Week 52, Project 365 -- THE FINAL WEEK

We MADE it! To the VERY end! We ROCK.

I don't think anyone is more surprised than we are that we stuck with it the whole year; I've seen that sentiment over and over in recent Project 365 posts. But we DID. Big shout out to US!

I'm doing something a little different this week since we're in Sta. Rosa where internet service is always an iffy proposition. Instead of waiting until Saturday to upload photos, I'm starting Wednesday, and will upload daily the rest of the week, with an auto post of Sunday morning. So if you show up on Sunday and there are only 4-5 photos, you'll know I had an internet FAIL at the end. But at least I'll have gotten some photos up :-)

I've shared our water woes over the months and thought I'd leave one final photo of the field-formerly-known-as-a-lake. As you can see, the rain we've received has nourished the weeds growing in the lake bed but no water has made its appearance in this section yet. Farther down the lake is slowly creeping back up. But slowly is the key word. Doesn't look like it will get back to "normal" this year.

When we got to the Centro Sunday afternoon we found this.

Some kids put a large firecracker in the mailbox. End of mailbox.

No clue what all the police were doing on Monday in town. We asked around and one shop keeper thought it was an introductory parade of all the new recruits. We hope this was for the whole Punilla Valley and not just Carlos Paz because this seems excessive! There were police lined up as far as we could see in both directions.

Tuesday on our way to Sta. Rosa we suddenly encountered this horse in the middle of the road before it veered off to the side!

Ivan turned around and tried to corral it into a side dirt road and off the main highway since we certainly didn't want to see the poor animal hit by a car (and cars zoom along that stretch) but it eluded us. Our Fiat Uno is never too awfully fast, but especially not when we're hauling the trailer as we were that day.

So we turned back around again, thinking we'd surely find somebody to tell about the runaway horse, although that stretch is very sparsely populated. We did come across a man sitting by the road but he responded that it ran past him too. Obviously the horse had been making tracks for some distance! A few more kilometers and we came across some workmen who gave us the number to call the police, so that's what we did. Hopefully someone rescued it, or it jumped back over the fence before any kind of close encounter with an auto.

On our Belgrano run later in the day we saw this adorable CHOCOLATE NATIVITY in one store. This would NOT be a good idea for my house! Animals would mysteriously disappear, Joseph would slip away in the night leaving Mary alone, and soon Baby Jesus wouldn't have even a manger to lay his head upon.

Just sayin'.

A trip to La Cumbrecita on Wednesday took us literally into the clouds. What a weird experience! We arrived, pulling off the main road and descending down a long and winding cobblestone road until we reached the parking area below the town. Walking into town we passed quaint little Swiss Alpine type buildings and picked one of the first restaurants for lunch. While sitting there, the misty and foggy-like cloud descended so we couldn't see very far in the distance. It was as if moisture was just suspended in the air. It wasn't raining but you could feel a mist on your face and arms.  Here's a photo we took as we left, looking back on the town after we'd driven out to the main road.

It was so scenic we pulled over and Ivan and Tina had fun taking photos on the edge of a large rock. The dizzy feeling that heights induce left me in the car, happy to view things from a distance.

One of the odder things we came across in town (besides the excessive appearance of dwarfs and mushrooms, that is) was this huge boulder that seriously looked like a face. 

What a difference temperature-wise between the top of the mountain where we were enveloped by the cool, misty cloud and the valley where it was so hot it shimmered. Very glad for the cooling rain in the evening and overnight, although it was still a LOT hotter than the mountain top.

Santa Rosa hasn't changed a lot over the years. That's part of its charm. But there are a few new businesses, including this café that will be part of a larger complex. The rest of it is still under construction. This is located right on the main street which has always been crowded with little shops but, for the life of me, I cannot remember what used to be there.

Christmas Day we decided to take a walk about noon and Tina took this shot of Ivan holding up a long piece of bark from a eucalyptus tree. Did you know they shed their bark like this?

Saturday, in the course of working on the house and in the garage Ivan noticed worm excrement on the sidewalk at the back of the house. Yes, seriously! The evidence clearly indicated the grape vines were suffering an infestation of nasty worms. It's really hard to find them because they blend in so well with the leaves. They're about 3 or so inches long.

Fat little buggers, aren't they?

So concludes my final installment of Project 365 for the year 2009!!! Yay me :-)  And Yay for all the others who stuck with it!