Well, let’s see.

I’ve been busy lately – nothing too crazy to report, but having a good time.  A couple of weeks ago I took a breadmaking class that came at the perfect time for me.  I had been baking bread on and off mostly using the no-knead recipe provided by Pátzcuaro resident Tancho at Rancho Canyon Cookbook.  My results were usually edible but I didn’t feel I had the kind of control I wanted, so I knew I wanted to learn more about the topic.  I’d had a couple of conversations, too, about the difficulties people had with the low gluten flour that is the only kind available here in Mazatlán.

Cranberry-Raisin-Cinnamon

Low gluten flour is a challenge for bread bakers because the gluten is what gives bread the elasticity it needs to be able to rise properly.  Before I had gone to San Francisco in April I had mail ordered sourdough starter, wanting to see what I could do with sourdough, too.  I also bought some semolina and  wheat gluten flour to bring home, the semolina as an additive to my pizza dough and the wheat gluten flour to be used in some vegetarian sausages I intend to make. (Yes, I also mail-ordered vegetarian sausage casings, and bought a quantity of fennel seeds, too)

The bread making class was great – it was taught by Hector of Molika.  We made starter using red grapes.  We made many loaves of bread, regular white bread, multi-grain, rolls, and sourdough.  We learned how it should look and feel at various stages, and basically learned to relax and enjoy the process.  We learned to become good breadmakers we need to practice, and pay attention, and probably make a lot of mediocre bread before we can reliably make great bread.

Whole Wheat

I’ve been pretty successful… my best was a lovely whole wheat, but the cranberry-raisin-cinnamon was delicious and made wonderful French toast last weekend.  I have been keeping my starter alive just fine, and am having a lot of fun baking – and then eating my beautiful bread.

I brought back some yarn from my trip to the US in April, and I didn’t waste any time getting busy with it.  The first thing I started was a jacket-vest for our granddaughter, Consuelo.  It is so fun to make things for a little one – the projects go quickly because they are small!  The front and then back are below:

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Then I decided to start a new shawl.  I could hardly resist, once I saw this pattern on Knitty.  It’s a pattern that has a lot going on but once you’ve gone through it a few times it is pretty easy.  I am loving it so far.

The yarn is a beautiful silk-bamboo-linen blend

Maybe I am saving the best news for last!  I got a bike!  Isn’t it great?  I just love it.  Disk brakes, shocks on the front, 27 speeds!  Why didn’t I get a bike when we first moved here?  It is a blast to explore the city on a sleepy Sunday morning and the rest of the week get some endorphins going zooming up and down the malecón every day.  I am having an absolute blast.  I have always enjoyed walking on the malecón, the 7 mile long path that follows the shore from Olas Altas to the Golden Zone, but the fun of riding up and down is even better!

I’ll have fun outfitting it, too.  I think I need a basket on the front and a water bottle thing.  Gotta run now, just looking at that picture makes me want to go for a ride.  See ya!

There is even more fresh paint in Mazatlán’s Centro Historico than I reported back in March here.  Some of the painting is just the usual homeowners painting their houses before the rainy season comes, and some is a joint project between the Coppel Foundation and the City of Mazatlán.  I thought I’d show you a few from a very small patch of Centro.

This one had needed a lot of concrete repair, but it looks great now.

This one is unoccupied but doesn’t look too bad inside

The car wash guy is waiting for customers in front of a newly painted beauty.

This one is unoccupied as well… it has been cleaned up inside, though.  The peach colored house to the left
is being remodeled inside and also has new exterior paint.

Now I probably wouldn’t have dreamed up that color combination… I guess they are getting their
signage redone, also.  This is an air conditioning shop.

This used to be a gym… see the signage?  I’m glad they kept the signs, they are pretty funny.  To the
left see the little “puesto?”  The lady there serves comida economica every day to a large part of
our neighborhood.  When I took the picture it was too early for food.

The school even got a new paint job.  Unfortunately just last night the brick wall
a little farther down got tagged with graffiti.

I love this one on Angel Flores.  And see the new construction their neighbor is building
behind their facade?  Looks good!

Do you remember back in 2008 when Paul and I took care of 50 baby parrots for a couple of weeks?  I wrote about the experience here and here and here. When they left our care I wrote about them here.

When they were about a year old Conrehabit released them to the wild, but a few were evaluated as either being too tame or physically unable to live in the wild.  That’s how we ended up with Pancho and Lefty.  Pancho always seemed just fine to us, but Lefty has a twisted right foot so he obviously needs to live in captivity.  We have enjoyed having them, and most of the time their shared cage has been out on our back patio, where we spend a substantial amount of time.

In November of 2009 I was visiting in Mexico City and Paul had stayed home.  He was cleaning the cage one day and both birds  escaped!  Lefty couldn’t fly well and was recaptured from a bush in our yard but Pancho was long gone.  He went fast and furious and never looked back.  We were upset, but figured that he knew best if he was ready to live in the wild.

A couple days later our friends and bloggers Sandie and Mike saw him and wrote a blog post about it! They lived just two blocks from us and we assumed he would eventually join up with a flock that occupies some big trees a few more blocks over.

Fast forward to mid April 2010  – one morning I heard Lefty chirping regularly, and it was like he was talking or calling to another bird.  I looked and looked and saw nothing.  Then in the middle of the day I was out near his cage and realized that there was a bird talking back to him!  Again I searched and searched and finally found Pancho, sitting in a tree just a few feet from me!

I got a dish of food and attached it to a branch.  You could tell he was very tempted!  After probably 15 minutes he decided to go for the food.  He tried to fly but fluttered to the ground and looked relieved when I picked him up and placed him in our extra cage.  He was dehydrated and hungry and his feathers were a mess!  He had obviously had a hard time of it, especially one whole day where he tried and tried to get my attention without leaving his post!

We kept the two birds separated over night just in case Pancho was terminally ill or something, but the next day they got to share the same cage, like before.  They seem happy, and Pancho will make little cooing sounds when I come over to the cage sometimes.

So that’s the story of  Pancho, the Half Moon Conure.