Good morning! Welcome to "Morning Musings".

Musings: to meditate, think, contemplate, deliberate, ponder, reflect, ruminate, reverie, daydream, introspection, dream, preoccupation, brood, cogitate.

Friday, September 30, 2016

This & That - September 2016

I'm very happy to report that Olivia's Poppi (our daughter-in-law's father) is doing quite well.  His tests after four chemotherapy treatments give us great hope that he may beat the dire prognosis after all.  Here is Olivia crossing the bridge to the Faerie Door in the Enchanted Woods on one of her visits. . . .

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

A Year With Beatrix Potter & Friends - September


Today Jemima will lead the way around Esthwaite Water to the west and head north to Hawkshead as she tells us the Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse.  You will recognize the archway below in Hawkshead from Beatrix's drawing in today's story.  The interior drawings were of Dr. and Mrs. Bolton's house.  Dr. Bolton played golf with Mr. Heelis on a course they had built in Sawrey for their own use, and Mrs. Bolton received vegetables from Sawrey each week and sent back laundry.  That is a bag of golf clubs Johnny Town-Mouse is carrying on the book's cover photo.  The house-maid who discovers Timmy Willie in the basket is Mrs. Rogerson who worked for the Potter family when they stayed at Ees Wyke. . . .
credit:  Waymarking.com

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Mayan History and Culture - Part 1

Today I will be taking you to the Mayan ruins in Izamal and Uxmal, but first we'll visit el Gran Museo del Mundo Maya de Merida (the Maya Museum in Merida). . . .

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Eats Shops and Buildings

Proper punctuation makes all the difference.  I did not eat shops and buildings!  This post is about eating and shopping and the beautiful buildings in Mexico.  And when you're in a foreign country the way you pronounce a word can make all the difference, too.  For instance, Bebe means "it drinks" and bebé means "baby."  Fortunately, Ken knew enough Spanish to get us around and our son and daughter-in-law speak it fluently and were with us on several occasions.  Other times a stranger would help us translate.

Getting around Merida was easy and inexpensive with the readily available cabs.  Understanding how to shop and what to eat was another matter.  I've shown you where we slept in Merida.  Now I'll show you where we ate and shopped, as well as the architecture we passed on the street as we walked to the shops and restaurants.  I've already mentioned we shopped at a Mexico-made guaybera shirt shop the first night we arrived.  We were soon to learn that overly-helpful people were receiving commissions to steer customers to certain shops where the prices were often higher.  My first advice on shopping is look around before you buy so you can compare.  You will see many of the same items in most of the shops or in the street markets like the market set up in the Grand Plaza every Sunday.  You may also want to have a calculator on hand to help you compare the pesos price to dollars.  I was constantly trying to divide the price by 18 (the exchange rate) in my head.   These slippers were  $180 pesos--$10 USD, an easy calculation. . . .

Monday, September 5, 2016

More or Less - September 2016

Some of you expressed a desire to see my new haircut when I wrote about it in July.  I said I got it cut shorter because it was too hot on my neck and I didn't like having to wear it up because it made me look like a granny.  I didn't mention then that part of the reason was because I was going to Mexico in August and knew it would be hot and humid there.  NOW I know why women south of the border usually have long hair and no bangs--so they can pull it totally off their forehead and neck and restrain it in a neat bun!  This is what MY hair looked like in Mexico. . . .

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Gran Hotel - Merida, Mexico




The Gran Hotel in Merida, Mexico is the oldest hotel in Merida.  Opened in 1901 the "French neo-Classic architecture attracted many movie producers and photographers.  Guest book entries range from Fidel Castro to Charles Lindbergh, from Douglas Fairbanks to Cesar Augusto Sandino."