Flowering Season has Arrived!

In bloom now: Species of Tabebuia with their blazing canopy of big flowers -yellow and pink blooms - Cortez Amarillo and Roble de Sabana - lighting up the forests and roadways; also, lacy blue Jacarandas, fragrant white Luehea speciosa, Sweet-pea pinkish Madero negro, and other trees ready to pop, especially species in the Melastrome Family and one of my favorite trees, Tucuico (Ardisia revoluto). Also, a slew of herbaceous plants are now in flower - bright orange daisies punctuating a delightful understory of Blue Ginger (Dichorisandra thrysiflora), among many others. Scores of butterflies flutter up around as you move through the pasture trails.

Now’s the time to go hiking or driving along country roads in Costa Rica for the flowering tree show, which continues through April. When the rains begin, other blooms emerge, so the show never really ends. The difference now is the far more dramatic displays put on by deciduous – leafless - tropical trees during the dry, summer months. Pictures abound on the web, so northerners, go check them out!
Notably absent once again this season: we have not seen any of the creamy white Quebracho flowers (Lysiloma sp.s). They haven’t bloomed for two seasons now. They did produce a bumper-crop of seeds back in 2005, so perhaps Lysiloma trees need seasons to rest between bumper-crops.

The horses are living in spa-heaven now, with pasture feed & seeds and NO FLIES. They drink fresh spring water and take mud baths. Life is good for them right now. We love to go out riding first thing in the morning while the air is still fresh. We can hear the Toucans and Trogons singing their certain - I feel rain in the air - sort of song. And always more butterflies fluttering up and around us as we trot through the pastures.

Down below, the charrals are beginning to take on a more orderly appearance, now that the herbaceous plants have started drying out. You can see the trees shooting up everywhere. We’re going on our third season of forest regeneration in these sections. I never tire of wandering the charral - they are places of continuous discovery...

…ring, ring, ring… Time for breakfast!
And then it’s run, run, run - time to keep all the plates spinning, so we can get finished with the house already!

Our neighbor, Gabriella, came over walking with me last week and her parting remark was: “You won’t be done with this by March 15th.”
“Oh, yes I will!” I said.
“No you won’t” she laughed back, and then turned and trotted up the driveway, long, blonde ponytail bouncing jauntily behind her.
Gabriela is this Swiss German beauty who reminds me of the grown-up Heidi image from one of my favorite childhood books. Remember the little Swiss girl who went to live with her grandfather in the mountains? There were a slew of those Heidi books – just like the Nancy Drew series – so we all know that Heidi grew up and went away to College, and received her grandfather’s smelly cheeses through the post!
And Gabriela sort of reminds me of that book-image of Heidi…
Except Gabriela doesn’t hike! She’s Swiss but doesn’t hike! She prefers golf, etc.
Well, all I can say after our morning hikes together is that she hikes the mountain better than most people who say they are hikers!
Always so understated, the Swiss. Gabriela’s married to an adorable grump- kind of like GRAK - who insists that he is only an amateur entomologist, even though he’s conserving the most impressive tropical butterfly collection outside of InBio I have ever seen! All collected at Finca Hamadryas over the years. He even has a butterfly named after Gabriella! If you read German, you can read all about Finca Hamadryas on their web page but best not to link up without getting permission first else notoriously private Paul is liable to set his Rottweilers on me!

The Horsemen go for Curry

Curious tree in bloom now: Rondeletia aspera(RUBIAC)-Panama Rose. You can get more fotos at Manuel and Yami's site: www.elmundoforestal.com

The Horsemen are meeting at Taj Mahal today for curry. That usually means a long boozy affair, which continues on to another pub or out for cards & rutting down at the Del Rey. Today, only 3 of the Horsemen meet at the restaurant, and then the party continues over at the home of Pestilence. I will call Marj occasionally throughout the day to keep tabs on when I can expect Famine home.
By the time you read this, the party will hopefully be over.

On the way out today, GRAK came across our green Jeep at ‘Lubricantes Willy.’ No kidding. You can’t make this stuff up. The greasy gringo working there told him that Janet dropped off the car to fix a low tire. The gringo moved here 42 years ago from California and now works for a local car mechanic. We never knew he existed until today; lots of people like that live all over the landscape here.
I’m staying back at Tigre today, as usual, to deal with tons of issues. For one, the tempered glass for the shower door broke yesterday during installation. One step forward, two steps back.
We’re still waiting for our tempered glass front door that some guy destroyed at our flat in New Orleans. That was 4 a.m. Halloween night. We know because some other merry-maker filmed the whole thing on his cellular phone. Then he went home and crashed and forgot about the whole thing until weeks later. Police now have a copy of the phone-film but the culprits will never get caught, and meanwhile we’re still waiting for the replacement door. Cest la vie in the Vieux Carre. We still love that town!
Wonder how long it will take for the replacement here in Costa Rica?
Okay - the March 14th construction deadline does not include the tempered glass or granite…

GRAK has taken a sudden interest in security. In a prior life, we lived more in a state of Yellow-Alert and even learned advanced driving and counter-surveillance measures. We had such fun bashing cars and shooting paint-balls. GRAK is a sharpshooter, but I’m not bad now that I’ve started using my right hand! Turns out I do some things better with my right hand, even though I’m left-handed. At our last training session, the firearms/security expert said that I was great shot! Not GRAK, but not bad!
Gerry wants the guy to come back in February for another training session. Saturday for the employees and Sunday for us gals! I don’t want to compete in target practice with the employees. No reason to make them feel bad. Hugo was such a lousy shot that GRAK won’t let him near a firearm now. We’re trying to do everything legally and with the proper permits. That’s turned into a part-time job for GRAK, collecting documents to schlep off once again to the ‘Oficina de Armas y Explosivos’ in Zapote, and hoping that this time they don’t send him off again to the ‘Departamento de Armamentos’ in Coronado. He always returns home in a foul temper after one of those days dealing with the Tico firearms bureaucracy.
We train with firearms here at El Tigre so that we can defend ourselves in the event of that necessity.

We don’t hunt here – In fact, the only animal I’ve ever seen GRAK kill was a rabid raccoon in PA. He fired one shot to the head at 150 meters or so and the raccoon died.
Nor do we allow hunters to invade the forest. If we hear dogs and hunters, we go find them and ask them to leave. If we hear a lot of shooting, we call MINAE to help us get them out. As word has gotten out, we rarely have to deal with hunters now. We would actually like a larger corridor to bring in more wildlife and genetic biodiversity, but at least our remnant appears to be in balance. We see animal tracks near the streams and near trees where they feed on fallen fruit. Armando can identify animals by the tracks they leave behind.

This morning, while hiking with Flopsy, we came across a coral snake squiggling away from us across the trail and down into the forest. They are such timid little things - venomous, yes - but they have such a little mouth and so shy. One time, Wendy Brady and I came across what we thought was a dead Coral snake. We poked it with a stick and it squiggled away.
Anyway, while down in the forest this morning, I noticed once again that the trails are all squeaky clean this season. All the leaves have been swept away and the trails are almost too tidy. I noticed it first when I started walking alone with just the dogs. Armando still accompanies me on all the long hikes down to the waterfalls but, now that I’ve learned the ropes, I can manage the charral and secondary trails quite well on my own. Either Gerald told him to look after his daft, klutzy wife or Armando took the initiative.
Time seems to expand down in the forest. What feels like hours might only take minutes. That’s why I’m often late for breakfast – the minutes do add up. Mountain hiking feels like doing Taiji and Pilates alignments all day long. Now I understand what Elliott said. BTW, Elliott, heard about your awesome gig at the beach with the guy from the Grateful Dead. Did you upload everything to YouTube?

Patricia comes over tomorrow for a Taijiquan session. She’s good for the ego. Whenever I think I’m training pretty well, she comes over and puts me in my place. I’m trying to convince her to learn Mandarin with me and maybe then we can train in Beijing with Fan, if he accepts us as students. He will definitely accept Patricia – she’s got 25 years of experience over me and is a natural at the martial arts - trains with Zhang in SanFran! What do you say, Patricia? Want to go to Beijing?

Thanks for writing, G. You were my first real friend at an age when I was still carving out roles and identities, like dresses in a boutique…
…actress …chemist…writer…botanist…dancer... you could see me through all the roles. And in that frenetic whirl of adolescence, girls running in packs, you were a major settling influence. Please give your family a big hug from a grateful childhood friend.
P. Thanks for helping me stay with the Work, despite major second force, GRAK-force.

Why do this?

Why do I write this blog? I hate the word but the format serves a purpose. It gives me a release for the need to write. I used to handwrite long letters to friends and family and send them off in the post. And sometimes they would respond! I just loved opening the envelope and then feasting my eyes on the lovely prose of say, soul-mate of gardening, Marjorie Swenson. Remember those days? Everybody loves opening handwritten letters from long-distant friends. There’s something about putting words to paper with a pen – requires ordering your thoughts. You are directing all your thoughts and meaning to your friend.
Then we all switched to emails. And everyone teases me about my long, often boring, sometimes tedious, rarely entertaining but always way too lo-o-oong, blah, blah, blah.
Well guess what pals? I’m not writing anymore emails except those one or two liners that everybody else writes – see u fri at 12pm, my house, xxooV. All my other blathering will be done here. Only close friends and family read this anyway and I’ll have a record in case my laptop crashes again.
My mission in life is El Tigre- that’s what I mostly write about. But the contribution goes well beyond me or words! When you stand on Tiger Hill and look at the hills beyond the forest, you can still see barren landscapes where decades of cattle ranching completely decimated the forest. Still, the forest advances from El Tigre and Rodeo Protected Zone. Other locals have decided to allow the land to regenerate naturally to forest. More and more people have stopped using the land for livestock or agriculture and allowing the forest to return. Neighbors don’t need to plant anything- the seeds come in via bird courier courtesy of Zona Protectora, El Rodeo. The forest is getting bigger! Someday, we imagine hooking up and becoming part of a wildlife corridor between El Tigre and nearby national parks like Caregre or even Carara!
Perhaps in my lifetime, the Jaguar might even return to El Tigre! Our dogs won’t like it but the idea is that there will be enough prey in the forest to support once again the big cat. Right now she is struggling even in huge forest areas like Osa Peninsula. I was furious a few years back when a crowd of ‘valientes’ killed a poor, confused Jaguar who wandered onto the hills of Escazu. They killed the last male living on that terrain! But there is hope even for a remnant forest like El Tigre! At the moment, reforestation is in fashion. Some people think they might actually get paid money for protecting a forest – kind of like getting paid a carbon credit from polluting countries. It really doesn’t matter to me what the motivations of forest owners. The forest grows!
And in a world that feels increasingly unstable and in places, verging on chaos, the forest is a comforting place. When I’m in New Orleans, feeling heartsick and missing El Tigre, Nancy Adams takes me to sit in her lovely garden uptown. It’s a magical place – you can sit in the midst of her flowers for hours. Perhaps everyone should at least have a potted plant to have some kind of connection with nature.
To me, nature is a conduit for waking up. It’s hard to put into words. Those who do The Work, describe waking-up as an experience following much effort and diligence of doing the Work…self-observation…casting light on behavior ….remembering self…becoming vitally interested in ‘what is’…facing bumps and shocks as a challenge. There is much to the Work that I’m not ready to write about. Those in the Work would admonish silence. Yes, I read Emerson and Thoreau.

More from El Tigre

Housekeeper Janet smiles at prospect of getting out of here for a much needed vacation!
I’m writing this from TexMex over my first glass of wine. No Wi-Fi at Tigre yet but coming soon – 6 months some say, which really means 2 years, but soon-ish. Then I can catch up on my correspondence. I’m really sorry for not writing personally to you, but only have a chance to check my Gmail account once a week or so. Luckily, Gerry deals with all the business-related stuff a bit more frequently. He’s been great about running all the admin and construction-related trips outside of the Finca, and that’s when he can catch up with emails over a coffee or something stronger.

Actually, GRAK is glad to get away from El Tigre for pretty much any excuse. He’s got a big smile on his face today because he needs to fly back to New Orleans for some finishing items for the house. He‘s planning the trip now but I’m not going.

I’m not budging from Costa Rica until the house is finished - Punto! I have now committed the end-date to paper. We will throw a party for construction and household staff on March 14th and move our container of furniture out of storage and into the house on March 15th. The inauguration for all our friends will be soon afterwards - before we go back to New Orleans in April. But in order to make this happen, we are on the move all day long and exhausted at night...

…and missing the holiday parties and opportunities to see some very dear friends living here in Costa Rica. Happy New Year everyone!

It’s especially hectic now in January because all the employees want to take vacation and we have to work double time to keep the place running smoothly. Armando is off this week, and next week Janet is taking the kids and heading to the Manuel Antonio beaches for a little R&R. She has been running both the household and construction support-tasks for almost two years now, including during all our months in New Orleans, and she is, therefore, SO out of here.

Now I know that my family and northern friends are just crying – buckets, I’m sure - over the fact that I now have to clean my own toilets for a week while the housekeeper is on vacation.
Actually, I don’t mind house-cleaning because it gives me a chance to get into the corners and discover things. I especially like cleaning the pool. You can dredge and skim up some really bizarre insects first thing in the morning after the battles from the night before. Some night, we shall have to take a flashlight down to the pool to really check out all the action!

So due to staffing issues, I have even less time for hiking out in the forest with friends. After vacations, I will plan a hike in February – will email details soon.
All botanical visits remain postponed until after Jazz Fest, 2008.

Rosemary, I love you for picking up that matted dog and taking him home. He is your Flopsy.
Jan, those were great pictures of that Boa constrictor living in your car – and Bless You for not killing him, but rather taking him out to mate with the female Boa living near your stables. You will never have a rat problem at your stable and you won’t need cats (much as you love them, but hey, you’ve got cats at your house in Barcelona). And anyway, as we know only too well, you can’t mix cats and/or small dogs with big Boas. Remember that Boa in Ciudad Colon that ate my favorite cat, Grisela?

I do plan to upload pictures sooner or later, but if you want to check out some gorgeous photography of Costa Rican trees and forests – some of which were taken here at Finca El Tigre, go to this website: www.Elmundoforestal.com It’s in Spanish but the pictures tell a large part of the story. If you want to ID something, go to InBio.co.cr (Instituto de Biodiversidad) in Costa Rica or for plants, try MOBOT.org (U.Missouri Bot.Gard.) and go into their incredible database of plants, many with pictures.

Horsey Friends – Fly Season is finally over! Come on over and ride with me. During the current construction period, I can only ride Mon-Wed-Fri at 7:30AM. Please call my cellular to confirm if you plan to ride over with your horse or need one of our horses. After construction has finished, my schedule will be more flexible but for now, once those horses stampede out to pasture, it’s adios until suppertime.


As all locals know, construction workers in Costa Rica usually sleep or play football during lunchtime. This has been the case with our guys, although they don’t play football so much anymore after losing a slew of soccer balls to the forest. Anyway, I walked up to the house during lunch hour and found our stone-man, Rayo, reading the Bible. Like an idiot with a big mouth (I know, Georgina, I am quite hopeless), I told him something like it was great to read the Bible, and recommended that he try Ecclesiastes for something really sublime. Next day, I arrive at lunchtime to see Rayo reading the Bible to all the construction workers. But they weren’t lapping it up - they just sat there with vacant expressions. As I walked past, the Maestro de Obras, Carlos, glanced up at me and his eyes told me what he was thinking, “We’re putting up with this because of you, but we don’t like it!” My eyes answered back, “Understood”.
That was the last Bible reading at El Tigre.

I’m on my second glass of wine. It’s time to eat else GRAK will have to carry me out again.

Big Green Monster Flies

They’re big as horse-flies, lime-green in color, with transparent-blackish wings that whirr fast as a hummingbird’s as they hover in front of you, checking you out as possible prey, whirring away fast as a UFO, back and forth, buzzing, hovering, and -!- landing on my horses! Now I can really see the little bastards! Monstrous looking creatures, that look like something out of a science fiction film – and they torment my horses! It’s been a rough week, but we finally got ahead of them. Had to experiment with a combination of repellants and remedies to help heal the ‘thank you Maam’ sores left behind from snacking on Vulcan and Matchi! I’ll spare you the details. I need an entomologist-veterinarian to help us identify, understand and better defend against this dreadful green monster fly. Help us entom. friends!
Thankfully, Lucero and Solo both seemed immune to the bite – in fact, they mostly managed to avoid getting bitten at all by flicking the tail or just doing that muscle-twitchy thing, which doesn’t allow a bug to land. I can feel Solo muscle-twitch when I ride him, so I always know when a fly has landed on him because he goes all bouncy on me. Out in the field, we can just go for a flying gallop and leave all the flies behind. But in pasture, the horses don’t gallop around to unload the flies. They just continue feasting on the wonderful Tanzania grass that we planted for them last season. I guess fine dining helps to take their mind off of the pain! In any case, Vulcan and Matchi just let the flies bite them, and also they’re not yet as immune as Lucero and Solo. It makes sense because Lucero and Solo were both born here in El Rodeo. Matchi, an Arabian-Peruvian mix, comes from La Garita, and Vulcan, our beauty, came from Guanacaste. They have to spend a few more years adjusting to the local flora and fauna and build up their resistance, just like us humans! Everybody who first visits the tropical forest from northern climates needs to undergo a process of acclimation (Gerry insists the word is acclimatisation – those wacky Brits). And give yourself a few days in the shade before heading out to the beach, or else you will be done before you start! I always suggest to visiting friends that they start with the forest and end at the beach.
Flowers are late this year, due to the rainy season we had. No blooms yet from Yuco (Bernoullia flammea), and only a few trees from the Tabebuia species and Gallinazo (Schizolobium). Not a ‘light up the forest with dazzling orange’, as is usual with Yuco. Also, we noticed that the Quebracho trees (Lysiloma sps.) haven’t flowered for two seasons. We had a bumper crop of seeds the season before. Not sure if it has to do with the species or the season. The Pseudosamanea is in bloom and looking very much like the Guayaquil that it actually is – creamy-white flowers. This might be heresy, but I’m beginning to suspect that species shift according to environment. Is it the same species or can the environment change the species and we give it another name? Do certain environmental conditions cause the gland in the Samanea petiole to swell and become apparent – making it a Pseudosamanea? Does the same tree change by adapting to the environment or is it really a different species? I did see both Samanea and Pseudosamanea next to each other at Kathryn Kostka de Tanzi's finca, so tend to believe that they are separate species, regardless of the environment, yet…. We shall need to do experiments on this. We have several Pseudosamanea (think they’re gonna change that genus name to Albizia, not sure) that look so like Samanea saman, that we have to point out the petiole in the center of the gland and/or the creamy-white flower to convince visiting botanists and foresters! In fact, it’s in flower right now! So everybody, who thinks the tree is a Cenizaro, come on over! You won’t see pink flowers and we’ll show you the gland!
Lots of Poro (Erythrina sp.) in blazing orange bloom along the highway from Rodeo to Ciudad Colon to Escazu.
Also, lots of bird activity, with all the bizarre bugs that have come out of nowhere this season. Saw a pair of yellow-breasted Trogons this morning. Not sure if that’s the correct name because our Skutches book is still in storage, because - yes, yes - we are still deep in reconstruction. Just as an aside, Gerry is pining and grousing and bitching, and now insisting, that he’d had quite enough of it all and is planning a trip back to New Orleans in February for a little R & R - and decent food and wine - and civilization, culture, jazz…

Flopsy Saved!

Flopsy leads Spot and Sol around Higueron in high speed chase a few days after his close call.
It was touch and go – very scary. We really thought we had lost him.
I got up yesterday morning and for the first time in Tigre history, Flops was not at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me. I raced to the laundry room, where he sleeps at night with Spotty, and found him lying on his side, belly tight and swollen, partially conscious but just. Something very bad was killing poor Flopsy.
Gerry had mentioned the night before that Flops seemed a bit droopy. We were sitting out at the pool at the time, Flopsy resting quietly beside us, while the other dogs roughhoused all over the place. I didn’t notice it at the time because Flops usually doesn’t roughhouse anyway. Now that memory came back in light of the alarming new symptoms. This was serious! Janet helped me settle Flops in the battery room, where we examined him more carefully. His situation was beyond the vomit stage. Whatever he ate sometime ago was now wreaking havoc with his intestines.
We raced over to the stables, rummaged through the animal medicines and found what we needed. After giving Flops a dose of a broad-spectrum quinolone and parasite medicine, we decided to watch him until 8AM, and if he didn’t improve, we would take him to the vet. I tried not to cry but couldn’t help it. I was so afraid that we might lose poor Flops and I just couldn’t bear it. Not after losing Samantha to that awful snakebite. Not Flopsy!
The morning crawled by and Flopsy slept. At 7AM, his belly was still bloated but softer. He had not vomited, and so the meds had reached the theatre of action. He began drinking water at 8AM and eating at noon.
This morning, Flopsy woke me up with his – woooh, woooh, wooooh! We went out walking as usual. Did the meds work or did he just get better anyway? Who knows!
Flopsy lives! All is well in the jungle.