Day 64

THINGS I LIKE HERE

– when, at dusk, as I walk back from soccer, the flock of white egrets goes overhead.

- when I’m walking down our street at night, and there is no artificial light so the sky and stars look much brighter, and I see a shooting star.

- hiking anywhere here, with the flora making you feel as if you’re on an undiscovered island and this must be what the first people who walked here felt and this might be what someone’s image of Eden would be.

Today the man next door, who owns his house, had all the trees and hedge removed from between our houses. The workers said this was because the mosquitoes were too bad and he was going to build a cement block wall. It’s not the greatest aesthetic choice, and I don’t know if it really does solve the mosquito problem.

I wrote the people in Belgium whose house next to La Ranchetta is for sale. The e-mail was returned –it wasn’t valid. Now we have to search in town for someone who knows them and isn’t looking for a commission and adding $20,000 to the price.

We received messages from back home that we were hit by a winter storm, which downed phone lines and trees, including a large maple on our driveway. Ugh.