Hello dear friends!
Though I haven't written lately, you have been in our daily thoughts. It's been a rather bizarre 3 weeks! Some good things, some not so good and many just plain weird things have happened...
1. Dallas
We finally went to Dallas last week and stayed in the cottage at Bonnie and Jeremy's. That trip was something that we couldn't possibly have done without OUR car. My Mother had surgery which was the catalyst for us going, as Henk and I wanted to be there for my Mom and Dad. Also to talk to the doctor. All is good on the surgery front; Mom is healing nicely, at home as of Monday.
While we were in Dallas, Wuzzy got a job in Wimberley! He is the pseudo-official greeter for the travel office. It's kind of funny because they never even asked for a resume, references, sperm count, hip ex-ray, education, etc... What a guy. He has such a way with people.
Quick paragraph: Sushi, Uncle Julio's Carne Asada, Scallini's pizza, Thai cuisine. Dallas is quite talented in the ways of restaurants, although unfortunately none of them had Lime Pickle on hand. Nevertheless, we pigged out.
2. Sun
'EW, Mom! Your ankles actually glow in the dark!' Hoping that was a bit of an exaggeration and just before I went into the darkened bathroom at midnight to check, it occurred to me that I haven't even been in the sun this summer. Contrary to popular belief, I think it's unhealthy to avoid the sun, which is a sort of backhanded double negative. Hello Vitamin D, or E or whatever. At my tender young age of 41 years, I tend to look a bit sickly with no blush on the cheeks, lacking burn on the shoulders and no tan whatsoever on the legs. So God bless Bonnie, Jeremy and their swimming pool. I think I've now rejoined the living.
Funny thing though - something I had forgotten - the sun in Texas (Dallas anyway) is different from that in Fourques. Well, OK, it IS the same sun but there are extreme differences in how you tan. In France or Spain, one hour of sun exposure left all of us with a nice caramel tan with no burn whatsoever. In Dallas, I spent 3 hours trying to dispel my neon-ness but found no obvious results until the next morning when I looked like a ripe tomato. I'm thinking it might be some sort of an Ozone thing. I've yet to try sunning in Wimberley - it might actually be like France but, with no cooling apparatus like a pool, I'm hesitant to try. Enough of the vanity issues.
3. Smoking Pork
Henko spent 72 hours smoking some pork tenderloin. (I know, 'from which end?' Ha ha.) It was a supposed 'cold smoke' where the temperature cannot exceed 95 degrees but, when the outside temperature was 102 at 11:00 am and, yes, the smoker stays outside, this experiment was quite challenging. Handy Henk strikes again - this time inventing the world's largest bong whose only use is to omit smoke directly into the smoker. Do you know those Mexican clay chimineas? Sort of a pot bellied amphora with a two foot high stack, on which Henk placed a generic terra cotta planter with a one inch diameter clear plastic hose stuck in the planter hole. (Another gem of a sentence.) The smoke goes through this tube whose other end is then inserted into the smoker. Using bong smoke, ambient heat plus a tiny 2" by 1" piece of mesquite wood (fired by my creme brulee torch of course) we have some wonderful jerky. The initial idea was not for jerky but rather soft, succulent and moist smoked pork. But we are not displeased with the results. Makes me want to grab a horse, fill a canteen with warm well water and chomp on a jerky as I ride with my Cherokee Indian scout to the next town.
4. Arrowheads
Speaking of Cherokee Indians, we just met a man - another David - who has a collection of about 15,000 arrowheads, all of which he found here in Wimberley. Henk asked this new David, 'Where did you get all of these?!' 'Here.' 'What do you mean? Wimberley? or Texas?' Thinking Henk was going to usurp his territory, David responded, 'Just here and there.' I said in the first sentence that the arrowheads were from Wimberley, and although you'd never learn that from David, I have my sources...To arrowhead hunt, the protocol is to dress up in fatigues, grease your face and at 2:00 in the morning, combat crawl onto private property and dig. And this is what new David does for his evening entertainment.
Apparently it is a substantially profitable sort of entrepreneurial enterprise. People from Europe, Russia and China regularly buy arrowheads by the crate from David.
5. another guy named David
I have to say that it was an interesting half of an evening we spent with David, the arrowhead guy who carries with him, for some unknown reason, a Ziploc bag containing two shot glasses (one with the now familiar orange and black Harley Davidson logo, the other from 'David's Pub') and two ceiling hooks (from which you hang a bike in a garage). Not going to even address the adorning pin he wore on his shirt - like those promoting things like 'Vote for Change! Obama!' - only this one had a phrase on it that I remember well from the 7th grade...something about 'stoned' and 'stupid' which I assume had to do with the arrowheads. David does have a gorgeous African Gray parrot who, when she visited, promptly pooped on Henk's back. In addition to those peculiarities, David took Henk to a Karaoke (sp?) bar and then poof! Disappeared, just when the crowd wanted Henk to sing a Tina Turner song with the parrot on his shoulder. Boy, I bet that was fun.
6. Market Days
Every first Saturday of the month, Wimberley hosts a large open market and today Henk and I went for the first time. We'd been told 'Wimberley Market Days' is exactly like going to the market in Ceret. Briefly believing that, we kept our eyes open for Ted, Jill, Davey, Ross, Peggy, Marie-Claire and Ralph but to no avail! The market is huge - actually about 3 times the size of the Ceret one. After meandering around in 100 plus degree weather for a couple of hours, we came home empty handed, sweaty and confused. Venders were selling things like rusted garden 'bling' (which is apparently a word to describe an accessory, be it for the body, car or garden, which at one point in it's life resembled something in the metal family and is more often than not combined with shiny plastic beads), old license plates for $5.00 (if I'd known that, I wouldn't have just spent $85.00 on our new ones) plus BBQ, 'Moonshine Iced Tea' and popcorn. There was a 20 gallon glass carboy (that's what Henk called it; it's basically just a huge glass jar used for storing water) which was interesting. In fact, the most interesting thing was the price: $250. 'What!?' Henk exclamed. The vender then pointed out the obvious to us: the jar was full of buttons and the buttons were very expensive. Henk's 'You're kidding, right?' was followed by a snort from the vender. 'I don't want the buttons. Can't you put them in something else? I just want the jar.' That oft repeated phrase shot out once again...Where'r you from, boy?
A few miles later, we found option #2. A 65 gallon plastic water storing barrel! WHOA! Henk really wanted that one but, after I pointed out that we would need a new, ginormous walk-in frigo to store it, we just decided to leave the market.
7. Henk's hair
Do you remember our Van Gogh sketch? Well, Henk wanted to change the color of the matting from ochre to burgundy. Disect the framing, take the matting outside and spray paint it (because real paint would most likely have curled the matting. But why couldn't we just have bought a new matting?) and wear a mask to avoid the fumes of the spray paint. Success! Until 3:00 in the morning when Henk woke me up and asked, 'Is my hair PINK?!!!' Yes, it was. Like getting the flu virus through sneezing, Henko's hair had absorbed the burgundy spray paint spittle. I accidentally- on-purpose waited a couple of days before I used fingernail polish remover to get rid of the pink. I thought it was hilarious! Especially when I remembered my neon orange hair catastrophy - per Henk's advice about lightening my hair. Meany me.
8. Sjaantje's cooking
When we returned from the market today, Sjaantje announced she was inventing a new cookie recipe! I do so love it when she wants to be creative in the kitchen. 'How much butter did you use?' 'One stick.' One stick turned out to be one pound of butter - 500 grams or so - because we buy butter in large blocks which in Sjaantje's mind was one stick. With a little rescue service, she actually created a wonderful crisp yet for some strange reason buttery cookie! Decorated with colorful fish shaped sugars, of course. She's braver than I, creating a baking recipe. And it's impossible to get angry with her when she does create.
I guess that's all of my news. I hope you're all enjoying the last summer month. Love to you all - still missing you!
Bisous -
Wend
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