Avocados and Bakeries

Good morning.  It's Labor Day in Ecuador but I managed to miss out on a great photo op and now nothing is happening so I have to wait until the parade starts (no, I have no idea when it will be, just that there will be a parade).  The opportunity I missed out on was music blaring from speakers directly across the street from my apartment building.  Even though I'm in the back unit, the music woke me at 7:30.  It was time to get up anyway but that wasn't what I had in mind for an alarm.  At any rate, I went and peaked out the front door and there it was, on the sidewalk directly across the street from me, an Ecuadorian flag, a lectern with a shield on it (in Spanish, of course, so I have no idea what it said), and a chair with a very large speaker on it, playing a CD from a live concert of a very popular band.  I didn't rush to get ready because with the lectern and Ecuadorian flag, I figured there would be some kind of speaker and as long as the music was playing, I had time.  I was wrong.  When I went out at 9:00, everything was gone and the door in front of which all had been set up was now closed and there wasn't a soul in sight.

With luck, you'll hear more from me about Labor Day either later today or tomorrow.  In the meantime, just a couple of things:

I realize I've been talking to you about my never-ending supply of avocados but I've never shown you the literal fruits of my tree.  Here are two I picked up this morning and one from yesterday.  Yesterday's had been there since Sunday and had a nasty spot on it from lying on the ground for a day so I had to cut off a small slice from one side.  It's the one on the top right.  Because of that, it sits flatter on the drainboard and looks smaller than it actually is.  The cute little one on the left is the size I'm used to getting in stores in the States.  The largest one should be ready to eat tomorrow and the other two in a day or two after that.

 

When I went out to get the photo of the set-up across the street, I saw Sylvia, the owner of the bakery on my block, and asked if I could take her photo.  I wish I had noticed she wasn't smiling very much because she has the most beautiful smile.  The croissants behind her are, if memory serves, 18 cents each.  Too bad there's so much glare on the other glass doors.

So there we are--two little snippets of my life, parts of it that, individually, don't mean a great deal but, when added to all the other little bits, make my life here just a wee bit richer.