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| One of my joys in retirement; just walking out the door! |
This Morning in the Garden
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| White-winged Dove In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Blue-gray Tanager In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| In My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| 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!
Heavenly Sunlight
Bird Sculpture Engulfed in Garden
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| My Garden Sculpture Bird is engulfed in my growing garden, even in the dry season. This is as intended, a changing garden, my little jungle growing around the bird. Sculpture by Anthony Joseph Jeroski. |
See more photos of My Garden in my bigger Flora & Forest Gallery
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| ¡Pura Vida! |
Amazing Mother-in-laws!
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| Flowering “Mother-in-law Tongue” plant In my neighbor’s yard Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Flowering “Mother-in-law Tongue” plant In my neighbor’s yard Atenas, Costa Rica |
My plant like this is in a pot in my bathroom, so I guess it is not as likely to bloom as these that are outside getting sunshine and rain. Interesting! My first time to ever see this plant bloom. I did not know that they had flowers!
See also my photo gallery called Flora & Forests.
And enjoy this very brief National Geographic Video on the greenest & happiest country in the world: https://www.facebook.com/natgeotvUS/videos/10154745276431005/
And enjoy this very brief National Geographic Video on the greenest & happiest country in the world: https://www.facebook.com/natgeotvUS/videos/10154745276431005/
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| The Greenest & Happiest Country! |
The Greenest and Happiest Country in the World
This is the greenest/happiest country in the world, according to the Happy Planet Index, which measures the happiness and longevity of a population and divides it by their ecological footprint.
If all countries followed the Costa Rica example, it would be a wonderful world! Go for it!
But first the States have to “Dump Trump!”
Back Door
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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