Shama LAMA ding dong. It's ALIVE!

My new word for today is lama.

It's what grows on things that sit around for any length of time in unairconditioned conditions during the rainy season and have any hint of organic matter on them -- even a trace of body oil or sweat. When lama grows on things inside it's blue and fuzzy. That's the kind I've been wiping off books, belts, shoes, leather jackets, our equipale furniture and rustica cabinets, clay dishes, and the handles of my Revereware pots and pans. Even the steering wheel on the jeep down in the basement was trying to reincarnate as a cashmere sweater. This just after six weeks away.

Outside lama is deep dark green, almost black -- except when it's fresh bright green, like right after a rain. Either way it really stands out white walls and red brick. It's even more, hmmmm - interesting, thriving in the gutters and on the sidewalks. I've been tempted to alter our street sign from "Golondrinos" to "Petrie Dish Drive."

Our friend Javier the housepainter assures us all will be made bright and pretty once more. Just "two more weeks" of rain. The dry season will begin. Things will cool down. We're "first on the list." We'll get a power wash, a good scraping down, and a crew of painters. This looks like it might be an annual event.

Meanwhile on our streets, the gray and black cobblestones stand out against the green moss growing between them, piles of trash left on vacant lots have been reduced to anonymous non-descript mounds of vegetation, and the tree Chano cut back to a stub on the lot next door because "it was shading the swimming pool" is shading the swimming pool once more. In the winter I planted thumbnail size cuttings of orejas de bruja (witches' ears) at the base of the potted ficus on the verandah. It now looks as if a baby elephant is emerging there, ears first.

So everything is growing like kudzu in the South and the iguanas are fat and happy. Two more weeks.....I'm counting.