Ashton's first birthday party was loads of fun, lots of new toys, including a piano just the right size for her. What a doll!

So I had been sitting on my fanny for several hours planting a variety of sunflower seeds...one by one...at the farm. Jake, Chelsea and baby Ashton walked down for a visit, and Jake said to me, "Roz, have you seen what is over the fence?" Well, I hadn't, so I stood up and there was an entire herd of Elk right on the other side! I had not heard them at all.

Mike and I watched Martha Stewart decorate some gorgeous Easter eggs, and got the idea to do some ourselves. I went to secondhand stores and bought all the 100% silk ties I could find on short notice. Here's the trick. Wrap the eggs in a silk square. Then wrap over that a square of cotton muslin. Tie with white string and slowly boil for twenty minutes. After they cool off, remove the fabric. Gorgeous!

Students in the Square

Around noon yesterday Mike was right next to the town bridge. No bites, but he heard a band, so he came to fetch me and we rode into town. In the square there were three band members playing ranchero style Mex music. Lots of high school girls serving cold cervezas and BBQ'ing chicken. We thought it was fun that all the young girls had skin-tight low riding jeans, tank tops and then their high school tee-shirt on top, pulled up around the waist and tied up in the back. We could hardly tell one from another until we had been there about a half an hour. The music was great, but they only knew about four songs. This was a fund raiser for their school. Check out the shoes on the lead singer.

Five Pound Snook

Yesterday we had breakfast at Los Olivas right down the road. Roger met us there and we decided to fish on the river for a bit after we ate. Mike stopped here and there along the river, but Rog and I went right back to our favorite spot on the other side near town. I caught one pargo barely as big as my lure. Then I had a huge tug on the line. The snook was only five pounds, but snook really are strong fighters, and you have to keep the drag tight. So, this isn't a great photo because he was on the move, but here it is.

Hunting for Cave Paintings...again

We took off with Gary and Tracy to LaBorjitas to see some really cool cave paintings. Two hours later we got to the final gate...the others just had rope ties to open...and there we found a padlock. There wasn't a soul around. The little cluster of houses preceding the gate were all empty. Only a pitbull puppy peeking at us from an enclosure. Then Mike remembered this weekend is a holiday in honor of Juanito Juarez. We stopped anyway under a tree and had a picnic with the carnitas we had picked up in town, and a couple of icy cervezas. Along the way we took photos of several plants. One is called desert lavender, but is actually salvia. It smells like lavender, but isn't. This ends a $100 bet with Christian down the road, who insisted he was right. Never argue with a lavender farmer! We also took a photo of what looked like a yellow apple. We have seen these scattered here and there. Tracy said they are actually small round gourds, about apple-sized.

Snook on the River

Over the last couple of days Mike and I have been avidly fishing the Mulege River practically right in town. Yesterday I caught my first snook. Actually, two of them. Mike held up my second one for a photo. Only a couple of pounds, but it is very cool to know they are back in the river....about fifty years ago a dam had broken, causing the river to completely silt in....Mike has caught a couple of them, too, as well as our pals on the other side of the river, right next to their house. They have seen 30-40 pounders recently, whereas years ago they were up to 50 pounds. Very exciting stuff. We also caught a few pargos. The one I caught this morning was over eight pounds, much bigger than the ones shown here. I gave it to a local. He was absolutely thrilled. Probably feed his whole family tonight. The Mexican children usually hang around to watch, and love to have their photos taken.