Gardens, Kittens and Music

It is quiet here.
At night there is no sound, not even a kitten snoring .
Just before dark, you can hear the birds getting ready for bed, last minute nest fixing, quieting down the babies, snuggling in ...
The woodchuck runs along the property line, to her burrow in our back yard with  the alfalfa fields behind us ...
What seems like miles of bright green fields .. the deer like it back there but after the young ones had a late night party in the yard, it has been quiet.
I guess the elder deer let them know the rules.

During the day, far off, I can hear tractors sometimes and more often, the lawnmowers of neighbors.
And then there is that sound , early in the morning, no, besides the birds waking up ... a squeaky hoarse sound .. sort of like a meow but not quite.
And when I go in and take her out of her crate and back into bed with me, she settles from grumbling to purring then a little snoring.

This afternoon there was the sound of the weed-wacker thing.
That was me !
 Last year when my husband would ride the lawnmower, I would Do Edges.
Yes, that was my job .. and a damn fine job I did.
I also do a good job leveling things .
Even good things now and then but accidents happen you know.
I haven't gotten brave enough yet to try riding the mower.
I have to ease into that one.
But I did some drastic removal of ferns etc last year so this photo below is definitely a Before photo.

Later I will have the new After photos to show off.

The kitten stayed in the house, making sure that no gnats or flying things managed to work their way through the screens.
She  was mesmerized by a chipmunk.
She doesn't do things in moderation.
When she watches the chipmunk, she never takes her eyes off the chipmunk... even if it is not there, she will stare at the spot where it stood, until it comes back or I pick her up and take her away, discussing the possibilities of therapy for obsessive chip monk watching.

She is in her little bed by the glass doors, pretending to be napping.
With fine weather , I am filled with the need to Go Somewhere.
 I am thinking about going to ... in no particular order ...
Lenox , Massachusetts , where the buildings are all beautiful, very very old and there is the Red Lion Inn.
Where I could order tea .. a Real Tea and have it out on the porch , sitting in a rocking chair.
It might do me good, I have been there enough times to know that I will be the youngest person sitting in one of those rocking chairs and feeling like the youngest person around can do wonders for a persons spirits.
Or so I have heard. 

I can go look at Tanglewood and see what concerts I might be able to go to ..
I like the idea of a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, sitting on the lawn, listening to a classical concert.

I like going to Hudson NY on a weekend and just looking in all the antique shops and stopping at the French Cafe for a bite or just a good cup of coffee.

Now that it is warmer, it will be much more comfortable walking up and down that long street, with only antique stores and cafes .. imagine .. it is great.
Warm weather will make it fantastic.

Tomorrow ? Maybe more weed wacking followed by leaf blowing.
With a bit of kitten snuggling in the evening.

Meanwhile, Back in BA

Yes, that was my Buenos Aires Bedroom.
We bought that chandelier in San Telmo.
The neighborhood of Old Things. ( not like me old ... Things, like antiques)
We actually went into garages, converted into antique malls and found crystal chandeliers from grand homes in the past.
I preferred to think that they renovated and got rid of them, rather than this was from the days when people were selling everything they had to manage during one of the countries Bad Days.
Financial crashes etc.

All of the lighting in our apartment was from San Telmo, all chandeliers and none of them work here !!
But I am keeping them... you never know.

On the highest ladder, we could not change the bulbs in the chandelier.
We had to call the porter .
He had a taller ladder.
Which he carried up 5 flights of stairs because it didn't fit in the elevator.
The life of a Porter is not always easy, hanging out across the street chatting with the other Porters.
Bringing flowers that were left at the door, to someone living in the building.
Holding doors for people walking in and out with a Pup .
Holding doors for people waking in with groceries.

Unlocking the garden door so someone could go out there and just be in a quiet spot for a minute and tend to the flowers donated because they were leaving Buenos Aires and the plants were staying behind.. in the garden .. adios mi flora !!

I am homesick for Buenos Aires today.

Being There

After spending our days spent sightseeing, listening to the amazing music that you hear wherever you go in the city and  experiencing a million small kindnesses from the people..  the ready smiles, the willingness to not only help you if you ask for directions but so many times, the eagerness to try out their English on us .. to walk us to the corner and point out the way to go .
These were just  going that one bit farther in making us fall in love with the city and its people...
After all that and more, we would fall in to bed at night , exhausted, walked out, too wound up by all that we had seen and done and eaten and how overwhelmed we were .. or at least I was.

I was terrified at the idea of moving to Argentina, What about Pup ??
What about the kids , the family ? and What if ??
My husband just calmly told me that there was no deadline for any decision, just think about it or don't, relax and enjoy being there .

I would fall asleep with my mind finally settling on a perfect afternoon, sitting in a cafe garden, having coffee and people watching and seeing how appealing the life was .. and not to mention, I liked the idea that I could live in an apartment that looked like it was located in Paris on the Left Bank .

Speaking of Paris ... we shopped and shopped and I bought so many pairs of shoes, a few purses and a lot of presents. They weren't kidding when they said Buenos Aires was the Paris of South America.

We went to museums that I really   wanted to go back to,  again and again.
One has a lovely cafe on its grounds .. the Museum is the home of a famous man from the early days of Buenos Aires and it is magnificent. Their ballroom was the size of a house.
And the cafe is pretty darn nice too !

And then there is Evita's Museum .. her former home, before she went to live in the Big Pink House.
Old tiles, arched windows, arched doorways, wonderful music playing as you walk through the rooms, balconies looking out on a garden .. it is a really nice museum and they have a cafe that is fabulous. Lunch, Sunday brunch .. perfecto.

We ate in nice restaurants at night, we ate in pizzerias , we drank copious amounts of strong dark coffee and Malbec, we ate medialunas ( Argentine croissants) every morning and we walked.
We walked miles every day.
 It was the best way to see everything and to get a feel of being there .. really Being There.
We took taxis too and that was a delight.
The drivers were courteous, friendly and loved to try out their English, loved good music and drove like maniacs.
I learned right away, don't look.
Just sit back and listen to the music.
And if it feels right, practice your Castellano .. they love that .. if you get a good one.
 I always got good ones  ~
( in all the years we were there, all the taxis we took, we were never in one accident, not even a slight fender bender.... it just looks like they are going to crash all the time .. but they don't . )

We started looking at things in terms of Real Estate and Neighborhoods.
We decided that we would live in Recoleta, where we were staying.
We decided that we wanted an old apartment building, one of the French style with character and high ceilings and charm.

We also decided that if at any time, one of us changed our mind or decided that it was going to be too much ... money, stress, difficult in any way... we would forget about it and be happy anyway.

So the days zoomed by with shopping and eating and exploring, watching Tango, listening to concerts, shopping, sitting in parks and just Being There...

The day before we left .. our new friend and realtor called and said he would take us to see 4 apartments to give us an idea of what there was available.

Lesson One in looking at Real Estate in Argentina.. coming next.

Friday Foto

My view in BA. Across the street.. I sorta wanted to live in the apartment on top of the building on the left.

This Could Be Our New Life

While waiting for the airplane for our visit to Buenos Aires, we started talking to a lovely lady and her daughter at the airport. She was from Buenos Aires, she   lived in New York, she was flying back to BA to celebrate her fathers birthday with the (rather large) family.

We just sat and chatted about Buenos Aires and what we were thinking of in terms of visiting and possibly looking into the idea of living there ..
She said she would call us while we were there and we would go out for coffee.

Arriving in BA, we were swept along with the other people arriving from other destinations and quickly passed through customs and into the taxi that was waiting. ( there are all these rules for finding the Right Taxi so you don't get "Taken for a Ride" and robbed ..)..
Before you could say Hola, we were there ! Our little hotel on a small relatively quiet street in a beautiful neighborhood .. we were congratulating ourselves for our good luck and brilliance in choosing the hotel and location ... ( we liked to acknowledge our brilliance whenever it showed) ..

The first thing we did was put our things away and head out to a cafe.
This would be the way things would be in our future, for many happy years.... strong coffee and a medialuna in a cafe .

That week we saw parks, museums, shopped, we visited all the major neighborhoods,  restaurants, we saw Mimes on street corners, huge weekend ferias, dance, music, art, historic sites, cafes every day, and walked .. we walked and walked.. and took photos.

A couple of days before it was time to go home, the nice lady from the airport called and asked us if we wanted to go to have coffee. We met her at the hotel, her brother was with her.
What a great couple of people ! What a great coincidence that her brother is a realtor.
We completely enjoyed our visit with them, sitting in an outdoor cafe in a park in the neighborhood.
As we sat there, my husband and I both looked at each other and smiled, we always knew what the other was thinking ... we were thinking that This could be our life. This could be our daily habit, coffee in a cafe in the afternoon. In our cafe... in our neighborhood .. in our new life.