– Navajo Poem
All of nature is beauty to me and in Costa Rica I feel like I am surrounded by nature more than anywhere else I have ever been. And as a walker, I truly walk in beauty! (You see more walking!)
Hummingbirds & Butterflies!
Male Cinnamon Hummingbird on a Plumbago plant Atenas, Costa Rica |
Yellow & Black Swallowtail Butterfly on a Plumbago plant. Atenas, Costa Rica |
Crescent Butterfly or maybe a Peck’s Skipper on Tutti Frutti Lantana Atenas, Costa Rica |
Peck’s Skipper on Tutti Frutti Lantana Atenas, Costa Rica |
Mustard White on Tutti Frutti Lantana Atenas, Costa Rica |
I’ve seen two other hummingbirds in the garden but without a camera. Also some other butterflies.
Today my boxes were delivered – mostly scrapbooks and artwork that I shipped from states before leaving in December. More about that tomorrow! And here is tonight’s sunset:
A different view tonight! I walked up driveway and shot over my roof looking west instead of usual north. Also it is a 5-shot panorama. |
House Tour – Outside Today
You have already seen my new entry garden, but we planted ground cover today that should spread fast. |
Tomorrow I’ll show you around inside the house as it is now decorated. My art may arrive this week, but I will probably add only a few pieces around a well decorated house! Buenas Noches!
Tonight’s sunset colored the clouds in the north. Beautiful! Each evening a new surprise! How did I ever live without a balcony? This is my cathedral! |
Buenos!
A few lingering flowers still on one of the four Yellow Bells trees in my yard. |
In this quintessential Tico town, everyone is friendly and strangers greet you on the sidewalk if you are a walker like me and I always want to greet them. One of the interesting things I learned early on here is that younger people like to shorten phrases as they talk fast and a lot.
The common greetings are of course:
Buenos Dias – up until noon
Buenas Tardes – afternoon until dark
Buenas Noches – after dark
But now the most common greeting is just “Buenos” and some make the afternoon and evening distinction by saying “Buenas” (the feminine adjective for the feminine words tarde & noche, “a” instead of “o”.) But of course most older people still use the full phrases above, though not all.
Always trying to act younger, I’m now in the habit of saying “Buenos” to most people I meet. Of course if I know them or come into a class or other specific relationship with someone, it is then all the “How are you?” greetings and small talk for a bit. Almost as much as West Africa, though not quite.
Buenas noches from Pura Vida Atenas, Costa Rica! -Charlie
Sunset Over Atenas from my balcony |
A Typical Day?
Ate lunch around the corner from these trees at the Catholic Church Atenas |
There probably is no such thing as a “typical” day in anyone’s life, never-the-less mine! But this relaxed Monday in Atenas, Costa Rica seems worth reporting as almost one for me.
As always, I was awakened early by the birds singing, but stayed in bed until about 6:30 when I got up for a shower, breakfast of fresh fruit, nuts, cereal, and some Costa Rica Coffee, while overlooking a vista of the Atenas Valley and mountains, and watching birds in my trees. I put all the trash in one big bag making it easier to take to the gate and put in our big metal basket where we place only bagged trash for pickup.
With a backpack of Spanish learning materials, sunglasses, and my Panama Hat today (David calls it my “bonita sombrero.”) I walk the 1.1 mile under a sunny blue sky at around 80 degrees to my Spanish class in town. It is always a fun 2+ hours with two new students today and the temporary loss of others who are traveling for awhile. After class I walk back to my old apartments, Hacienda La Jacaranda, to return two cups I accidentally packed with my stuff and pick up my last electric bill there.
Then I walk to the center of town to the Post Office to see if a letter has arrived that was sent 4 weeks ago from the states. It has not. Make a note to tell people to use the Miami PO Box to get mail to me quicker! Then two blocks away (or here we would say 200 meters) to the Vargas & Sons Hardware for a couple of items I need for the house. Then I decide to eat lunch out today since I have not in awhile, preparing most of my meals at home. I was going to try a new place but it is closed on Monday, so I go to my old standby Tico restaurant, La Carreta.
For a little over $5 I get a casado (plate lunch) of fish, beans, rice, mixed veggies, and instead of my usual green salad, I choose the Picadillo de vainica y zanahoria, (right click on site for English Translation) always liking to try something new and it was great! Its a green beans and carrots relish or salad with delicious seasoning, my favorite item on the plate today. As always here, the meal was served on a banana leaf in a tray. But of course that was not all for this sweet tooth guy! For just the second time for me I ordered a Lechemulla which is their version of the Horchata rice & milk drink, but they use vanilla ice cream instead of milk which adds to the cinnamon flavoring and wow is it good! During all this delicious eating, I’m both watching people walk down the street and reading more in the lengthy Lord of the Rings book. I finished both the Happier than a Billionaire books which were fun, but I’ve had enough of Nadine & Rob for awhile! And yes, the Rings books are heavy and lengthy, but also some great writing and story-telling! My Kindle Fire says the typical reading time for it is 27 hours and I’m about half-way through.
Then I walk all the way back past Su Espacio, where my Spanish class took place, to CoopeAtenas supermarket for my little shopping list and pay the electric bill. While finishing there it begins to rain really hard. So I call a cab for the trip home with enough groceries that walking would have been tough anyway. It was about $2 for the taxi.
It was a good long rain, more than usual, that I’m sure made my new flower garden happy. Sun is shining now. After writing this, I have some bookkeeping to do, then may read or try to photograph birds from the balcony or walk with camera through the neighborhood. By then a sunset snack and more reading or time on the computer before bed. I haven’t watched a single TV show here and no Netflix movies since moving to new house. Real life is more fun! Plus I’m working on three different books and about to have my shipped boxes delivered, so never a dull moment! And I have done very little of the traveling around Costa Rica I expected to be doing by now. Maybe soon!
I’m looking at the Strangler Fig Tree outside my office window and continue to be amazed that I really am living in Costa Rica! It is not paradise or perfect by any means, but it brings me more joy and relaxation than any place I have ever lived. The rain just cooled it off, the birds are singing happily while I smile and think to myself what a wonderful decision it was to move to Costa Rica! Pura Vida!
Rainforest Beauty
View from my bedroom window (between the power lines) during the afternoon rain today. |
The fact that there are power lines, houses, and a street below this scene doesn’t diminish its beauty for me, even though an uncluttered view like this would be nice! This is looking west at end of today’s rain. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” said Oliver Pratt, and that is why I like this kind of selective photography. And yes, it’s a compilation of 4 shots merged into a panorama. Fun!
“People often say that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.”-Salma Hayek (emphasis mine)
“Your beauty . . . should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”
1 Peter 3:3-4 NIV
God help me to have a gentle and quiet spirit that people might see your beauty in me! -Charlie
More Balcony Birds
White-winged Dove He ties with Yigüirro as the most heard birds. His is a coo-coo coo cooooooo |
Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush Day and night I hear him with his Tch, Tch, Tch, Tch or Toc, Toc, Toc, Toc The National Bird of Costa Rica |
Melodious Blackbird My bird sounds app doesn’t have this one, but “melodious” must be happy! The only all-black bird in Costa Rica with dark eye, shaking rainwater off here. |
Gray-capped Flycatcher He kind of squeaks in the morning among all the other bird sounds then more of a chirp during the day |
White-tipped Dove His sound is not as noticed, a low-pitched uuuuuuu His tail tip is white while above dove’s wing’s white |
And if you’re wondering about the sounds, I got a new app for my phone, “The Bird Sounds of Costa Rica.” Cool! Maybe I will begin to recognize more of them now. For more information, check your app source (I got it from GooglePlays) or direct from the birdsounds website in the Netherlands: http://www.birdsounds.nl/ They have a bunch for all around the world.
Garden Almost Finished
Seen from driveway |
Seen from house door |
Looking from garden back to driveway and Don & Linda’s house |
The back sidewalk with red palm at end |
Pot plant in Living Room |
One pot on patio/balcony |
The other patio pot to help screen neighbors It will get much larger |
Sorry, I took most of these photos before sweeping and mopping the tile walkways because I was in a hurry to go shopping in Alajuela. And note that the vines are planted at top of walls but will take a few months to trail down, maybe looking good in August. Still to come next Saturday:
- I have been debating whether to use mulch or ground cover and think I have decided on ground cover. He said he would give me two choices, so we will see what happens with that.
- Plus the Maraca or Shampoo Ginger plant is still coming next week. A prize plant!
- I’m adding a Guarumo Tree in the front yard, a member of the Cecropia family that has a fruit toucans love, so you know why I am planting it. Sloths like to eat the leaves too, so who knows, it might even attract a sloth.
- Also we are adding another red palm to hide the balcony post and give more balcony foilage.
- In front of my bedroom window he will put some fish-tail palms to add to my privacy from the street and also . . .
- A banana plant for my breakfast fruit as well as a screen!
This is fun! And the landlord is paying for some of the above additions as I improve his property. I plan to stay here a long time! 🙂 I love the house and yard, my neighbors, and a great landlord who also a good neighbor! (And reads my blog some!) Pura Vida! This is more what I envisioned in Costa Rica than the apartments, though there were some good things about them and I enjoyed my time there as a good place to start.
Happy, Hard-working Garden Crew
Fun for me to watch it quickly take shape |
A large Heliconia will be the centerpiece of this garden |
Planting the Triquitraque vines at top which will take time to grow and hang down, covering the walls, maybe by August or certainly by December |
We got along fine and I really like Cristian, the crew leader and owner, and each of the 4 workers just as well. All were so friendly, and trying hard to please me. I’m not used to that! Of course I tipped them! And I provided agua frio, iced water, before their morning break when they shared a loaf of bread together. Just a neat group of guys! They came at 7:20 or so and finished at about 10:30. They did in 3 hours what would have taken me months to complete
Flowers Arrived at 7 AM!
Plumbago and Tutti Frutti in front, then tall green palmy plant goes in living room, more garden plants in back, palm around corner and the butterflies have already come! |
Below is a list of what Cristian says he is planting tomorrow. Click the linked name to see photos of what it looks like and the ones delivered today are in these photos here, though not all delivered yet. This will be a hummingbird and butterfly garden. Lots of photo ops!
Tutti Frutti (a variety of Lantana) – a row of mixed colors of flowers along the sidewalk (in photo at right, on the left side, shorter – yellow, pink, orange, red)
Maraca (Shampoo Ginger) – a really cool tropical flower (rare and it may take a while for him to find one but he will even if he has to take it from his uncle’s yard he says). He is really working hard to please me and have a perfect garden for butterflies and hummingbirds.
but not sure if I’m getting one of the others. I’m hoping for a Torch Ginger, my favorite.
Red Palm at end of sidewalk in back not shown in above photo. It will block the street from my garden and anchor it. |
One variety of Red Ginger. I may get another. |
One variety of Heliconia and I will get at least one other variety he says. |
Palmetto, the only plant here now. Don’t think it was watered during dry season. I’ll take better care of it. |
You can probably tell that I’m very excited about getting my dream tropical garden this quickly, just a week after moving in. Of course tomorrow I will be showing you the completed masterpiece, I think I will call it my “Humming Garden” or in Spanish “Jardín del Tarareo ” You can walk through and either hum a tune or watch for butterflies and hummingbirds! 🙂 Pura Vida!