After fourteen hours of travelling I finally arrived Sunday, January 17th in El Membrillo, a small village in the municipality of San Miguel de Allende, about 10 miles north of the famed UNESCO heritage site, with the same name: San Miguel de Allende.  I’m staying at Simple Choice Farm, here in the high desert, surrounded by mountains, cactus, acacia, and a multitude of volcanic rocks that form walls and pillars and pave ancient roads throughout the region.  It is starkly beautiful here.  The winter months are dry months and all the grasses look irreparably brittle.  Daytime temperatures are in the lower seventies, but as soon as the sun’s rays are blocked by the mountains to the west,  usually around 6 pm, the air immediately cools and we reach for wraps to keep warm while the temperatures dip to overnight lows of mid 40’s.  To this midwestern girl, the temperatures feel downright balmy, having fled what is typically the time when snow and cold are their worst.

This set of pictures are a representative sample of some of the first visual impressions made in the first couple of days.

The gate is on the front wall of the property, looking westward to the mountain behind which the sun sets each evening.

The WayMaking Cairn’s first encounter with the garden cactus which stand just to the left of the garden gate.

The final shot of the sky after the sun has sunk behind the mountain, yet the far off clouds reflect the dwindling final embers of the sun.

Even though its winter there are still hardy vining flowers that blossom in the high desert.

It feels almost miraculous to behold the brilliant, clean blues of the skies and the high cloud formations when I can still see in my mind’s eyes the low dirty grey sky and clouds of the urban midwest.

Mexican Desert Sky

Here on Simple Choice Farm its not unusual to meet some of the other residents out on the terrace next to the pool, sitting and chatting while watching the sun set.