Contrasting Hans Christian Anderson with Preston & Childs

Now that I finished all of the Agatha Christie books, I try different kinds of books from non-fiction to mysteries to classics and have frequently followed the advice of my younger brother, Jerry, who told me once that if you don’t enjoy a book or get something from it, why continue reading it? Even a classic!

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Farm Visit Today

I was going to avoid all tours but decided the two I did today would not be that popular and not so many people and that was true! My early morning pre-breakfast bird hike was just me and a masked young couple from Europe, he from France and she from Germany plus our local guide Jose. (more on it later) Then at 9 Jose also led the farm tour with just me and a nice lady from Germany and her daughter 11 or 12ish. They were of course masked and her Dad was not interested in the tour. 🙂

A weird-looking Katydid on the farm!

Below is a slide show from the farm tour today with pix not in chronological order . . .

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This Week’s “Wildness”

“Wildness . . . has also been defined as a quality produced in nature, as that which emerges from a forest, and as a level of achievement in nature.”

~definitions.net

I leave tomorrow morning for my third visit to a favorite rainforest lodge, Maquenque Ecolodge & Reserve in Boca Tapada, which is in my province of Alajuela but in the far north near the Nicaragua border, a 3 hour drive for my driver Walter. 🙂 Read on for why this is a favorite lodge and check out the links to my two other visits there . . .

One branch of a very large lake plus they are on a big river.
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Two New Restaurants in Atenas

For the last year or two I’ve worked hard a preparing good, healthy meals at home from making 8-servings of spaghetti with meat (eating 1 & freezing 7 for future meals) to multiple recipes of homemade vegetable soup to help me eat more veggies, last week a yummy Chick Peas Salad from a Washington Post Recipe and also last week a 7-layer dip (mostly veggies). And I do breakfast at home all but one morning a week with 3 or 4 fruits, nuts, whole grains in either bread, hot or cold cereal or French Toast, saving my omelets for some dinners! 🙂

But living solo, I still like to eat out and I’m now trying to find more restaurants that I like while some I liked closed during Covid. So I was a little surprised to see two new ones open in the last few weeks, one serving everything from pizza & burgers to steaks & seafood and the other one our first “genuine” Mexican Restaurant:

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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!

UPDATE to Chainsaw Massacre Post

I was contacted by one of the board members and assured that they did not approve the destruction of that beautiful big tree. It was the landowner’s decision and right to cut it down. You can see my updated or revised statement on the original post Chainsaw Massacre Across the Street or I am copying the revised statement here plus I edited a couple of other lines in the post:

I apologize that I blamed the Homeowner’s Association and the employees for allowing or doing this destruction of a beautiful big tree. A board member contacted me to say they were distraught also about the loss of this great tree and that the landowner is the one who decided to cut it down and he/she owns it and has the right to do so. So shame on whoever that is! Note that it was an employee that said it was cut down because of the water shortage here. I don’t know if that is why the owner cut it. Maybe I was right the first time saying they would probably build a rent house there.

The large  Higuerón Tree or Strangler Fig someone cut down to a stub.

Our board of directors work hard to make this a better place to live! Thank you!

I’m still sad! 🙁

Last Week – what’s left of the large Strangler Fig.

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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