It will soon be a flowering hedge |
From my kitchen window |
Nice! |
My profession is to always find God in nature.
– Henry David Thoreau
It will soon be a flowering hedge |
From my kitchen window |
Nice! |
I did what I thought was pretty radical pruning of the overgrown giant Porter Weeds and some of the Overgrown Red Ginger. But my “TuttiFruti,” which had been my most colorful plant, was apparently dying. So the gardeners cut it to the ground which I would have had trouble doing, though we had been pruning it some. They also sprayed for a leaf-eating insect. If it does not come back healthy, we will pull it and plant something different on my border. But we will probably have nothing blooming along the border when Reagan visits in just 4 weeks. Sorry Reagan! Though plants fool you here and some grow really fast!
The tall plant in the back of garden photo above is where this large Heliconia sports 4 blooms right now! This is the biggest of the four. |
This smaller Heliconia by my kitchen window also has several blooms. The other plants like it have red and orange blooms but are dormant now. |
The Maraca blooms at the base of a very tall plant. |
Also once my Planta Maraca or Shampoo Ginger gets established, I expect to regularly have more blooms, which is more exotic to me than the heliconias! And every time we trim the Blumbago it shoots out new growth with lots of blooms, so everything will have its ups and downs but as I wanted, something is blooming year-aroung, all the time! And it is fun to watch it change, though I have learned (what I really already knew), that maintaining a garden this big and a yard with lots of flowers is a lot of work, even with a hired gardener a couple of times a month! And for any reader living here, my most constant and prolific bloomers have been the Red Ginger and Purple Petunias. And I still don’t have all the Spanish names for these flowers and that sometimes that changes depending on who I talk to or which website I check! 🙂
Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.
http://www.ticotimes.net/2015/12/25/photos-christmas-2015
Tico Times photos – this of the lighting of tree at Children’s Hospital |
AND MY DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS?
And the crazy thing is that it is during this windy, sometimes dusty period that we have the most tourists and snowbirds trying to get away from cold weather up north. I think I’ve decided I like the rainy season (Jul-Oct) or “green season” better and it’s two shoulder periods (May-Jun & Oct-Nov) which have very little rain but are greener and more pleasant. So for the next 3 months or so we put up with wind, dust and snow birds! Then tranquility begins again! 🙂
A new sign just appeared alongside the road I walk to Roca Verde, Calle 8 |
The rough Google translation to English:
The trees are our friends, always await us in the same place.
ADECA
A Hooded Mantis appeared in the dark at my last dinner at Rancho Naturalista No good photos possible |
But what was more entertaining was the group from Denmark on their first night at the lodge. They scrambled all over the dining terrace trying to get photos of this little guy! IN THE DARK! It was funny and of course none of my photos are good, but here’s the experience anyway!
They tried so hard they kept scaring the little bug around the terrace. Hope some of them got good photos! |
For about two minutes dinner was controlled by a Hooded Mantis |
“Costa Rica supports an enormous variety of wildlife, due in large part to its geographic position between the North and South American continents, its neotropical climate, and its wide variety of habitats. Costa Rica is home to more than 500,000 species, which represents nearly 4% of the total species estimated worldwide, making Costa Rica one of the 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. Of these 500,000 species, a little more than 300,000 are insects.” ~WIKIPEDIA
Photo of one of the many Anthurium flowers growing at Rancho Naturalista, one of my fave get-a-ways now! I was so excited about all the new birds there that I failed to say much about the flowers which were beautiful! |
Up close they are a very bright yellow trumpet-shaped flower |
The Yellow Bells are blooming earlier than I expected or remember from last year and do hope they are still around when Reagan arrives in February. They started with a few blooms on the high tips of limbs that get the most sun and are now spreading all over. They do attract hummingbirds!
From my lunch table today at about 1:30 facing NW. |
From the street today at 2:00 PM (bad time for photo) |
An even worse image at 2:00 PM but you can see that my terrace is surrounded! |
Bouquets on the terrace! |
And color below my horizon views! |
Plus they are already coloring the ground as blossoms drop! |
A tree in my neighbor’s yard. |
Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.~Luther Burbank
Green Thorntail Hummingbird Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica |
Yellow-bellied Elaenia Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica |
Black-cheeked Woodpecker Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica 3rd species of woodpeckers at this one place. Lots of bugs to eat! 🙂 |
Brown Jay Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica |
Yellow-crowned Euphonia Female or Yellow Warbler Female Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica |
Gray-headed Chachalaca Better shot than one posted the first day. |
Green Thorntail Hummingbird Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica Different day, different bird and look than top of this post |
Black-headed Saltator Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica |
Black-headed Saltator Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica A totally different look than the photo before this, but same bird! |
Social Flycatcher Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica |
Bumble Bee (I think – no ID source) Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica |
If interested, I reviewed both Rancho Naturalista and CATIE on TripAdvisor with a few of the photos, though they are “pending” as I write this, possibly for screening of some kind.
I heard the sweet voice of a robin, High up in the maple tree, Joyously, singing his happy song To his feathered mate, in glee!…
If we could be like this tiny bird, Just living from day to day, Holding no bitterness in our hearts For those we meet on our way…
~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, “Heaven on Earth” (1940s)