Iguanas, Orchids, High Winds

This week has been notable for the high winds we have been experiencing.

To read the above text, click on the image.

The gusts have been very strong. So strong, in fact, that early on Thursday morning a part of the roof on the rear of the house was torn off. It blew up and over the roof and landed on the other side of the house, where it became lodged on the roof and the articulated umbrella. Fortunately, neither of us were in the immediate vicinity to be injured but the noise was something else.

We took photos and sent them to our landlord, Rodrigo, who lives in San José. From the photos, he determined it was not a critical part of the roof but something that had been installed some years ago .... for what reason, I do not know.

Rodrigo is an excellent landlord. He always responds quickly to any of our concerns and, sure enough, he arrived later that same day with a helper and they removed the fallen metal. They folded it up like an envelope (aluminum I guess?) and put it away for some later disposal.

Strong winds and gusts continued today (Friday) and I opted not to spend my daily hammock time under the palm tree in the backyard. Who knows when a branch may fall.

Recently, I went around our house and took photographs of various plants that are flowering right now.

I have two orchids in bloom right now and two others that have sent out inflorescences but the flowers are not yet open.

This is my Miltoniopsis. I bought this at an orchid show in Grecia a couple of years ago. This is the first time it has flowered for me.

And this one is Trigonidium egertonianum. Pretty little orchid flowers.

Moving on from orchids to lizards and iguanas ... the word seems to have got out that we will feed small pieces of bananas to our resident critters. The iguanas here appear to move around from house to house and water drains to water drains. We are now able to recognize quite a few of them. Here is a video I made of Lance feeding bananas to a couple of these critters.

(Click on images to enlarge)