Around the Neighborhood

Today I thought I'd just give you a glimpse of the things I see just about everyday. Gracie and I have been walking almost every day looking for things to capture!


Here it is REALLY difficult to capture a sunset or any skyline for that matter without either a satellite dish or power lines! So I was excited this particular one turned out well!


Did you know poinsettia's could grow into a pretty decent sized tree? I kid..I really have no idea what it is 'technically', but it looks like a poinsettia to me!


See what I mean about the power lines? If you look off in the distance, the tents you see are the traveling feira that comes to our neighborhood every Thursday! I really like going to see what all the vendors have set up. For the most part it is clothing, shoes, veggies, fruit, sweets...actually it has a lot. Just about any kind of thing you need for the kitchen, pots, pans, spices...Anyway you just have to be careful. It is a little walk way and all the considerate people of Ipatinga bring in bicycles, strollers, carts, etc. Better to go early and avoid the crowd...and the sticky fingers--if ya get what I'm sayin'. That later it gets, the stickier they are.


Just a beautiful red and yellow splash among all the colorless clay earth!

This is a sunset picture from my sister in law's kitchen window upstairs.


The moon is out just about every afternoon!


Looking down into the valley of our Bairro (the city is divided into different areas called bairros)


Same here..this afternoon was hot, you can tell by the "haziness" (or pollution, whichever way your glass is looking) The big strip of green you see is divided between the different blocks and is used on Saturdays by everyone to play soccer. I am always so impressed with how clean they are. In ipatinga the cleaning crews are out all day long picking up trash from houses and from the streets (though if people would just use a trashcan....anyway) and they do a really good job of keeping things clean..seriously. Because everyone litters here. It's really annoying. (not that they didn't back home, I just have more time to notice it now)


This is from our backyard looking up. We are surrounded by mountains and most likely when you look up, you always see this beautiful, rich, blue sky. And some days, the cows.


The moon rising


Different night, I believe this is what they refer to as 'blood around the moon' In any case, it looked really incredible live. The picture doesn't do it justice!


For now that's all I have. Not terribly exciting, but it is beautiful here in it's own right. I feel lucky to live in this particular area. We are not plagued with crime (like a lot of other bairros) and I feel safe. We live in an area where everyone has lived here forever and all the neighbors know each other. As far as I can tell, the same people (on our street) have been here 20 plus years! And for a city that's only 45 years old, that's pretty good!