Bits and Pieces of Our Life!

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There are so many wonderful sites to see in our every day lives.  This video is of beautiful blue birds that feed at our house.  At times we are blessed with extra bananas which we love putting out for the birds and butterflies.  

We also come across some very interesting insects.  This guy was perched above our door when we returned from San Ramon the other day.  Not sure what he is exactly, we named him Stick Bug.

Not only do we have beautiful birds outside, we also have them visit on the inside.  Usually it is one of the little swallows that live along our roof, however, the other day we were surprised to see a Blue-Crowned Motmot, I think, come through our front door.  His coloring is spectacular and iridescent with a very long tail.  Occasionally, we will see one outside in the trees but what a thrill seeing one up close!

At La Feria (Farmer's Market) there is a man with a wonderful selection of plants and, although we are not sure where we want them when our house is built, we have been buying some anyway to get them started.  One of the first was this beautiful Eucalyptus Tree tree that is doing exceptionally well.

This is a Mora Berry Bush.  Both of the plants we purchased are producing berries that are divine!  Mora Berries are similar to Blackberries and when growing in the wild have vines with stickers.  These cultivated ones have no stickers and seem to grow like a bush rather than a vine.

Both of us love the Bougainvilleas that grow here in Costa Rica and have tried starting many from cuttings.  These pink ones seem to be doing well but many we have planted still look like sticks!  At some point we will be buying individual plants but for now we will continue trying to start sticks.

These are pineapple plants!  Each time we buy a pineapple, we plant the head.  It is our understanding that it takes about 18 months to grow a pineapple so we will keep you posted!

Coulantro is a form of Coriander.  When we purchase the Coulantro at la feria it comes with roots so....  It is similar to Cilantro in flavor but has long, thin, flat leaves. 

 I love mangoes!  We planted 2 more mango trees in addition to the three Don planted when he was here for a visit a number of years ago.  The trees that were planted a few years ago have already produced mangoes and are flowering now! Yeah!

Much work is involved in planting our trees.  Don, with a little help from me, digs the big hole and then we add coffee husks and leaves to lighten up our soil that is a bit like clay.  It's usually warm working in the sun and not an easy job, however, when we are picking avocados it will be like child labor---we won't remember the pain!  Right!

Into the hole she goes!

Another favorite--avocados.  At this time we have planted 3 trees and hope to have avocados in a year or two!  If successful, I will be looking for recipes to be using up a bumper crop of avocados as well as having our fill of just eating!

New friends in the neighborhood!  Aren't they cute!  He, he, he!!!

I think it was mentioned in an earlier post that we had to cut down a number of our coffee plants.  This is a photo of one of the sections that did not produce well this year and needed to be cut down.  Although it looks quite bare now, in a couple years the plants should be producing coffee once more.

Once the coffee plants have been cut down the branches need to be removed.  Roberto and Don have come up with the word "tinging" to explain the process.  Sometimes we create our own language when it comes to working with Roberto on the farm.  Anyway, the leaves create a mulch and the branches are placed along the rows of coffee plants to help with erosion once the rains begin.