things, I fear my planting efforts would have been an abject failure.


First of all we only have water for a certain part of the day, but I have not been able to figure out when that is even after 8 months of living here. Secondly, the guesthouse has four rotating shift guards; our guards do all the watering, but selectively, which seems to mean the big trees and flower beds get lots of water, but my potted plants don’t get much attention. Even though I water them by hand I can never get to a functioning hose to spray the foliage off. When I go away I know they are somewhat neglected. This includes the two English roses I brought here which were doing great until we left for a month, but looked rather sorry when I returned. They became infested with everything known to man, and pesticides are not available here. The one miniature rose I purchased here must be better aligned to the climate as it only got aphids which I could handle using soapy water in a spray bottle. I’m sure when I get back this time after a month’s absence they will all be dead.

Then I tried to put in a small lawn with some Seashore Paspalum grass seed I purchased on-line ($50 for a pound-ouch!) suitable for our hot salt water climate. The gardener cleared the area I wanted planted and scattered the seed (quite unevenly). The grass was beautiful where it was in patches. Unfortunately a great number of nasty weeds and alfalfa that had laid in wait probably for years for water came up mixed in with the grass and overwhelmed it. It was such a mess the gardener finally cleared the whole lot out again. I am going to put crushed shell there now.

Then we finally found an olive tree to plant at Casa Abeja as Esperando has hopes of pickling olives, or whatever it is that you do to them. The Lads planted it and when I went back to look at it a week later it was almost dead because no one watered it. I don’t know if it will recover. My brother Juan-in-a-Million kindly took me around his yard in the Bay Area so we could dig up some baby olive trees to take back with us. I have just sent for some Jacaranda Tree seeds in hopes of planting one; we have never seen them in Santa Rosalia, but have seen a few in Mulegé which is more humid. I’ll see if they can grow there, I have some concerns about the wind in winter. We do have flame trees in Santa Rosalia and I would hope the climate requirements would be similar.

Right now at the guesthouse, we have an abundance of hibiscus—orange, red, white double and single blossoms (which attract the hummingbirds and orioles); the bougainvilla are starting in; Tree of India (ficus—here it is a grand stately tree reaching 40 feet); fruit-bearing fig trees; mangoes that are now about the size of a golf ball; Easter lilies (although ours have no fragrance); and the Noche Buena (poinsettia) which I had planted in the side yard after Christmas.

One day driving through the desert to the beach, it occurred to me that I would like to plant some of attractive desert plants of which there is a multiplicity. Although most of them have thorns, not all of them do and it would go a long way to solving the watering issues. Now and then, I would ask Esperando to stop so I could pick berries and seed pods off of appealing plants. When we got back to the house and I had to opportunity to consult our Baja California Plant Field Guide, I discovered that the bush with the pretty purple flowers and yellow berries was Deadly Nightshade, and the other with a deeper purple flower, simply known as Pega Pega (Glue Glue), had leaves that stuck to one’s clothing. And that has somewhat quelled my initial enthusiasm for natural planting. Nothing gentle grows on its own in this harsh environment. It seems that the thornless ones are just as contrary as the thorny ones.

My Friend’s Wedding

One of the reasons an expatriate comes back home is to attend important events, such as weddings. Esperando and I recently flew to the San Francisco Bay Area for just such a purpose. After 23 years of living in consensual sin, the Brainy Blonde’s Significant Other decided to make an honest woman of her. They had a smashing wedding. Really. It was one of the most enjoyable weddings I’ve ever attended if not the best (well next to ours). Their wedding and reception were held at Thomas Fogarty Winery on the Peninsula up in the coastal hills on Skyline Blvd. with a beautiful view of the San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley. It was a gorgeous day, with a little breeze but perfectly lovely weather for a wedding.

The wedding proper was on an upper level garden terrace with the guests facing the bay view in front of an arbor decorated with spring flowers. A three-piece ensemble played flute, guitar and cello while the guests gathered. At the appropriate time we all took our seats. Her attendants were her grandchildren, a darling redhead girl and her baby brother serving as flower girl and ring bearer respectively. A college friend of many years served as a Matron of Honor and helped her plan the event; she was attired in a beautiful two-piece white satin floor length skirt with matching over jacket and pearls. The Blonde appeared wearing a strapless white satin gown seeded with scattered pearls and rhinestones which featured a high-low hemline that was tea length in front and floor length in back. She was well poised and she looked totally stunning. For the reception the ‘almost train’ buttoned up to the back of the gown to make it one length.



After the wedding while photos were being taken, the guests walked down a level to a large wooden deck that had the same fabulous view, but overlooking one of the vineyards as well. Thomas Fogarty’s fabulous wines were featured; complex and well structured, not a one could disappoint. There were several options of red–Cabernet, Merlot and Barbiolo; and the whites were Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer. The catering was provided by Componere from Emeryville who I would highly recommend. Fabulous hors d'oeuvres were passed around by the very professional catering staff: a rosemary salted grilled shrimp with mango salsa; teeny pulled pork sandwiches; and a fabulous mushroom tart. If this was any inkling of the meal to come we would be in ecstasy.

A plus for Esperando and I was getting to chat with some old mutual friends, for me a girl and her husband that I knew when I was first out of college and going to parties in San Francisco. Finally the bride and groom appeared from their photo shoot and we had a nice cocktail hour on the deck. Then it was time to go into the dining room, a beautifully appointed wood paneled area with windows overlooking that breathtaking view. We were served the most delicious meal, a choice of salmon or beef that melted in your mouth, and that bested any restaurant at which I’ve ever eaten. With the wine and the food and the convivial atmosphere of people all special to the bride and groom, I felt like I was at Babette’s Feast.

When they had finished dining The Blonde and her new husband moved from table to table to mingle and talk to their guests, moving on to cut the cake, and thankfully not smearing it on each other’s faces, but sharing bites of it with their handsome grandchildren (who did seem to get some frosting on their faces). I can’t remember being so happy in a long time. It did my heart good to see the radiance on my friend’s face. Being expatriates themselves, they are off soon to respective assignments in Abu Dhabi and Montreal.

My Friend Flicka, Not!

Living the expatriate life brings an intrinsic set of rewards for those who want the adventure: learning a new culture and language, seeing new places, eating new cuisine and making new friends. One disadvantage can be maintaining two residences. When you go away to live on a job and leave your house behind, Things can happen that you can't even begin to imagine while you are gone. Three years ago when we were in Australia a serious freeze burst a water pipe in the kitchen. The break wasn’t discovered until several days later by a previous caretaker and the entire ground floor, which was wood, had to be replaced in absentia. Water leaked from the ground floor into the basement and destroyed many of my husband’s tools.

Last week, we drove back to Denver from Santa Rosalia to smog the truck so we could renew the registration. For that, and I am having surgery on my shoulder for a bone spur which has given me bursitis. Spring is getting on here, the nights are cool but the days are warmer, albeit windy. The birds and the bees, but especially the birds, are getting into the act. We have sparrow nests on most roof corners under the Spanish tiles. Regrettably we have a resident Northern Flicker couple who have decided that they must live in our house or die. We had them last year too, but the cat wasn’t living in Mexico then and he would get up on the roof and startle them away. Good cat. I used to really like flickers before I knew them so well. They are handsome, rather shy solitary birds. One time I even rescued a damaged one from under a car where it was spinning about. When I took it to the bird rescue place they said it had probably ingested poison, and destroyed it.

Maybe that is why the flickers are destroying our house, but I think it is because they like the deep eaves and the soft Styrofoam that forms a crown molding under them. They like to peck it out in popcorn size pieces all over the yard and make a nice 4-inch diameter hole that goes in about 5 inches deep. When they discover it is blocked by metal and they can’t get in any further they think—so okay, that hole was a failure, let’s move over a foot a try a new one—hmm, same result! And so they tried again to the tune of 31 holes. We had the animal and pest control specialist out to stop the havoc before we got home and they hung these ugly pink plastic flags all over the stucco to frighten the birds off. It was $100 for the first flagging and then another $38 to move the ladder and put flags at another site. Although a BB gun might sound like a good answer, The Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects Northern flickers. When we arrived back in Denver there was no sign of them. The flickers seemed to have given up. Esperando spent a good two days climbing up and down a 24-foot ladder and hanging out windows from the second story to fill the holes with Great Stuff, an insulating foam sealant that squirts into a hole and expands. The next day he went back to all 31 holes and lopped off the overfill with a machete. Needless to say it makes me quite uncomfortable to watch all this, thinking of falling boys that dash their brains out.

Silly saps that we are, we went away to California for a week to go to a wedding leaving our filled holes behind! But it was a different story when I got home minus Esperando who was attending meetings in Vancouver. The moment I walked in the house they started undoing all Esperando’s work. They are pecking out the Great Stuff. I spend my days racing outside at the first sound of tapping to chase them off. The dog, who drove up with us caught on right away that everytime that certain noise starts we must run up the stairs and race out the balcony door. When the noise starts up and I leap up from my chair, he starts in with that hunting bark "ow, ow, ow" and throws all the carpets askew on the wooden floors in his eagerness to get up the stairs first. When I finally catch up to him and open the balcony door, we charge out onto the deck but no matter how I try to show him its the birds that are bothering me, he just can't get it, but stays right in front of me to trip over. Too bad he's not a bird dog! The flickers squawk and fly away but I can hear them making that noise, what Wikipedia describes as, “a sustained laugh, ki ki ki ki.” I know they are laughing at me.














All this white popcorn crap is spread all over the lawn and patio, blown about hither thither by the spring winds. Here you see some on our doormat.