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| “After the Rain” from my terrace at sunset. |
New Flowerpots
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| I replaced the ugly yellow & orange pots with these more attractive ones. And the little round one on left is new with assorted greenery & a peace lily. The second pot is ornamental grass I cut back for the transplanting, It grows back quick here! Behind post is a bougainvillea that was in plastic! |
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| The greenery by the rocking chairs looks much better in new pot! |
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| And the living room plant looks better in the new pot also! I think. |
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| My newest indoor plant is this palm in my bedroom with philodendron ivy at base. |
I may have told you that my artist friend Anthony has returned from 9 months of traveling in Spain and Morocco and has moved into the house next door that was occupied by Don & Lynda who moved back to Oregon. Before traveling, Anthony lived on the other side of me in someone else’s casita (a small house most big house owners have for guests or rental.). He is the one who made my garden art bird sculpture. He really decorates well with a lot of plants and that motivated me to spruce mine up a little.
We just had a really good, slow, steady rain this afternoon for an hour or so. Garden loves it!
A Walk In the Garden!
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| Step into my main garden from the driveway or back door of house. Surrounded by the trees and other flowers of neighbors. You know you are in a tropical place! |
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| Out my backdoor you are greeted by a pottery bird garden-art by Anthony. Anthony Jeroski will soon be moving into the house across the driveway since Don & Lynda just moved back to the states. Anthony & I have plans for a garden-art bird nest made of wood & wire that will feature a glass egg made by my Nashville friend Kevin Hunter. I think you will like it Kevin! |
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| Here a garden is really your whole yard and terrace and that is true for me. With watering during the dry season, my “front yard” jungle has grown, especially the Cecropia or Guarumo tree, many palms & flowers on a slope. |
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| One is a Nance Tree which by July will have little yellow fruits I can eat! |
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| Bougainvillea is blooming on my terrace and down below on the slope. There was not one here when I came and I consider it the quintessential tropical flower I got used to in Florida and The Gambia. I have two now! |
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| Once de Abril Planta or 11th of April Plant is what my gardener calls it. It is becoming very tall and full shrub, adding to my privacy screen and it blooms year around with seasonal yellow berries that birds eat quickly. It is one of my favorite plants and was a surprise gift from my gardener. The 11th of April is Juan Santamaria Day, our only war hero. He was the drummer boy who stopped the American Walker from taking over Costa Rica as his personal slave state. DO YOU SEE THE BEE ON THE FLOWER? Click image for larger view. |
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| The largest of my 4 Heliconia plants. |
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| The brightest of my Heliconia plants. |
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| The smallest of my Heliconia plants. |
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| And the most prolific of the 4 Heliconia plants. It greets you at the driveway next to the Plumbago. |
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| Red Ginger is all over my garden & prolific. |
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| Lantanas are my border and called multiple things here. Grow fast! I have to cut them back regularly or they become shrubs! That is something like a Florida White Butterfly here today. |
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| A type of Petunia that blooms abundantly every morning, then by mid-afternoon the blooms have all dropped to the ground. More the next morning! Year-around. |
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| Flame Vine in English or Triquitraque in Spanish which literally means “firecracker” in Spanish |
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| Flame Vine or Triquitraque |
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| Plumbago is beautiful and my most prolific bloomer. My background plant. But it grows so fast I have to cut it back every few months, losing some color. But it blooms year-around and especially on the new growth after trimming. |
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| “Crown of Thorns” is what Lynda called it. I bought at Don & Lynda’s Moving Sale. |
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| Aloe Vera – I’m always ready for burn! 🙂 |
Sorry I made so many photos this morning! And that is not all of my garden! 🙂 I love it!
And this is very near the end of the dry season, meaning we have had no rain since November. I water most everything every two days. It is work but worth it! I even have green grass which is rare here this time of year. And it has been especially hot this summer or dry season. So my garden has been a lot of work! That is what it takes to have a piece of paradise! As Rudyard Kipling says . . .
“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful!’ and sitting in the shade.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Complete Verse
Butterflies Returning to My Garden!
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| Julia Butterfly My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Polydamas Swallowtail Butterfly My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.
~Jules Renard
Nicaragua: The Book
Of course with all those photos, I had to make a book! It is mostly birds but includes culture photos of Granada, people, Semana Santa, and interesting roadside shots across the country. You can click on the image above and electronically thumb through the book for free. No purchase required! 🙂
Some More BIG BIRDS in Nicaragua
I’ve already done posts on the Peregrine Falcon, Highland Guan, Egrets & Herons, a Limpkin, and Toucans which are all kind of big too! 🙂
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| Osprey Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| Gray Hawk
El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua |
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| Swallowtail Kite El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua |
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| Turkey Vulture Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| Black Vulture Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| White Chinese Goose Selva Negra Mountain Resort |
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| White Chinese Goose Selva Negra Mountain Resort |
Other INSECTS at Monteverde
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| Golden Orb Spider Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Insect Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica At the entrance buildings |
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| Walking-Leaf Katydid
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Costa Rica |
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| Walking-Stick Insect
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Insect
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Costa Rica |
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| Leaf Cutter Ants Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Costa Rica |
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| Butterfly Caterpillars in the Rainforest Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
There were of course many more insects seen and not photographed. Costa Rica has one of the largest selection of insect species in the world, more than all of the U.S. and Canada combined and yet it is the size of the state of West Virginia.
My Other Insects of Costa Rica PHOTO GALLERY OR Costa Rica Butterflies
And I just finished the Monteverde Birding Club Trip 2016 TRIP PHOTO GALLERY
If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months. ~E. O. Wilson
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| Land of Great Species Diversity |
Black Guan
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| Black Guan Male Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica |
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| Black Guan Female Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica |
Read about the Black Guan at Cornell’s Neotropical Birds website. Another nice bird photographed!
San Luis Waterfall
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| San Luis Waterfall, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica |
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| San Luis Waterfall, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica The “Long View” |
This was a “by-product” of our Saturday morning birding hike in the cloud forest reserve. Not big, but beautiful as all waterfalls are to me. It was simply on one of our trails with birds around it.
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| For your own safety, no swimming allowed! Besides, this is a rainforest preserve for the wildlife. It is their water! 🙂 |
I have a lot more wildlife photos to share, just still going through them all and selecting a few.
Today was Spanish class and maid day, so been busy in addition to the photos! 🙂
“As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing.” ~John MuirAnd someday I’ll do a photo gallery of Tennessee Waterfalls I’ve photographed. Some grand ones there!
Rufous-naped Wren, God’s Creation!
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| Rufous-naped Wren in Yellow Bell Tree off my Terrace |
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| Rufous-naped Wren |
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| Rufous-naped Wren with his feathers ruffled – possibly a juvenile |
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| Rufous-naped Wren posing by one of the few lingering flowers |
You probably don’t remember that last July 2015 I reported here about one of these inside my house.
My Costa Rica Birds PHOTO GALLERY or All My Costa Rica Galleries
RAIN IN THE DRY SEASON?
A surprise light shower or sprinkle on this Sunday afternoon, March 6, 2016. It is dry season in the central valley with no rain since October, and this one lasted maybe 10 minutes, getting everything wet, but not soaking my flowers and trees – a reminder that it will start raining again for real in May. And tomorrow night I will continue my every two day watering routine.
If you follow all my adventures you may remember that we had rain stop us from seeing Poas Volcano two weeks ago, but it is at a high altitude, “The Cloud Forest,” that has rain year around as does the coastal lowland rainforest such as Tortuguero where we had a little bit of rain on each of our two nights/3 days there. But the rest of Costa Rica is in the Dry Season until May. Read about the WEATHER in Costa Rica.
Genesis 1:20-23The Message (MSG)
20-23 God spoke: “Swarm, Ocean, with fish and all sea life!
Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!”
God created the huge whales,
all the swarm of life in the waters,
And every kind and species of flying birds.
God saw that it was good.
God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean!
Birds, reproduce on Earth!”
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Five.
Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!”
God created the huge whales,
all the swarm of life in the waters,
And every kind and species of flying birds.
God saw that it was good.
God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean!
Birds, reproduce on Earth!”
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Five.
Emphasis is mine. ~C.D.