“Red is uplifting.”
– Jerry Lewis¡Pura Vida!
See other reds in my garden in My Garden Gallery.
Seeing Red!
New Perspective Each Morning
Yep! I seem to see my garden a little differently each morning and never tire of walking through it. Here’s my snaps of flowers as seen 2 or 3 mornings ago – I know that they are often the same flowers but I am seeing them differently each time. 🙂 Pura vida!
A sample for the email announcement and then a slide show . . .
Continue reading “New Perspective Each Morning”Flowers for Your Valentine’s Day
As I travel today and get settled in my treehouse room at Maquenque Eco-Lodge, I’ll do a post from my garden featuring the contrast of a yellow flower called “Golden Shrimp” with all the other flowers that are red or orange. I love the flowers in my garden! Enjoy your Valentine Flowers . . .
These yellow flowers contrast with all the reds and oranges in my garden . . .
Continue reading “Flowers for Your Valentine’s Day”Another Look
Pathway Pastoral Pleasant
On today’s walk I decided that the above view of my “Country Road” from a few days ago is a much more pleasing view, and I also discovered a red Canna that captivated me . . .
Brilliant
Burgeoning
Blossom
And you may have noticed that I returned to my earlier efforts of writing Haiku Poetry – the Americanized 2-3-2 syllable version rather than the original Japanese 5-7-5 syllables for two reasons: (1) You can describe more in fewer syllables in English than Japanese and (2) It is easier for this old man! 🙂 But I do stay with the Japanese original purpose of simply describing nature, as I also try to do in my photography. It is a FUN part of my retirement and keeps my elderly brain alert! 🙂 Though it will not always be possible to also make them into alliterations as I did today! 🙂
And if you like Haiku or poetry in general, check out my Haiku Photo Gallery or see a free online digital preview of my 2018 book Costa Rica Haiku, Describing Nature in Paradise.
And my Atenas Gallery!
¡Pura Vida!
Christmas Poinsettias
People around the world buy these interesting tropical plants as an indoor natural Christmas decoration. I bought two last year and after Christmas decided to plant them in my garden so I would have my own outdoor Christmas Poinsettia this year since they are native to Central America. And surely you know that they do not have a flower but the top layer of leaves turn red around Christmas. Well, I kept watching mine in the garden as it got closer to December and now Christmas and MINE STILL HAVE NOT TURNED RED!
“The Poinsettia is a light sensitive plant. When you deprive the plant in its full leafing stage of light, the only chlorophyll used to turn the leaves green cannot be produced. As a result of this total darkness and lack of light, the only color that will be produced is red. This is called photoperiodism.”
~from the internet
I’ve seen red ones in other gardens here but this quote makes it sounds like I needed to cover them from the sun in my garden to get red. Then by reading further online in this article on How Poinsettias Turn Red, I learned that the two I bought from the supermarket last year are hybridized by nurseries as indoor plants and yes would have turned red if I had given then weeks of darkness. BUT, the ones in other gardens here that bloom are “wild poinsettias” which have somehow developed a way to turn their leaves red to attract pollinators. Wow! Nature is amazing and interesting! So . . . if I want them blooming in my garden, I need to get wild ones! 🙂 Oh well, I tried! 🙂
Now, to get my red, I bought two new ones again this year, one little and one bigger one and I now have Christmas red inside my house, just not in the garden! 🙂 But most importantly I’m trying to “live Christmas every day!” 🙂 And hope you are able to do that too! Be Merry!
“Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.”
~Helen Steiner Rice
¡Pura Vida!
That Spot of Color is Joy!
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| Can you see it? In the fork of the guarumo tree on the distant hill. Red-orange. It is a spot of color I see every time I walk out on my terrace and it brings a smile. It is an African Tulip Tree I’m glad a neighbor planted! Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| It is a tree like this one by our front gate in Roca Verde, African Tulip Tree, native of Africa and brought here as an ornamental tree for yards that adds new color to the many natural colors here. Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| And a little closer. |
The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.
John Ruskin
See my photo gallery: Flora & Forest
Chromatic Ginger Haiku
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| Red Ginger flower My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
Count it a coincidence that my ex-wife’s nickname was “Ginger.” She died last summer of cancer in Gatesville, Texas. And that she too was chromatically colorful in her own way. 🙂
Photo Gallery of My Home Garden
Link to post About Ginger & Jason just before she died.
And the announcement of her death: Ginger Is Gone
Some may call it poetic justice that my garden has many of two kinds of flowers called “Ginger,” this Red Ginger and a yellow Shampoo Ginger flower. Only fellow divorcees can understand all the many mixed feelings when something reminds you of your ex, especially after her death. Then life goes on!
15th of September Post 3: FLAGS!
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| Colegio Liceo had the largest group of marching flags led by a Drum Majorette. |
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| When they stopped they had a very intricate presentation of weaving the lines in and out of each other to create a sea of red, white and blue – Colegio Liceo. |
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| As usual I watched the parade from Gelly’s across from Parque Central. Here Colegio Liceo is starting their presentation seen in second photo. |
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| Escuela Central Elementary School did great for younger kids! And they had the coolest caps! Boys and girls marched in separate lines. That’s elementary school for you! 🙂 |
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| Colegio San Rafael was led by a drum major. |
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| Though not as large as Liceo, San Rafael had impressive group & show! |
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| Patriotism and color on 15 de septiembre is just as big as US 4th of July! Just no mucho fireworks in Atenas. Another shot of Colegio San Rafael. (There’s a big fireworks show in San Jose. But I like my little farm town!) |
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| Unlabeled School (or I missed the sign) leave our area by the church. |
15th of September Post 1: CHILDREN!
I’m still sorting the 600+ photos from a wonderful nearly 3-hour parade for Independence Day here with lots of bands and flags and children. Tonight I share just a few of my children shots, some in the parade and many watching it. This satisfies what I wanted to photograph in last night’s lantern parade and did not accomplish. Children are so photogenic!
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| Watching the parade with me at Gelly’s |
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| Representing one of the schools in the parade |
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| Nicole, 6 or 7, is already a drummer in a band! Son of my Spanish teacher, in band I raised $ for. |
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| Some of the dancers weren’t so good, but this group was great, with traditional dancing! |
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| I watched this boy sneak under the railing to sit on curb for closer view! |
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| The red, white & blue traditional dress is most typical for Independence Day and I’ll show adults wearing them another day. |
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| And this is the typical traditional dress for boys and men. I wore a hat like this but no bandanna, just a red, white & blue shirt! |
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| Another traditional dress for 15th of September! All of these are made by parents or a seamstress, you cannot buy them in stores. |
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| And finally, a father-son bonding moment on the parade route. This may be my favorite photo from the parade. |
I have lots of photos of a lot of bands and really a lot of flags I’ll share a few of, plus some adult costumes and some “different” things in the parade in future posts.
Maraca Plant Added to Garden
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| Zerumbet Zerumbet Ginger, Maraca Plant in Costa Rica, and in other places Shampoo Ginger or Pine Cone Ginger (links are to Google photos of flowers) |
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| It is the tall plant, two spears now with the little yellow flower on ground at base. They grow 7 to 8 feet tall and can have a large cluster of flowers at base. Click photo links under top image. |
I’m really excited about this addition to my garden which I requested in the beginning, but they are very difficult to find. They surprised me the other day! In a year or two it will be developed more with multiple shoots and multiple flowers. The flower starts small and yellow like this one and by October will be more like a pine cone and will have turned red or sometimes orange. This may be the neatest addition to my garden yet! A Heliconia plant was in that location and they moved it to my front yard for more color there! It is fun to live in a garden! Plus I start traveling next week.
The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses. ~Hanna Rion