Tag Archives: food

Mexico

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I adore Mexico. Counting my honeymoon in Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta in the dark ages (1977), we’ve visited Zihuatanejo, Sayulita, Manzanillo, Cozumel (including return visits to a few of those places) a dozen times. This week, we’re celebrating the milestone birthdays of three family members in Playa del Carmen, an hour from Cancun. It’s our first time here, and a way to discover a little more about a country we’ve come to love, despite all the bad press it gets. We’ve only found friendly people, beautiful beaches — like the one below, in the state of Colima, wonderful food, interesting flora, and a welcome escape from winter.

About those beaches, there are wild beaches too, like the ones on the east side of Cozumel in the state of Quintana Roo….

…. where the ocean hurls itself up through yawning holes in the limestone.

In Sayulita in the state of Jalisco, the waves pound the shore relentlessly, washing over the boulders buried in the sand.

Sometimes there are good books….

….. and sometimes not much of anything…..

…..except watching the iguanas going in and out of their hiding places in the rocks…..

….or a pelican taking off to catch fish.

We’ve stayed in some ‘interesting’ places, like this hilltop casa straight from the 1980s in Sayulita….

…. with its rather precarious hammock perch and so many steps to get down to the beach we considered it all the exercise we needed.

We’re not really “all-inclusive” people, but we’ve stayed in three. This was Casa Velas in Marina Vallarta, a neighbourhood of Puerto Vallarta….

….. and it had pet peacocks wandering around that would come right into your room, if you let them.

This was the view from Meliá Cozumel, a Spanish-owned all-inclusive on our first trip to Cozumel.

Perhaps the most dramatic stay was in a rented house overlooking Manzanillo Bay with a lovely outdoor dining table….

…. and a spectacular view of the sun rising over the bay. That beach down there, by the way….

…. is where Bo Derek made her spectacular exit from the water in the movie ‘10’.

There were trips with an ecological flavour, like this stop at a turtle sanctuary in Colima, near Manzanillo, where we escorted baby turtles to the ocean…..

….. and later learned how sea salt is harvested at Lagoon Cuyutlán….

….. and the value of the adjacent mangrove ecosystem to all kinds of wildlife.

My artist son could often be found with his sketchpad, pencil and watercolours…..

…. capturing a particularly lovely scene.

We’ve done some snorkel trips on very nice boats, like this one in Cozumel….

…. and some on simpler affairs with questionable lifejackets and all-you-can-drink tequila!

On one stay in Cozumel we were lucky to climb down a ladder from our deck right into the area where abundant fish were swimming in fairly shallow water, including slender barracudas that swam past without batting an eye.

On one occasion, my eldest son treated the family to a sunset sailing trip.

The handsome brothers posed for their mom.

And, of course ,there was a sunset!

On both the Pacific coast and in Yucatan, we love watching the sunsets, like this one in Puerto Vallarta….

…. and this one setting behind people walking on a pier in Cozumel.

When winter is still flexing its muscles at home, this is a lovely way to end the day.

And food! I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to buy a big, ripe papaya (the ones on the tree below do not qualify as ripe) at the town market and enough limes to squeeze on top for breakfast each morning. Heaven – and unlike any papaya you’ve tasted in Canada or the U.S.

When we stayed in Sayulita one year, the hotel’s banana plant was laden with fruit.

No Mexican vacation is complete without fresh pico de gallo, or salsa fresco. With taco chips, of course!

Coconut shrimp at Casa Mission in Cozumel was accompanied by a…..

….. mariachi trio, who sang my husband’s very favourite Spanish song. If we’ve been to Mexico a dozen times, we’ve probably heard at least a half-dozen mariachi groups sing this one.

When we stayed in Manzanillo, the accommodation came with a very accomplished cook who made us delicious crab salad….

…. and traditional sopa de tortilla (chicken tortilla soup).  Even back home in Canada, that is one of our favourite Mexican dishes.

At our hotel in Puerto Vallarta one winter, I just had to photograph these perfect huevos benedictinos!

Mexico is known for its fish, of course. A lovely picnic lunch at our place in Cozumel included this grilled grouper with rice and vegetables.
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Mexican flora?  Yes, of course! Almost any place where the ocean meets the shore is where you’ll find sea grape (Coccoloba uvifera), which is native to coastal beaches throughout the Caribbean.

On the wild east side of Cozumel, I found a perfect ‘nature’s garden’ of seaside (littoral) plants. The one nearest is sea lavender (Heliotropium gnaphalodes); the bright green one behind is seaside tansy (Borrichia frutescens).

I found native bees on the seaside tansy.

And palms are everywhere, of course.

At our rental in Manzanillo, there were pots of beautiful tropical flowers, like desert rose (Adenium obsesum)……

….. which was the perfect colour for my hair adornment!

Bougainvillea is everywhere in Mexico, and so entrancing in its rainbow of colours.

One thing we haven’t done in Mexico is shop in stores that you might find in any big city in North America. But I did love this little water garden at the mall near our hotel in Puerto Vallarta.

We first visited Puerto Vallarta on our honeymoon in 1977 and it was still a small town. Now it’s a big centre with lots of development and airplane access daily from Toronto and many other centres in the U.S. When we last visited, we enjoyed the opportunity to have lunch at a beach restaurant with my old friend….

…. landscape architect Tom Sparling, right, and his partner Tom Reynolds, left.  Like a lot of Canadians, they have made their winter home in Puerto Vallarta.

And we finally got to the Vallarta Botanical Gardens on our last visit to Mexico in 2018….

….. where we met my Facebook friend Lisa McCleery. Originally from Toronto, Lisa now lives full-time in the little town of El Tuito, near Puerto Vallarta.

The botanical garden is quite wonderful, with a wealth of tropical plants….

…. and beautifully displayed succulents.

The accessories in the garden are exquisite.

We ate a delicious lunch in the Visitors’ Center, which has a nice shop and comfy chairs…

…. overlooking the jungle.  It was a truly lovely day…. and I owe the garden a comprehensive blog.

One of the reasons we’ve spent so many winter vacations enjoying Mexico is that someone I know quite well had the very good sense to have a birthday in the last week in February.

And this week, we’re celebrating that occasion once again, as well as the milestone birthdays of two of my sons. It is a family celebration in a part of the world we’ve come to love… Playa del Carmen…. with the amazing blues of the Gulf of Mexico as it meets the Yucatan Peninsula…

and its stunning beaches and attractions.

Viva Mexico!

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So…. #mysongscapes always require a suitable song to accompany the photos. That’s no problem for me! Not with James Taylor and his 1975 song Mexico.

MEXICO

Way down here, you need a reason to move
Feel a fool, running your stateside games
Lose your load, leave your mind behind Baby James

Oh, Mexico
It sounds so simple I just got to go
The sun’s so hot I forgot to go home
Guess I’ll have to go now

Americano got the sleepy eye
But his body’s still shaking like a live wire
Sleepy señorita with the eyes on fire

Oh, Mexico
It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
The moon’s so bright like to light up the night
Make everything all right

Baby’s hungry and the money’s all gone
The folks back home don’t want to talk on the phone
She gets a long letter, sends back a postcard
Times are hard

Oh, down in Mexico
I never really been so I don’t really know
Oh, Mexico
I guess I’ll have to go

Oh, Mexico
I never really been but I’d sure like to go
Oh, Mexico
I guess I’ll have to go now

Talking ’bout in Mexico
In a honky tonk down in Mexico
Oh, Mexico, Mexico, Mexico
Oh, Mexico, Mexico, Mexico
Oh, Mexico
Mexico, Mexico

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This is the 16th blog in #mysongscapes series of winter 2020 that combine music I love with my photography. If you enjoyed reading it, have a look at the others.  And please leave a comment if you enjoyed it.

  1. Joni Mitchell’s ‘Night in the City’;
  2. Paul Simon’s ‘Kodachrome’ and my life in photography;
  3. Vietnam and Songs of Protest;
  4. Galway Bay and memories of my grandfather and Ireland;
  5. Simon and Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme;
  6. The John Denver lullaby I sang to my first grandchild, Today While the Blossoms Still Cling to the Vine.
  7. Gordon Lightfoot for a Snow Day
  8. Madame George by Van Morrison – my favourite song in the world
  9. Brown Eyed Girl(s) – Van Morrison’s classic and my black-eyed susans
  10. Raindrops – on flowers and in my gardens
  11. Miss Rumphius and the Lupines
  12. Bring me Little Water – on water in the garden
  13. Amsterdam… Spring Sunshine
  14. Both Sides Now – a reflection on clouds and Joni Mitchell
  15. Crimson & Clover and Other Legumes – a love letter to the pea family, Fabaceae

Blossom Party 2018 at the Toronto Botanical Garden

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It was another perfect spring day for this year’s edition of the Blossom Party, one of the TBG’s major fundraising events.  Its lovely new name (it was formerly called the Woman to Woman Party) makes it more welcoming for all the men who like to attend this happy party, and I saw quite a few in the crowd yesterday.

But it’s also about friendship and celebrating spring and the gardening season after a long, cold winter. There were friends at tables on the Westview Terrace….

…..and TBG supporters like Jim Mosher of Landscape Plus Ltd., a Blossom Party sponsor, here with family members of his company…..

….. and Mary Gore, centre, with members of her accounting firm. She owns one of Toronto’s finest gardens out in the Beaches.

There were friends at tables in the tent…..

…. and friends in deep conversation under the warm sun (but fortunately not the blazing-hot sun of the day before!)……

…. and friends checking out the TBG’s Edibles Garden, still planted with spring bulbs (hello Janet & Patsy!).

I found Kathy Dembroski, founding patron of the Blossom Party Committee, at a table with her friends.

You might know her name from the TBG’s principal building.  This is what generosity in Toronto looks like, as I saw it after a lecture late one night! Thanks to George and Kathy, as always.

And speaking of sponsorship, flowery hats off to TD Wealth for providing the major sponsorship for this lovely event!

Some of my own garden writing pals were wearing their finest. This is Aldona Satterthwaite, who was the editor of Canadian Gardening Magazine for eight years, before becoming the TBG’s Executive Director for three years. She’s now happily retired and travelling the world and enjoying her garden and grandbabies.

Garden writers Tara Nolan and Sonia Day found a spot in the shade to trade stories. And Sonia later won the Monica van Maris Green Professionals Woman of Influence Award from Landscape Ontario!

I handed my camera to the TBG’s beautiful head gardener Sandra Pella (thanks Sandra!), to capture a moment with some of my long-time garden friends and colleagues. At left is Susan Dyer, a wonderful gardener and part of a dynamic TBG support team with husband Geoffrey, former chair of the garden’s board of directors. (They were also good friends with the late Christopher Lloyd, and Geoffrey Dyer set up the charitable trust for Great Dixter Garden in East Sussex, UK). Next is Bayla Gross, with whom I helped organize out-of-city garden tours for the old Civic Garden Centre (the TBG’s predecessor). In fabulous yellow is urban planner Lindsay Dale-Harris, former board member of the Civic Garden Centre and chief fundraiser a decade ago for the development of the new Toronto Botanical Garden. Then there’s a very warm garden blogger with a floral hat that’s drooping, but still quite perfumed. To my left is artist Susanne Drinkwater. Beside her is former Ryerson University School of Landscape Architecture professor Sue Macaulay.

I found horticultural gurus Owen Reeves and the TBG’s own Paul Zammit chatting under a Japanese maple.

It was the Blossom Party – so NATURALLY there were flowers, not just in the lovely gardens, where willowleaf amsonia, lilacs and alliums were putting on a show….

…. but all over the party venue. This was the spectacular mannequin under the marquee, courtesy of Fleurs de Villes.

And this was a lovely windowbox display inside the new-this-year Spa Room.

Of course, there were flowers in the main tent, at the bar…..

…. and at each table, courtesy of a dozen of the city’s most fabulous floral designers.  Here are just a few; it would be hard for me to pick a favourite, but peonies are perfect for this time of year…..

….. and more peonies (what great vases!)…..

….. and chic calla lilies…

…… and luscious ranunculus with lily-of-the-valley and freesias (this was my fave.)

There were dancing ‘flowers’ in the garden as well, featuring a trio from Hit & Run Dance Productions, from left Järvi Raudsepp, Minami Suzuki and Elizabeth Gagnon.

To the envy of many of us with feet squeezed into high heels, they took to the water channel on the Westview Terrace barefoot to perform one ballet…..

…. and greeted visitors as they arrived, along with fetching aerial artist Jamie Holmes.

Here’s a taste of some of their performance:

Are you thirsty yet?  We could have a glass of rosé….

…. or we could sip one of the hottest-coolest new drinks, a botanical treat whose eponymous…uh, pea-forward… garden won a Gold Award at this years’s Chelsea Flower Show. Meet Seedlip, which, though it’s non-alcoholic, would certainly make a nice pairing with gin, in my humble opinion. And since I’ve had the good fortune of sampling this fizzy herbal on two occasions this week (the first time featured an opened pea pod as garnish), I can tell you it’s a unique and delicious treat.

As always, the food was delicious and showed off the talents of some of Toronto’s finest caterers.  These little crudité flowerpots were courtesy of Yorkshire Pudding Catering (who might make the best wedding cake I’ve ever tasted, anywhere….)  The veggies are ‘planted’ in edible soil over green-goddess dip. Very gardenesque!

10tation Event Catering offered yummy bowls of vegan salad.

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Encore Catering served up these delicate, mouthwatering morsels, “salmon poke taro taco”.

And Daniel et Daniel sweetened our palates with delectable desserts…

…. along with Eatertainment, who crafted these vegan chocolate terrariums with “edible soil”, sponge toffee and raspberries.

New this year in the Garden Hall was the Spa, with Murale providing make-up…..

…. and soothing hand massages.

Mindham Jewelry was there, too, and party-goers were seen trying on some of the bijoux.  And isn’t that fascinator wonderful?

Yes, let’s face it. The Blossom Party is all about THE HATS! There were tall confections in yellow tulle….

…. and magnificent magenta with feathers!

I saw pussy willows…..

…. and scads of blossoms…..

…. and loads of pollinators.

Bees were well-represented….

…. as were butterflies!

TBG Executive Director Harry Jongerden, with Lorna McKay at left, was wearing his expansion hardhat!

Because, if you don’t know by now, the TBG is about to embark upon a massive expansion that will see it go from 4 to 35 acres and encompass Edwards Gardens.

Back to the party!  There were baseball caps attached to floral balloons….

…. and hats that went perfectly with flowery frocks….

…including some that highlighted passionate purple….

….and azure-blue (hello Marjorie!)….

…..and shimmering white.

So many blossoms – fascinators, hats, dresses – what a lovely time of year in Toronto!

A few of us tried our hands at ‘fresh flower flourishes’. I compared notes with Barbara Fleming of the Garden Club of Toronto, who favoured roses, geraniums and hydrangea leaves….

…. while I wove a hat-band of Meyer dwarf lilacs and lily-of-the-valley from my garden for my own flowery chapeau.  (For a how-to from 2016, read my lily-of-the-valley hat blog.)

CBC reporter Tashauna Reid was on hand to emcee.

Harry Jongerden made a few, brief comments and the Monica van Maris Green Professionals Woman of Influence Award co-sponsored by Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association and Toronto Botanical Garden was presented to Sonia Day.

Then it was time for the winners of the hat competition, judged by some of Toronto’s most fashionable femmes. Sylvie Hatch was runner-up, with her perfectly accessorized, veiled, yellow-and-black chapeau.

And the top prize? It went to vivacious Tenny Nigoghossian, left, one of Toronto’s powerhouse fundraisers – pictured here with the TBG’s own powerhouse fundraiser, Claudia Zuccato Ria.  Tenny told me she found her dramatic, bejeweled headpiece at an end-of-season costume sale at Canadian Stage Company Ltd., when she was Executive Director of Advancement there. “It was sitting unwanted on a table, going for $5 or $10, and no one wanted it. So I bought it.”  It appears Tenny, who was sparkling all the way down to her stilettos (which was noted by the judges), knew a very good thing when she saw it.

There were a pair of great door prizes – a trip to the Arctic, courtesy of Adventure Canada (I’ve been on one of their spectacular cruises through Nunavut and Greenland, lucky winner!), and one that included air fare and accommodation to see the gardens of Pennsylvania, including gorgeous Chanticleer Garden in Wayne (here’s my double blog on that stunning garden, my very favourite public garden in the United States).

So ended another lovely Blossom Party, all proceeds going to benefit the good work of the Toronto Botanical Garden.  May it thrive and grow for generations to come!