Big Easy Urban Jungle

We dwell in an‘urban jungle’ called New Orleans.  However, my favorite place to be when I’m here is far from the concrete jungle, it is sitting in Nancy’s delightful garden uptown.  All the photos throughout this blog, except when noted, are of Nancy’s garden so you will understand why I spend so much time over there.   This is a photo of me at Nancy’s pond, which shows the aftermath of our most recent  hurricane with the prop holding up the Jacaranda tree behind me.  But you can see that the garden very quickly recovered from the wreckage of the storm.

Photo of plant containers and the backdrop features the firespike or Odontonema, the mainstay of Nancy’s fall garden with its dramatic red blooms.

 You will find urban gardeners all over New Orleans, especially in the Garden District, but my friend, Nancy, is a gardener ‘par excellence’.   We share a passion for gardening, nature and natural history books and, kindly, this past autumn, Nancy loaned me books by Andrea Wulf, Diane Ackerman, Nancy Ross Hugo and others who write prose about the natural world.

Oh those beautiful nasturtiums!

As fellow nature lovers, you will love Andrea Wulf’s fascinating story, ‘Founding Gardens’.  During this contentious election season and looming fiscal crisis, I found interesting parallels reading about our Founding Fathers and the political process today.  More to the point, I learned that the one shared passion of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison was – you would never have guessed – horticulture, as well as gardening in its largest sense.  Horticulture meant independence and self-sufficiency in the new colonies.  And the garden came from the heart.  All the Founding Fathers deeply loved the sublime majesty of the American forest, and they also deeply embraced nature in general; Washington actually created his garden with all native American plants.  Wulf even speculated that, one day in Philadelphia, the squabbling delegates to the Constitutional Congress may have broken their deadlock, and found a kind of shared destiny, while some of them meandered together around the famous garden of John Bartram!  Perhaps today our current elected representatives should all get together and chat, while wandering the wonderful woodlands and gardens of our Founding Fathers.  Perhaps a sense of shared destiny will actually inspire them to get something done…

In this day and age, it sure is a lot easier to correspond, though it's still hard to smuggle back the seeds to Costa Rica...

Photo of Longue Vue 

Nancy and I spent a fun afternoon recently wandering around the Longue Vue Gardens together.  A lovely place to meander for an hour or so.  However, we prefer woodland gardens, and you can find that effect in many gardens today – where nature simply comes right up to the house.  New Orleans has many lovely public gardens – City Park, Audubon Park and many others, but I prefer sitting in Nancy’s garden best of all.  Her garden just continuously changes over the year as different plants predominate, reflecting the seasons circling around in New Orleans.

 Oh the scent of Nancy's yellow rose!

Nancy volunteers for the Urban Gardening Program at the Samuel Green Charter School located in an area of low income families.  Alice Waters inspired the ‘edible schoolyard program’ and you can now find ‘edible schoolyards’ all over the country.  I went with Nancy one day to help the kids work in their garden – to share perhaps some planting tidbits and give encouraging words along the way.  But on the day we volunteered, the whole school was all geared up for an ‘Iron Chef’ competition!  The 7^th grade kids had teamed up with several local chefs for a schoolyard cooking competition, most of which was recorded by local newscasters, as well as by lots of parents and other people with cameras.  Sadly, however, I had not brought my camera, so there are no pictures in this blog.  The secret ingredient for this schoolyard ‘Iron Chef’ competition was – apple!  Wow!  These kids were not only learning how to grow things, but also how to design recipes, measure ingredients, and then prepare their fruits and vegetables.   That’s analytical and creative abilities all together!

kitchen garden at Longue Vue

I was thinking what a great idea it was that the school could use their own freshly grown produce to cook in the cafeteria.  However, Nancy informed me that, lamentably, the school’s contract with their food supplier stipulated that they could not use the school-grown vegetables, unless they could prove that they could get all their supplies from the garden.  This was, of course, not possible, so they were not allowed to use their garden edibles, and had to buy everything from the food supplier.  I asked, “But can’t they sneak those beautiful Brussels sprouts into the kitchen to give to the cooks – or help them cook that day?”  Nancy didn’t think so – our agricultural industry regulations are at work here.  I have no doubt though, that at least some of the garden produce goes home with the kids, so they can cook and enjoy it in their own kitchens…

The Big Easy Urban Jungle is filled with the sounds of music.  Unlike the forest symphony, most sounds in New Orleans are created by humans.  All sorts of music fills the air - jazz, rock, blues, classical and naturally, opera!  This is a photo of mezzo soprano Deborah Domanski with her husband, Michael Gelb, posing back-stage after the Sunday performance of Rossini's Barber of Seville.  Deborah performed Rosina - the klutzy, funny, lovely, lyrical ward of Doctor Bartelo, performed by Thomas Hammons.

Every day in New Orleans is another parade, another second-line, another chance for the marching bands to show us how it's done.  Today is Thanksgiving day.  You will find parades across the country but you can't beat the Bayou Classic in the Big Easy.   Marching bands and floats brought everybody out in the streets.   Just awesome.  We went back inside with dozens of beads tossed to us from the floats. 

A couple of weeks ago, we went out in the street to see the Bicentennial Military & Veterans Parade marching through the streets of New Orleans.  We saw military trucks, tanks and scores of servicemen, past and present, marching in perfect time to the order, “Left, right…”  And they were so coordinated.  Also the bands came marching by, playing army tunes, marine tunes or tunes of whichever other branch of the military to which they belonged.  The ROTC and Cadets also marched by – not nearly so perfectly in unison but having lots of fun.  Our apartment is located toward the end of the march, so perhaps that explains why one guy from the National Guard suddenly dashed out of formation and ran into the bar next door.  He soon came back out with a plastic cup brimming to the top with beer, and all his team mates gave him a big cheer.  However, apart from that funny incident, all the other groups marched with fine discipline.  Those parading past in trucks did not throw any beads, sorry to say.  But, even without that incentive, the crowds came out and shouted over and over again, “Thank you! Thank you!”

Oda al Tigre

Luis Poveda wrote this poem about Jaguars (or Tigers – the words are used interchangeably in Costa Rican Spanish)

Aprovecho para enviarles un

bellísimo poema que le hice al mítico y maravilloso Jaguar.

                       







Oda al Tigre
                Oh Jaguar,
                eres mágico
                silencioso
                mítico,
                por eso
                las etnias primigenias
                siempre te han venerado,
                eres un Dios para ellas.
                Eres extremadamente ágil,
                apareces y desapareces
                como por encanto,
                         -fuerte-
                como un huracán ,
                cuando ruges
                los animales de la selva se crispan,
                es oir tronar
                con rayos y centellas;
                pero cuando ronroneas
                eres dulce,cariñoso,
                y te encanta jugar
                con las sombras,
                con ramillas y guijarros,
                pero más con la luna,
                cuando es media noche
                en noche de luna llena
                y tienes sed,
                vas a tu poza preferida
                y la ves rielando
                ondulante y juguetona
                serena e inlcanzable,
                y sigues jugando y jugando
                porque guardas
                en tu corazón
                el encanto
                de tus cachorros.
                Cuando matas
                matas por hambre
                para tí y para tu progenie mimada;
                no por vicio y degradación ...
                lo haces como un sagrado acto
                de natural sobrevivencia.
                Tus ojos,
                tus bellísimos ojos
                son fulgurantes,
                profundos
                hipnotizantes.
                Y a veces
                desde lo más recóndito
                de tus genes ancestrales,
                te transformas en Pantera,
                y hasta la noche
                se inclina ante tí.


                                Luis J.Poveda De Álvarez

Tai Chi in St. Louis: Relax and Smile

In St. Louis, there are a large group of very nice people practicing Taijiquan.  
This is a photo of Sifu Justin's advanced class with he and Herb Paran holding portrait of GrandMaster Feng and Master Zhang Xue Xin (2011).

Relax and smile, that’s what you do first, Justin said.  Then stand tall, feel the crown of your head floating up, and now relax and sink and start to sit, as if you’re about to sit in a chair.  Feel it in your thighs, not your knees.  Keep your spine erect, and tuck your tailbone in naturally as your head floats up.  Relax your neck and shoulders; relax all your joints.  Shift gently left and right, allowing your energy to flow from your ‘dantien’ – that is your center – a kind of rolling ball located in your lower belly below your belly button.  Everything flows out through your ‘dantien’ in two circles – they could be small or very large but it all comes through your ‘dantien’ ball.  Some imagine a silk worm, lazily spirally out from your center and silk-reeling.  Put your hands over your ‘dantien’ and breathe deeply there; then relax some more.  Nothing should hurt.  Keep your shoulders over your hips, and keep your knees over your shoelaces.  Shift your weight on one leg before moving your other leg, and then shift.  Shift your weight back and forth like a slinky. 

Raise your hands up to the sky and bring the energy down into your body.  Let the energy flow down from your head, neck, chest, and down to your center - your ‘dantien’ - and feel it roll around inside you like a ball, as you breathe energy all through your body.  Allow excess energy to flow down your legs, like warm honey into the earth.  Retain some of that energy in your ‘dantien’ and bring in more, as you lift your arms up to gather energy - ‘qi’- to collect and cultivate into your core.  Here you are doing the all important ‘Qigong’, for health, and for truly understanding the ‘internal’ of the internal martial arts.  Breathe sky and earth energy throughout every cell of your body, and energize yourself with vibrant health.  All 'Taijiquan' – ‘Tai Chi’ – and for that matter all healthy life, begins with ‘Qigong’.  If you don’t have time to do anything else, do your ‘Qigong’ – this is the key to a long, healthy life.  Breathe deeply, align yourself, center and settle, relax and smile.  This is a time for health and renewal.  Then, when you are ready and have more time, carry the ‘Qigong’ into your ‘Tai Chi’ or any other practice.  If your day ahead is too busy for more time practicing martial arts or sports, then carry your ‘Qigong’ into your day.

Tiger and Justin

Some call ‘Taijiquan’ a moving meditation using happy concentration - a kind of awareness with intent - we ‘Tai Chi’ students call this, ‘yi’.  Your attention moves your energy, and your energy moves your body - ‘yi' moves ‘qi’ - and then, when the body moves, it is connected to, and coordinated perfectly with, your center – core – ‘dantien’.  All ‘Tai Chi’ students practice for health and for a long, vibrant, centered life.  One of the first things a student learns is to relax more and settle down, feel the ball in your ‘dantien’, and move through life in an easy, settled and sensible manner.  Few students learn ‘Taijiquan’ today as a martial art but that’s how it first started back in Chen Village.

Photo of Sifu Justin's and his senior students , including Cis Hager, pose woith GrandMaster Feng and Master Zhang at private workshop at Pema Osel Ling Buddhist Retreat Center, Santa Cruz (2001).  
Justin explains the lineage best:

  “Yang Lu Chan was the first to bring the Chen Family out of the Chen Village to Beijing.  He and his sons and grandsons over time modified the Chen Family Art to take out many of the more difficult martial movements and to emphasize smooth circularity over sudden changes of speed and power, making it easier to study.  This became the popular Yang Tai Chi form.  In 1928 Chen Fake brought the Chen Family Art to Beijing and taught Feng Zhiqiang.  Later Feng melded the Chen Taiji he learned from Chen Fake with the Qigong he learned from his other teacher, Hu Yao Zhen, thereby creating what Feng called the HunYuan style" (for more see:  www.stltaiji.com/documents/articlefinland.pdf)

Photo of Shifu Justin and Master Zhang

Others followed, and you can now find a ‘QiGong’ or ‘Tai Chi’ teacher pretty much anywhere in the world.  I started 10 years ago, practicing 'XinYi HunYuan Chen Style of Taijiquan', by Feng Zhiqiang.  I first started practicing 'Taiji' in Costa Rica with Patricia Mitchell, who studied with Zhang Xue Xin.  By the way, Patricia has moved back to San Jose from the beach and will begin teaching again in January.  I am very grateful to Patricia for all she has shared with me over the years – 'Taijiquan', 'QiGong', Yoga and Pilates.  Over the years, I have since learned that all 'Tai Chi' styles bring benefits and deeper understanding.  It doesn’t matter which style you practice.  ''Tai Chi' is an art that opens up through ever deeper levels throughout your life.  In Chen Village, they say everyone is a beginner.  The living ‘Tai Chi’ masters are in their eighties and beyond.  We students of Feng Zhiqiang’s 'XinYi HunYuan Chen-style Taijiquan', still mourn his passing.  His students carry his legacy and teachings all over the world.  You can go to San Francisco if you want to work with one of Feng’s top students, Zhang Xue Xin, 'Chen-style Taiji' 19^th Generation Master.  You can also go to St. Louis and study with Zhang’s high level students!

Photo of Justin, Herb, Tiger and Taijiquan group.

Photo of HunYuan conference with Herb and Justin

Photo of Sifu Justin and senior students (including his 15 year old son and Push Hands Champion, Jason Meehan to Sifu Justin's right) at the First International HunYuan Conference held in Beijing, China, 2007) with GrandMaster Feng his wife and daughter seated in front.
I went to St. Louis to study with a high-level ‘Taiji’ teacher from Feng’s lineage, Shifu Justin Meehan.  Justin recommended that I start my visit working with one of his students, Herb Parran, also certified by Master Zhang.  What a dedicated group of ‘Taiji’ students I found working with Herb in St. Louis.  It was a large group, with people of all ages and backgrounds, and many of them found time to work with me.  I even learned from a 12 year old boy!  Herb asked me to demonstrate my form to the group, and I trembled with nerves as I walked to the front of the class to lead them in the form.  Of course, I went through it too fast, with many mistakes, but the entire group followed me and, afterwards, applauded me with great warmth.  And then somebody else led the form again, and I gratefully fell back into the group and learned much from the fellow leading us.  Herb stood on the side observing everything; he’d carefully watched my form, and turned to say to Gerry - who’d just arrived to pick me up – “She’s got the choreography.”  That meant a lot to me when Gerry repeated Herb’s words later to me.  I really hope to someday work again with Herb and his wonderful group of students.  There was such a warm, positive energy in his group that this stranger felt, from the first moment of joining them on a rather chilly day in St. Louis.  I send big, fond greetings to Herb Parran and his ‘HunYuan Taijiquan’ group in St. Louis.

Photo of Sifu Justin and his disciple Zhardana Tiger receiving gold medal for form and Push Hands championship at 3rd International HunYuan Conference held in Beijing, China (Nov. 2011) (see them demonstrate together for GrandMaster Feng at www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnCrp_pZ5TE).  But my day wasn’t over yet.  I would finally have an opportunity to study privately with Sifu Justin Meehan that very afternoon.  I didn’t think we would ever meet!  He didn’t respond quickly to my emails from Costa Rica, requesting this or that detail about my trip to study with him in St. Louis.  We were ready to leave for the trip and Justin still had not given me any contact information for himself.  I began to wonder if he would write, whether - Justin Time - Justin Case - he still wanted to work with me…

I need not have worried.  We met and greeted each other like old friends.  I felt an open-hearted warmth from Justin from the first minute, and my previous agitations and speculations just melted away like whiffs of silly nonsense.  We only had time for two sessions during the weekend, and we used every minute of it to deepen my understanding and practice of ‘Taijiquan’.  Of course, we spent much time on ‘Qigong’.  As with Feng and all devotees of the internal martial arts, it all starts with ‘QiGong’.

Justin introduced me to one of his senior students, Tiger, who also agreed to work with me.  Tiger is a striking young woman with the grace and natural ability of, well, a Tiger…  She quickly taught me the mechanics of ‘push hands’, while Justin observed and corrected.  I was astonished when Justin managed to recruit Gerry to learn the ‘push-hand’ routines, so that I would have a partner to practice with back in Costa Rica.  Gerry and Justin got on famously, and even had fun grappling with each other.  Gerry, born and raised in the East End of London (which he survived…) has a natural ability to grapple, and Justin proved a willing opponent, all in good-natured fun.  Everybody was laughing.  Of course, Justin would not grapple with me.  He knows that I am not grappling material – I’ve seen what he can do on YouTube – tossing and throwing opponents up in the air.   But I am not at that level.  I still need to take it slow and relaxed, and try to feel the dynamic – feel the internals.

Tiger and Justin were a joy to work with, and I brought home pages of notes to improve my practice.  I hope sometime soon to host a ‘retreat’ with them in Costa Rica.

If you are interested in more information and lots of articles, go  to www.StLTaiji.com website.  

Meet us in St. Louis, Louis!

We did it!  We visited the famous Western frontier town, the historical city of St. Louis.  You’ve all heard the song, “Meet me in St. Louis, Louis…”

Here’s a shot that Gerry took of the Arch of St. Louis, ‘gateway to the west’, photographed from his perch on the largest mound of the prehistoric (at least, pre-American history…) settlement of Cahokia.  Gerry visited the Cahokia Mounds, while I practiced Taiji back at the hotel.

  He journeyed to the settlement with our new St. Louis friends, JoAnn Rivinus and Marc Vorih.  We are so grateful to them for showing us such warm hospitality, and for helping us in many ways during our stay.  We dined with them at different times over the weekend, and became good friends in the process.  We also thank our ‘old’ friends in Costa Rica, Bill and Cyndy Vorih, for introducing us, after I asked Bill, “So Bill, where are you from?”  He said, “St. Louis”, and the rest is history.  On our Saturday night there, JoAnn and Marc gave us a mini-tour of downtown Saint Louis as we joined them to hear the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra perform Mahler’s 3^rd Symphony.  Yes, that’s the one with six movements, and it was stirring and moving – an outstanding auditory story of how nature evolved, moving from plants to animals to man.  The rousing, final movement has the whole orchestra playing with tremendous crescendos, as Mahler describes God as everlasting, flowing through nature, plants, animals and mankind.  Even Gerry roused himself from his stupor (slumber?) to listen to that movement.

We are now back in New Orleans and looking forward to the upcoming opera, Gioachino Rossini’s, ‘The Barber of Seville’.  There are only two performances: November 16 at 8pm; and November 18 at 2:30pm but you can still get tickets by going to www.NewOrleansOpera.org

We’re really excited about it because our good friend, the mezzo-soprano Deborah Domanski, is singing the title role of Rosina.  She recently performed the same role, with Thomas Hammons as Bartelo, in Detroit.  And now they are together again, with the incredible musicians of New Orleans, director Matthew Lata and conductor Robert Lyall.  Deb told me that singing Rosina is like champagne!  She is a very warm, kind, striking beauty, who sings like an angel.  You can learn more about Deborah at www.DeborahDomanski.com.  Please, join us, if you can!

But I have digressed from our delightful romp around St. Louis!

JoAnn Rivinis Vorih, a Project Manager at Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG), our new friend, and Barry Hammel, MBG Botanist with an office at InBio in Costa Rica, helped arrange our tour of the world-renowned Missouri Botanical Gardens; a place I know well as a botany student, because I have used www.tropicos.org frequently over the years to research the vast plant database found at Missouri Botanical Gardens.  I’ve also consulted www.missouribotanicalgarden.org many times over the years, and have looked forward to meeting some of the people behind the scenes of the oldest botanical garden in continuous operation in the USA.  The garden, library and herbarium were founded in 1859 by Henry Shaw, who, inspired by a visit to Chatsworth in 1851, decided to give the people of St. Louis a garden to rival the great gardens of England.  

Andrew Wyatt and Gerry Kirk at Mobot

So, we are exceedingly grateful to Andrew Wyatt for guiding us around the Gardens (including ‘behind the scenes’) and for explaining the marvelous projects to reintroduce endangered plants back into their native habitat all over the world, as well as to Doug Holland for giving us a fascinating tour of the Peter H. Raven Library, known as one of the world’s finest botanical libraries.  Doug also introduced us to the Herbarium, one of the world’s leading research resources for specimens of, and information on, bryophytes and vascular plants.  As of Jan 1, 2011, the collection contained 6,231,759 specimens - and specimens arrive daily!  We were actually there to see it!

Andrew and I at Mobot

What astonished me most about MBG was the breathtaking beauty and design of the extensive gardens.  Gerry and I have visited gardens all over the world, especially in England, but I have not seen anything to surpass Missouri in terms of beauty and diversity.  You can spend many, many hours wandering the curved paths observing the massive collection of native, exotic and rare plants, all beautifully combined in a manner that is visually pleasing.  The plant groupings drift and blend together in a most charming and natural manner.  Many ‘example gardens’ provide guidance on how to do this at home.  We wandered through vegetable gardens and orchards, perennials, bulbs, grasses, hothouses with tropical plants, cacti, shrubberies and ornamental gardens, which just flowed from one to the next, all beautifully maintained by an army of employees and volunteers.  The Japanese garden was the largest and most breathtaking I have ever seen, and the woodland garden also amazed us.  We were very fortunate to visit the gardens with MBG VP of Horticulture, Andrew Wyatt.  Originally from England, Andrew braved the cold, rainy weather to show us the gardens and explain the research and educational programs they carry out.  All plants in the gardens are identified with name-plates, so you don’t have to flip through field guides to identify a plant, and there is also a ‘plant help-desk’, manned by volunteers, to help people diagnose their own plant problems and to answer questions.  And if you just want to ‘do your own thing’, you can head over to the MBG bookstore where there is an amazing collection of books for sale on pretty much everything in the plant world, including a large section on cultivation and practical gardening.

 Over at the Herbarium, we chatted with a jovial botanist, who has discovered more than sixty new species, as well as one new genus!  Samples of plant species from all over the world land on his desk to be sorted and classified, and he revealed to me that some botanists even send in specimens labeled with the wrong Family!  I gasped in shock!  But I also understand that tropical plant classification is hellishly difficult.  Even well-known botanists sometimes get the Family wrong; I sure do – to my shame.  Barry Hammel told me that on-going investigations at some institutions are looking for ways to help identify plants using DNA.  Here at the MBG herbarium, it’s the job of the botanists in the Herbarium to sort through the massive mess of specimens, excluding repetitions, making corrections, and finally giving the specimen a name.   Once again, we are grateful to Doug Holland, historian, botanist and librarian, for guiding us through the extensive collection of the Library, which includes amazing ancient and rare volumes.  What an incredible world in which to do research!

Missouri Botanical Gardens is not a garden to miss if you are a nature lover.  It ranks along with Kew and New York Botanical as a center for research and collection and, in terms of sheer beauty of nature, Missouri is second-to-none.

And, on top of all that, the founding of the Missouri Botanical Gardens is also an interesting example of the historical connection between St. Louis and New Orleans.

The Mississippi connects the two cities, and there has always been a shared destiny among people living along that great river.  Merchants, vagabonds, contraband and cargo, legal or otherwise, has flowed between St. Louis and New Orleans continuously over the centuries.  The two cities suffered the great flood of 1917 together, as told brilliantly by John M. Barry in ‘Rising Tide’.  The rise and fall, and ebb and flow, of industry, commerce, politics and nature’s fury have often connected the two cities.  During our visit to St. Louis, we heard a fascinating story connecting New Orleans and St. Louis.  Apparently, Henry Shaw opened a business in St. Louis in 1819, selling hardware and cutlery he shipped down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Shaw prospered from this great distribution connection, and retired in 1840 at the age of 39, so that he could engage his time on his great passion – gardening. His dream was to open a large botanical garden to the public and to bequeath a trust to ensure that it would continue to carry out botanical research, science education, and remain an oasis in the city of St. Louis, after his death. He corresponded with many botanists to help with his endeavor, especially Asa Gray, George Engelmann and Sir William Hooker of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew; in fact, he patterned much of his Botanical Garden after Kew.  He worked closely with Engelmann, who suggested that the garden be more than a public park, that it become involved with scientific work like the great botanical institutes of Europe; and he went to Europe and brought back specimens and books for Henry Shaw’s herbarium and library.  When he died, Shaw bequeathed the country house, his city house (which was moved to the Gardens!) and all seventy-five acres of gardens to a trust.  And now, over two hundred years later, the Missouri Botanical Gardens has a dedicated staff, including numerous volunteers, which would make Shaw very proud.  He would definitely nod in approval at how his gardens have been improved and enlarged over the years, and he would really appreciate the massive Herbarium and Library - much beloved by us plant lovers in the tropical world.  And he would unquestionably smile with pleasure to see the Rare Books Room, containing the precious botanical books collected by him, still intact and lovingly cared for.   

Wrenching Transition of Dual Worlds

Take a look at this huge, beautiful cactus bloom.  I spotted it from inside the house just before dawn and rushed out to take this picture.  You can’t wait to photograph Hylocereus costaricense because the dramatic show is all too brief.  Some say the Hylocereus cactus only blooms for one day, but that’s not true.  In fact, it only blooms for a few short hours, budding at night and completely opening early in the morning!  You can see the stingless bees have already found it.  By mid-morning the flower has closed up completely – show’s over, folks – and during the following weeks it transforms into the absolutely delicious Pitahaya fruit.

On the other hand, the Cleome spinosa plant, which has seeded itself all over the garden, blooms for many weeks.  A few weeks ago, a visiting friend noted the plant shooting up from our gravel driveway.

“That looks just like a marihuana plant!” she exclaimed.  Actually, lots of plants look like cannabis, including this Cleome, until it bursts into bloom.  I told her that presumably the FBI has botanists who can tell the difference.

Many tropical plants are toxic to eat but the berries on this Miconia costarricense taste a bit like blueberries, and I often eat them while hiking along the trails.  Most melastomes are edible but this one actually tastes good.  

Take a look at the venation on the leaves.  That’s how you can identify plants in the Melastomataceae Family.

On this same hike we had the good fortune to come across the charming Casearia arborea tree in fruit.  Locals call it Cafecillo because the smaller trees look a bit like the coffee plants.  But a quick look at the alternate leaves confirms that we are looking at the Flacourtiaceae Family.  The red seed pods sparkle in the sunlight and the whole tree glitters.  If you want to find birds, go look at a tree in fruit and you will hear the twittering birds even before you see them.  If you want to find flowering trees, follow the sounds of the birds. 

    

Gerry and I live in a dual world: Human and Nature

In Costa Rica, we live in a forest, called Zona Protectora El Rodeo, located within and around the University for Peace.  Our particular remnant of this last extant primary forest in the Central Valley is called Reserva El Tigre.  There is much to see and experience – everyday brings new surprises and joys to those who stop and look. 

Every morning, I walk out of the house and into the forest with three or four dogs in tow.  Zincy always goes; he’s my constant companion, replacing Flopsy, who died a few years ago.  Down we go, past the orchards and gardens, to the pastures, each one smallish in size and connected together via a series of woodland paths.  These woodland trails have a network of springs and streams going through them and feel fresh after the more sunny pastures.  There is so much to discover here; butterflies and damselflies flitter about, and I always gasp in pleasure at seeing the first blue flash of a morpho butterfly, even though we will see many more before the walk is through.  Morphos are common here because they feed on the Machaerium vines growing everywhere.  The birds become active at dawn and the symphony of twitters and songs rise to a pleasing crescendo, mixing with the whirrs and buzzing of thousands of insects.  The low sounding ‘wooo…’ alerts me to a tribe of capuchin monkeys just overhead.  They don’t like me watching them directly, so I avert my eyes and behave as if I can’t see them, even though I know they are there (just as they know that I know...).  We play this little ‘you ignore me and I ignore you’ game and, by so doing, the dogs and I can observe them for a while before moving on.  And then I see the horses, escorted as always by the Ani birds, which groom the horses, feeding on insects nearby.  And the walk goes on…

The notion of duality hits us squarely when we arrive in New Orleans, where we reside very much in the world of humankind.  The transition from forest to city is wrenching, and I usually get a cold or feel ill the first week back.  Every morning in the city, I go up to the roof to practice Taijiquan, and from there I can observe the enormous container and cruise ships maneuvering around the crescent bend of the Mississippi River.  From this bird’s eye view, I gaze at the textured architecture of old and new New Orleans rising all around our building.  I can hear the low hum of the city running under my feet: the A/C units, traffic, construction, music…  The most important, fundamental sound of all is the music; this is, after all, New Orleans.  It’s a human world, eccentric and chaotic but, nature permitting, with a somewhat functioning infrastructure. 

Picture of harvest from the garden in Costa Rica.

In the kitchen of our flat in New Orleans, I peel the labels off the tomatoes.  Every piece of fruit and vegetable comes with a label.  In the forest, the food comes to us in baskets – not nearly so grocery store perfect in size and color – but organically grown by us and so very delicious to eat.  If you wish to find biodiversity in the city, go to the grocery store – there you will find a dazzling array of edibles brought to you from all over the world.  However, we always try to buy local vegetables, when they are in season.  When living in the Costa Rican forest, we eat everything from the garden, determining our menus around what we have harvested.  In New Orleans, it’s the reverse: we choose our menus and then find everything we need at the grocery store.

Outside the New Orleans flat, our closest glimpse of nature is the narrow strip of the river-side park lining the Mississippi.  Everyone flocks here to exercise and to seek respite from the concrete.  It’s not the same as walking in a forest but it does provide solace to the city dweller.  It is a very sad human indeed who has completely disconnected from nature, though he may not know the cause of his emptiness.  I feel it most acutely.  When in New Orleans, I pine for the forest.  When in Costa Rica, Gerry pines for New Orleans.  We try to bring each other into the wonders of each world.  This is our duality.

Botanical Living in Zona Protectora El Rodeo

Here’s a shot of Rauvolfia littoralis, a beautiful small tree standing at the edge of pastureland, that I’ve admired for years but never knew the name of, until botanists Barry Hammel and Isabel showed up a few days ago and identified it.  Yes, Pharmacy Friends, the Rauvolfia genus is the source for the now rarely used antihypertensive, Reserpine, though that species is Rauvolfia serpentina, native to India and other points in the Far East.   I admit to grinning and giving Isabel the thumbs up when Barry called it an Apocynaceae.  That much I knew!  Students of tropical plants: you should start your study at the family level.  I subscribe to the matrix system of keying out plants, created by Humberto Jimenez Saa.  You ask yourself a series of questions:  “Are the leaves compound or simple, opposite or alternate?”; “Are there thorns or stipules?”; “Is there sap?”; “What does it smell like?” etc.  And, pretty soon, you begin to recognize patterns and, thereby, to identify some of the more common families.  However, to identify a plant to the genus or species level requires much more study – or going for a hike with a very smart botanist.    

Barry Hammel is a walking encyclopedia of tropical plants.  Thus, having him and Isabel over for a visit is a special treat – during our hikes he identifies several species new to me, which I then add to my plant list.  He is an expert but he is also very cautious.  He doesn’t guess and he doesn’t make mistakes.  If Barry isn’t sure, he will say that he needs the flower or fruit to study under the microscope in order to nail the species.  But he always knows the Family and almost always knows the Genus.  Like everyone who treks the forest, Barry and Isabel marvel at the complexity, and experience the sheer wonder, of such biodiversity.  However, he also understands that the forest habitat not only needs the ‘poster-child’, rare plant or endangered animal, but also all the other species, common and uncommon, both high-up and low-down in the food chain; that they all play important roles in the eco-system – even at the microscopic soil level, where mysteries still await discovery and understanding.

I mention this because new travelers to the Tropics will first gasp in astonishment at the biggest, most colorful species – a massive, magnificent Ceiba pentandra tree astonished and inspired me to buy and protect this particular piece of forest.  It was only later that I learned of all of the Ceiba’s cousins - and there I was hooked.  For visiting birders, there is nothing more spectacular than spotting the elusive Quetzal or a flock of brilliantly raucous Scarlet Macaws.  To quote Alexander Skutch, “Macaws are unmistakable”.  I remember seeing my first Scarlet Macaws several years ago, at Carara National Park.   The loud, squawking flock of huge, red birds was flying just overhead, and I exclaimed, “Look!  Look!”  But my companion, a long-term resident of Costa Rica, had already seen Macaws many times.  He was much more interested in a tiny Woodcreeper, nearly invisible against the tree trunk, which he had spotted for the first time – he could now check it off his list!  In the tropical forest, the more you study and learn, the more there is to see; the complexities only reveal themselves over time. 

Each time Barry visits, he casually identifies almost everything that I ask about while we are out exploring, although he is usually focused on a specific area of particular interest to him at the time.  One visit he was focused on the Acanthaceae family and I learned a slew of new plants that day, which were then, of course, added to my El Tigre list!  This visit he was looking at tiny plants in the coffee family growing in the pastureland.  So there I was gaping at the gorgeous Rauvolfia littoralis, and there’s Barry avidly scooping up tiny little plants.  It was like that Scarlet Macaw/Woodcreeper episode all over again.  What was he was looking at?  Well, I soon learned a lot about the Spermacoce Genus that day and, now that I know what they look like, I see them popping up all over the place. 

Barry can summarize best in his own words:

“As always, we had a wonderful time at your place on Saturday; I could explore out there every weekend for a year and still find much to rejoice!  Thanks very much for inviting us.
You were right on with the Apocynaceae and it's already on your list; Rauvolfia littoralis.
I also got Clusia minor, which is probably also on your list, and Souroubea venosa, which maybe isn't.


And as for the little bee witsies I was so concentrated on, the Spermacoce, these are what I got (or saw):

S. alata, recently otherwise known as S. latifolia, which is now a synonym. This one I only saw along the road down to the river, didn't collect because it wasn't in flower, probably the only one I feel at all comfortable identifying without flowers and fruits.

S. exilis--the tiny one in your pasture, often has a reddish line down the midrib of the leaves.

S. remota--otherwise known as S. assurgens, I think on your list by that name, now considered a synonym.  This is the most common one, has flowers with a slight pink or lavender blush to the buds, can get quite leggy, as in the hedge above your swimming pool.  There's also a rather smaller-leaved form growing at your place, that I thought might be something different, but I guess not.

S. suaveolens--actually I neither collected nor even saw this one, but I do know it's there, from other specimens, along the road down to Río Jaris, or along the río. This has been called S. capitata, and is on your list that way. That may actually be the correct name--an older one, in fact--but it's under study, the types have to be compared, and all that.... For now, S. suaveolens it is.

Photo by Barry Hammel

S. tonalensis--This was the prize, the one I was hoping to find, and did!  Otherwise known recently in Costa Rica by only one other collection, from the very same spot where I got it, along the road down to the river. I attach photos of that one. Probably I will put all the photos I took of plants at your place (not many this time), on my Flickr site, and send you the link.”

I so love it when Barry and Isabel come to visit.  There’s always something new just around the corner.  Most hikers walk along, enjoying the forest and convivial companions, getting some exercise.  The forest exists as just a lovely background tapestry of green for most of them.  Unless we stop to observe…

So how is it that I could not recognize the Rauvolfia littoralis when I had it on my own list?  Because another botanist identified it when I was not present and I just got hold of their notes – perhaps Luis Poveda (beloved Costa Rican expert of Medicinal Plants and Dendrology), Humberto Jimenez (Creator of the Matrix), or another visiting botanist from the one of the Universities, InBio, El Museo Nacional or beyond.

Notes from the garden: 

Last year, we decided to try an experiment growing Arracache – a delicious rhizome in the celery family that normally flourishes in much higher and cooler altitudes.  But it flourished here!  It’s funny because the celery didn’t work out at all – too stringy!  Armando harvested a bunch of Arracache and we made a delicious picadillo with chicasquil, onions and herbs from the garden.  Now we have expanded, and replanted tender Arracache roots in new areas.  Our asparagus has also done well!  Many thanks to Tommy Tomas who got us started on both plants.  We also planted corn, breadfruit, assorted varieties of chilies, beans and tomatoes – we plant the small tomatoes (thank you Hugo) that turn red on the vine, which we can pick and eat before the bugs/birds get to them. 

Armando has expanded the vivero to include tender greens, and our growing collection of culinary and medicinal herbs.  Some of the fruit trees planted years ago have now begun to fruit:  Bananas, citrus, Manzana de Agua, Avocados, Mimbros, Guanabanas, Zapotes, assorted types of berries, and the ever wonderful cactus fruit, Pitahaya.   There is no greater pleasure in the kitchen than cooking with edibles from the garden.  The guys have really mastered the alchemy of composting – that’s the secret to any garden.

Solar notes:

We’re having issues with our solar energy system.  We noticed that the batteries didn’t hold their charge over the last year, as they used to, and our solar engineer, Carlos Oreamuno, discovered that the manufacturer changed the settings for their use but never contacted anybody (they just put a technical notice on their website!).  So the negotiations began and, to make a long story short, the manufacturer is replacing the batteries under warranty, minus depreciation.  Thus, we will pay only about 20% of the cost of new batteries but – this part we really love – the Costa Rican Government will then tax us a total of 39% plus a $1,000 Customs ‘handling’ charge, and we have to pick up every cent!  You would think that a ‘green-image’ Costa Rica would provide tax incentives for alternative energy systems like solar – but no!  A few years ago, the government did remove the 13% sales tax on ‘complete’ solar systems, bought all at once.  However, if you want to upgrade, or you have to replace, particular components, which is not an uncommon situation, you will get ZERO tax relief from the government.  So for our replacement batteries, we will pay a 25% import duty, and then the 13% sales tax and then a new 1% tax for something or other on top, bringing the tax bill to 39%.   But, despite the government’s abusive tax policy, we really don’t regret living off the grid.  We never lose power, and I mean we have never had any disruptions of water or power over all the years of living with solar energy.  You can’t say that anywhere else in Costa Rica living on the grid.  In Ciudad Colon, they regularly cut power – usually at least weekly – sometimes for just a few seconds (just a nuisance going around resetting clocks, etc.) but too often for hours and hours.  They also often cut water for most of the day during the dry months, so just about everybody has a tank to store water.  Power cuts and water shortages just go with the territory living here in paradise - unless you build your own system.  It is certainly more expensive in the short-term but it’s so much more reliable, and then there’s the satisfaction, and yes, the responsibility.  We have no toasters, hairdryers, irons, or any appliances that pull too much power.  You learn a lot about wattage and electricity usage when it comes to making solar work (GRAK complains that it’s so much more than he ever wanted to know…).  And you would be amazed at how easy it is to give up say, the iron.  After washing clothes, let the sun partially dry them, and then flatten and mold them into shape before finishing the drying.  No ironing needed!

Farewell Sweet Vulcan

Jose and Vulcan

Our dear, sweet horse, Vulcan, died Saturday morning, August 4, 2012.   We all mourned and grieved deeply for our beloved ‘potro’, Vulcan; he was our youngest horse and yet he was also the sweetest and gentlest.  Sweet-tempered Vulcan carried many of my friends over the years, and we could trust him to carry even a small child.  Our other three horses are not nearly so nice!  Vulcan will be much missed.  We have buried so many animals over the years!  Forest living is textured with many wonders but also with so many perils.

Vulcan and Morgane

 But I never thought we would lose Vulcan.  We bought him several years ago from our then horse trainer, who’d relocated his colt from a farm up near Arenal Volcano (thus the name, Vulcan) and was looking to place him in a good home here in El Rodeo.  Thus, we gave Vulcan a wonderful life with our other three horses here on the farm – he grazed out in the pastures with the others during the day and returned to the stables at night.  And sometimes we would go out riding.  Our other horses were born and bred locally, and so were already adapted to this environment.  But Vulcan came from a much higher altitude and, therefore, had to adapt to his new living conditions.  And oh, how he suffered. Poor Vulcan would get sores and inflammations, especially during the horrible month of July, whereas the other horses did perfectly fine.  Lucero and Solo won’t let the flies bite them, and have adapted even during the worst of ‘biting-fly season’.  Matchi gets some bites but heals quickly.  But Vulcan always suffered the most.

I tried my very best over the years to help him – using mixtures of repellants and assorted remedies to give him relief – and this year has been the absolute worst!  Of course, Jose tells me that I say that every year.

July is always a difficult month.  Don’t ride past El Tigre and down the mountain to the river Jaris until after August 15^th, when the fly season recedes.  Actually, it’s a dangerous ride in the best of cases – we recommend that you ride up the mountain not down it, when you risk a greater chance of falling or having an accident.  Do your route in reverse:  go first down the Piedras Negras road and then back up the steep mountain past our place.  But not in July! 

Jose and I decided to go for an adventurous ride down the mountain a few weeks ago, riding Solo and Matchi, to test a new fly repellant that I’d bought from Donatella.  As always, the ride down was pure adrenaline with a few scary moments, but our horses know the trail well.  The flies were everywhere but did not land on the horses – the repellant worked beautifully!

That’s the good news.

This past Thursday, I went down to the pasture with an herbal repellant, just in case the horses needed a bit of extra help, and all of them were fine except Vulcan.  His head was drooping and he was bleeding profusely all over from various insect bites.  Usually after a bite, the horse shows a spot or two of blood and then it coagulates.  But, this time, the blood was just flowing all over poor Vulcan.  And he is not a hemophiliac!  It was as if he had ingested something that caused acute bleeding.  However, as I looked more closely, I could see that he was bleeding profusely from numerous tiny points – definitely fly bites, not snake bites or bat bites – and that the blood was not clotting like normal, as if he had eaten some type of anti-coagulant (a Coumadin-type compound for example).  Shocked and distressed, I rushed and grabbed some nearby Tuete leaves – known to have coagulant properties – and crushed them into as many of the bleeding spots as I could, and then I called for help.  Jose arrived soon afterwards and we took Vulcan back to the stables.

The vet came over three times during the next few days to help us try to stabilize and treat Vulcan, but nobody had any idea what was causing the problem.  The vet thought it was snake bite because Vulcan had an inflamed back ankle so we treated presumptively using Snake Antivenom Sera (we assumed Terciopelo).   We also treated him supportively with Vitamin K, dexamethasone, antibiotics, and fortified IV fluids for rehydration, while trying to staunch the blood flow. We spent most of the day with him, providing what relief and comfort we could, while getting covered in blood.  However, by the end of it, Vulcan looked more stabilized.  The bleeding appeared to be slowing and some of the bites had coagulated.  We were very hopeful when we went to bed Thursday night that the worst was over. 

Then, Thursday night, Vulcan fell down in his stall and gashed his forehead open.  I discovered him at dawn the next morning bleeding profusely from the gash, and he was very weak.  Everybody shot into action to help in some way.  I spent the entire time with him, applying cool compresses to his forehead, trying to stem the flow of blood and reduce the swelling that had already started.  I used soft absorbent cotton cloths that had been soaking in ice-water (Gerry had no ice for his gin & tonics for a few days!).  As soon as I applied a clean, cold cloth to his head, Vulcan would groan with relief, but the cloth would quickly soak in blood and warm up and I had to swap it out for another.  And on it went for hours, until the vet returned and stitched up the gash.  However, the wound kept bleeding right through the stitches, due to the original problem. 

All Friday we continued trying to help Vulcan and not just with injectable meds.  Armando brought Tuete (Vernonia patens) leaves crushed in a bucket, which we applied to the bleeding points.  Hugo helped keep a steady supply of clean, soft cloths available, and Jose was always nearby, helping in a thousand ways.  He also continued caring for the other animals and doing normal finca tasks, but returned often to see Vulcan.  By Friday night, the bleeding from the bite points had stopped and begun clotting and we went to bed hopeful.  If not for the gash on his forehead, he would have been on the mend.  But it was such bad luck for poor Vulcan to fall and gash his forehead just when he least needed another bleeding episode. 

Saturday morning, I arrived at the stables at dawn and found Vulcan still bleeding from the forehead and now swelling around his eyes; he was also very weak.  He could drink water but no longer could swallow his food though is airways were open.  So, I spent the morning hours with him, applying cold compresses to his head, soothing his wounds, and giving him what comfort I could.  He seemed exhausted and very droopy, and he had lost a lot of blood.  Still, he had survived the night, and I really felt that the worst was past us!  I returned to the house for a quick coffee, thinking – and telling everyone – that Vulcan will survive this!
I told Danny as I left the stable, “Vulcan will be okay!  We’re in the clear”!  I told Jose, “The worst is behind us; he just needs rest and time”.  I told our neighbors, Ursula and Fredy, who had seen me with bloody clothes and hands over recent days, sometimes shuddering with distress and worry, “Vulcan survived last night and we are very hopeful now”.  And the last thing I said about Vulcan was to Gerry, “Vulcan will survive this”.     

So, after my quick cup of coffee, I was leaving the house with kitchen scraps for the chickens, heading back to Vulcan, when Yaneth suddenly stops me, gives me a huge hug and whispers, “You must be brave”.
Well I wasn’t brave.  I cried like a baby.  I think we all did.   

The guys later told me that, soon after I had left, they saw Vulcan suddenly fall over onto his side, and that he expired a few seconds later – my cold compress still on his head.  His suffering had ended, at least.  We surmise, after reviewing everything again, that Vulcan likely experienced extensive internal bleeding and died of heart failure, probably secondary to snake bite.
 
He lived a good life and was much loved.  And we bury our special animals.  He rests now in El Tigre Animal Cemetery with our dogs, cats, a calf, a turkey and a few cherished hens and roosters.  How does a hen end up in the pet cemetery rather than the soup pot?  If we give an animal a name, then he or she becomes special.  Normally, we all grab a shovel and pitch in to help dig the grave but, on this sad day, we enlisted the help of a back-hoe to assist us with this unhappy but necessary task.  Everybody was there:  the children soon playing and teasing each other over captured insects; the adults just standing there and watching the back-hoe dig Vulcan’s grave, mostly silent and lost in our own thoughts.  We shall plant a tree soon at the burial spot, as we have done for all of the others.

 We grieve the loss of all of our animals – though for me, Vulcan’s came as a total shock.  That’s why I am writing about this today.  It’s the best way I can remember and honor Vulcan.  All horse lovers understand the special relationship they have with their horses.  Somebody once said that dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, and horses look at us eye-to-eye.  The relationship between human and horse is one of sensitivity and compassion.  If you feel nervous, your horse feels it in you, thus causing you to relax and to transmit that back to your horse. The relationship is mutually beneficial in multiple ways.  The bond grows deep over time.