Daily Wonders Part 2

I am fascinated by the critters that find their way into my home. I had been discussing the power of attraction with a friend and wondered, did I attract this?
Remember my last post about cutting down the hummingbird nest from the tree? The same day, after I posted that, one of those hummingbirds flew into my house through the upstairs opened door. Of course, he/she flew straight to a VERY high window.

Clearly, he/she did not understand the concept of glass and kept trying to fly through it. It was so frustrating not being able to reach up and capture the frantic bird. I have a telescopic pole I use to open and close those windows so I taped a bandanna at the tip and swooshed it around to get him/her to come away from the window. All the other curtains, I closed in advanced and I opened all the doors.

The poor little thing was exhausted from his/her escape efforts and probably traumatized from my efforts to free him. There were many distress calls and I could see his/her mate outside calling as well.
Finally, he/she took flight again and flew up into the transparent dome at the highest point of my house. There was NO WAY I could reach him now. I was stumped so I thought about what to do. I thought about what it must be like for a bird, unable to fly when this is what they are born to do. I thought about if this tiny creature believe he/she had reached the limits of the sky and could only sit and watch the clouds pass. I thought long and hard how to free him/her and then it hit me!
The dome has air pockets all around for the heat to escape.
The hummingbird was free already. Such is life in Pura Vida land.

Chan - Something different to drink

I've been on a little health kick since I've been watching Dr. Oz every morning.
www.doctoroz.com
Dr. Oz's site is fabulous with videos from his show, explaining how things in our body work, in everyday terms.

I first started watching Dr. Mehmet Oz on Oprah and now he has his own show. He didn't talk about Chan but when I was at the grocery looking for Flax seed, I found Chan seeds. It peaked my curiosity so I bought a pack and looked on the Internet to see what to do with it.

Here is one method I found for how it is prepared in Costa Rica.
Add 2 tablespoons of Chan to 5 cups of water and
bring to a rolling boil for one minute.
Remove from heat and let it set uncovered until it cools.
In blender, combine liquid, lemon/lime, and honey (to taste) and liquefy for seven seconds.
At this point, if you do not want the pulp, strain.
Chill in the refrigerator and serve cold.
It's better than you think to drink instead of sodas or sugary drinks.

If anyone knows of another way to prepare this, please DO tell!
The lemons came off my tree and work great! (lemons have loads of other uses)
I'm also growing ginger and interested in what to do with that, too!

Check out this link for foods that are good for you!
http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/healthy_aging/foods_for_beautiful_skin?utm_source=YahooBlog_Brierley_SkinFoods_061410

Daily Wonders

I noticed two hummingbirds buzzing around my patio the other day. It was right after I chopped off some of the big limbs on the Alemandra tree (almond). One branch I cut had a tiny, perfect empty nest attached by just a thread to a limb. It was already cut down when I discovered it and I gave it to the kid next door. I am thinking now, it was a new nest and these hummingbird parents were letting me know, I took away their home.
Lesson learned, check the branches before chopping!

I'm still getting over having to cut down the big palm tree in my yard. I'm glad I did because a couple of weeks ago we had some tornado winds. It caused quite a bit of damage south of here in Parrita and Manuel Antonio area. I still see the geese passing around and they have found a new tree.

Maybe most of you know but this time of year, we get the start of some heavy rain. In July, it calms down for a couple of weeks and then the rain is on in earnest until November/December. The road to San Jose was finally opened and I had the pleasure of traveling on it twice before the big rain came and washed out part of it and they closed it down. Some say the construction of this highway connecting San Jose with Orotina has been in the making for 40 years!! Of course, I took photos of the "before" because you can clearly see that the road is too close to the mountains and they have a hodge-podge of various methods for holding back the rock and clay. There is no date set as to when the road will open again. Pura Vida. Here are some pics....





Can you see the man on the side of the mountain?



I am staying busier than ever since Jose left catching up on some sewing projects and getting the yard back in shape. All the focus was on the house when Jose was helping. It was too dry then to do any planting. Now, with the rain, there are weeds everywhere and I can see the grass growing as I type! The moat we built next to my house is working excellent. We dug a ditch and put down plastic and filled it with big and small rocks and gave a direction for the water to run. The other water run-offs are working as well. I checked them again this early, early morning, when we had a big rain before daylight! The rain water no longer stands six inches on my property!

"The House of Pain"

"The House of Pain" is an expression from Mad Money, Jim Cramer's show which we no longer get a signal for here. CNBC has been removed from our cable and it has been painful not knowing what is going on. Yes, I still try to follow the stock market. I couldn't help but think of Jim Cramer's "House of Pain" sound button when I saw this clinic in Atenas recently.