• Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    Uña de gato/Cat’s Claw

    A neighbor has a vine hanging over the sidewalk in front of her house. Last week I noticed fruit covering the plant, unusual fruit. I can’t recall other fruit similar to this as it has leaves growing directly from the skin of the fruit. Of course, I asked what it was. 

    “Uña de gato/Cat’s Claw,” my neighbor said.

    I googled Cat’s Claw and found it is an important Traditional/Ethnobotanical medicinal plant reputed to be effective for curing cancer.

    Today, Cat’s Claw and its extract, Samento, a supplement containing pentacyclic oxindole alkaloids extracted from the Cat’s Claw plant, is used as a dietary supplement for a variety of health conditions. including viral infections (such as herpes, shingles, and HIV), Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, arthritis, diverticulitis, peptic ulcers, colitis, gastritis, hemorrhoids, parasites, and leaky bowel syndrome. Whoa!

  • Essays,  images,  Uncategorized

    Rocco

    buy Gabapentin without prescription Rocco staring down intruders

    Little Ninfa on the left

    I call him Rocco, even though male and female Colibri Canelos, Cinnamon Hummingbirds, appear identical. I intuitively judge Rocco a male. He’s a tuffy, and he guards the feeder on our terraza against all invaders.

    buy Seroquel now Starthroat

    A relatively large Colibri Picuda, a Plain-capped Starthroat, is a frequent trespasser. When the Starthroat goes for the feeder, Rocco becomes so preoccupied with discouraging the bigger bird that tiny Ninfa Mexicanas, Mexican Woodnymphs, slip by Rocco and take a quick sip.

    Together these speedy birds drive Rocco mad.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  images

    El Día de Muertos

    This is an appropriate day to return to this blog. I have been sick for way too long. No more.

    This morning I wandered through the Panteón, the nearby cemetery packed with graves, small mausoleums and statuary. Today friends and relatives of the dead fill the grounds.

    They are there to remember, honor and care for their loved ones.

    One group of old men gathered around a monument to a recently departed friend and passed around a bottle of mezcal while they softly sang a song of remembrance to their amigo.

    Others worked to whitewash their loved one’s marker and placed on them bright orange marigolds, flores de calendulas.

    This is a day people in the US should consider observing.

  • Creative Non-fiction

    Edward James’ Fantasy Life

    June 6th I made a guest post on  fabiolaofmexico ‘s blog, My heart of Mexico. Thank you Fabiola I love your blog.

    One interesting comment to Fabiola’s blog about my post was from another blogger, La Potosina, pointing out a video from her blog of the Fantasy Gardens. Check it out.

    Her blog, Aculturame is very interesting with several posts catching my attention. One in particular was about Cahokia.

    I recently read Native Roots, How Indians Enriched America by Jack Waterford. In the second chapter,  Pyramids on the Mississippi, Waterford discusses Cahokia. I suppose I have driven by it on the Interstate and never knew it was there. So, also check out that post.

    ***

    Here’s a repost of my post on Fabiola’s blog:

    The Fantasy Gardens of Xilitla

    Edward William Frank James in his fine red bathrobe

    This goofy looking guy created one of Mexico’s more unusual tourist attractions.

    Mexico has a long history of accepting immigrants, refugees and travelers from all across our world.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Food,  Uncategorized

    ¿Pistachee?

     

    There is a row of beautiful trees lining Avenida Mexico in front of Parque Hidalgo here in Puerto Vallarta. I walk by these trees several times each week and right now they are heavy with a fruit I mistook for olives.

    I asked an old man sitting in the park what kind of tree this was—“¿Qué  tipo de árbol es este?

    Arrayan,” he replied.

    I thought he was wrong. So I took a couple of pictures and pulled down a high branch to examine the fruit.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    A Taste of Vanilla

    Layer-cake Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajin

    When visiting the archeological wonders at El Tajin in the state of Veracruz, we also explored the nearby city of Papantla. There we found many vendors selling vanilla on the streets in centro, downtown. The price of dried and cured vanilla beans was low—a pleasant surprise. Vanilla is very expensive in the US.

    On many occasions we have found something we wanted in Mexico, deferred buying it and later when we returned to make the purchase, it was no longer available. So we try to be more opportunistic. We stocked up. Although it’s been several years since we were in Papantla, we still have a few vanilla beans from there in our larder.

    Dried and Cured Vanilla Beans from Papantla

    ***

    To our great happiness we found vanilla orchids here in Puerto Vallarta growing at the Jardin Botanico Vallarta. In addition to their display of several varieties of vanilla orchids, they also sell cuttings and give workshops on their care.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays

    The Rooster/El Gallo

    Pesky Rooster at Dawn

    It’s been a long, dry winter in Puerto Vallarta. I’ve been sick with gripe, flu. We’ve moved across town to a much quieter place—except for this rooster.

    He’s a really little guy and has a harem of just one little hen, but he’s extremely vocal. He starts his quiquiriquí, crowing, at 4:30 am, then again at 5:30, 6:30 and finally signs off around 7:30 as daylight breaks.

    My landlord tells me he is una mascota, a pet, of our next-door neighbor. He told me to get a slingshot and pelt the little strutter.

    I’d be afraid to hit him with a rock as I might badly injure or kill him. So, I’ve decided to embrace this particular noise and the soul currently inhabiting this little rooster body. And I determined to learn to live with him.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Uncategorized

    Godzilla versus Big Red

    Godzilla

    Bits and Pieces of Iguana Life

    The two huge iguanas charged out of the jungle from opposite directions—heads furiously bobbing, tongues flicking and dewlaps extended to create  enlarged, intimidating appearances. Behind the two five-foot-plus male iguanas—looking for-all-the-world like dragons—were the armies of each of the Iguana Kings.

    A pick-up truck full of vegetables had just arrived and two lizard teams from either side of the farm had come to compete for food.

    From the east, Godzilla led his forces, and from the west, Big Red marshaled his unruly pack. There were iguanas everywhere! Little iguanas scurried over the backs of larger iguanas, joining the stand-off before the feed.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    Way Down Yonder in the Pawpaw Patch

    Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

    – Charles R. Swindoll

    I suppose my first grade teacher deposited this one.

     

    My son recently sent me a note with a couple of photos he took of Pawpaws he picked “in the wild” from an island in the Potomac River near Washington, DC.

    When I looked at his pictures, a flood of memories from the public elementary school I attended hit me. And this song we sang magically reappeared:

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