Oh Boy! Two in Row!

Well, our first Pacific storm earns a name (Alvin) and another depression arises (she now is a Tropical Storm named Barbara.) Back to back! This is not a good sign for the summer and hurricane season. It’s still hot here. Hotter than it should be in May. There was a good chance that it would have cooled off again after Alvin self destructed while hitting cooler water. But now it’s a whole new and rather unknown ballgame.

It’s Getting Hotter!

Over the weekend, the daytime and nighttime temps went up – at least 5 degrees F in my non-scientific opinion. From past experience, Todos Santos has 3 major temp changes as summer hotness arrives. First the night temps go from under 60 to under 70. Then they go to 75. And finally to 80+. When the coolest it gets is 80+ at night, you know summer has fully arrived.

Yesterday seemed hotter and last night just didn’t cool off as much as earlier in the week. And this morning, it was noticeably warmer than yesterday.

If this is the first normal temp jump, then this is the earliest I can remember it happening. In 1997, temps jumped in mid-June and that year (an El Niño year) had one of the hottest and longest summers in my 10+ years living here full time. In typical past years, this change in temps occurs in mid July.

I just checked weatherunderground.com and yes, the first tropical depression of the season is in the east Pacific, way south of Baja, moving west. This would explain the warmer weather here. Every new storm south of us can usually be felt as warmer and more humid air here.

Todos Santos Pages has a list of hurricane info sites here:

http://www.todossantos-baja.com/todos-santos/hurricanes/todossantos-hurricanes.htm#hurrlinks

Oh boy…here we go again!

2008 Todos Santos Art Festival Dates Announced

Actually it is pretty amazing to know the dates this far in advance. I emailed the festival coordinator several weeks ago and didn’t get a reply so I checked in on him again and this time he replied that the festival will be February 3-9, 2008. So make your plans, buy plane tickets and reserve your rentals.

I’ll post the schedule of events when it is released, usually sometime in January.

More info on the festival: Todos Santos Art Festival

Photos from Los Angeles, 1920 – 1990

I don’t have a whole lot to add to this so here’s from the introduction page:

The UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections has selected and digitized 5,124 of the more than three million images contained in the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News photographic archives. The photographs chronicle the history and growth of Los Angeles from the 1920s to 1990.

There are way more photos than I can check out, but of course, I immediately went to the surf section just to see and here’s a direct link to some surf photos mostly from SoCal in the 1960’s. Use the subject search to find more.

http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/lat/subject.cfm?subject=175119

What also worked really well was to search by keyword for “surf” – it even revealed a photo of President John Kennedy on the beach surrounded (unprotected) by normal people in swimwear. In fact, here’s the link to that photo:

http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/lat/display.cfm?ms=uclalat_1429_b489_216307

Enjoy!

Charles Stewart 85th Birthday Party

On Sunday, May 20, Charles Stewart had a birthday party (his 85th) at Cañada del Diablo in Todos Santos. It was very well attended and a great food and beverage spread was laid out for all to enjoy. In case you somehow missed hearing, Charles was possibly the first “gringo” artist to arrive in Todos Santos and hence is sometimes considered the “founding artist” of our growing art colony.

Charlie is prolific, talkative and likes to make puns about almost everything. His art style has remained relatively constant in his time in Todos Santos, but his subject matter has changed a bit. When I first saw his art in 1993, he was mostly painting North American Indians using geometrical symmetry and brilliant colors. These days his paintings are much more abstract and the Indians have been left behind.

The location – Cañada del Diablo hosting the event.

The food table…very popular.

The bartenders and the bar! Just as popular!

My ex-neighbor, Ralph Carmona. He doesn’t get out much.

Francisco, Todos Santos’ previous fire chief.

Catanya Saltzman and Amir (our local chiro)!

Robert Whiting, Gloria Marie V and Michael Mercer!

Charles Stewart with Catanya.

Phonebook publisher Jan Piere with a proof copy.

Charles, feeling good!

Robert Saltzman, with Charles, telling stories of the old days in Taos, NM.

Happy Birthday in Spanish (Las Mañanitas.)

Marylu and Charles Stewart.

Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season Officially Starts

Yep, the official beginning of our hurricane season is May 15 – ending is October 31. Want to know more about how the experts view the 2007 season? Check out Baja Insider’s great Baja Hurricane Watch pages, starting with this one:

http://velasdebaja.com/2007/05/baja-california-eastern-pacific.html

That’s all for now…

May Day – Dia del Trabajo

I don’t know about other parts of Mexico, but here in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, May 1 is a worker’s holiday. There aren’t big parades nor any other types of major events or public gatherings, but the workers normally decorate a cross with flowers and mount it on the highest point of the work they are currently involved in. I drove around and took a few photos of some of the crosses decorating Todos Santos works in progress.

Dia del Niño (Children’s Day)

April 30 is Dia del Niño, literally day of the children, and here in Todos Santos the kids have parties at school and for some there is a parade late in the day. I was lucky to be at my office/gallery when the parade went by otherwise I would never have seen it. Or even known it had happened.

Pesky Surf Weather

I have said it before but it bears repeating – this is a strange weather year. On April 27, a NW swell showed up. Very late in the year for that kind of weather. Normally by now, most all the swells are from the south. With almost all of these late season NW swells the wind picks up really early and Friday, April 27 was not different. The ocean was choppy but there were waves and so some people were in the water going for it. The last few days (first days of May) we have had cold nights and chilly foggy mornings – June gloom – only in May. Go figure! Must be El Niño!

That’s Diego making it look so easy!

The pangas were bouncing in the rough seas.

Morning walk for the horses.

May El Calendario de Todos Santos On Line

Today I posted the latest edition of El Calendario de Todos Santos to the web:

www.elcalendariodetodossantos.com

Enjoy!