Sunday, March 26, 2017

It has been a quiet week. The most exciting thing that happened was when I discovered this in my ice cube tray:

 

I hope the end came swiftly for the little insect.

Weather wise - sunny, dry, blue skies, some ash from Turrialba volcano. I water the front and back of our property every second day but keep a close eye on my orchids. The vandas need water every day it seems. We asked our gardener not to cut the grass yesterday. Better to let it grow a bit long and not burn.

Here is a photo of one of my vanda orchids. Vandas are epiphytic, meaning they cling to tree bark or hang from cliffs and rocky areas. You can see why I have to water them every day - they grow in barely any potting medium. They also need a fair amount of fertilizer. I bought this vanda and one other at an orchid show in Alajuela about two years ago, maybe three. They were considered "babies" and would not flower for quite some time. No flowers as yet! I had a vanda when we lived in Cloverdale, British Columbia, but the conditions there were just not compatible with what vandas require so the poor thing expired. That's another great thing about living in Costa Rica - I can indulge my love of orchids at not much cost and not much trouble care wise.

 

This next photo of an orchid (not a vanda) has sent out two flower inflorescences (on the left and on the right). This orchid is mounted on a couple of wood slabs. I should see the flowers open in about a week. 

 

I found a very good vegetarian chili recipe at Latin Cooking. I use their recipes fairly often because the ingredients are easy to find here in Costa Rica and I normally have most of them here in our pantry. The only change I made in this vegetarian chili was to use ayote in place of the sweet potato. The ayote is a beautiful orange color and cooks up like a sweet potato. Maybe they are the same?  Here is a photo of the finished dish. Very healthy with beans and vegetables, plus it tasted good. 

 

I found this great product at our Supermercado Coopeatenas R.L. Pico gallo fresquita for only 819 colones (about $1.92 CAD). The photo shows an empty bag because I transfered the product into a glass container to keep in our refrigerator.  I used some of it on top of the vegetarian chili. Plus: it is a product of Costa Rica.