the other season...

we have two new additions to our little family here in quito ~ but we'll get to that later ~ first the news...

as we live our life on the equator there are two seasons~ we have just entered the second season~ wet.

honestly, i prefer dry but as long as it's sunny and warm for a few hours each day we don't mind the rain so much.

we have learned quickly to take advantage of the dry, sunny hours of the day and will often go for a walk in the park near our house (described previously) early before the weather changes. It's a steep climb into the park (and remember the altitude) ...
here's the entrance that we walk up. then we hang a right at the water treatment area and head into the eucalyptus woods.

Chris is surprised by the lack of mushrooms~ it seems like in the wet season there should be tons of mushrooms in the park ~ especially since there is also sun and warmth, but we've seen very few mushrooms ~ just a little orange fungus coming out of a tree.


but there are rows of eucalyptus trees....


there's a great path off the main road where the sun shines through the trees and there are even a bunch of chartreuse trees..















It's a wonderful place to walk (or run) and we're going to try and take some walks in the a.m. before school this week to prepare for a pretty intense hike we agreed to go on this saturday~ we'll see how that works out... Saturday we're supposed to get up early and hike 'corazon' which is about 4 - 4 1/2 hours up to the top and then a few more hours to get back down the mountain.

there are also lots of bromeliads in the trees in the park ~ they are so incredibly cute ~ que lindo!

















and there are lots of tree trunks covered in lichen ~ and chris really loves lichen. Well, here's one or two more pictures from the park and by the way, i have no idea why everything is suddenly underlined!

we love the park.
on another note ~ it's hard to believe thanksgivng is next week. especially since the weather doesn't change much here, it's hard to believe that it's getting cold up north and people are preparing for winter.

We will miss everyone greatly at Thanksgiving and miss being in eaglesmere at the cabin.

We get out of school at noon on Thanksgiving day and we will then head over to a friend's house who has a bunch of people over for Thanksgiving dinner.

And, it looks like we're going to have our first visitors here in Quito! My wonderful friend Susan Holt is coming to visit at the beginning of December with her boyfriend, Tom. They have perfect timing because we have 3 days off after the weekend they arrive and then they'll head out to explore Ecuador and come back to Quito. We'll all spend christmas together and then, hopefully, head to the black sheep inn for a few days. we are so excited for their visit!!



Okay, and now for the additions to our household here in Quito....
first, chris has been growing lots of plants from seeds and from clippings and our first zucchini blossom came out this weekend which means we will soon be eating delicous zucchini from our terrace!
we might be inspired to start growing tomato plants off the back terrace.

and for the next addition... as some of you may know we haven't had a couch of our own for a while. our friend, brenda offered us her sofa bed couch that was in her basement ~ and sofa beds are very hard to find in quito ~ they are rare and expensive. so, we had the couch picked up from her place by the reupholstry people. we started out by picking a neutral color that was not too expensive and then we threw caution to the wind (it was after school and we were both kind of hungry) and picked a swatch of beautiful pink fabric. Well, after they left with the couch we had a few doubts about whether an entire, huge couch would look good in pink ~but the couch was delivered on friday (and i have to say they barely got it up the four flights to our apartment) and it is simply beautiful. we have never owned anything like it. and not only is it pink and beautiful but it's also huge and comfortable and folds out into a bed in case we have guests.

we love it!!

anyway, that's about if for now thanks for all the comments ~ Dani thanks for all the feedback ~ keep them coming and hello to Paula ~ thanks for a hello from the 5B dayroom ~ I think about Mt. Vernon a lot and wonder how everyone is doing!
happy thanksgiving everyone ~ we have so much to be thankful for~ we will be thinking of our families and friends and we love you!