April Surprises

It rains a lot here in April. At least it has this year. We've had some monsoon type rains in the last week or so. There's a construction project going on right next door, and the holes that have been dug by the workers in order to set rebar & concrete posts, are now five foot deep lakes.

These "lakes" have grown significantly since this picture was taken two days ago.

I might add, we are none too happy about this project. It is a 13 story highrise. We are constantly measuring and sighting it to try and determine whether it is going to completely block our view of the Cajas. Right now, our belief is that we will still have our view out the kitchen window and part, if not all, of the dining room window. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

On April 1st, we were walking over to get our hair done.  (Cut for Gil = $1.50, cut, color & highlights for me = $18.)  We pass a fenced-in field on the way where there have always been a couple of calves. But on this day, no calves. Instead, we found two little pigmy goats who wanted some attention.

While I was getting my hair done, Gil headed to El Centro where there was a parade kicking off the April festival season. April not only has Easter, but April 12th is Cuenca foundation day. This was a fun parade with stilt walkers, dancers, big-headed costumes, bicyclists, majorettes, lots of school children, and lots of color!

Speaking of color, that's another surprise. My hair color is different this time. Not because I asked for it to be. Sigh. Well, it will grow out and I'll be sure to tell her "mas rubio" (more blond for those of you who are non-Spanish speakers) next time.

And finally, Pepe brought the sewing room furniture. I'm in heaven. I've been spending a lot of time in there. I now have a huge cutting/drafting table, a sewing machine table, a three way mirror, and drawer inserts that hold my notions and threads. I designed what I wanted, and Pepe built it.  He did a beautiful job and each piece is exactly as I designed it.  It's fabulous.

 Getting my sewing room furniture, which took quite awhile to receive but was worth it, allowed me to finish the blanket I was making for our darling Spanish teacher Sonia who is having her first baby. The baby is due in early May, and I was really worried that the furniture would not arrive in time for me to finish the blanket.  (Pepe had my sewing machine for two weeks too before he brought the furniture and the machine back.) The hand embroidery was completed (while I was waiting for my sewing room furniture all these months, I started learning how to do hand embroidery), but I needed the machine to do the binding. Gil didn't get a good picture of the whole blanket because it had been folded up and needed ironing for a good picture, and we were about to go out the door to give it to her. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the embroidered pieces.

Can you guess that she is having a boy?