CUTE UGLY AND FROM CUBA

CUTE UGLY

    How can you not love a face like this?

     Little junior or sissy turkey is out for a walk and test flight. Wild Turkeys are among the population of abundant wild life here on the ridge in Cambria. The practice surface in this case is our roof.

REMINDER TO THE DONALD

   Dear Mr. Trump,

       It is an ancient wisdom and is also a Biblical lesson, "Reap what you sow."  Or if you prefer consider Newton's law or the law of Karma-for every action there is a reaction.

       Or closer to your own idiom, don't say stupid things or people may begin to think you are an egotistical idiot. That would be more people may begin to think that.

CUBA

    If you like to travel I hope you'll get to Cuba now that we have begun to normalize relations. As a toast of celebration here's a post from June 2011. Enjoy your Daiquiri. A further exploration of the extraordinary island follows below.

THE DAIQUIRI- 
AND THEN,

THE PAPA DOBLE 
Popular history affixes the creation of the daiquiri to a group of American
mining engineers who were working near Santiago Cuba.
The Daiquiri beach is near Santiago.  A bartender at the Venus bar in
Santiago is credited with making the first of the rum drinks and giving it the name of the beach.
But then the Daiquiri moved to Havana
and the Floridita Bar.

It was here where the Daiquiri met Ernest Hemingway and
where the story gets interesting. And where the Daiquiri grows up.
But first a little back story.
The paintings below hang near my kitchen.
The top painting, if it looks familiar, is a study of a Monet painting in London, 
painted by my eldest daughter Kristin.
She is a superb artist and created the piece as a student.  We like it, hung it
and often explain it to people who think it looks "familiar."
The painting below is a watercolor that I purchased from a street artist
in Havana.

This is the Havana corner as it is

and this is the water color.

The Floridita was a Hemingway favorite.  It was here

the bartenders followed the writer's directions and created

what some call the Hemingway Daiquiri.

At the Floridita they call it the

Popa Doble

2 1/2 jiggers of white rum

juice of 2 limes

juice of 1/2 grapefruit

6 drops of Maraschino cherry liquer

NO sugar

served frozen.

These descendants of Hemingway's bar tender friends can still build a 

great Popa Doble. According to legend, Popa or Poppa would pop
quite a few in one sitting.

The writer spent a lot of time at the Floridita.

His original bar stool, a the end of the bar, near a wall, has been

preserved and chained off.

Hanging above the stool is a bust and an Oswaldo Salas photograph of 

Hemingway and Fidel Castro the day Hemingway left Cuba for the last 

time.  One of my prized possessions is a copy of the photograph

signed by Oswaldo Salas.

Getting the photo and getting it out of Cuba is the story
for another post.
Cheers!

   If you are interested in Cuba, here are links to previous posts from that amazing Island nation.

The Cuba File Archive

• The Old Man and The Sea-meeting Hemingway's Captain
• Cuban File-Street Scenes
• Cuba File-The Shrine of St Lazaro
• Inside Hemingway's Home

   See you down the trail.

THE SPECIAL NIGHT-SEASONAL SCENES-THE CANDLE FROZE-A CUBAN THROWBACK

THE GLOW ON THE HILL

      We look forward to the chosen December night when fortunate Cambrians walk the hill out of east village up to the historic Santa Rosa Chapel for an evening of strings, music, Christmas reflection and magic.

      Frequent readers may recall previous posts, this time of year when it as though we step into a slip stream of timelessness. 

2011 Post

2012 Post
2013 Post

      Cheer and anticipation fill the 140 plus year old Chapel bathed in candle light and greens. This evening has become our single favorite of the Advent season on the Central California Coast. 
       The acoustics, artistry of the musicians and the lighting create a dreamy mood. Ra Duncan's soulful a cappella Ava Maria set the mood and another memorable evening flowed into Cambria history.
       Judith Larmore's meditation on the love in nostalgic moments were heart warming. Recalling her father's devotion to providing hand made Christmas toys invoked a kind of universal remembrance and in that she reminded us was a connection. In Christmas memory, loved ones are with us still. As Lana said as we departed, Judith should collect and publish her reflections.
      Jude Johnstone put together the music program. She asked her daughter Emma, an accomplished actor/director and home from New York to write a poem. Her reading was yet another and unexpected gift of this wonderful annual event. Jude and daughter Ra performed and then lead the audience in a uniquely cheerful and entertaining round of carols.

     Santa has already delivered our favorite gift. 

THE CANDLE FLAME FROZE

      My family occupied an old farm house during one of Indiana's coldest winters and I slept upstairs in an unheated room. We had just moved to the state capitol of Indianapolis and rented a large, drafty house while our new home was being built in one of the new suburban divisions.
      The place was massive. Two bedrooms, dining room, living room, parlor, long kitchen, sun porch and bath down stairs. Upstairs had only recently been "finished," meaning there were floors and walls. Heat "entered" the frigid domain by virtue of a hole that had been cut in the floor of the bedroom and the ceiling in the largely unused "parlor." In fact we kept the sliding door to the parlor closed as it was so difficult to heat and made the living room too drafty.
      Since I worked and had late hours and was the eldest of three boys, I got the private room, while my brothers shared a downstairs bed room. When I took a glass of water upstairs, it froze or if temperatures were more moderate it created an icy crust. I didn't mind.  As a high school sophomore I enjoyed the privacy. I'd wear a stocking cap, socks and pile under the blankets and slept very soundly.  Any nightly trip to the bathroom was a bear-icy cold floor and stairs, and then leaving the warmth of downstairs to climb back into ice land made those rare ventures, teen bladders being good equipment and all.
      Years later I told our daughters I slept in a room so cold the candle froze.  A stretch, but the water did.
      Our eldest is visiting from Naples Florida.  The central California coast winter can sometimes chill into over night 40's and warm "only" into the 60's.  As she is digging out the wool socks, sweaters, gloves, caps and all, I'll probably remind her of what real cold is. If that doesn't work I'll drag her along to a tennis match where one of my foursome, Jim, hails from War Road Minnesota, where to hear him tell it, you risked freezing to death all but 7 days a year!
      I still like to sleep in a cool room with fresh air, but for the next couple of weeks we may well heat the overnight.

SEASONAL AFFECTATIONS

VILLAGE STYLE

    Lana's centerpiece for an Instigators Art Salon luncheon 

    Cambria Historical Society 

   Victorian ranch house at Halter Ranch winery 

   West Village, Cambria 

A CUBAN THROWBACK

  As a tribute to improved relations with Cuba, a couple of On Assignment Cuba photos from the file.

     I'm excited about easier travel. Cuba is a marvelous island. The above scene is from Matanzas.

 Pictured here with Jon Christopher Hughes, photographer and journalism professor at the front door of Ernest Hemingway's Finca Vigia east of Havana. Jon is an old hand on Cuba. This was taken while at work on a documentary in 1996.

a "selfie" in the mirror of Hemingway's

bathroom

     Cubans are warm and wonderful people with an extraordinary culture and charm. Despite the decades long blockade and official sanctions, the people tend to understand Washington policy is one thing and the American

public is something else.

Previous Cuban Posts:

The Daiquiri and Hemingway-where it began

Rare look inside Hemingway's home

Cuba's St. Lazaro healing shrine

Cuban Street Scenes

A "model" for Old Man and The Sea

     See you down the trail.  

THE CUBA FILE-STREET SCENES

MAKING DUE

       There is a great shot everywhere you look in Havana. The setting and action of 

this frame captures the rich Latin blend of life in Cuba.  An old car, set against a decaying old colonial era edifice is the object of what is true determination, creativity and genius.

Think of the challenge of maintaining a relic, without benefit of parts, imports, or service centers. Improvising and making due is what they do.

        The street entreprenuer above is taking apart and refilling old lighters with bug spray. His business was brisk.

        Make shift rehearsal areas abound, as does the great Cuban jazz.  I was surprised
by the number of musicians spotted around neighborhoods jamming away.

       Look at the age of this car, that serves in this moment as a music stand.  These 
guys were incredible.  

       When much of the world has gone wireless, the majority of Cubans rely on clearly
antiquated phone systems.

       Cubans play great baseball.  Not unlike the stick ball of New York city, these guys
find a way to convert a block of Havana into a playing arena.

       For almost a half a century the Island nation has lived with the ravages of deterioration.  A revolutionary political and socialist economic meltdown, Soviet heavy handedness and then abandonment and the stringent US economic embargo.  Despite
the adversity, Cubans find a way to carry on and with a joy in those things that bring them pleasure, despite having to improvise or make due.
       Stay tuned for more from our Cuban file.  (See the Post of June 15 2011.)
       See you down the trail.