This Week in Review!

Hah! I like to use this title - it makes my post sound so important!

Four of my orchids are blooming now.

Trigonidium egertonianum:

Encyclia cordigera, a lovely spicy scent:

 

Guarianthe skinneri (Guaria morada), the national orchid of Costa Rica:

And I cannot recall the name of this one:

 

We moved my hammock from the back of the house and put it under the carport. We had a few drops of rain recently so I got tired of moving it under the eaves at the back of the house to keep it dry.

Missing in the above photo is our car. It’s now with the main Subaru dealership in Costa Rica. They have some sophisticated diagnostic tools which our local mechanic (Carlos) who works with them from time to time does not.  More to follow.

This is not an orchid, but a vine - Pyrostegia venustra, or flame vine. The flowers and their colours are amazing. This one is cascading down the tall retaining wall between our house and the vacant lot next door.

Every Thursday we have been buying a kilo of fresh picked strawberries from our friend Minor. The berries are grown around the Poas Volcano at a higher altitude. They are delicious.

We are expecting to receive our Covid-19 vaccine shots soon. We are in the second group to receive them. The clinic we are assigned to should be phoning us with a time and date.

(Click on images to enlarge)

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - January 2021

During January, visits to this blog were received from the following 13 countries and Hong Kong:

There were no new countries and the overall total since November 2012 remains at 130 countries.

My video "Landing at Juan Santamaría Airport, Costa Rica" posted to YouTube and to my blog on August 26, 2017 still attracts interest.  Since July 2019 the number of YouTube views has risen from over 4400 views to over 6400 views. Undoubtedly, most views are by persons accessing the video directly and not indirectly via the blog post.

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The following is a summary of weather for the month in the area where we live:

The average daytime high temperature in January this year was about the same as last year. However, the average daytime low temperature was about 2°F (1.1 °C) cooler than last year.

We are in the midst of the dry season, so rainfall was minimal - only 1 day with measurable rain. This compares with 3 days having measurable rain in January 2020. However the amount of rain in January this year, although not very much, was more than 3.5 times that measured in January 2020.

The real weather story to be taken from January is high winds. While these winds, known as Papagayo Winds, are a regular occurrence at this time of year, their strength was unusually powerful in our experience. As noted in my blog post on January 29, 2021, they did some damage to our house. I might add that they also took down a fairly large tree in an empty lot behind our house. Here is a photo of the aftermath showing the tree stump and a few remaining log bits cut from the tree after it fell.

Part of our house appears in the background. Had the tree fallen towards the house, it probably would have come close to the property line but would not have reached the house.

(Click on images to enlarge).