Week in review:

Bug of the week ... a sort of leaf-looking praying mantis, which Paul found sunbathing on a rock -

Now, compare him to Paul's thumb -

Canyon Rose is the latest painting - sort or a combination of an opening rose bud and colors from a sandstone canyon -

& the flower of the week was discovered at Boca Chica ... it may inspire a future painting:

For the birds....

This is what I look at when I wash dishes

AND a picture of the dumbest finch in Panama - silly little guy has been fighting with his reflection in the dinning room window since yesterday... to be honest, I only photographed the yard because I was trying to get that bratty bird's picture ... cute, fast and really dumb.... might have to paint him....

Speaking of birds, my latest painting (quite a departure from the flowers I usually paint) is of birds (I'm sure they're much more intelligent, than the little guy tapping off his beak on our window).

Recent paintings

Meet Master Quark (the name of the Painting is Quark X 3) ... Quark is a Sun Conure & our 'youngest grandson', he was born this part October ... very intelligent little fellow. This painting was a birthday gift for our youngest daughter (also known as 'Quark's mom')
Paul has rather querky taste and fell in love with 'Froggy' while I was working on it for a friend:

After two such radical departures from my normal choice of floral themes, I had a lot of relaxation getting back to portraying another orchid or three.

It's the start of rainy season ...

So many plants are now in bloom, like the bird beaks below:

Don't know what these are called, but the blossom comes up first, then the leaves take over for most of the year:

The datura are in full trumpet, too - see the next 2 photos for a couple of the different varieties:


Last year's little terrace project is growing in, and will really start looking good with the return of the rain:

But the poor bananas had a really rough windy season, so they look quite pitiful:

This terraced area is one of the next areas I plan to plant:

& here's one last garden photo for this segment:

Unusual winds

Before I say anything else, let me assure you that the only damage our own property suffered was 2 small branches breaking - they both landed without incident. Oh, and if I' being totally candid, 3 empty flower pots tried to use the unusual weather to take flying lessons, but since they were caught (and out in the corner to think about their folly) I didn't count them as a casualty.

Most of the trees that fell were either cedars, like this one or -


pines, that are shown in the next 2 pics.


And all the trees that came down in our particular area were on Juan's property .. the local indians call him "king Juan'... most of the rest of us understand why he got the nickname. Since just about every tree that came down also took out portions of his 'fortress wall', there's a lot of gossip about divine justice and karma.... I could go into a lot of detail, but I'll just say that the legal placement of Juan's 6 kilometers of rock wall are a questionable distance from the road & I've heard him brag that this is his way of forcing the road onto the neighbor's property, thus increasing his holdings.

The paint is still drying, but -

The pint is still drying, but if I say so myself, I think I'm getting the hang of painting - still can't quite get a whole flower on a canvas, though (and that canvas is 2' x 3', which is a whole lot bigger than the whole plant was). Anyway, I'm still having fun, though my clothes do seem to manage to collect more than their fair share of added color.

Dry season has arrived....

Now that dry season is finally here, we can have the windows open, which means we can do smelly projects - for instance, the polyurethane fumes, which we used to seal the faux ties on the living room floor & the shelving unit Paul suspended over the rock Carlos left in our living room floor ... I'm still not 100% thrilled with that rock, mainly because that was supposed to be an open area/walkway & that rascal loves to trip people. Hence the shelves Paul suspended in the danger area.

This is the corner on the other side of the front door:

And this is a view of the living room from the dining room - the open door on the left goes to the back patio.