On the 29th & 30th of May two unusual moths showed up at my house, one inside and one outside in the garden. The featured photo is one I’ve had before in my garden and seen on a trip to a South Pacific Rainforest. Once called “Giant Butterfly Moth,” it is now called the disgusting name of “Screwworm” – Telchin atymnius (linked to my gallery). It is more beautiful when the wings are open with more white and a big orange patch (see the above linked gallery for that).
Screwworm – Telchin atymnius, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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And the other one, seen inside my house on the kitchen floor, was comparatively tiny, identified on iNaturalist as a Packard’s Eusarca Moth – Eusarca packardaria, linked to Wikipedia which says it is in North America, but being in the middle of North & South America, we often get species from both sides. Though I am the first to report one on iNaturalist Costa Rica, so it might get re-labeled as something else, though this was the ID of iNaturalist AI and I think a good match.
Packard’s Eusarca Moth – Eusarca packardaria, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
This Canivet’s Emerald (my gallery link) is one of the 3 hummingbirds in my garden, with Blue-vented being the other one secondary to the Rufous-tailed who thinks he owns the garden and when I fill the feeders, hogs them and chases off other hummingbirds (the Canivet’s & Blue-vented), but these other two have easier access to my large number of Porter Weeds, officially called Blue Porterweed, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (Wikipedia link). They are in the verbena family and are the most popular flower here for both hummingbirds and butterflies. And they are not all blue! 🙂
Canivet’s Emerald, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaBlue Porterweed, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica And yeah, they’re not all blue but that’s the name in English! Or Cola del Toro en español
The theme of today’s online class was “Light & Shadow” and you can see my class notes and comments at Pause 5: Light & Shadow. (linked to my notes) Still not excited about the class, but this was a good photo-activity! 🙂
So I went outside at about 3pm yesterday (not the best time for long shadows, but okay). Here are a few of my shots in a gallery that won’t work in the email, so one pix for the email and then go to the online post for the gallery . . .
Looks over the grass (where they feed) from a neighbor’s fence. See more of this interesting bird in my Yellow-faced Grassquit Gallery. They are plentiful in the cow pasture across the street. Grass seeds are their favorite food.
Yellow-faced Grassquit, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
And that would be “cuidando las macetas” in Spanish! The motivation for this little job was the large flower pot of potted palms at the entrance of my terrace had grown so much (in maybe 10 years) that the growing roots broke the terracotta pot. I had the gardeners plant those palms along the southside palm row for a thicker screen from the street and bought a new smaller pot with smaller palms to still visually separate my outdoor dining table from the driveway to the top of the hill. And while at the Vivero (plant nursery) I got two small red anthuriums for the old white pot that has seen many different flower over about 9 years and the one in it last week had become ugly!
Next project is to paint the Frog Pot and two other terracotta pots, after sanding. Always something that needs to be done! 🙂
Entering the terrace from the driveway, the potted palms sort of shield the dining table, even this smaller bunch of palms.Continue reading “Minding the Flowerpots”
¡Buenos dias! Good Morning! I hope you missed my blog post yesterday! 🙂 It was not more computer problems or too much AI, but I simply did not make a post yesterday and will not every day any longer. Some people wonder what old people do with their time while I wonder why I seem to never have enough time! 🙂 Just daily life seems to fill every moment, not to mention the many appointments and daily tasks I must complete, a lot related to my health and basic things that just simply have to be done! 🙂
Lately I have also been strained to see enough birds and butterflies in the continued high winds to have enough photos for a daily blog along with the busy schedules and sometimes just being tired. Plus I don’t want to force a poor photo into a blog post which has been done. So I will continue to share nature photos when I have some that I really want to share, which just may not be every day. Though when I travel there will always be photos to share every day for a while! 🙂 Now today’s share . . .
History of my Desert Rose Plant that has bloomed every day for 9 years!
In 2017, in this same month of April, my next-door neighbor and artist friend, Anthony, left to go back to the states, hoping to get an art teaching job (never happened). I bought his small flower pot with a small Desert Rose in it. Unfortunately I made no photos of it until this one in 2020 (3 years later) when it was still small as seen here between the larger Crown of Thorns and Bougainvillea, both of which have since died and the Desert Rose has more than tripled in size! 🙂
The small middle plant was my Desert Rose in 2020, between a Crown of Thorns & Bougainvillea.
Today most visitors I have at my house are amazed at the growth, beauty, healthiness and longevity of this Desert Rose plant that has always been on the east side of my casita in direct morning sun until maybe 1+ pm. My head gardener has never seen such before! And he stares at it on his every-other-week visit. They are hard to find in any plant nursery here. The photo below was made yesterday. And it keeps blooming every day, 365 days a year for nine years now! 🙂
Desert Rose, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica, April 16, 2026.
Note that in the above two photos you can see a sort of bulbous base to the plant. That is to hold water for when no rain as this plant is native to dry North Africa and the Middle East. And also in the 3rd photo or feature photo, there are almost always buds next to each flower ready to replace it when that flower wilts or dies. Google’s AI summarizes this plant as follows:
“The Desert Rose (Adenium obesum) is a succulent originating from arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Madagascar. It thrives in full sun (6+ hours) and requires extremely well-draining soil, such as succulent or cactus mixes. It is best grown in pots in warm, sunny, and dry conditions, with minimal water in winter.”
Notice the buds ready to open when the older flowers begin to fade. A continuous cycle! Always blooming!
In some ways, it is a good model for retirement life! And I hope I continue to “bloom” in whatever way possible for the rest of my life here in beautiful, tropical Costa Rica! 🙂
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” — Anais Nin
Neither the AI nor I could positively identify this tiny little Skipper, but it is another encouraging sign that the wind was slowing down a week ago when photographed and soon I will be seeing many more species, though it will probably be May before a lot of them! 🙂 This one was maybe the size of my thumbnail, which is too small for any of the Longtails he looks a like and I just chose to not identify.
Unidentified Skipper Butterfly, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
With the wind still blowing I found this little guy in my garden 6 days ago along with the tougher Polydamas Swallowtails. Not an every day butterfly, but I’ve seen 4 or 5 as shown in my gallery: Fawn-spotted Skipper, Cymaenes isus
Fawn-spotted Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
