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My profession is to always find God in nature.
– Henry David Thoreau
On the tile and concrete entrance sidewalk I photographed this beetle yesterday and sure it is one of the dozens of Scarab Beetles and pretty sure it is in the sub-category of Golden Scarab Beetles. I don’t have a beetle book and the internet is taking more time than I wanted to spend for the exact ID! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Volcanoes Irazú and Turrialba are almost twin volcanoes with a road connecting the near tops of both in the rural vegetable farming mountains just northwest of the lodge. The rich volcanic soil is great for growing vegetables and many are shipped to other countries including the states.
Turrialba is active right now, so we saw it from outside that park, but I have photos below of both. My one disclaimer is that there is not as much to see at these two as the Poas Volcano north of where I live and I do have past posts and photo galleries on my two visits there, plus a gallery on my visit to Rincón de la Vieja northeast of Liberia which is more like a miniature Yellowstone with lots of bubbling mud pots, hot springs and fissures. And Tenorio is similar. But my favorite is Arenal Volcano National Park for birding! You only see the volcano from outside. They are all interesting! And Stijn was an excellent guide again today! He made photos of me on his phone which I don’t have to share yet. And later I may do a post on the many interesting flowers and a couple of insects I photographed at Irazú.
Below are separate galleries on Irazú & Turrialba with 5 shots from each . . .
Continue reading “Two Volcanoes Today!”
I shot most of these photos on my arrival afternoon, Sunday. Please be aware that I’m in one of those places with a weak internet connection. Yesterday I uploaded the photos for the blog okay but when I tried to view them online I got only words with no photos showing up at all. If that is happening to you, you may see the photos I’ve chosen for the blog on the beginnings of my Gallery for 2022 April 3-8 Guayabo Lodge. Of course the gallery is incomplete until after the trip. For now it is an alternate way to see my blog photos if you are not seeing them as I could not yesterday, 🙂 And the problem may have been my blog host yesterday because I’m seeing them okay today! 🙂
Yeah, I know, the old expression is “down on the farm” but here I’m literally UP on a farm in the mountains north of Cartago, Costa Rica on the slopes of Turrialba Volcano. You do know that the best coffee is “mountain grown” and this farm grows coffee along with many vegetables and animals – and just happens to also have a small tourist hotel! 🙂
So on my arrival day I’m featuring a few photos about the farm location of my lodge/hotel, the Guayabo Lodge, the closest one to the archaeological site and National Monument Guayabo which I’m scheduled to visit tomorrow.
Not only am I sleeping on an active farm but also in a beautiful garden with flowers that mostly grow only in the mountains here. Maybe that will be tomorrow’s post since it will probably take a long time to process photos from the national monument tomorrow. 🙂
Here’s 7 favorite farm shots from my arrival day . . .
Continue reading ““Up on the Farm””
Yep! I just went 6 days without blogging which is not my usual habit which is to write posts 3 or 4 days ahead then break from the routine while posts keep coming out. No health problems or catastrophes, “just tired of blogging.” But with another trip coming tomorrow, I’m in the mood and here’s a few nature photos made during this “down time.”
I’m still not getting many butterflies in my garden yet other than the fast-moving Yellows that never seem to land for a photo. But here’s two bees in my garden this morning:
That’s the restaurant now, not the large reptilian lizard! 🙂 But to me the food is still just “so-so” or mediocre. My second try was with nachos that I thought a young-adult oriented restaurant would do really good, but they had no chicken nachos that day and the beef was tough or hard to chew and stringy, catching in my teeth. They again asked me how was the food and I told them, so maybe they will improve? Plus, this time I walked all the way to the back of the long restaurant and out into their patio which is obviously the most popular section. It is beautiful with a cool outdoor Costa Rica mural and a statue of an iguana! Pleasing environment! 🙂 Fun, youthful restaurant! And tourists will like too!
This Triquitraque or Flame Vine on my back wall usually blooms two months: January-February and that’s it! This January it did not have as many blooms, so I gave it a little plant food and started watering it more when wow! it started growing new vines and blooming much more than in January, so now I’m getting a “2nd Life” of it this year for hopefully all of March-April! 🙂 With more blooms! 🙂
And some other views . . .
Continue reading “2nd Life of Triquitraque!”
I’m again working on The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories of Hans Christian Andersen (link to Amazon Kindle version, the translation I’m reading), a long and sometimes boring or cumbersome 1800’s book that is an unusual mix of old-fashion fairy tales, Danish history, religion or Christian pedagogy in about 200 short stories about animals and people and in the ones about just people he seems fixated on both death and young men who want to marry “above their station” and never get their true love (pauper boy falls in love with a princess, etc.). I haven’t gotten to The Little Mermaid or Frozen yet! 🙂 I haven’t liked all of his stories and prefer the ones with talking animals and nature like the one in which I found this inspirational quote the other day . . .
It’s the last two sentences of his story titled The Toad. This toad has been trying to find the proverbial “gem in his head,” going through different aspects of nature and other animals when he decides to go toward the sun . . . then the story-teller concludes with . . .
“No, the light is too intense; we do not yet have eyes that can see all the glory God has created. But maybe someday we will have such eyes. That will be the most wonderful fairy tale of all, for we ourselves will be part of it.”
~Hans Christian Andersen
And the feature photo at the top of this post is of a Masked Tree Frog at Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort, San Ramon, Costa Rica. Of course neither frog is the one Andersen wrote about, but fun illustrations! 🙂
Hans Christian Andersen reminded me of another favorite quote with a similar perspective on nature . . .
“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”
~George Washington Carver
¡Pura Vida!
I was impressed by the “Queenly” look of this female Summer Tanager in my garden the other day. She looks so stately and regal, holding her head up properly like Queen Elizabeth does. I keep seeing these females with no bright red males around. So I’m wondering if maybe she is a resident here and the migrants haven’t arrived yet? But then surely with resident females there would also be some resident males? 🙂
And below she is looking straight at me, like she’s asking me, “Who are you and what do you think you’re doing?” 🙂 . . .
Continue reading “A Queenly Female Summer Tanager”
Last November I did a post on my first “Carton Wasp Nest” in my garden but there were no wasps anywhere around it. Again in December I saw another one in Uvita also with no wasps. The other day, there were a lot of wasps in and out and around my nest here! It is the first time I’ve seen wasps on one. I have no explanation as I know almost nothing about wasps. I just think the shape of this nest is pretty cool!
And how it looked last November with no wasps around . . .
Continue reading “Wasps at Nest”