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| 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
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| 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. |
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| At first the blooms are “capsules” or little tubes before opening up. My TriquiTraque in Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| 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.
Its a Jungle Out There!
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| From my kitchen looking across the DR/LR and terrace at another rain. Our rainiest rainy season in years has everything growing. |
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| Step out my back door and the flower garden is 6-7 feet tall! |
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| And the screen of little palms outside my office/guest room is growing too! |
Usually by December the “Dry Season” or our summer has begun, but it is raining again today and forecasts are for more. Its a good thing that I love the jungle! 🙂
My New Toy: Macro Lens
Not the expensive one, just a simple Canon 100mm zoom, 1:28, Image Stabilizer (for hand-held) and auto focus. Here’s a few flowers with it and MY VERY FIRST HIBISCUS in my garden! I only recently got the plant which is slow-growing, but here’s the first bloom!
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| Hibiscus My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Once de Abril (haven’t found an English name yet) My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Heliconia My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Plumbago My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Red Ginger My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Porter Weed My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
I think I did okay on close-ups of flowers before with a telephoto lens from a distance, but this is suppose to be better! It has the capability of a 1:1 ratio if I get close enough. Insects will be more difficult because they scare off, so I’ll probably continue with my 300 mm for them. Though, note the little tiny ant on the Porter Weed above. 🙂 And it is so nice having flowers blooming year around!
My Flora & Forests photo gallery
Trogon During Class
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| Gartered Trogon in the Cecropia Tree beside my terrace during Spanish Class Tuesday morning at my house. Quick cell phone shot & he flew away. I’ve traveled many miles to get a photo of this guy and he finally comes to me when I’m without good camera. 🙂 |
Maybe My 2 Most Frequent Visitors
These two I see from my terrace every day and possibly more often than any other birds.
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| Rufous-naped Wren Seen at breakfast from my terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| White-ringed Flycatcher Seen at breakfast from my terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica Similar to the very common Social Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee & Boat-billed Flycatcher. But white on head makes a complete ring around his head and Kiskadee & Boat-billed are noticeably larger with larger bills. |
See also my BIRDS Photo Gallery
This Morning’s Garden
Each morning I walk through my garden and then eat breakfast on my terrace. Today I liked:
There are many more blooming of course, especially the red ginger and porter weed all the time, but not sure I’ve shown the above recently, so enjoy! I love life in the natural, slow lane in Costa Rica! With no car! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See also my photo gallery call Flora and Forests for more flower photos.
A Couple of Repeat Birds
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| Hoffman’s Woodpecker Female In my garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica A little better photo than one posted the other day. |
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| White-Ringed Flycatcher In My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| White-Ringed Flycatcher In My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
And my BIRDS GALLERY online
Blue-crowned Motmot
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| Blue-crowned Motmot In My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Blue-crowned Motmot In My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
The other day I told about missing a photo of a motmot, well at breakfast today I got one. Not my best shot with the cool tail partially hidden, but okay to be behind some leaves.
See also my BIRDS PHOTO GALLERY