This Morning in the Garden

White-winged Dove
In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Blue-gray Tanager 
 In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

One of my favorite things to do is to sleep until I wake up, shower, eat a liesurely breakfast on my terrace admiring flowers and the visiting birds. So, after a busy, early, hard day hiking yesterday, I had one of my relaxed mornings today (23rd) and recorded part of it in the above photos. There were other birds and more flowers, but this is a good sample for today.

Enjoying Retirement in Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Roble de Sabana

Roble de Sabana
Tree across cow pasture from my house, seen from street.
Atenas, Costa Rica

Roble de Sabana
Zooming in through my trees
Atenas, Costa Rica

It is still dry season and trees that lose their leaves immediately burst out in flowers. This week it is the Roble de Sabana, which is a type of oak tree they say, but nothing like a north american oak!

Rainy season officially starts in May, so just a month away and I will be glad! I prefer the “green season.”

Christmas in March?

On one of my two walks to town today, I snapped these with my phone.
You do know that the red of Poinsettias is actually leaves & not flowers?

Yes. Poinsettias grow in yards here and in different months.
I’ve seen them in February & March now.

See my Photo Gallery called Flora & Forests

Back Door

Walking out my back door is always refreshing!
Atenas, Costa Rica

If you are tired of my garden shots, day after tomorrow (Thursday) I go to San Jose for a series of city shots that will be different!  🙂

Photo Gallery of My Home Garden

More Flame Vine Pix

Close-up of an open bloom, Flamevine or TriquiTraque in Costa Rica
In my garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
My favorite shot so far.

At first the blooms are “capsules” or little tubes before opening up.
My TriquiTraque in Atenas, Costa Rica

TriquiTraque looks best when massed on a wall like I have in my garden.
Atenas, Costa Rica

There is not much online about this flower in the way of information. As “Flamevine” the best I could find was at the University of Florida website. When I Google triquitraque it is my blog that comes up in addition to a lot of photos by different people. So I can’t tell you much about them. I did find this page article in a botanical gardens book which is kind of scientific. And I think I have already noted that in Spanish dictionaries triquitraque means “clattering noise” or a “string of firecrackers.”

🙂
See also my Costa Rica photo gallery called Flora & Forests

New Looks in Garden

My photo gallery Flora & Forests      or directly to the sub-gallery My Home Gardens
Note that in these and all of my photo galleries at Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA I have added the new gallery header that is available at Smugmug which features one of the photos in that gallery. An improvement by Smugmug I think. 

Politics
Yesterday I told you that there were versions of the Women’s March on Washington in more than one town in Costa Rica. Well, today I learned that some of my rich Republican friends in Atenas had an Inauguration Celebration Party at one of their large houses on Friday night. Unfortunately it is not just poor Democrats migrating to Costa Rica. But I think I can safely say that most Costa Ricans are horrified at the prospects of the Trump presidency. 

Jungle Flowers at Sarapiquí

See also my photo gallery Flora & Forests   or   go straight to My Garden
Flowers, birds and butterflies! What beautiful expressions of God’s colors I get to enjoy!
And today my gardener planted a new kind of butterfly bush that will bring many more butterflies he promises!
-o-
A Nation of Immigrants, an interesting article on how Costa Rica accepts the fact that it is made up totally of immigrants (much like the States) with fewer indigenous people (Indians) than the states. Read how Costa Rica still welcomes immigrants and thrives because of them. And we are regularly listed as one of the top happiest countries in the world! Interesting!

Summer Flowers

My Breakfast View this Morning
It is summer here, school is out for summer break & more flowers are blooming.
Jan-Feb are also the windy months, but at least the volcano has slowed issuing ash.

-o-

What Our Costa Rica President Says about Immigration, an article in Tico Times today.

You guys in the U.S. feel free to share this article with your new president-elect. The quick summary is “If you want to get through a border, you’ll be able to sooner or later.”    🙂    And read about how CR deals with the flow of Cubans en-route to the U.S. through Costa Rica and the Nicaraguans and Colombians who come here to stay. Personal Disclosure: My maid is a Nica and my haircuts are at a Colombino peluquería and nobody seems to have a problem with that here. Everyone is welcome in Costa Rica, even arrogant Americans. Though there’s already enough in Atenas, so I’m not issuing an invitation!  🙂