Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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“Those Bloomin’ Cactus”

That’s what artist Cynara Shelton calls her painting, Those Bloomin’ Cactus. She even has hers for sale, so if you want to buy mine, you can order from my gallery image of this photo to be printed on canvas, metal (my favorite now) or paper. My markup is only $1, the rest goes to SmugMug Gallery and the printer. 🙂 But I think reasonably priced and a good service SmugMug Galleries provides! And of course I have other photos I think better for wall art than this humble little cactus. 🙂 I’m retired now, so really not trying to sell photos! This one was photographed on “Country Lane” in front of Hotel Las Colinas, Atenas.

Bloomin’ Cactus at Hotel Las Colinas, Atenas, Costa Rica.

See my whole Photo Gallery.

And today is last day for 25% off my photo books with Code: FANFAVE

¡Pura Vida!

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Nest Abandonment?

For the last week or so the winds have been really strong here whipping those palm fronds around like giant fans! Note that we have high winds in the Central Valley of Costa Rica every January-February, so not unusual. It’s how our summer begins.

I’m sorry that the White-winged Dove had her egg-laying time come now and chose to make her nest in a palm frond, less secure from wind than any other tree limb would have been. The third photo below (and feature photo) is her on the nest the morning of the 29th after sitting there nearly a week and I have yet to see an egg. But by the afternoon of the 29th she was gone from the nest and not seen there since and I checked all day the 30th. If she lost eggs it must have been to predators (here Iguanas or a large bird or snake) because I’ve seen no egg on the ground under the nest which would be broken if it fell. The second empty nest photo was made from my step ladder (higher up) but still not showing any egg(s). So I don’t know what has happened. If she lost eggs, it will be the second time a dove has lost eggs from my palm fronds. Sad.

Dove Nest Appears Abandoned.
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Another Summer Tanager Female

I know that it was only a couple of weeks ago when I shared another one of these (maybe the same one?), but this one hung around after breakfast the other morning longer than any other bird and I had fun trying to capture her in the shadows of the Cecropia Tree. Here’s 3 of my efforts . . .

Summer Tanager Female, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
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Park Remodeling Inches Along

I know they are slow, very slow! But they now have a little wall, a stack of concrete that I’m guessing will hold the 3-D letters for ATENAS (that everyone will be photographed by) and in the 4th month on this corner, they now have a multi-colored sidewalk around the above. I sure hope they are putting plants or gardens behind that wall! 🙂 See more below and my continuing Photo Gallery Remodeling Central Park Atenas. And I’m not complaining about the slowness because I like what they do! 🙂 Now here’s today’s shots (on the 26th):

Northwest Corner of Central Park Atenas
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Just living is not enough . . .

“Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

~Hans Christian Andersen
Bougainvillea, Atenas, Costa Rica

From a walk in my garden with a cellphone! 🙂

I’m reading a book of all of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories now and liked this statement of his! Bougainvillea is not necessarily my favorite flower but they are at their peak of blooming right now and do add a lot of bright spots in our environment here! Everywhere! These are mine in a big pot outside on my terrace by the driveway between my Desert Rose and a potted Bamboo Palm. This is living! 🙂

Potted Bougainvillea, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

See also My Gallery: Flora & Forest of CR

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Scarlet Macaws at Breakfast

Walter knows all the good places to eat along the different highways and early on our waterfall trip last Wednesday we stopped on Ruta 1 in or near Canas or Paso Real for a super breakfast and chance to see the many Scarlet Macaws in the trees around that restaurant and hotel across the highway from Tres Hermanas (interesting because of same name as a Soda in Atenas). 🙂

I took only a few minutes to try photographing some Macaws, not my best photos! But you can see all of my Scarlet Macaw photos in my Scarlet Macaw Gallery with shots from all over Costa Rica or read about them on eBird. In Costa Rica they are more prevalent on the Pacific Slope and coast while the endangered Green Macaw is more prevalent on the Caribbean or Atlantic Slope. Below this photo is a gallery of several other Macaw shots from this waterfall trip stop . . .

Scarlet Macaw, Canas, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
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Summer Tanager Female

This migrant is appropriately named for Costa Rica since they are always here during our Summer or September to May. The males are uniformly red all over while the females vary from light yellow to a dirty yellow or gold with sometimes brown on the head and wings. Read about the Summer Tanager on eBird or see my Summer Tanager Gallery with photos from other areas of Costa Rica. They breed in North America during the North American Summer then spend Sept-May south from Mexico to northern South America, our summer! 🙂 Thus the name fits both regions during the times there.

Summer Tanager female, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Tropical Kingbird

This morning at breakfast a Tropical Kingbird sat in my Cecropia Tree for a minute or so and here’s a couple of shots:

Tropical Kingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

You can read about the Tropical Kingbird on eBird, a bird found all over Central & South America. Or see my photos from all over Costa Rica in my CR Tropical Kingbird Gallery. And here’s one more photo from this morning:

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