Liberty and The Bowdoin

When David Taylor was in town visiting the Sayre's, he captured this photo of our "Liberty" in the foreground of the Bowdoin. For detailed information about the Bowdoin schooner, click here: Bowdoin Schooner. The Bowdoin and Liberty were designed about the same time, but "Liberty" was built much, much later 1989.

Tom Milling His Lumber for the Barn

What's happening on the lawn? It's Tom, milling the logs that have fallen in past storms. The lumber will be used in the barn that is being built by Tom and WG this summer.

BYE, BYE San Miguel de Allende

The last few days in San Miguel were spent taking in a couple of good restaurants, sitting at the Jardin (center of the historic district), people watching and saying good bye to our new friends.
Many streets have such beautiful vistas as the one below.

Our last Tuesday we went to the Tuesday market. So many vendors of clothing, fruits, vegetables, tools, shoes...well, you just name it. All complete with numerous food courts!
This clip has the frenzy of the locals on a clothing table....looks like an after Christmas sale at Macy's!


Our final dinner was spent up the "hill" from "centro" with views to the mountains afar, the Parroquia and a glimpse of the bullring. The black background conceals the video that is below. Just click on the arrow that you see to the lower left.


The next day we flew back to USA from Mexico City. Below is a view of peaks of extinct volcanoes near Mexico City.


We had a great vacation!

San Miguel de Allende--Continued

Tom and WG found hardware stores most interesting...finding items needed to fix a few things in the house. No rest for the fixers!

We bid WG and Nancy good by.We had a great time!

Following photos are of vistas of the Parroquid (the Parish Church) and other churches in the area:

One Sunday morning, we look out of our bedroom balcony to see this!

A view from the Art Institute.

An evening shot from the Jardin towards the church.

View from the upper terrace for a glorious sunset!


Bill and Sylvia came for a visit. During their visit we heard some outstanding music. First, a string orchestra (13 pieces) playing an amazing performance of Vivaldi's, Four Seasons. We had a great time with our friends. It was great to share such a special place with them.


Then just before they left we heard Doc Severenson play with a group of fantastic musicians.
Doc can still blow the horn!



Every Sunday the Biblioteca sponsors House and Garden Tours. Over 300 homes are on the circuit and every Sunday 2 or 3 are selected for viewing. It is a well organized event and this past Sunday Tom and Nancy saw a hacienda in a nearby village. Below some photos of that day.



As beautiful as the day was (see above), the afternoon brought rain (unusual for this time of year). As we walked to dinner last night, the heavens opened. The drain spouts are operatings as designed!



Possibly we'll have another blog entry. Nancy is busy with Spanish and cooking classes! We plan to return next year!

San Miguel de Allende

We've arrived!! Our first night at San Miguel with margaritas, Mexican food and vistas to the La Parroquia, the church in the main square!

The next day, we started our exploration of San Miguel, where we caught sight of the colonial architecture, ate some more Mexican food, and drank more margaritas!

Nancy and Nancy found a cooking school offering classes and were able to sign up and get our first cooking class with Paco!



The first cooking lesson was about going to the market (the local "farmer's" market) and finding ingredients to make dishes for the class.

Paco owns a great bakery in the city called Petit Four--which we discovered to have the best espresso drinks in the city!

We've now taken two cooking classes and I'll bet you'll see some of these dishes on the Manor menu!

Below are some of the photos from theses sessions:



Market scenes--beautiful fruits, vegetables and herbs!


San Miguel's version of William Sonoma! Nancy has found new cooking and preparation items!

Tom says this donkey is no John Deere!
Following are some architectural shots of which I'm sure there will be more. Our house has a roof terrace with a cooking station. It's been a bit cold, but the sunsets are awesome! View below from our top terrace.

Windows

The barn is wrapped with typar and topped with an enormous white tarp. The time spent fretting with rolls of plastic just didn't work. Leaks occurred and that application (on which Tom and Bernie spent several hours) was just waiting for a big blow to cause even more water issues.

Now with the tarp and 12 - 65 lbs bags of sand on the windward edges, it passed with flying colors this past couple of days wind.

Tom is busy putting in the 8 windows on this first floor. Doors and to arrive soon.

Tom's a happy man when he's working on the barn!

Sheathing

Sheathing is going well. Just a few boards left to finish this phase of the project.

Tom's hard at work building his "barn."








No, Bernie is not laying down on the job!

Bernie is helping to get the plastic on the top for the winter. It was a windy day and more hands would have been helpful!

He's putting the finishing touches on the plastic before the predicted rain on Sunday.