tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52582879843431575212024-03-13T14:00:12.772-06:00Cynthia Blanton's Blog.....my journal about San Miguel de Allende, photography, travels and anything else that strikes my fancy.....Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-61587741833879071352023-09-11T13:48:00.001-06:002023-09-11T15:12:34.325-06:00Our new book: Guide to Foods of MexicoWe did it! After 10 months of research, my husband, Erich Almasy, and I published our new book called Guide to Foods of México. It is a glossary listing over 3,300 Mexican-Spanish food and beverage terms with English translations. For many of the items, we provide some history about the food and how it is used. The book is designed for English-speaking foodies, tourists Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-820047582446666522023-04-17T19:23:00.002-06:002023-12-07T10:19:55.035-06:00Trip to UruapanOne of the pleasures of traveling through Mexico is experiencing different types of terrain and varied climates. On a recent bus tour, made special by the beautiful purple jacaranda trees in full bloom, we went from the dry, hilly, cactus-filled high desert of San Miguel de Allende, through the Cuitzeo Basin, a large flat area with a lake that varies greatly in size depending on rainfall, throughCynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-13673404832048604992022-11-21T10:20:00.003-06:002022-11-27T21:03:48.015-06:00Day of the Dead 2022At last, things are almost back to normal in San Miguel de Allende, and we were able to celebrated El Día de los Muertos in great style. The origins of the holiday are ancient. From the History Channel website: "The roots of the Day of the Dead, celebrated in contemporary Mexico and among those of Mexican heritage in the United States and around the world, go back some 3,000 years, toCynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-13992095920985170102022-10-24T13:43:00.004-05:002022-10-24T14:34:38.276-05:00A Quick Visit to Mexico CityMy husband, Erich, had to travel to Mexico City (Ciudad de México-CDMX) in order to receive his Certificate of Citizenship and finish applying for his Austrian passport. As a descendent of Holocaust victims and survivors, he recently became eligible for Austrian citizenship. Maybe he will write a guest post to tell the whole amazing story.Travel - We decided to go a couple of days Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-88738185306924572422022-01-03T13:38:00.001-06:002022-01-05T09:08:36.013-06:00Los Vagabundos trip to OaxacaWe used to scoff at bus trips, but after traveling to Oaxaca on David (pronounced Da-veed) Rico's Los Vagabundos trip, we are converts. The long trip to Oaxaca was broken up into two parts with an overnight in Puebla along the way. On the second day we passed through some rugged, mountainous scenery on Highway 135D. (Click for larger photos-best viewed on laptop or desktop Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-58484462756341760602021-12-28T18:33:00.002-06:002021-12-28T18:35:09.254-06:00My husband gave me worms for my birthday!Not just worms, but ants and grasshoppers too.I celebrated my birthday, I'm not saying which one, during a Los Vagabundos trip to Oaxaca. As a treat for me, and incidentally for him, Erich made a reservation at Casa Oaxaca el Restaurante, one of the best restaurants in Mexico. We ordered the menu degustación, the tasting menu, which actually was not on the menu. Apparently you have to know about Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-78143536789271468342021-11-25T21:33:00.003-06:002021-11-26T07:34:17.186-06:00OMG! I'm an internet sensationUnbeknownst to me, someone who saw my blog post from last year, the one about me being a look-alike for a Playboy centerfold, posted the photo and a description on Reddit in a subgroup called r/OldSchoolCool. This is the description of the group which has over 15 million members: **History's cool kids, looking fantastic!** A pictorial and video celebration of history's coolest Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-55803814666291483552021-08-02T15:12:00.002-05:002021-08-02T15:32:59.981-05:00SMA Writers' Conference and Dead BodiesThe San Miguel Writers’ Conference is another reason why I love this city. My husband and I attended in person in February of 2020, purchasing the Readers’ Package since neither of us is a writer, although I make a pretense of it from time to time in this blog. In 2021, we attended virtually. The keynote addresses both years were wonderful, and this year, there have been many Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-7211561687286470842021-07-25T15:25:00.000-05:002021-07-25T15:25:47.017-05:00Mushrooms and fireflies and food! Oh my!Last week my husband Erich and I spent a marvelous two and a half days of mushroom hunting, firefly watching and enjoying fabulous meals which constituted "The Gourmet Symbiosis Event of Mushroom Expert Arif Towns Alonso and Lic. Chef David Jahnke." The event, limited to 8 people, took place on the private Rancho Calixto in the mountainous region near the Magical town of Amealco de Bonfil, about Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-42647301740420956232021-07-06T14:36:00.004-05:002021-07-07T07:16:50.414-05:00Sunday Hike, July 4, 2021The San Miguel Hiking Group has begun Sunday hikes again and we were delighted to join the group on the 4th of July. We drove a short distance to the little village of San Marcos de Begoña and set out on foot on a foggy day. The recent rains brought all the wildflowers to life, and the spectacular Man of the Earth, a type of morning glory, were in full bloom. The ground was covered in them.&Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-55204387849812792552021-07-02T14:55:00.002-05:002021-07-03T02:30:13.233-05:00Megan becomes Max — A Tail of Gender Dysphoria and ReincarnationMegan, our Miniature Schnauzer, thought she was a boy. She always lifted her leg to pee, patrolled the backyard like a Marine, and "marked" every light pole, fire hydrant and rock during walks around our Canadian neighborhood. In keeping with her male self-image, she thought she was big and was ready and willing to defend herself against much larger aggressors.Although our long-standing credo wasCynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-75229628641777678792021-06-28T14:35:00.001-05:002021-06-28T14:35:26.898-05:00Notice to People Receiving This Blog Via EmailSadly, Google is discontinuing the subscription service that allows folks to read this blog via email. I haven't yet found an alternative service, so if you would like to receive notifications when I post something new, just let me know. Send me an email at cjblanton at me.com (no spaces and use the @ sign) and I will send you a link whenever I add a new post. I do have a list of Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-49983355805640566942021-03-22T15:19:00.002-06:002021-03-22T15:19:11.480-06:00Gardening and CookingOne of the benefits of living here in Mexico is the availability of delicious, very fresh produce. Although almost everything we could want is easy to find in stores, we decided to grow some food of our own in a rooftop garden. We had these custom planters installed on December 22, 2020 and began harvesting lettuce and kale on February 18. Stuff grows like magic in the abundant Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-1497391148672591482021-03-05T17:54:00.003-06:002021-03-05T17:54:39.360-06:00Cañada de la VirgenAt last - an adventure to report.On March 4 we donned our double masks which included an N95, and joined 5 other expats for a special visit to Cañada de la Virgen which is about 15 miles outside San Miguel de Allende. It is a recently-excavated archeological site of the Otomí people, and our guide, Albert Coffee, is an archaeologist who helped with the excavations. This date is Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-80119586212377318952021-01-14T19:23:00.002-06:002021-01-16T14:23:05.632-06:00HatsI am the proud owner of many a hat.There is something to wear for wherever I'm at.A hat for the summer,A hat for the fall,A hat for nary a reason at all.I have one with big bows and one with a feather.There is one I can wear when there's inclement weather.A hat made of rhinestones,A hat made of fur,A black one, a white one, and a red one for sure.I'm told that I am quite a vision in hats,And I amCynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-55019534610674354852020-12-24T17:06:00.003-06:002021-01-21T08:44:52.838-06:00What do you say to a horny moose?What do you say to an amorous male moose intent on making you his blushing bride? I tried "Go away" but that did not discourage him. In this case, had a molestation occurred, it would have been right to blame the victim. I admit it - I teased him. I lured him into my camp with a homemade moose call. He galumphed up to me, then stopped and stared as if to say "WTF?"&Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-71315998654306982020-10-23T14:59:00.000-05:002020-10-23T14:59:08.865-05:00If I’m Not on Google Maps Do I Exist?The U.S. government may be suing Google for antitrust violations but the rest of us are still pretty dependent on the company for a large part of our day-to-day life. And sometimes Google manages to make our lives just a little bit harder. For a year now, we have been unable to get Google Maps to recognize that our street exists. It’s not as if we don’t know where we live. Our little Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-74410547573972963832020-07-26T22:24:00.005-05:002020-08-05T06:53:58.344-05:00Packing heat in the desertThe day before I arrived in Arizona back in 1998, a large number of illegal aliens were arrested trying to cross the desert near Organ Pipe National Park, which was exactly where I planned to go following a short visit with my father. Because I was traveling alone and planning to camp, Dad told me terrible stories about what happens to women driving alone in the desert and pleaded with me Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-14524825949199326072020-07-26T13:27:00.000-05:002020-07-26T22:28:46.298-05:00Tripods don't work in quicksandI learned this lesson while shooting at Mont St. Michel on the coast of Normandy in France. I planned my two-day visit to the monastery to coincide with the full moon and even had a computer program telling me exactly where to expect the sun and moon to appear at any given hour. Unfortunately, in spite of all the technology assisting me, the weather ruined my preconceived images Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-2822920504863210412020-07-16T14:38:00.001-05:002020-07-16T21:45:02.057-05:00RIP Jean Henrietta Gundersen BlantonMy mother passed away on Monday, July 13, 2020 at age 96. She had been in poor physical and mental health for a long time, so her passing was surely a blessing for her and a relief from her pain. Still, I am sad. (Click on photos for larger versions.)
Age 3
Jean was born on December 5, 1923 in Everett, MA. She was a surprise addition to her family and her brother and Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-12089055902137024302020-06-22T11:35:00.005-05:002020-06-23T11:05:20.991-05:00Shopping During a PandemicAs we read about the opening of States in the USA, I am struck by how different things are here in our UNESCO Heritage town of San Miguel de Allende. Our mayor instituted a lockdown in early March that shut pretty much everything down. Subsequent pronouncements pushed for mandatory mask-wearing (not always observed) and even roadblock health checkpoints. On June 1st, a Phase 0 condition* was Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-20152984719473350192020-06-20T17:02:00.001-05:002020-06-23T11:07:52.319-05:00My husband's dad and HitlerThis post was written by my husband, Erich Almasy
Today is the 75th anniversary of the day that the American public learned that Adolf Hitler was really dead after taking his own life in his underground Berlin bunker on April 30th (or May 1st). It seems strange today that our Russian “allies” who occupied the bunker’s sector in Berlin kept secret the details of Hitler’s death and that 50 days Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-48838512985272815352020-06-11T21:02:00.000-05:002020-06-12T11:43:40.581-05:00San Miguel Widows' ClubUntil tonight, every expat and snowbird we have met in San Miguel, who expressed any kind of political opinion, has been very liberal and virulently anti-Trump. Tonight we were having dinner at a lovely restaurant with outdoor seating, and even though the tables were widely separated, we couldn't help but overhear the conversation among four elderly ladies, elderly being defined as older Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-77975508664380854472020-06-05T22:42:00.000-05:002020-06-23T11:22:31.063-05:00I was a Playboy centerfold, Miss March 1967It was a nice morning in March, 1967. I walked in the front door of Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland, and heard someone say, “There she is.” I looked up to see the stairs on each side of the entrance and the balcony above filled with boys, all grinning, laughing, nudging each other and all of them looking at me. I glanced around to see if there was anyone else Cynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5258287984343157521.post-63641370280018041012020-06-04T01:21:00.000-05:002020-06-23T11:21:38.662-05:00It was a dark and stormy afternoon...
Mom, Jerry, Dad, Me
It was a dark and stormy afternoon. May 1, 1954, a day that changed the trajectory of my family for many years. We had been in town (Shawnee, Oklahoma) grocery shopping, and on the way home, the weather was awful. We had the radio on in the car and there were warnings about severe thunderstorms, but no mention of a tornado, although it is taken for grantedCynthia Blantonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08437683478016580115noreply@blogger.com3