Forecasters who predicted that the government would be eating crow over its annual inflation forecasts are being made to bite their lips as figures published last week showed that consumer prices actually fell in the first half of June compared to the previous month.

Florence Merrifield, who moved to Ajijic 20 years ago from Yakima, Washington and other points north, has turned her home patio into a virtual hummingbird refuge. She keeps 16 feeders numbered, cleaned regularly and filled with the simple syrup that the tiny visitors adore. Currently, there are about 200 mouths feeding at what she calls “Flossie’s Fast Food Fly Through.” Here, she talks about her passion with Jeanne Chaussee.

This newspaper’s monthly survey of the prices of 40 items at two Metro supermarket chains shows an overall reduction in our market basket of more than four percent since late January. The University of Guadalajara’s (UdeG) bimonthly market basket review shows an inflation of some 5.75 percent since January 1.

Ross Arnold, a reasonably recent transplant from 20 years in Seattle working as an advertising executive, has stepped up to the pulpit of the fledgling Lakeside Presbyterian Church. He and his wife, Carolyn Hanson, vacationed in Mexico several times before settling in Ajijic. It was apparently love at first sight because, he says, “we arrived in Ajijic on a Sunday and bought a house on Tuesday.” Renting out their Ajijic home for five years, the couple made the big move in November of 2009. He talks here to Jeanne Chaussee.