La Senora de Las Colonias

I was 5 minutes for home having been downtown to re-register as a local citizen, when I realised I had forgotten to blip. I had carted the big camera about on an unexpectedly hot day with far too many layers of clothing on, and the realisation hit me like a ten year sentence in a sauna. Perhaps it was that that made me go way beyond my usual comfort zone to get this picture....

I turned quickly toward Las Colonias , an area of charming small houses in village-style streets that is being cleared ready for demolition, as you read this. The decampment process has been going on for longer than I can remember but is clearly coming to a head (see yesterday's blip).

I saw this lady from afar cleaning her front door and patio with cloth and hose, respectively, and greeted her. She told me she had lived in the house for 48 years and now 'nos toca' (it's our turn) to move. I asked if I could take a shot of the street and she said 'yes', and went back inside. And then, unlike me, I called her back outside and asked to take a shot of her. She stood first behind her gate, and then I asked her to move to the framing position I wanted behind the fence which she happily did for the four seconds I needed to take one shot.

I admire people who clean condemned houses with such pride.