Pretty little pumpkins

It's late August, and so time to break out the pumpkins because school has started. I've gotta get proper mileage out of my pretty blue, green and silver fall decor since Santa comes to town a good six weeks before Christmas day. 

Happy 72

Yesterday was my mother's 72nd birthday. Handily enough, I have this great portrait of her taken when she was 17 that I still need to get framed for one of the guest bedrooms, so I snapped a quick pic of it. What a sweet young thing! And get a load of that teased and sprayed 'do she's rocking. Tres chic in 1964.

First day of 18th grade

Social media has been filled with first day of school posts the past couple weeks. I put one up for the high school senior. I asked our grad school daughter kicking off her second masters degree to send me a first day pic and this is the Snap I received. Beats nothing!

Football gameday roadtrip plans

The high school senior has narrowed down her college choices considerably, so we've decided to take her for a football game at her top pick of Alabama. Or rather I'm putting on my game face, paying through the nose for decent seats on Stub Hub in the shade, with a chairback, as well as arranging the flights, hotels and a car rental for a three day weekend. The husband will stay home to dogsit our furry children and watch for us when the hoopla is televised from Bryant Denny Stadium. Upside to what should be a hellishly hot gameday with wall to wall people and rabid fans on both sides is that I get to see the Tide take on the grad student's alma mater of Texas A&M. This oughta be one interesting college trip!

New 'Do

I've had the same basic haircut for a few years now and it's just not working anymore. After I turned 50 last fall, I decided to let my silvers and whites grow out. I had been camouflaging those suckers for about twelve years and I was tired of the maintenance. 

Since I've got years and years of color on my hair, I decided to get some of it cut off. I snooped around on Pinterest, looking for ideas, and these were some of my faves.

So I made an appointment with my stylist and did my best impression of Goldie Locks. The top pic is too short and the bottom pic is just a little too long. I want the somewhere in-between, just right length. My stylist went a little shorter than I wanted, as well as cutting in more layers, but I'm figuring out how to make it look presentable until it has grown out a bit.

When I get tired of messing with the color and cut plus blow dryers and straighteners, I'm just gonna buy somebody else's hair at one of those fancy wig shops and call it a day. Raquel here has some really nice ones I found online.

Senior Year 2018-19

This little nugget...

kicked off senior year on Wednesday. Honestly, I think she'd have rather skipped straight to sorority rush and freshman year in college. Just hold your horses there, bitty bear, because the past 13 starts to school have gone by in the blink of an eye and I'm not ready to have you fledge the nest just yet. There's this final year, so let's all make it count!

Peru was perfecto!

I've been home a week now and I seriously miss the cooler temps in Peru compared to the hellishly hot ones here in Texas. This week I downloaded more than 500 pictures and have culled through about half of them. Here are some of the pictorial highlights of my week that included Lima, Cusco and Machu Picchu.

No matter where we went, there they were... the llamas of Peru. City or countryside, it didn't matter. Like big overgrown dogs on leashes, you could tell they were well taken care of and appreciated.

Thanks to the Spaniards and their efforts, Peru has a Catholic church on practically every corner. Despite the fact that I'm Protestant, I find old Catholic churches absolutely fascinating. I just wish I had been allowed to take pictures inside of the churches because most of them were beautifully decorated.

One day we went way up into the mountains to a remote village where we got to meet descendants of the Incas who were conquered by the Spaniards in the 1500s. They live a simple life and shared with us some of their rituals and routines in exchange for loaves of bread (in yellow bags) that we purchased for them in a town predominated by bakeries on the ride up the mountain. 

We were fortunate to tour and trek over several types of Incan ruins, including those at Ollantaytambo, Saqsaywaman and Machu Picchu (in order below). As you drive through the countryside, it's easy to spot Incan ruins due to their common practice of terrace farming.

I spent a week at elevations ranging from 6500 to 14000 feet. The beauty of the Andes Mountains does not disappoint. I drank a lot of coca tea to keep the ill effects of higher altitude at bay. 

I got out of breath as we scaled every set of ruins, but the view from the top was worth the huffing and puffing to get air into my lungs.

Llamas everywhere, including at the ruins and in the mountain villages with the Incan descendants, and even some resident long haired suri sort at one of our resorts to add to the Peruvian experience.

We visited the workshop of artist Pablo Seminario one afternoon and got to meet him. He specializes in pre-Colombian art, which isn't exactly my decorative cup of tea. However, seeing his original art and hearing him speak about the evolution of his pieces over the decades was really interesting.

And lest we forget, the precious guinea pigs. The very same ones we saw in roadside stands and on menus everywhere, served up roasted or fried. The cuys (what guinea pigs are called in Peru) are just too danged cute to even consider eating.

Peruvian Cemeteries

Close friends and family know about my fascination with stone angels and interesting epitaphs. So now everyone on the web will realize how thrilled I was to visit the oldest cemetery in Cuzco. 

Not a big fan of the burial drawers in US cemeteries, I was fascinated by the ones found in Peru. Inside they include dates, in addition to pictures and things that represent their dearly departed family member. Each burial drawer is enclosed in a frame with a lock. Our tour guide, Ana Maria, explained that family members visit regularly to bring fresh flowers and shine the frame around the burial drawer. 

The rottweiler outside the entrance gates above was initially sunning himself in the oldest part of the cemetery until he heard a dog barking near the flower  vendors seen below (located along the walk from the street to the front gate) and went to have a look.

These banks of burial drawers are common with lower and middle class folks. We were told that their families have to pay an annual rental fee. And if they don't, then the drawer is cleaned out so a new occupant can take up residence!

If you look carefully in the drawer below, over to the right, you'll see this was a child of eight. 

Peruvians with deeper pockets will purchase a small plot of land in the cemetery to build a family crypt. Sometimes it's the body, sometimes it's the cremated remains. Yet the process is the same, with the frame and presentation of things that represent the life of that family member. 

There were some older, more traditional burials in the cemetery up near the front gates.

Even though the cemetery is locked up tight at night, there are folks who sneak inside so they can perform some sort of black magic or voodoo. Our tour guide showed us the location at the back of an old crypt, but warned us not to touch it. 

Guide Ana Maria asked our group if we had seen the movie "Coco" about the day of the dead in Mexico. She told us that in Peru their dia de los muertos is a big celebration, with most families visiting loved ones at the cemetery to celebrate their memories.