Este mañana primero

Things are going well this morning. We are back to the regular Uruguay breakfasts, with baked breads, toast, butter, and jam, and plates of ham and fresh fruit. It seems odd to pick and choose and leave so much food behind, but I guess that means we’ll get fresh fruit smoothies in the days ahead!

We were welcomed back by Ton, Sonia and Kike’s dog that was living at his folks’ place last time we were here. He thinks of himself as a guard dog, and Kike’s sidekick. He’s pretty good natured. Also, the two kittens have matured into almost full-grown cats, and the Mama cat has run off somewhere. Hopefully she’ll be back, but I’m not sure how long she’s been gone.

I’m a little worried that so many plants have seemed to flowered already, as it will make our work of plant identification a little more difficult, but hopefully what we’re seeing along the road is not exactly what we’ll be seeing in our plots. We will venture out probably tomorrow to check out the permanent plots, and see what six months of grazing recovery means for the vegetation. Some of the plants near the house, however, are in full bloom and are beautiful.

The internet connection is very temperamental at the house right now, so for the time being, we’re using the wireless internet connection at the Weyerhaeuser office in Tacuarembó. My blackberry still works at the house, so I can at least check email and stay in touch that way, but not being able to connect at the house makes us a little bit more remote than what we’re used to.
On a very positive note, we had our first ñandú sighting on the way to town this morning. The cattle and sheep are as prolific as before, and the gauchos were very busy this morning herding cattle. I didn’t even realized I had been missing all of this until we came back, but they are fun sights to see.