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On the same walk to town with yesterday’s beetle I snapped these 3 flowers that caught my attention. The red & yellow hibiscus is rare or at least for my eyes! 🙂 One of the red flowers (feature photo) appears to be in the poinsettia family but not the traditional one while the other red flower is more common here, but eye-catching none-the-less!
“Life is like a box of crayons.”
~John Mayer
My Flora & Forest GALLERY
¡Pura Vida!
I spent nearly an hour searching my books and all over the internet for an ID on this interesting fellow I saw while walking to town the other day. He is possibly in the large Scarab Beetle family or Stag Beetle family or seems related to our Rhinoceros Beetle and Hercules Beetle, but even with those I can’t find photos of one with these large, wide “horns” or divided head. New surprises every day! 🙂
“Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.”
―
See my “Other Insects of Costa Rica” photo gallery for more insect oddities.
¡Pura Vida!
A different butterfly in my garden today along with repeats of most seen yesterday. 🙂
The “Giant” Swallowtail is not really bigger than most other Swallowtails but identified by his patterns. See more in my Giant Swallowtail Gallery or go for all in the big Butterfly Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
And 4 species today! 🙂 I went out and photographed the above flowers for a one-shot post when I realized there was a dozen or so butterflies beyond them on my Porterweed flowers of these 4 species (one I incorrectly named the other day}:
See more of these 4 and 100 others in my Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk . . . mysteries.”
―
¡Pura Vida!
Yesterday I saw a new butterfly for me and my best efforts at identification using my book and online sites is “Red-sided Swallowtail.” He matches all the photos of that species except for his tail, but that could be one of those “exceptions” every species seems to have. His tail is more like the “Dual-spotted Swallowtail” but the wings are just too different. And his wings are a little bit like “White Crescent Swallowtail” but not totally and those don’t live further south than Honduras, so I’m sticking with this ID for now! 🙂
Just thankful that I have one more new butterfly whatever he is! 🙂
Butterflies are nature’s angels.
They remind us what a gift it is to be alive.
-Robyn Nola
¡Pura Vida!
See my Butterfly Gallery.
One of the neat things about living in Costa Rica is that you do not always have to go look for wildlife, since it often comes to you. This has been particularly true with insects at my house! 🙂
After breakfast yesterday I soaked my oatmeal bowl in the sink with warm soapy water and finished my coffee while reading the paper. When I returned to the sink, this dragonfly had flown or dropped right into the soapy water and was dead. I gently pulled him out and lightly dabbed with a paper towel – no life. And here is my quick cellphone photo. After an internet search I declared him a Blue-eyed Darner male. I’m seldom 100% certain of insect identifications, but this is my best match on the web!
See my Dragonfly Gallery.
“I love to see the sunshine on the wings of the Dragonflies… there is magic in it.”
―
¡Pura Vida!
It’s been awhile since I’ve reported since not much obvious work has been going on except for 2 to 4 men most days working on this one radial sidewalk from the central kiosk to the northeast corner of the park since January. It has taken much of 5 months with 7 more sidewalks to go, it may be awhile before the renovation is complete! 🙂
At least I’ve learned that the sidewalks will be concrete rather than the old brick sidewalks, which at first was disappointing for the historical look, but they are definitely going for a modern look and concrete will also be more practical and cost less I would imagine and the younger generations everywhere definitely prefer modern. There is a trough down the center of the sidewalk which will probably be used to hide electrical wires, since the storm drain is a bigger pipe already buried under all this.
I like the two half circles off this walk with built-in seating for groups to assemble or people in general to visit. And not only are there built-in seats in the circle, but all the sidewalk walls are at sitting level, meaning there will be a lot more seating than the old park benches have provided. And that fits the purpose of bringing people together and the new modern look of the park too! I like it! When finished, the Central Park will really be the center of life in Atenas!
“Parks and playgrounds are the soul of a city.”
―
The Architect Plans Facebook Page has been taken down or the old link doesn’t work now. Sorry.
See my Central Park Renovation Photo Gallery with chronological photos of the progress.
¡Pura Vida!
Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.
~Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Featured Photo: Zoomed in on surrounding hills, Atenas.
“Rainy Season” = “Green Season”
My Galleries: Flora & Forest or Vistas
¡Pura Vida!
When they start looking “scraggy” I like to have a fresh start! And I recently did that with these two pots, one outside and one inside.
The inside one has had several little palms from the beginning that never lasted more than a year, if that long – evidently needing more sun. So I replaced the palm with a Monstera deliciosa, also known as the Swiss Cheese plant, which is in the philodendron family and can better handle the lack of sun, as already shown in one of the shady areas of my outside garden. A nice tropical change from the palms that kept dying! 🙂
I don’t remember the name of the green plant we removed from my outside frog pot, but it evidently needed more water than that little pot could hold and kept turning brown. So it has been replaced with a type of fan palm that is supposedly easy to grow. But with a smaller pot, I still need to be more frequent with the water! 🙂 And the green plant removed is now doing well in one of my outside gardens!
“A dried plant is nothing but a sign to plant a new one”
― Priyansh Shah
🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See also My Home Gardens Photo Gallery and for the inside if my house:
My Rent House in Roca Verde Photo Gallery.