Garden Seeds, Oven for Rent, Cloistered Nuns and More

Always fun to see what we can see (and share) on our walks around town.
This post is another collection of fun and interesting items. 

We always wondered where folks can buy gardening seeds, besides some of the people's markets.  One day, we discovered a little shop across from the San Francisco Church...guess what we found... 

We don't know the quality of the seeds (or the prices), or if you can bring US seed packets in through Customs.  But, yes, there are seeds for your garden here!  Seeds for flowers and vegetables and fruits.

Another fun sign on Gran Colombia.  You can rent time in a wood oven for your meats and breads!

Ovens, wood or conventional, are not common here even in some of the modern buildings.  Here is a good alternative if you want to bake bread or roast a turkey, pig or cuy (guinea pig, an Ecuadorian treat).

Here are the street signs at the corner, so you can find the ovens easily.

School has begun again after the break, so we're seeing children in their new wool school uniforms...

...and in their new warm-up suits.

 We've written about the Merced Church and Square before, but here is the view from the Coffee Tree's outside tables.  We're looking toward the Church away from Calle Larga.

This Sunday, the Church was open!  We decided to skip taking pictures inside during the crowded services....Beautiful and we'll try to share pics later of the interior.

A walk past Las Conceptas, a block-size complex for cloistered nuns.  There are 2 groups of cloistered nuns in Cuenca.  We've written about these nuns before.  (The other is located at the Flower Market, Carmen de la Asuncion.  You can do a search on our blog for previous entries for the stories.) 

This is the first time we've seen this particular door open at Las Conceptas.  You can see the 'revolving door'.  This is a unique way that the nuns can sell their goods to the public without being seen.

A sign inside near the door...lots of history since 1599.

Another interesting shop and building...  Canari creations.  Headed toward San Blas from the nuns.

We always enjoy the creative building styles...this one is a combo of brick, adobe, wood, stucco.  It looks like there is also a glass roof addition?

Another cute picture of our neighborhood puppy...how she has grown!  Soon, she will have puppies of her own.