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)

The Kindness of Costa Ricans

Like the proverbial stubborn mule, our Subaru refused to move another step as we were driving home from grocery shopping yesterday.

Here is where she decided that enough was enough:

 Waze put us as being stranded on Invu 3, Rincón de Arias - not far from Carlos, our mechanic.

Lance was able to reach Carlos who arranged for a tow truck (flatbed truck here) to bring our reluctant vehicle to his shop. The only issue was how long that might take. It turned out to be quite a while.We were stranded in a nice area, with houses on the left of the street and sugar cane fields on the right. Lance had guided the car to a space under a large tree so we were in shade.

Not much to do but hang around the car and wait. A fellow walking along the sidewalk stopped and asked us if we needed help and what our problem was. He indicated he lived not far down the road and if we needed anything to just ask. We told him help was on the way but we didn’t know exactly when.

About half an hour later, he returned - concerned about where our tow truck was. Not long after that, another fellow turned up on a bicycle. According to Jorge (that was our Good Samaritan’s name), this person worked on vehicle air conditioning systems. Then, another mechanic who lived on this street appeared. They all disappeared under the hood of our car.

Men doing man stuff:

The tow truck arrives:

More men looking into the engine area. This is our vehicle parked near our mechanic’s shop. They later pushed it across the street and into the garage.

Jorge said he would drive us to Carlo’s shop and he did. He said the next time we were driving on this road to stop by his house and have a coffee. In previous posts on my blog, I have related how Costa Ricas have stepped up to help us when we are having problems. This has happened time and time again and they never ask for anything from us.

We’re going to go to the feria this weekend and buy a big bunch of nice flowers for Mrs. Jorge. It’s a way to say thanks without making anyone feel awkward. This was Lance’s idea and it’s a good one.

(Click on photos to enlarge).

Sourdough Bread, El Residente and Heavy Rain Storms, Costa Rica

Recently I had the urge to make sourdough bread. I used the recipe provided by Gemma at her website Bigger Bolder Baking. The recipe is for sourdough beginner bakers and wasn’t too complicated. Watching the sourdough starter bubble and grow is fun. Here is what mine looked like at day 3:

Today I baked a loaf and here it is:

We haven’t tried it yet but will have some slices with dinner tonight. I found out that when you feed the starter every day and have to discard half of the starter, the discard can still be used for baking. King Arthur Flour has some good ideas - I made their cracker recipe and the results were excellent.

Here is the latest edition of El Residente magazine, published by the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR). As usual, it is full of interesting articles and useful information.

Lance had a dentist appointment yesterday at 4:00 pm in Grecia. By the time we arrived in town, the rain was coming down in torrents. We found a parking spot very close to our dentist’s office which just happened to be situated under a pipe spewing out rain water. The rear end of our vehicle is super clean! The building in the background is the Grecia municipal building.

Headed home after Lance’s appointment. As we arrived at the gates to our complex, we noticed the resident rooster has an interés amoroso (love interest). He was flapping his wings as if to say, “look, look!”. Beside him was a sweet little hen. I’ll try to get a photo of them together.

It was starting to get dark when we arrived home. We sat outside to enjoy the rain and the storm and eat some Pop’s ice cream. Here is a video I made of the storm. Our Cat likes to lie on the roof of our vehicle when it is raining.