Complaints and Photos of Yucatan Flowers

What a night! Yesterday, my sinuses exploded. My nose spray seems to have given up. I had an evening meeting, so I came home and took a late afternoon nap. By 8:30 PM, when I got back home from my meeting, I was whipped. I was in bed by 9:30 PM and slept soundly till midnight. After the bewitching hour, I kept going into coughing fits, the drainage being such that it made the back of my throat raw. So I got up and drew a bath of hot water and soaked, alternating between reading and napping. At 3, I decided to try the bed again. I crawled back in and, until the alarm went off at 6:30 AM, woke up every ½ hour. The side of my face lying on my pillow would be stuffed, so I’d roll over and let the gunk in my head drain to the other side. I’m sure that’s more than you wanted to know.

In the midst of all this, sometime during the night I dreamed that I was looking at purchasing a TV. I don’t know why! Buying a TV ranks up there with buying cars and root canals, but in my dream there was this fancy TV for sale for half price, $400. But it didn’t have the built in digital convertor and I said that I didn’t think I wanted it. The salesman kept cutting the price in half, to $200, to $100 and to $50 as I was trying to get out the door. I never made a purchase…

I hope I feel better tonight as I’m planning on going to hear Rick Bragg speak. I’ve recently reviewed two books from his family trilogy and started reading the last of them on Sunday. Like the first two, I’m enjoying this one too.

To make up for my complaining, I’ll share some flower photos with you. I photographed these in the Yucatan last month.

A Match to the Heart (A Book Review)

Gretel Ehrlich, A Match to the Heart: One Woman’s Story of Being Struck by Lightning (1994, New York: Penguin, 1995), 201 pages.

In the summer of 1991, Gretel Ehrlich and her dog were struck by lightning in the mountains of Wyoming. In A Match to the Heart, Ehrlich tells her story of recovery. In addition to her personal story, the reader also learns about the workings of the body, the art of healing, a bit of meteorology along with mythological stories of lightning. Ehrlich has written a book of geography, describing the high country of Wyoming and the coastline of California along with the geography of the mind and of the heart.

At first, Ehrlich didn’t know what happened. There were dreams of the sea and waking moments with her dog, Sam. What happened? Was it a stroke? The book opens up in a dream-like state, as she takes the reader through her experiences. Slowly things became clear as a doctor diagnosed a lightning strike. They think she’s going to be fine, but the lightning has disrupted her heart. Her parents arranged for her to be transported to California, where she becomes a patient of a skilled and carrying heart specialist. Slowly, she is able to strengthen her heart as she learns more about this organ from her physician. As she regains her strength and confidence, she watches an open heart surgery, attends a conference for the victims of lightning strikes, returns to Wyoming and travels to Alaska to watch seals. As she resumes exploring the world, she has a new appreciation of the natural world which not only includes the world around us but the world inside of us.

There are many levels to this book. It’s an excellent example of creative non-fiction. I’d picked this book up last summer in a used bookstore in California. Several years ago I read an earlier book of hers (published in the 1980s), The Solace of Open Spaces. That book is about her moving from California to Wyoming during a difficult time in her life. I recommend both books.

For other book reviews by Sage, click here.
For Semicolon's Saturday's list of book reviews in blogs, click here.

Monday of Holy Week (A Poem)

Monday of Holy Week

I saw Jesus today
in Toledo.
Unsure, I did a double-take
looking above the traffic
and there he was over I-75
crossing on a bridge, behind chain-link.

Jesus wore a shabby coat and cap,
his stoic face focused on the other side
as he pressed on despite spitting rain and snow.
Weather hands, without gloves,
clutched a rough hewed cross
a crown of thrones hung off the upright.

I saw Jesus today
In Toledo.
He was a long ways from Jerusalem,
but there were no jeering crowds this time,
just a lonely black man
taking up his cross
and braving the elements.

I’ve made a quick overnight trip and am now back. I did, however, watch the game. What about those Tarheels! The poem describes a sight I saw while driving through Toledo.

A Walk in the Woods

The dog and I took a hike yesterday afternoon along the blue-blazed North Country Trail. It was a pleasant day to wee what signs of spring may be lurking under the dead leaves. The trail wove in and out between hardwood stands and pine plantations. A stiff breeze was blowing, bringing in cooler and wetter weather. Tonight they’re calling for snow, but yesterday the wind rustled through the pines, creating the lonely sound that gives a rise to my desire to roam. I’m not in a writing mood at present, so I’ll leave you with a few photographs to enjoy. As I've alluded to before, the dog doesn't like his picture taken! So I only got "back shots" of him prancing down the trail. Notice the blue blaze of the North Country Trail.A woodpecker appears to have been hard at work.

The moss is doing well as shown by these two photographs.

It's telling that the first tall plant to sprout forth new life is a briar!

Have a great day!

Izamal (another Yucatan post)

I have several sets of photos to share from my trip south last month. These are photos from a new favorite town of mine. Maybe, one day, I'll open up a hot dog stand in this town!

If you take the old road, the non-toll road, from Merida to Cancun, you’ll drive through the beautiful town of Izamal. Bouncing over the speed bumps (which surprisingly are found on most roads entering a Yucatan community), I begin to have visions of a ball park frank on a bun slathered with French’s mustard. But there were no hot dog stands, only neat buildings painted a mustard color, giving rise to my food fantasies.




There are still a few henequen fields in the Yucatan. This plant was often raised in large plantations, the leaves harvested for their fiber and used in rope production. It’s also used in making a drink similar to tequila and, according to a guide book, there is a distillery just outside Izamal. I was surprised to learn from my hosts that in the early 20th century, several thousand Koreans moved to the Yucatan to work on these plantations and that there is still a rope plant in Merida.

The cathedral in the center of the town, the Convento de San Antonio, was completed in 1562 (that’s only 70 years after Columbus) and older than the cathedral in Merida. It was built upon the site of an ancient Mayan temple. In front of the cathedral is a large enclosed plaza, which is billed as the largest atrium in North America. The plaza, surrounded by 75 arches, is supposedly second to only St. Peter’s in Rome.

The town’s marketplace is colorful and very neat and I wish I’d had more time to spend here, but I was on my way from Merida to Xocenpich. This shot is looking toward the market, from the walls around the atrium in front of the cathedral.

Two final shots of the cathedral, that I added after Mother Hen suggested "lower" shots, showing the sky.

Previous posts include my visit of a tortilla factory and to Chichen Itza.