Why Does The Garden of Eden Need More Plants?

My main complaint about our casita is that it looks directly at Surfo Juan's. In fact, all the landscaping directs the eye toward Juan's place. Even though his house is 60 yards or so away, it pops out at me.
So I bought a lipstick palm, which will grow to 9 meters tall, eventually blocking out Juan's house. The palm is multi-stemmed and red trunked. It is flourishing, but Howie just told me it is very slow growing. It doesn't really matter to me, because I see it as it will be.
That is one of my handicaps. Especially in the decorating department. I don't see the mess of my unfinished projects. I just see the results in my mind's eye.
The casita's front yard is the gravel driveway (I have been watering the grassy parts and the gravel to try to make the whole thing grassy). So I have bought pots, soil and plants to bring the garden up closer to the house. The red and yellow hibiscus are to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. The bouganvilla to shade the porch from the afternoon sun. The plumbago to satisfy my love for that gorgeous blue. Then there is the creeping flowering thing for the pink and some bird of paradise things for the exotic touch. A couple of mini and regular mimosa trees to see if I can get their fabulous pink, yellow and red flowers closer to me.

All the plants from the nursery are far cheaper than the dirt I've bought. They come in tiny plastic bags packed tightly with dirt. The bags are black and holey. If left lying around. they will root and grow.

I have also gotten plants from bridge friends. Alice and Mike have the most beautiful, delicate ground cover that I am trying to get to cover the area beyond the driveway. Greg Smith gave Alice and Mike a variegated spikey plant, one piece of which was not put in the ground, so I stuck it here. Another Mother-in-law type plant came my way from someone and it is trying take hold too.
I bought a red-leafed plant that is abundant here because I wanted to make a better design than the gardener did. Lili told me I can plant anything I want.

But that transplanting now was not possible. We'll see when I get some traditional palm trees from Beverly and some fringe palms from Alice and Mike in the next few weeks. I'll put the fringe palms beyond the lipstick palm for further coverage of Juan's house. It grows very fast.
Put a sprouted coconut in the ground and a pineapple top, which doesn't look too happy.
We throw all the vegetable matter into the jungle. Maybe a mango will sprout or an avocado tree. Happens all the time at Bobbi's mountain house.

BEACH MAGIC: Earth Healthy Transmogrification.

Skippy Meets Miss Piggy

Right behind us is Honali, a new bar, wildly unpopular with the neighbors. The reason is noise. Weekends feature music, very loud and late. Nobody can sleep. Except us.
Though we are closest to it, our thick cement walls block the noise almost totally.
Honali does have some positives though. The building itself is quite interesting architecturally, different from anything else in town.
And a darling pot-bellied pig lives there. Anna first met him when he squealed at her from his wobbly dog crate. She gave him her banana peel and gained a friend for life. We pass him every time we leave home. Often, he is loose, rooting around the property.
A word about the corner lot on which Honali sits. Two years ago we watched the transformation from a lovely stream running through pretty jungle to dirt pile rising above the dry stream bed. Now the lot features a sunken pit, containing tables and chairs surrounding a huge bonfire. All I can see is rainy season, with chairs, tables and charred logs swirling around that pit.
Of course, we are forbidden to patronize the place. But, having been without internet again for several days, I dropped in to surf the net. I was hoping to connect to them permenantly, by-passing our unreliable connection. And, of course, our landlord Lili biked by and spotted me immediately. I defended myself by saying I was doing undercover scouting of the offending business. I did photograph the license, which permitted liquor from 10 AM to 2:30 AM. Lili pointed out that it expired that very day AND was from another, closed restaurant.
She had met with the owner, stating the neighbors' concerns, but could tell from watching Lie to Me, that the owner was lying from the git-go.
Guess we'll have to wait to meet Miss Piggy.

What the Doctor Advised

Mauricio prescribed antibiotics for the suspected infection. Even if there wasn't one already, they would prevent one from invading.
In the blur of the last week, I am not even sure how it was decided that Becky would take Dad to Cleveland two days early. Their trip was eased greatly by the Delta folks who even went so far as to load Dad onto the plane via the food crane. They were met by an ambulance and taken to University Hospital where they waited over 12 hours for admission, with very little care in the meantime.
Ater days and days of tests, Dad finally got to go home. He had feared contracting some lethal bug in the hospital and was even planning his funeral for the next week. But instead he went downstairs for breakfast this morning and is planning to go out to dinner tonight.
In the meantime, the rest the Jones crew continued enjoying the local life. We went to visit the older monkeys and hope to have great photos soon. Leslie and Elvira, my two babies from 2 years ago are there. It wasn't clear to me which they are, but Elvira was certainly who nibbled on my nose. I am hoping Vicky and Steve will let me do the tours of the monkey presesrve, freeing the time for them to do the more important work of feeding and nursing the monkeys.
Vicky sent us home with unbelievably delicious pastries.
Sunset bocas at Beverly's, who has a view of the mouth of the Nosara River entering the Pacific. Tis the best view in town.
More bridge lessons with my partner Beverly with Alice and Mike Olson.
Howie visited us this morning for some beer and weed. Very funny. First time in weeks that Andy hasn't hurt. His prescription and beer were to thank. Only Howie smoked.

The Correct Doctor

We finally met the correct Doctor, Mauricio. And for not very great reasons.
Dad got quite ill. (A little background: he has a draining catheter coming out the side of his chest to collect fluid from around his lungs.)
He seemed fine the first night after a grueling day of travel to get here. The next day he even planned to go out to dinner and then to see the leatherback turtles laying their eggs. Changed his mind cause of pain and fever. Called his doctor in Cleveland who advised getting x-ray of his lungs.
Easy to say, if you are in Cleveland. But we are in the jungles of Costa Rica. To get to a reliable hospital from here requires flying.
With the help of our daughter-in-law nurse practitioner, we decided to treat the symptoms rather than stress him by moving him.
We suspected infection and feared pneumonia. But were unable to collect very much info with Bobbi's blood pressure cuff and forty year old stethoscope. Draining the fluid helped with the pain. And Tylox helped the fever.
But for two days we struggled with the stress of transporting him vs. the benefit of going to a hospital. He wanted to fly back to Cleveland. Bambi just advised me that I don't want to spend too much time on this.
So to cut to meeting Mauricio. Two days after this all began he made a house call. Everyone was very impressed with his knowledge, patience and recommendations. My dad was especially blown away by the time he spent with us all and with the doctor's office in Cleveland.
I am not sure if Dad heard this story about Mauricio peeing in the middle of the bullring at the rodeo in front of a charmed audience.

We're Back

Long trip down, mostly cause Andy's back was killing him. In fact it's been a fairly long week.
Once we get Internet and telephone at our cabina, the refrigerator to stop screaming in pain every hour or two and Andy's back cured, we will be in heaven.
Much of the weeks events have had to do with his back. No one or store had a heating pack. Finally ran into Brenda and Steve (see previous year's blog for the who's, where's and what's to which I refer) at the hated gas station. Brenda prefers water bottles for the orphaned monkeys, so she offered me one. I followed her up the mountain to her new house (the exquisite mansion that Sandra and Rourke had rented). Took it home, where it did not work of course.
Brenda has three orphans, one of which was in her backpack when I ran into her. Te mother had just died that day. I didn't get to see it because of recent arrival. I can start nurturing them after a week or ten days.
But the situation has changed with Brenda. The easiest to fix is a comfortable chair for me. Since the monkeys have moved up to her house, there seems only to be a cage for them, not a whole house like last time. The other problem has to do with her firing many long term employees with no consideration of time of year or length of service. Have to explore politices of this with Bobbi. Seems like it will make her fund raising efforts much more difficult, at the very least.
Back to Andy. By Sunday we got a microwave so he could at least heat up a Towel for his back. He resolved to see the doctor the next day. When Bobbi arrived with a phone, she called and made the appointment. Dr. Katrina had treated me twice the last time we were here and was a lifesaver. She spent an hour with him, injecting him with something wonderful in his butt. She prescribed muscle relaxer, inflammation fighter and stretches. She also reviewed all his other prescriptions, phoned the new pharmacy in town to confirm availability and price and wrote scripts for them. Finally he had hope.
Bobbi dropped by to ask me to lunch. She asked about the visit. Told her she. was great. "She", she screamed. "I made the appointment with Esperanza. Dr. K. Is horrible!"
Everyone laughed like crazy: Angie and her son Jack were having lunch. Of course Bill was doing the cooking at Marlin Bill's. And Peter, faith's husband, was there.
Bobbi called Esperanza to apologize. All was forgiven.
Dr. K certainly acted like she expected us. Asked Andy this morning if he'd like to see other doctor, but feels loyal to his.

Byron Passed On

Byron Passed Onto the Great Beyond and We May Have Also

We moved.

Left the Old Folks Home.

What a saga.