¡Pura Vida!
See You Tomorrow!
Free Art Drawing this Sunday!
At the Grand Opening of Galería ARTenas this Sunday, 15 October, 10am to 7pm, there will be a drawing for free art items from the gallery participants. And from me you can win this beautiful Flora Accent Pillow with one of my photos of a Bird of Paradise Flower printed on both sides! 🙂
If you are anywhere near Atenas, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica, I hope to see you at the grand opening this Sunday of our new art gallery in Atenas, in Calle 2 Plaza adjacent Linea Vital & Pizzeria La Finca.
¡Pura Vida!
You Are Invited!
Please attend the open house of our new art gallery in Atenas, Alajuela Provincia, Costa Rica, just 12 days away! Sunday, 15 October 2023! It is at the corner of Calle 2 & Avenida 3, beside the new Linea Vital Medical Plaza in the even newer Calle 2 Plaza, 100 meters west of Banco Popular and 50 meters south of La Finca Pizzeria, Crema y Nata & El Rayo. See you there! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Muy Pronto!
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=122125987562016558&set=a.122117270456016558
For what it is worth, the sunset on the top row of the collage is my photo and the Red-eyed Tree Frog on the bottom row is also my photo. Each artist in the gallery got two images for that collage. Tomorrow I will send out the invitation to the Grand Opening on 15 October.
¡Pura Vida!
Fumigating My House Videos
Alex made a couple of very short phone videos of Walter fumigating inside and outside my house yesterday. It doesn’t show him doing the attic or spraying liquid insecticide along all walls, both inside and outside around the house foundation.
INSIDE
OUTSIDE
I’m back home on Saturday cleaning up their mess and my maid is coming at 1:00 to mop the floors (sticky insecticide) because she mops better than me. I swept up all the dead insects and unfortunately some Geckos too. Hopefully new Geckos will come back in. They are generally the best pest control, just not for thousands of ants!
¡Pura Vida!
Nite in Colinas del Sol
Yesterday I had my house fumigated for insects, mainly for an invasion of two different kinds of ants and believed the treatment would be more effective if I left my house closed up with the fogging and spray overnight and thus not healthy for me to sleep there. So I spent last night at our little neighborhood hotel, Colinas del Sol, which is a group of cabins along with a few larger, long-term rental houses. I was put in Villa 3 and snapped a few shots before the afternoon rain started. I can’t go anywhere without capturing photos of the nature there!
I’m writing this last night and my plans are to enjoy their breakfast included with the room this morning and mid-morning return home to open up and air out the house, with all the ceiling fans on for awhile! 🙂 Then enjoy my ant-free house! And tomorrow’s blog post will return to the continuing reports on Hotel Banana Azul in Caribe Sur! I’m still processing photos with a lot more to share! 🙂
2023 Independence Day Parade, Atenas
This past Friday was the 15th of September, Independence Day for Costa Rica, when in 1821 it shed the colonial rule of Spain. In this small but very significant little developing country, patriotism is big and almost everyone wears red, white & blue and many decorate their houses with banners and flags. I wore my national futbol (soccer) shirt, red, white & blue! 🙂
And almost every town of any size has a parade, usually featuring their local schools, and Atenas is no exception! 🙂 I have for several years now been photographing it most years (when not traveling) with galleries for those years included in my super-gallery: PEOPLE, FIESTAS & ARTS Costa Rica. Which of course now includes a gallery for this year’s 2023 Desfile del Día de la Independencia, Atenas. And here is a sample photo from each of the 7 sub-galleries in this year’s parade gallery . . .
Flags
A “Lifer” Bird for Me!
The other morning I had about four species of birds feeding on the flowers of my Cecropia or Guarumo Tree and one of them was a new species for me! A White-winged Becard, Pachyramphus polychopterus (linked to eBird). He is smaller than the Rose-throated Becard I’ve seen several of here and like that one is less colorful as a male. In this species the female is a golden orange or tan and more colorful than this male photographed here. Here’s three shots including one of him eating a caterpillar:
Zilpa Longtail
Another new species for me! Zilpa Longtail, Chioides zilpa, found from the Southwestern U.S. throughout Central America and in Ecuador. It is kind of amazing that in this hotter and drier year of fewer birds and butterflies for me, I am still getting about as many new species of butterflies as in a more “normal” year! Of course they are mostly new species of Skippers with definitely not as many of the more colorful butterflies, but hey! A butterfly is a butterfly! 🙂 And I am happy to be finding these new brown ones in my garden this year. And just maybe, when I go the the Caribbean side of Costa Rica in the middle of September, I’ll be blessed with a lot of new varieties of butterflies over there in a totally different climate than the Central Valley where I live. But realistically the whole globe is being affected by the extreme weather this year, so, we will see. 🙂 Here’s three photos of this one . . .
Tallest Agave I’ve Ever Seen!
For years this has been on the hill above my house in the yard of “the big house,” where my former landlord lived and is now rented to a wonderful young couple. And I’m pretty sure it is one of the several species of Agave and my gardener called it an Agave. But it could be something else. I first called it a “yucca” which the garden says it is not. 🙂
Over more than 8 years here the flower has never gotten that tall! Sorry I didn’t ask someone to stand by it for comparison. It is taller than two men or more that 12 feet (3.7 meters) I’m sure! And maybe even equal to tree men or 18 feet! Shooting from my yard down the hill it took 4 photos to make this vertical pano! 🙂 Another fun tropical anomaly! 🙂
in my backyard reaching for the sun! 🙂
I tried to identify it online and the closest match (not exact) was to the Tequilana Agave, grown mostly in Mexico and used to make Tequila! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!