Joy's 4'O'Clocks

We gathered some seeds from Grandma Joy's garden in Wayne several years ago.  I remember the yellow and the red (below).

I'm wondering if this is a new crossbreed??

As this might be too??  Does anyone remember the dual colored blossoms??

Tomato Worms

These "monsters" can hide in plain sight!!  I pulled these two off early this morning.

Yep, they are almost the diameter of my index (pointer) finger.  We both went out about 11am and found at least 8 more!!  Most were smaller, about the diameter of a round toothpick.

This photo was when we came home.  You can see some of the "eaten" branches to the upper left.  The worms have been working their way down.  They even chew on the green tomatoes.  SueSue, where are you?? 

Back Home in Rocky Mount

With all the e-mails about the hot weather in Missouri and rest of USA we expected to have BROWN when we arrived, but it was still quite green.  The tomato worms were very hungry and liked the offerings available in pots on the deck.   I hope we will get some good tomatoes in the near future.  Some of the smaller dogwoods in sheltered areas looked brown, but our greenery seems to have weathered the heat. 

View toward the cathedral.  Thanks, Carol, John, and Bob for putting up with a tricky electrical system and keeping the water flowing thru the sprinkler system.

The marigolds are still blooming.

Hostas in the shady part of the garden are looking very pretty.

Of course, the weeds did grow a tad, too!!

Carol has enjoyed a couple of sessions at the heated water excercise pool and I have returned to Eldon Food Pantry and Resale Store on Mondays and Habitat Restore on Tuesdays.  Once the tractor is back from the repair shop I will be able to reduce the washboard road that has developed down Dunnings Hill.  ttfn

Recycling in Montes Claros

The recycle place that Wem prefers is right next to their church!!  We have separated the aluminum cans from the plastic containers and loaded them into a large, strong, plastic bag and hauled it on the trailer behind their car.  Wemerson is unfastening the load while Josue watches.

A better shot

The "recycle" center.  It has lots of interesting items and I always think of Grandpa Willard when I find a place like this.  His mind would be making all kinds of interesting inventions with the objects that have been abandoned by their original owners.  Wem doesn't take cardboard anymore, as it doesn't add much to the $ amount and is really difficult to haul.  Some of the people recycling did have cardboard on their loads.

Flora

The middle of Brasil's winter so when I watered this corner of the garden the amaryllis decided to bloom.  Remember, temps are 55-85 at this time of year.

Bouganvillia (spelling??) that are growing along the main road into the complex.

More

An interesting plant that Anna (on furlough to Australia) had pointed out the last trip.  I had never seen it bloom.  The blossoms are elongated "balloons" that hang down and then push out these bright red "stars".

My hand gives an idea of the size of the blooms.

The leaf structure that supports the long flower stalks.

The jubuticaba fruit are now the size of your little finger nail and Wem says they should be ripe about mid August IF someone continues to water them!!

Off into the sunset.

Yes, I was bored out of my gourd waiting in Belo for our delayed flight to depart.  This is about 6pm and I was watching flights come in and depart and saw the beams of light coming thru the clouds from the setting sun.  You can see the lift off of a jet just at the horizon between the two planes on the ground.

Another shot as the plane soars toward the cloud cover.  The large plane in front is TAP, a Portugal based airline.  It had landed a couple of hours earlier.  Carol and I had found a spot on the third floor observation deck and were able to lay flat for 15-30 minutes at a time to keep our backs from aching.  The concrete floor was not the most comfortable, but with a small blanket and hooded sweat shirts for pillows it worked ok.  The airport did have a computer place to rent time on the internet, so we were able to keep Sis, Sara and Eric informed of our travails.

Hey, Kim, can we get one of those ice cream cones??  We really enjoy your blog.  Hope you have fun on the Meramac.  The lake has been BUSY this weekend.

Wildlife at MTC

The little monkeys returned the last couple of days we were there.  They are lemur like!!  This one is sitting in the shade of the water reservoir for one of the houses.  If the well pump fails or electricity cuts out, there is a 6000 gallon tank on top of the hill and each house has a 300 gallon tank in reserve.  I think electricity may have been intermittent when the site was started 25 years ago.  We did not have an outage while we were there.

The burrowing owl also showed up that week.  Must be some timing thing??  We did not see the pair so suspect that one must be sitting on the nest??

The hollowed out log where the owls reside and hide.

A vinte vee.  That is the sound it makes, also!!

Really miss the telephoto lens on the film camera but DON"T miss the cost of film and developing.  Sorry Kodak.

Family Fotos

Wem, Lucas, Max & Sara

Montes Claros Airport

Sara, Wem, Lucas, Ron, Max, & Carol

As we were starting our "memorable" but not good journey back to Missouri.

The GOL flight to Confins Airport in Belo Horizonte went nicely, but the rest of the trip was how NOT to travel.

American Air flight from Belo to Miami was scheduled at 9:50pm but was delayed until 1:50am the next morning.  It finally got in the air and we got some sleep between dinner and breakfast.  The walk from the D gate to Customs was VERY LONG!!  They claim they are improving the airport but the distances are almost as bad as Atlanta. We knew we had an early afternoon flight which normally would have required us to be in Miami from 6am to 2:50 pm.  The "late" landing time of 9:15am did not bother us, but MANY people missed their connections.  We found a Dunkin Donuts and had coffee and donut and fiddle around until noon all the while checking for our flight to be posted on the Departures board (didn't happen) and then went looking for our gate (not indicated on ticket).  American has the entire D concourse and 3 security checkpoints to relieve some of the congestion.  We checked with a lady who had a list of the gates and she told us D24.  After we cleared the middle security set up I checked the Departures monitor where our flight was finally listed and it was CANCELLED!!  Panic ensued and I directed to a customer service desk with 2 beleagured employees trying to calm down the CANCELLED passengers.  Long story, short version: we got put on an 8:30 flight which was scheduled to get into STL at 10:35.  During the evening wait, AA changed the gate twice and rescheduled departure time 3 times!!  Eric got us a Courtyard room near the airport which had limo service.  Flight gets in after 11pm and limo service stopped at 10:30pm!!  $26 cab ride and we finally got to a bed.  Sis drove up the next morn and picked us up and we finally made it to the lake about 2pm Friday.  Should have been home about 8pm Thursday.  I'm working on a "reimbursement" letter to AA for the hotel room and cab ride.  Supervisor at Miami said policy would not authorize because they got us to our destination!!  I asked about the policy if the flight was delayed until 3am the next morning.  SAME ANSWER!!  We got you to your destination!!  I will also ask for $100 refund for each ticket, because they cancelled our flight.  When we cancelled due to visa problems, they charged $100 per trip ($400 total plus a $88 fare increase) to reschedule

Assorted Stuff

Grandma Carol bought the boys balloons on one shopping spree.

Allison, Janet and Carol examine some of the wooden items in the central market.

Sara looks at some of the hats.  Ron would like to find another hat similar to the red one he has borrowed from Wemerson.  Carol, Janet (nose), Allison, and shop keeper are in background.  The market has fruits, veggies, flowers, clothing, meat, eating spots, etc and is a very small version of the one in Belo.

Claudio is saying a prayer for the Sadtlers who have been serving in Africa and will return for a two week intensive course.  The son, Chris??, in the middle, translated the Portugese into English for his dad who is wearing the black, I Love Africa, t-shirt.  The dad was a very energetic speaker.  He had graduated some years earlier from MTC.

The River Water Wheel

The water from an irrigation channel is shunted into the blue pipe which runs to the top of the wheel and makes it turn.

The pump which the wheel drives then takes in some of this "river" water and forces it up the hill to a concrete holding tank.  The water is then gravity fed into a system of pipes for watering trees, grass and flowers on the MTC property. The piping system is old and seems to break alot.

Brian, the Englishman, is walking atop the concrete diversion "dam" which starts the irrigation channel.

River Walk

This post is out of order as internet was very slow the day I thought I had posted it, but gave up in frustration.  A group of potential students and several persons from MTC decided to take a stroll to the river.   One group is ahead in the upper right corner.

The river is to the left and Sara (lower right says that this pool which can be accessed fairly easily has been used for baptisms.  Janet is next, then Wem with Lucas on shoulders.

Carol is looking at some papyrus. This is the second "falls" that we saw.

The papyrus.

The group gathered at a swimming hole.  Michael in the white and blue striped shirt in the middle is hanging on the rope swing that is well used by locals.

The diversion "dam" and another set of falls.  The pool is also used for swimming.  Michael and Wem (green) are in foreground.

Brian is carefully walking atop the concrete diverter that takes water from "upriver" and puts it into an irrigation channel that winds thru MTC and around several farms on the south side of the property.