April 10, 2007 — The climate by Lake Chapala is often called springlike year round, but it’s certainly spring now and I haven’t had a sweatshirt on in over a month. There are flowers in bloom all the time, but they are really glorious now. I just wandered around our yard for a moment and got these pictures.

This two-tone bougainvillea is a favorite of mine:

Last time we went to the pottery factory which I’ve blogged about, we got this interesting head with a lizard atop it. We just put it out in the yard but haven’t planted it. And yes, that’s a spider plant behind it. We have them here and there in the yard.

Here’s the view from our front porch, which is essentially our living room. That’s a pottery barbeque on the left. Our swimming pool has a cover on it but now that we have solar panels to heat the water, we should be able to take the cover off from now till the rainy season begins, usually in June. This will be hottest time of year coming up. It’s already hot some days.

There’s something that looks like a volleyball net beyond the pool. That’s new, and it’s actually a badminton net I came across at the Soriana chain store in Chapala. Kelly and I used to play a little tennis but I’m not sure I had played badminton since I was a teenager. It’s perfect for us — we play a little most evenings. The only rule is no keeping score. And we try to keep the birdie out of the bottlebrush tree where some black birds are nesting.

You can see Lake Chapala in the distance… it has more of a presence to us than you’d guess from the photo. A neighbor took out a tree that blocked part of our view and then Kelly trimmed a row of our junipers to give us more of a view than we’ve had. We enjoy it a lot.

Ah, Spring!

Comments from the old blog:

• wayne said…

  I envy you your gardens! You even have amaryllis as a garden plant! Here on the coast it is so difficult to grow anything due to the salt. Mostly container plants and not too many blooming flowers. Love your blog and your take on life. Thanks!