Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Fishing- A Great Day

My friend Ray, whose website I work on, asked Carl and I if we wanted to go fishing today for cost. My answer to that is usually a resounding Yes! And so it was today. We came aboard at 9 AM, a very civilized time, and got back about 3:30. Here are some photos and a video.


Getting ready to leave the port:


Everyone's very serious, devising their fishing strategies. Or maybe the coffee hasn't quite clicked in yet.

That's Ron in the gray sweatshirt and Bob in the blue jacket. Bob asked for the URL of this blog, I'll send it over to him when I finish this.

With their backs to us are Phyllis and Jim.

Ray is our Host.


The bait is ready. This smells yummy at nine in the morning combined with exhaust fumes.

Fishing rods at the ready, we're going after rock bass, triggers and Ray hopes we might pull in a pinto bass.



The fishing begins!

His rod's bent pretty far for such a little fish.


Christopher, our captain and re-baiter, filleter and general great guy.

Bob catches a rock bass. He says he caught about 24 fish, he's happy.

Carl gets two rock bass at once!



Phyllis has got one on the line.

Yay! another rock bass!

Ray's the best fisherman by far. he was pulling them in one after another.

Including this pinto bass! 15-20 lbs.



The cooler of fish before filleting.

Filleting in progress. I don't like watching this part.

I caught two good-sized trigger fish and a couple of rock bass, Carl got over 20 fish.

The peaceful ride back.

Re-entering the harbour.

The most expensive yacht in the place moors next to Ray. I probably have all of these nautical terms wrong, so shoot me.

Lots of nice boats.



Backing up, and we're there.

And a quick video I took. It was very peaceful at the bow, away from the generator noise. I just took a swing across the horizon then walked out to the stern to take a shot of people fishing. Then one of the crew clearly had to get by me. :)





And now I'm going to go coat those fillets in a mustard/mayo mixture, mix panko bread crumbs with lemon zest and parsley if I have it, bake them in the oven then give them a quick broil.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

More patio pix


Down along the clothesline there I want to put bricks as well. Then where it passes over the water tank, we can put in a wooden plug with a recessed pull so we can get at it. We can match that with an access door in our wall for access to the plumbing.

The bricks will continue to the guest room, but we'll leave the area next to the guest room as a dirt area, and plant another palm. Cool.

Carl's leg is almost better, he was the one who cleaned all this stuff and arranged it. Yay for Carl! He deserved that rest.


That's my comfy chair just waiting for me to sit and have a read.


Any room for me up there?


And a final shot of Shadow, waiting while we do dishes, staying out of the way and hoping we'll get the subtle hint that he would like a treatball.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Patio and Produce

One thing I have grown to appreciate is following the seasons of produce. For instance, it's asparagus season now. Fresh, vibrant green, for sale everywhere and gone before you know it. Mandarin orange season is almost at an end, but I've enjoyed these so much. Juicy and sweet, larger than the mandarins we get in Canada and with seeds, but so tasty. Cucumbers are good now too, fresh and crisp.

Soon we will get into grapefruit season and the mandarinas will be forgotten, then cantaloupe and watermelon,  and then grapes.

Last week we got a call from our friend Tina. Someone she knew was moving his RV, and was tearing up his patio. Did we want the patio bricks? It was 16'x8', and he was asking $100 or best offer.

We hustled over there and closed the deal for $80. Joe, the owner of the bricks, had his crew load them into his truck and deliver them. I immediately called Oswaldo, and he got a crew over here the next day.

I knew I didn't have enough of them, but we decided to just do the large area outside the back door. Here are the shots I took . I haven't taken any with the furniture in place, because it's too cold to wash it all off and make it look all shiny.




Nice bricks, and they really go with the house. Later I'll post some better pictures.

We've had some of the coldest weather of the entire winter this last week. It's going down below zero overnight, which is unheard of. I feel so sorry for people without heat. I had the neighbor kids in to watch TV the other day and warm up. Sorry about Shadow- the kids were being so well-behaved that I didn't want to disturb them with another shot.

I'm still going for my walks on the beach- here are some pictures of Las Conchas homes which are still sitting empty. I wish we could somehow get the people who are living in plywood shacks into these homes for the winter. I might think differently if I owned one of the homes, of course.
Do the Jetsons live here?


This is what erosion will do. This house used to be a lot closer to the beach!


What is this design?
The weather's going to start getting better soon, once we get into March it will be really warm in the days. By May it will be swimming weather. Come on down for Cinco de Mayo! Enjoy the new patio!