Happy Monday

Yes, happy Monday people. Hope everyone had a tip top weekend and that your excited about this weeks possibilities. I have to admit that I fall into the Monday lovers group. It's almost like moving to a new country and being the person you've always wanted to be...a clean slate...aaahhh.
There are so many exciting things that could happen, you could meet a new friend, you could find the pair of shoes you've been dreaming off or you could just meet your sole mate!

It's not even midday for me here in Mexico and already I've found 3things that make my heart content...some may say I'm materialistic but pay them no heed. No heed I say!

Here they are...






















What did you find this week?

It's Sunday!

Yay…I'm on time! It's Sunday and I'm not late…hurrah. It's been a pretty fun week, got back from my trip with my Mater and then had a couple of relaxing days in the country before heading into town today (hence the on time post!)
Massive rains this week and everything looking super duper in shape and growing..yippee. Preparing for all the fun things that I'm going to be doing once I get back to Europe for 2 months…oh, how I cannot wait!
So anyway, here is my colour..guesses please?

I know, I know

Crickeys o'reily my chums. I know, I know, I'm bloody late the second week I decide to do my week in colours. Silly silly me, letting myself down on the one thing I was super duper trying to stick too...I do however have a rather good excuse. See ,my Mum arrived and then guests rocked up and then my dear old MaMa surprised me with a fabulous trip for a week, sans computers..so of course I snuck out yesterday and bought myself a spankng new iPad2 (I'm only going to say this once, but I love it, I really do) and so I'm writing this secretly while she is having her afternoon snore session.
We've been all over, to Oaxaca then Puebla and now Mexico City....so far my favourite because the boys are so blinkin handsome and the food is divine..you can tell I live in a town where you can only get local food, I've literally been salivating over baguettes. That's right, doesn't take fancy stuff to
get me salivating, a simple lovely baguette will do the trick.
So, a couple of days Late but here are my week in colors. Enjoy!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

My week in colours...

I'm hoping to make this my weekly Sunday moment… I'm hoping because a) I'll have internet and b) I'll remember.

This week has been a pretty hectic week..my Mother arrived on her yearly holiday..a few tears arrived when she walked through the airport doors…it has been a year so forgive me! We had a group come for lunch which was fun (you'll see what we served down below), I had a couple coming to stay who will hopefully be coming to manage the hacienda from December onwards and we had my Mothers b'day party…phew.

I hope you enjoy some of the blues…we did!

Loving the turquoise of the wood door against the white of the stone

Birthday flowers for Mater, loving the classic blue and white mexican pottery with the wild flowers

Don't these look amazing! Pecan and chocolate ganash with dragon fruit and mint cups…wow

This is what was served to our lunchers on Thursday.

Loving the stripes of our napkins

We found this homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe on the road home…beautiful

Can you see the moon? Night sky out in the country.

The animals

Living in the country means that I have enough space to have lots of animals and good job too as I adore them. Plus the fact that living in a developing country means that expenses are super low!

In Mexico there are huge numbers of animals that are left to their own devices and as such are often in pretty bad shape…ergo my weakness. ´Rescues´. I'm proud to say that all my animals are rescues that I've found on the street at some where or other and  I'm embarrassed to say that yes, I've done the talking like a proud new Mum about them. Thankfully, I've stopped. I've bought them new collars on birthdays too, no I do not dress them up and to be frank, heaven help me if I do!

But I thought I would show you some photos of each of my animals (before and after) so you can see how happy and healthy they are now compared to before…

Rat has grown into a very particular dog - she growls when she wants cuddles, she picks up her food in individual biscuits and carries it off to eat and loves more than anything to put her head on your tummy..
Check out the awesome traditional tiles in the house!

                                            

                    

Monkey on the other hand is a right rascal…hence her name Cheeky Monkey! I found her whilst driving home one day and saw her walking towards cars that came her way…. I couldn´t stop myself from picking her up! This was her first meal she had with me and could not eat it fast enough! She looks a bit of a spacker in the 2nd photo but she was getting up at the time..notice how she's sticking her tongue out at me!

          

And this is Cat. Yes, I know, I know, very original. But I am not a cat person. This little minx though I found on the road next to her dead Mum…could I leave her there? Oh no. In the pic on the left the cushion she is on is about 10inches wide…tiny!

There are some advantages to living in the country…it's great to watch the dogs running around playing at sunset in the gardens….bliss.

Down the garden path...

At my place we grow as much organic yumminess as we can. Not only for us but for guests and we're quite proud to say that we're the only ones in the state doing that. The rains are upon us here in Mexico and soon most of the produce we have will either go to seed too quick to be worth the effort or their poor little roots will get waterlogged so I thought seeing as I'm out and about making up hampers I'd show you some of our tasty treats and tell you some of my favourite ways to eat them!

This is quite simply best eaten freshly cut and washed with a splattering of olive oil and rock salt…yum

For me I can´t beat chard roughly chopped and sautéed for 3mins in butter then eaten with wild rice and soy sauce

My favourite type of raddish, not too spicy but not subtle either. Topped and tailed then dipped into a wonderful mix of lemon juice (takes the spice away) and salt (heightens the taste).

'So, chiles' I hear you say rather nervously..haha, I was like that too. But Mexico is the land of chiles..here in this photo we have 5 types ranging from sweet (the almost white ones) to spicy (the green one at the back) to mild (the red one) and everything in between. I love spice and my favourite thing to do is make a fizzy mango, lemon and chile juice with lots of ice. The BEST on a hot hot day.

These bad boys are so popular over here. They are a flat type of squash with yellow flesh and I love the way their leaves are. You can't really see but they are almost velvety (must get my camara skills in order). Split open with seeds taken out then roasted with olive oil and garlic (skin side down) then sprinkled with lemon zest…oh bad boy indeed.

Ah, I love these cucs. Sweet and tangy like a lemon with the coolness of a cucumber. Deliciously delicious peeled and mixed with fresh greek yoghurt, black pepper and mint. WOW.

Anyone got veggies growing in their garden or in a pot on the window sill? Would love to hear what your growing and your favourite way to eat it!

What have I been doing with my life so far?

So I figured that I should really start off with what I've been doing for the past 3 years of my life. It all started with a phone call beckoning me to Mexico to renovate a baby hacienda, turning it into a luxury self sustainable hotel / guest house.

And that´s what I did, with absolutely no background in building, design, decor, or eco-friendliness I dove straight in. It has been a tough 3 years I can tell you, but at last we opened and people love it.

We are 100% solar powered, recycle all of our water, grow our own organic produce as well as all those little things that you won´t notice to make us eco friendly and sustainable...

You can see how different it is now compared to when I arrived, stunned into silence (does not happen often I can tell you) by the fact from the gate I couldn´t even see the main house...but now look..we have a drive way and everything!

Enjoy and if you like what you see, pass us on..maybe you`ll come visit us one day!

when I arrived

how it looks now

the ruined old water wheel 

and all better now

so much to do

and all done, these globe lights look lovely at night!

one of our new rooms for guests

one of the rooms for guests

the entrance, with parking and grass whereas before it was scrub