One of my favorite insects in the garden, who adds almost as much color as a butterfly! 🙂 The Green Orchid Bee, Euglossa dilemma (Wikipedia link) is a native of Central America, plus someone introduced it in Florida.
Green Orchid Bee
Cecropia
I never tire of photographing this tree that I planted in 2015.
- A Cecropia Tree GALLERY
- A Trees GALLERY
- My Home Garden GALLERY
- All my Flora & Forest GALLERIES
- And there just may be a future photo book of all the birds I have photographed in this very same Cecropia Tree! I never stop having fun with nature! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Brazilian Skipper
While at Villa Lapas in Tarcoles last month, I got only one butterfly with a decent photo and it is another semi-unusual or not seen much here butterfly, though on butterfliesandmoths it seems to be quite common in the Eastern USA. It is the Brazilian Skipper, Calpodes ethlius (link to my gallery) and this was my second time to see one. Here’s just one photo . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Burst of Departure Color
Palm fronds die and depart the trees year around as the tree constantly grows new fronds, but near the end of dry season it is either more often or just more noticeable with the bright greens changing to bright yellows or rich rust colors, like their final flower or “notice me” as they leave this world. 🙂
Kitchen Window Garden-View
See more in My Home Garden GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
Exoctic Flowers on My Walks to Town
The Petrea volubilis , Machiguá or Flor de Santa Lucía (Wikipedia link) is a tropical evergreen vine found in Mexico and Central America. And it is just one more of many exoctic flowers I’ve discovered on my walks to town, popping up in some neighbor’s garden! Some, like this, take a bit of searching on the internet to identify, but rewarding to do so. Then I ask my gardener for one and he says, “What!?” 🙂
This tropical vine in the verbena family is further described by the North Carolina Extension Gardener. And interestingly by the Singapore National Parks. They also use the common names of: Sandpaper Vine, Queen’s Wreath, and Purple Wreath. Fun to see, but most of these exoctics I never get to grow. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Budding Heliconia
The bud of this particular heliconia is almost like a different flower from the fully opened Heliconia and it is one of my favorite. Plus the edge of a Plumbago behind it just adds a hint of contrast to accentuate the brilliant colors.
¡Pura Vida!
And notice that one of the computer-generated “Related” blog posts featured below has the fully bloomed Heliconia, also with a Plumbago contrasting it! 🙂 Or see My Garden Gallery photos.
A Jillion Miracles!
“I’ve seen a jillion miracles. They’re all around. Every green leaf is a miracle.”
– Jimmy Dean
And I’m back to doing blog posts from my little casita garden for a while now . . .
“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”
~C.S. Lewis
Every green leaf is one! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Check out my Flora & Forest Galleries!
3 Frogs at Villa Lapas
Two were photographed at Villa Lapas and one in the Carara Park, but both are a part of the same transitional rainforest in the lowlands of Rio Tarcoles, along the Pacific Coast, just an hour’s drive from where I live in Atenas.
Green & Black Poison Dart Frog
2 Flowering Weeds
The next day after photographing them the gardeners cut them down with their weed eaters! 🙂 And NOTE for those receiving this as an email: All blog posts received in an email are BEST SEEN AND READ ONLINE by clicking the title above. Some design features are not carried over to the email version.
The first photo is a yellow & white daisy-like tiny flower that does attract the tiny butterflies and the second is some kind of whitish puff ball with a separate flower bud in front of it. The bud is probably of the same species as the yellow & white flower pictured, since it was close by. Even weeds have a beauty that can be photographed and several of my butterfly photos include such “weed flowers” never mentioned! 🙂
For more plant photos, browse through my Flora & Forest Galleries.
¡Pura Vida!