Well, the dust has settled and things are pretty well back to normal. Today we have no water service, my internet has been intermittent, the power was off the other day, and a sewer project has left a six-foot-deep open trench in our road that we had to leap over to get to our house, until Michael put down this makeshift bridge the other day.

The sewer project has resulted in broken water lines by the end of nearly every day. The next morning city workers come to fix things and we have water for another few hours to fill our reserve tank. Yesterday, we were profligate, and without thinking we watered the new lawn and I worked for hours in the darkroom, washing prints with an open faucet. We hadn’t noticed the tank was emptying until not a drop was left. Today, Michael is pacing around thinking up a new warning system valve that will turn on a light in the house when the tank is emptying (a pump keeps it topped off, but only when water is coming in from the street).  Oh, and the buzz of chainsaws in the background reminds me the beautiful line of cypress and eucalyptus trees on the other side of our road is being leveled and turned into lumber. Apparently some neighbors feared the trees would fall on their houses, and they got an order from the city. The landscape and hardscape around us change constantly, usually for the worse (sewer project excluded) and we just have to roll with it.

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Thanks to all of you who responded so enthusiastically to the New York Times article last week. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/garden/a-second-home-in-the-andes-worth-the-4300-mile-trek.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

And a special thanks to writer Sandy Keenan and photographer Tony Cenicola who did such great work while visiting us here in Cañar. Both produced a tremendous amount of good material, which the editors then … edited. This is the reality of journalism, and some stuff important to us ended up on the cutting room floor, such as images of indigenous neighbors and mention of the Canari women’s scholarship program. By the way, Portland friends, Sandy is looking for a good Portland story – it has to have an interesting house but more important, interesting people and ideas. She is presently doing a story on passive houses in Seattle area, for example. Send along any ideas and I’ll forward to her.

Meanwhile, Michael is making bread using a book brought by Tony, that M. insists is changing his life (or the way he makes bread anyway): My Bread, by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery in Manhattan. Very little yeast, very wet mass, no knead, 18 hours to rise (that’s a warming light over the bread dough). The first result was chewy baguettes and some of the best bread we’ve ever eaten. Since then M. has made pizza, tapas, panini, and is now looking forward to finding some of the more exotic ingredients once back in Portland (e.g. speck with pecorino sandwich).

Finally, we are down to the last three weeks of our 2013 Canar sojourn. While I increasingly daydream about Portland – warm days, summer nights, cotton dresses, old friends – I have so many great projects still going on here, and friends to see and things to do that I can’t imagine leaving.

But this is the “delightful pull” of living in two places. I hope to send another blog from Canar before we leave on July 3. Below: the view from our porch yesterday…those are peas coming up in the back field.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/06/06/garden/20130606-ECU.html?smid=pl-share

photo: Tony Cenicola

Dear Friends:

This Thursday, June 6, the New York Times, Home/Garden section, is featuring our life in Cañar with a full-page article with photos. This has been in the works since April, when the writer and photographer visited Cañar, but I didn’t want to say anything until we had a publication date. An on-line version, with a slideshow of 23 photos, will probably go up on Wednesday night. I’ll send a link on this site as soon as I see the article.

If you’re curious to know how this has come about, I’ll be happy to tell you, as it falls under the subject of “shameless self-promotion.” When Our House in the Clouds came out in March, I sent an e-mail to a writer I’ve frequently read and liked at the Times’ Home section, mentioning the book and adding a few photos. She wrote right back saying she’d pass the message on to her editor. Within days I heard from the editor, who said they might be interested “if you haven’t already had press.” (Well, I thought, I can probably hold off all the other media clambering for interviews and coverage.) A writer, Sandy Keenan, got in touch to say she was reading the book, and might be interested to come to Cañar to do a story. Were there any hotels nearby?

Thus began a wonderful couple of weeks in April. Sandy and the photographer, Tony Cenicola, came at separate times, stayed with us as house guests, and proved themselves  true third-world troopers. Sandy’s luggage went on to Lima, Peru, and didn’t show up until five days later, mere hours before she left. Tony’s Avis rental car, along with some of his equipment in the trunk, was towed the first night from in front of his hotel in Cuenca, and impounded by the traffic police as “possibly stolen” (for no other reason than it was on the street at night). And it stayed impounded for the eight days of his stay, despite escalating calls to Avis agents, lawyers, Cuenca officials, and finally, the assistant to the mayor. No one could do anything, although a journalist friend in Cuenca valiantly took on the cause.

Tony had to rent a second car while continuing to pay for the first. He began a blog to friends called, “Daily Cup of Kafka.” Finally, a judge’s order allowed him to get his equipment (our journalist friend was key to this triumph), but the car was not liberated until seven days after he left. Tony was charged with lawyers and court fees, impoundment costs, plus the rental for both cars. (One of his parting comments to me was: “You told me not to rent a car!”)

But through it all Sandy and Tony calmly carried on with their work and enjoyed Canar, the people they met, the local sites, and Michael’s meals.  Certainly, we enjoyed them.

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We are back home after a very chilly month in Spain, making Cañar feel positively tropical. (Newspaper headlines our last day: “Spain Braces for Coldest Summer in 200 Years.”) I’m hoping to write one more blog about our trip – despite the weather we enjoyed our time and learned a tremendous amount about the Basque history, culture and today’s political/economic situation.

Below: last day in Hondarribia, near the French border. Our San Nicolas hotel is with light blue trim around windows. Brrrrrr.