An inquisitive old fart with a camera
General observations, generally during dog walks
Though I took this a few days ago, the weather has remained lovely
I find March is usually the most pleasant month in Uruguay: the heat has abated, the hordes have returned to Montevideo and Buenos Aires, and while not guaranteed, there’s a good chance of some lovely days for long walks on the beach.
Neighbors have loaded in tons of firewood for the winter. I will wait until I have to.
Daniel, our favorite mozo (waiter).
Can’t say I blame them, but still…huge and pretty eucalyptus, gone.
Another oddly-shaped volunteer squash from the plant near the chiquero (pigsty).
18.5″ (47 cm) long. We could have let it get much larger, but at this stage it’s still like a summer squash.
And there will be many more.
…you haz da priorities wrong.
We’re installing some new fencing. At the neighbor’s suggestion, we’re making an ‘alley’ through which machines and cattle can pass to the back of the property without disturbing our yard or garden. The other side of the property is too steep (from the road) and sometimes too wet.
The alley lies, of course, presactly where I planted fruit trees. Those that survive summer will now need to be transplanted in fall – meaning May. To the other side of the property.
Let’s just skip that bit of bone-headed non-planning and admire the wire work.
The fig tree by the barn has lots of figs on it. The neighbor told me that from his three fig trees, last summer he ate three figs.
The parrots got the rest.
Apparently the introduction of tall non-native trees to Uruguay allowed birds to nest safely above the range of comadrejas (possums). So now the birds are free to ravage crops. Pigeons are equally a problem. Actually, the real problem is that both birds are dumb; were they crows, you could hang a dead one near your crop and the others wouldn’t return.
A friend hunts them, partly as a favor to a farmer he knows. Nail one or two, and there’s barely time to reload before the rest return to the exact same spot.
Apologies for the blurry photo. Even though it didn’t move once, for some reason I didn’t feel like leaving my hand on the wall longer than necessary, next to this little visitor to our country house.
Like the large frog that appeared inside a couple weeks ago, I saw no reason to evict it. It’s welcome to use the space while we’re not there.
Unless, of course, it decides to lay eggs and produce a thousand more Itsy Bitsies….
We don’t often see tarantulas in this part of the country, but have seen some that make this look like a baby.
The cloying heat yesterday broke into a downpour, turning our road into a river. This morning, heading back from the deserted beach, I noticed that one stream had formed a puddle in the road, full of tadpoles, most less than a meter from a ditch full of water, but with no way to get to it before car tires crushed them or they died in the sun as the rest of the water drained.
Surprisingly difficult to catch them with a cut-off plastic bottle, but I managed to get 50 or 60 – most of them – into the ditch, where they at least have the chance to grow into frogs.
And eat mosquitoes.
Our friend Gundy sent photos of a monster caterpillar in their yard. I had some incredibly camouflaged tomato hornworms a few years ago in my first garden here. I actually pointed to them from less than a meter away, and people couldn’t see them!
But this – wow.
She also sent a couple links about caterpillars:
Fotos de orugas (just learned a new Spanish word if you were paying attention 😉
Why you might not want to pick up that cute fuzzy caterpillar