Weekly Observations
Jun 19 - 25, 2005
Week started out without any rain, but there are clouds each night and the
high temperatures have fallen from the upper 90°s F. to the low 90°s F.
and upper 80°s F. The small change in temperature makes things much more
comfortable, unless you need to be out in the mid-day sun, where it is still
hot.
We climbed up into the mountains behind Mezcala on Tuesday. The hills
still look very brown, but close examination of the trees and bushes shows several
have begun to show new growth. Besides the yellow flowers of Primavera there
are trees with white flowers that go by the name dedo de Dios (God's finger)
in Spanish.
Wednesday evening it began to rain about 6:30 PM. It was moderately
heavy for about 15 minutes, then continued lightly off and on throughout the
night, stopping around dawn. The pattern repeated Thursday evening, but with added
thunder and lightning, towards morning the rain was moderately heavy but little
thunder. By Friday the high temps were mid-80°s, though no rain that night nor
Saturday.
I've noticed the avocado tree next door has little fruit on it, about
an inch long, along with the fully grown ones that are ready to eat. One or two
drop off each day, and a grey ground squirrel takes a few bites out of each one.
The tree flowered a few weeks back, probably in April, though I didn't write it
down so I can't be sure of the date.
When we were at Mezcala Island in early June my mother-in-law identified
the large tree in the middle of the open plaza in the fort there as camachin,
which she said is highly attractive to bats when it is fruiting. A bit of research
on-line showed me that the tree is a kind of wild fig tree, probably Ficus padifolia
or perhaps Ficus glaucescens -- otherwise called chalate or amate prieto
in Spanish and sha´pua by the Cora indians who used to occupy this area. As soon
as I saw it was a fig I realized that the young immature fruit we saw on it was familiar,
a miniature version of the figs I've had from domesticated trees here, though the leaf
form is very different, the wild version having simple ovate leaf, while
the domesticated version has broad, deeply lobed leaves. Now that I can recognize it (at
least by the fruit) I have begun seeing these trees all over the Chapala-Ajijic area.
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