Tag: rain

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Black Witch Moth (Late for Halloween!)

Black Witch Moth, Atenas, Costa Rica
Outside of my bathroom window screen & photographed with flash at night

I know! It is not black! Though some can be black, gray, brown or other colors, this fits the description and matches photo in Butterflies, Moths, and Other Invertebrates of Costa Rica by Carol L. Henderson. I’ve seen one other of these earlier. They appear from Florida to Brazil and in every part of Costa Rica.

I am not seeing many new creatures this month but enjoying a good rain every afternoon or evening like I had been expecting since May! Hope the rain continues into Dry Season/Summer, which often begins in November or December. We need rain greatly! It has been a drought winter in Costa Rica this year with our summer beginning in December it will mean no rain for 6 months, our dry season. I’m expecting to water my garden a lot.

Yeah, this is “just a moth,” but click image to enlarge, then look at that intricate pattern, those fake eyes near top to scare away birds, and the subtle colors. It reminds me of a favorite Scripture verse:

Take a good look at God’s wonders—
    they’ll take your breath away.
Psalm 66:5 THE MESSAGE
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Babbling Brook to Roaring River!

The afternoon rain yesterday turned the beautiful little mountain stream into a roaring river breeching its banks where we stopped for both meals on our Visa Run to Nicaragua border. Before & After Photos:

A little mountain stream at breakfast!

And overflowing at lunch time in a heavy rain!

I’m hoping this will be my last “Visa Run,” the 14 hour trip to Nicaragua border to get visas renewed. That means I’m hoping my residency paperwork is completed before January when my 90 days will be up on yesterday’s visa. Yesterday’s trip was uneventful except for the heavy rain and bumper to bumper traffic on the way back.
And oh yeah! Ol’ stupid here left his umbrella somewhere on the border! But I’ve been here nine months and it is the first time to totally loose one (just left locally where I could go back and retrieve). And not as bad as having my cameras stolen Wednesday! By the way, I checked the duty free shop on border for cameras and all they had were a few little pocket cameras, so next will be a dreaded trip to San Jose to a camera store before comparing with online prices (+ shipping & import taxes). It will be expensive, whatever I do! Above photos by my cell phone which is my only camera right now! 
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RAIN in the Garden!

Has the “Rainy Season” really started now? Afternoon rain for 2 days in a row! 🙂

Rain dripping off a Guarumo leaf.

Wet Palmetto leaf in my garden.

Wet Heliconia leaves in my garden. Camera doesn’t show rain, just wet!
My miniature rainforest in the rain; habitat of birds, butterflies, frogs, & lizards.
But you can’t see the rain in the photo.  🙂   Believe me. It is raining!
Babies!
My pride and joy, rare Maraca Plant (Shampoo Ginger), has 4 new sprouts!
Snapped this as rain stopped and I finished post. See ground cover filling in?
My garden is one of the best things about this house and done from scratch!
With a rare plant to boot! It came from being nice to the gardeners.  🙂

“Open up, heavens, and rain.
    Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!
Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;
    sprout right living.
    I, God, generate all this.”
Isaiah 45:8
The Message


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Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird

Back to my garden . . .

Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird
In my garden, Roca Verde house, Atenas, Costa Rica

This is my second time to photograph this species in my garden. Both times the light is not good for a clear and colorful photo. He/she is an iridescent green all over except for the dark, forked tail. The first time was no better.  What I need is sunlight shining directly on the bird!  🙂

SPANISH LANGUAGE UPDATE
My progress has been so very slow. ¡Aprendo poco a poco español! (I learn Spanish little by little.) Is what I say to some people. So I have joined a second class that meets only once a week at the little evangelical church I have attended some, Iglesia Biblical. It provides a text book and workbook for homework and it is too early to see if it will help me learn faster, though every effort is of some value! What I need most is to just talk more in Spanish, ignoring the embarrassment of doing it wrong. That is what David Castillo at Su Espacio is trying to get me to do. We are down to just two in his class right now, so it is almost like tutoring. I also try to do one little activity each day on duolingo.com which is a great free language learning site! And I just ordered another CD-based course. So I’m trying! ¡Pero es difícil! (But it is difficult!) Or slow! David suggested I do this blog in Spanish, but that would leave too many of you out, so I won’t. Maybe a separate blog in Spanish?
DROUGHT
This has been one of the driest “Rainy Seasons” on record for the Central Valley and I have to water my garden and new trees every other day. Everyone says the rain should really come in September and October. We’ll see! It is cloudy and thundering right now, but that often means little or nothing!

The only exception to the drought has been the Caribbean side of the country and a few places in the north. It rained every day we were at Yorkin. The northwest or Guanacaste  area is always the driest part of the country and it is even drier this year. It is really hard on farmers!

 Time flies, but not backwards, like a hummingbird can.
(-:


Good night from Atenas, Costa Rica! The little bit of rain passed fast and gave us fog. Pura Vida!
View from my balcony of course!


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New Anole & Rain!

Giant Banded Anole, new in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica
And I think he is different from the Green Tree Anole I posted earlier.
Maybe not. But I think larger and the stripes different.
I first saw this one on the tree stump I was preparing for my ceramic bird art.
I was waiting for the wood filler to dry so I could paint it & mount the bird.
It is now mounted as shown in yesterday’s post.
Rainy Season is back with rain every afternoon and today’s is especially good, started at 1:00 and still raining at 6:00!
The garden loves it!  🙂


I’m singing in the rain, just singing in the rain; What a wonderful feeling, I’m happy again.
~Arthur Freed
More lizards in my Costa Rica Reptiles PHOTO GALLERY
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Humidity and the DampRid Discovery

It is rainy season (though less rain this year)
and that means high humidity, even in your house.
So I discover this interesting product at PriceSmart.
DampRid

I hang it in my closet and it absorbs the moisture
from my clothing and the surrounding air. The
crystals in the upper bag collect water and put
it in the lower silver bag until full or crystals used.

By holding up to light you can see the water in lower bag and some of the
crystals that are dissolving down there. A bag lasts about a month so far. 

Because my windows stay open at all times and there are often breezes, the air in the rooms does not seem to be as humid and I haven’t felt the need for a dehumidifier yet. September and October are when the heavy rains come and it may be different then, though being on a hill with good cross-venting air flow, it will probably be fine.

By the way, it is one of the driest rainy seasons in years here with half the quantity of rain this June as last June. Global warming and El Nino are already affecting this part of Costa Rica. While the Caribbean side has had too much rain and flooding. Go figure! 
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
~Anthony J. D’Angelo


🙂

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Life is Short and Life is Long, But Not in That Order! PURA VIDA!

Why time really does seem to go faster when you get older is an interesting article about the

“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”
~Henry David Thoreau 

logarithm of time perception over the years. Hopefully this link to the Washington Post article will work if not a subscriber. Don’t miss the cool video clip in the article! And yes, time seems to be flying by for me here in Costa Rica! Been here 7 months today and I never look back! Loving life here! And the Tico people!

I’m also learning to live in the moment more (like we did as little kids) and enjoying the simple things of life like a tropical rain or a butterfly flitting over my balcony. While still anticipating new adventures, like the three day trip next week to the Carara National Park to hopefully photograph Scarlet Macaws, yet knowing there will be a serendipity of some kind, with or without a macaw! Pura vida!

Pura vida. Pronounced POO-rah VEE-dah, in English means, “Pure Life”. However, these two words have much more meaning throughout the Costa Rican culture.

But where did Costa Ricans take this phrase from? According to a study of the expression, a film called Pura vida came to Costa Rica from Mexico in 1956, directed by Gilberto Martinez Solares. In the movie, “Pura vida” is the expression of eternal optimism used by a comic character, played by the actor Antonio Espino, who unfortunately can’t seem to do anything right. While a small population used it then, the phrase “Pura vida” was used nationwide by 1970.

Associated with many different English interpretations like “pure life”, “take it easy”, “enjoy life”, “all good”, “purity in life”, “hello”, “goodbye”, “this is life!” and many many more. The point is that foreigners truly don’t have a true grasp of the meaning of “pura vida” as they are not Costa Ricans themselves.

Pura vida! Means that no matter what your current situation is, life for someone else can always be less fortunate than your own. So you need to consider that maybe…just maybe, your situation isn’t all that bad and that no matter how little or how much you have in life, we are all here together and life is short…so start living it “pura vida style”.

Beginning to understand now, the true meaning of the uniquely Costa Rican term, “Pura Vida”? We feel that the more “foreigners” who truly grasp the concept, the better the world would be. Imagine if countries like the USA or Canada or in Europe started to live life like the Costa Ricans and adopted the pura vida lifestyle? Because honestly folks…no matter how much of a mess your life may seem, there is always someone else who’s life would make yours look like a vacation in paradise.

Pura vida description copied from:  http://www.bestcostaricantours.com/about/puravida.html

I am not necessarily recommending this travel agent and have not personally experienced them yet, but like I their description of Pura Vida better than others I found!   🙂   I do plan to try them for one of my future adventures because I like their approach to nature tours.

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. 
We have only today. Let us begin.” 
― Mother Teresa

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Life-giving Rain

At 1:30 I saw the clouds moving in over bright sunshine.

By 4:30 the sun is gone and rain is everywhere, from the mountains to the valleys. Cooler too!

After two weeks of a “mini dry season” it has been good this week to have rain again every afternoon and/or evening! Today it started at about 4:15 PM and is still raining at 8:00 PM which is good after the short dry period here in Atenas. The other extreme is the north of the country and the Caribbean coast has been inundated with rain and flooding, displacing many from their homes and closing several  roads. So Atenas is still living up to our “best climate” fame.

The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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The Rain Has Returned!

After about two weeks of very little rain it seems to be back to daily, I hope!
I’m tired of watering the trees and garden + neighbor’s while out of town.
They say this dry period happens every June-July.

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My Library

My library recharges at night, Kindle Fire & Samsung Cellphone (Kindle App).

One of the smartest things I did before the move south was get a Kindle Fire and then add the Kindle App to my cellphone! I read everything from the Bible to novels, National Geographic and occasionally the news, all electronically on my Kindle. When riding a bus or eating in a restaurant I read on my phone. As a quote I used yesterday in the butterfly post says,

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”  
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
FYI, I’m currently reading the latest English version of Don Quixote and it is too early for me to have a judgement on it yet (but a little weird so far).  A couple of days ago I finished reading Pay It Forward, one of the best books I’ve ever read! It is by Catherine Ryan Hyde whom I discovered by accident from a little 99 cent Kindle book by her titled Electric God which was very good and pointed me to Pay It Forward which was also made into a movie. Sorry that Netflix is not streaming it, just on DVD which I can’t get here. It is about how a little boy’s school project to “change the world” actually did! Of course the movies are never as good as the books!  🙂

Locally made bookcase with doors
to protect from dry season dust. It
is between book boxes & guest
room wardrobe.

After arriving I started by reading all of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit,  and all the books in Lord of the Rings series. Great ways to escape the American culture! Those lengthy readings were broken up by two John Grisham mysteries, Agatha Christie, Louis L’Amour, three books on Costa Rica, two science fiction books, and The Psalmist (a mystery) by James Lillieford, a new and interesting writer for me. I’ll try him again.

Because I did bring two hard copy Bibles, my photo books, a couple of books on simple life, and my bird, butterfly, plants and other Central America nature & travel guides, I got a little bookcase (Pequeña Biblioteca), with doors to help with the dry season dust. It is simple, handmade locally, and serves my purpose well. I will also be keeping a few of the genealogy books as I go through them, but all my scrapbooks are going to be photographed and become electronic files as most of genealogy stuff will.

Mostly, my library now is my Kindle Fire! Best library yet!

Nature is my theme, so here’s one nature photo:     🙂

Rainy Day Green! Even with dull, overcast sky, greens seem brighter in rain!
Another view from my balcony in Atenas, Costa Rica!

And for those of you who know Reagan Frazier, he just scheduled a visit with me for two weeks in February 2016, just 8 months away!  🙂  But if thinking about it, February is off limits now.