It has been an extraordinary experience for all it taught me about myself and for all the work I've done. I've spent a great deal of time sitting in the den of this amazing house, writing, facing two large windows that look out on an open field where a couple of horses graze every morning (one brown, one white) and the sun streams in bright and warm. Sometimes I see a human walking down the hill towards the street where I live. Sometimes dogs run and bark.
In the afternoons I've sat in the deck outside and read and dozed off. Once in a while I've spent some time on the rooftop deck as well reading and sipping coffee or a glass of wine. The sweeping views of the land around, the town downhill, a treeline, myriad birds: vermilion flycatchers, hummingbirds, wrens, grackles, and the blue sky have kept me company.
Saturday and Sunday Claire and I spent a few hours in the town. We went to the gallery opening of our friend Marty, met two women for coffee and a very long conversation at Cafe Monet, a short stroll in El Jardin where hundreds of people gathered. Yesterday Lin - the landlady - took us to Atotonilco: a huge gallery in the middle of the countryside where a couple sells art. A lot of art. More art than you can imagine. Beautiful, colorful, fantastic pieces, large and small. Photos below.
In the afternoon I took Claire to Parque Juarez where we ambled through the trees and cacti and then sat down to rest. After a few minutes a group of older Mexican women joined us. They had come from the small towns or ranchos nearby for the day. We enjoyed their presence and speculated about their lives - so different from ours. Parque Juarez is an oasis in the middle of the traffic, especially on Sundays.
