Adventures at the Supermercado

Today we attended the Barrio Norte. This was not hard to find. The colectivo #3 dropped us off on the corner of Ejercito and Galvarino, then we walked the three blocks to the chapel. Our gregarious morning concierge, also named Galvarino, who claims the calle was named after him, (there is a Calle Galvarino in every city in Chile,) promised to meet us there, since he had been visited by sister missionaries who had left him a Libro de Mormon, but he never did come. I'm sure he has a good explanation.

This ward had no benches in the chapel, so they had put out all the chairs, which were eventually mostly filled. It is an older ward, with some second-generation members in it, who have a great deal of affection for one another. We recognized Hna. Lilias, the cheerful cook to the mission president; Elder and Hermana Solis, who work in the bishop's storehouse on the first floor of our Centro; and Hna. Beatriz, who came in a few weeks ago for help with her family history. They welcomed us warmly. The little boy in the family sitting in front of us reminded Elder K. and me of our grandson Bennett, with his big brown eyes and winning ways. The ladies of the Relief Society discovered I was involved with weaving, and made me promise to come teach classes in Telar during the month of May. They seem to think that missionaries have magical qualities and are experts in everything.

 

Elder K's replacement for Ricola lemon-mint. You can find Ricola once in awhile, but it is very expensive. It took awhile to realize that in Chile, "caramelo" refers to hard candy. Fortunately for me, I can find good dark chocolate here. My favorite is the Ambrosoli Orly brand, of dark chocolate relleno sabor mente, with mint filling, hecho en Chile, made right here in Chile.Fortunately, Elder K. doesn't like it as well as I do.

Little bear cookies, distributed by the food conglomerate Bimbo.

I like the brands Mr. Musculo and Virginia for cleaning sprays and floor cleaners, but I thought I'd try Blem floor cleaner, made by the Johnson company.

This is one of the smaller stalks of apio, celery, that I could find. You can see the 12 inch ruler next to it. The squash is similar to a zucchini, called zapallo italiano, which we use in making one of our favorite dishes, of cubed  sauteed zapallo italiano, julienned carrots, and sliced onions.

Comino molido, cumin. The Negrita brand reflects a term of affection used in Chile for a spouse or other much-loved intimate. The Chileans do not understand the problem Americans have with using this word.

Bagged baking essentials in my cupboard: dill, Merken chili spice, bicarbonato--baking soda, and coco rallado, shredded coconut. Shredded. Very small, very dry. You don't have to store it in the refrigerator.

Since I had so many bags of herbs spilling in my cupboard, I searched for little containers to put them in, including these baby bottles on the clearance table, now holding oregano, and dried orange peel for my Boldo tea.

I also found these little jello molds to put things in. Nuez Moscada entera is whole nutmeg, with its own little grater.

Thursday, Google reminded us it was the Equinoccio de Otoño, Autumnal Equinox, the first day of Fall.

This is the fun lady that keeps bringing me Copihue. She apologized for leaving one home that she meant me to have. She is working on a boina, beret. More than one hermana has asked me to teach them how to make a Copihue wall hanging like the one I made, but I am not sure I could ever make one like that again.

Speaking of Copihue, Hna. Verdugo made this at home during her summer of babysitting. The tree is the Araucaria Araucana, with a Copihue vine climbing up the side.

Hna. Verdugo working on a small edition of the Copihue, for use as a bookmark.

Hermana Sofia wearing a woven blanket, and to go with it, the striped wool hat I crocheted so I would have a warm dry head when the rains and cold inevitably come. When not in use, the striped hat makes an admirable small basket for holding yarn.

Another wall hanging made by Enove, Andrea's sister.

The fall flowers are stunning. The hibiscus are especially beautiful.

 Mirabilis, the Four O'Clock, is widely planted all over Concepcion. Like the flowering impatiens, it grows to a very large size.

Cola de Leon, Leonitis Leonurus, Lion's Tail or Wild Dagga, a tender perennial originally from South Africa. From the mint family, this plant attracts birds and butterflies.

Friday afternoon (afternoon here lasts until 8:00 p.m. or 20:00 hours, after which it is night time,) we accompanied Hno. Seguel across the mouth of the Bio Bio River to the suburban city of San Pedro de la Paz, where we were to visit with the presidency and bishops of the San Pedro Stake. He checked the route before hand to make sure we would avoid the usual evening taco, traffic jam, as residents drive home from Concepcion, where they work.

San Pedro was exceptionally clean and green, with nice lawns, trees, well-ordered streets, and well-built homes.

At the San Pedro Stake Center, Hno. Seguel gave a presentation on the Centro de Autosuficiencia and all the changes coming, including  more people who can take advantage of the Perpetual Education Fund, and the discounts available. Although Hno. Seguel talked fast and skipped over lots of the Powerpoint slides, the meeting did not end until 10:30.

Saturday we had a few places to go. I took a photo of this Araucaria Araucana  tree, which we can see from our balcony.

We walked through the Plaza de Peru, where it seems they have a weekly flea market of antiques, mostly wildly overpriced.

We visited Bishop Anriquez and his wonderful wife, who live in this pretty upstairs apartment. Elder K. reported on his first lesson of Strengthening Your Marriage in the University Ward Thursday evening, which went very well indeed. Five more lessons to go. Bishop Anriquez had to limit the number of couples to six, and has a waiting list for future classes. They invited us to come to the farmer's market at Collao with them, which we said we would like to do at another time.  We then walked along Galvarino toward Los Carrera, to see if the Conejo family was home, since they had been gone to Puerto Montt, Osorno,  Ecuador, and Cartagena for the summer. The children were home, but not Hno. and Hna. Conejo.

At the Sodimac, we picked up a room heater and more insulating curtains for the coming cold weather. On the way back, we saw this unusually well-cared for tile-roof home.