Summer plants and flowers

A leaf from a young tree fern -

& the pathway it grows by -

Blossom of a wild ginger (hummingbirds LOVE these, but are impossible to photograph, speedy little rascals that they are -

Love the diverse texture of the leaves, too -

Blossom of an ornamental banana - about the size of my thigh -

Heliconia plant outside our guest bedroom is another favorite of hummingbirds -

As is this ornamental banana -

I have not seen hummingbirds on our hydrangeas, but do love the flowers, anyway -

Have lots of these small, native orchids growing on the rock walls surrounding our yard:

Summer flowers & plants

Agave plant provides a sculptural note to the SW corner of the garden -

We have 3 varieties of anturium, this one is my favorite -

These bananas should be ripe in about 5 months ... in past years, blue tanagers have built their nest on top of the bunch, and had their hatchlings airborne by harvest time - have not seen the tanagers - yet - but I am expecting them to arrive soon.

Of course, when one lives in paradise, they also need birds of paradise in the garden -

Boca de lion (lion's mouth) is another favorite -

I consider bougainvillea to be beautiful botanical barb wire (have thorns), so have several colors growing on our exterior walls.

Love the native bromeliads, too

Our 2 dozen oldest coffee bushes are in full bloom - very sweet aroma!

These heliconias have blossoms, then leaves - I was lucky to get a photo where one can see both.

Security bars ...

Remember the front covered entry way?

We did the same thing on the back - now, all that is necessary to make this area perfect is a nice little table and a couple comfortable chairs so we can sip coffee while listening to the waters of the Tisingal roar down the mountain and the birds sing their praises to the dawn:

Also, we added a 3' x 12' area for birds - what can I say? We don't like the look of traditional security bars they use down here, so we had something built that was as strong or stronger, but had a secondary function.

We continued the philosophy of wanting security, but not liking the traditional look, when we added bars to the office and bedroom windows - instead of putting them on the outside of the house, we put them between the screens and the actual glass windows:

Current project...

The arrival of this hard-working truck meant a long hard day of welding ... Rafa and Billy got right to work, but proved difficult to photograph. Still, I did managed to catch this one of Billy:

& this of Rafa:

This is the beginning of their project:

And Billy welding away at it mid-project:

AND, this is what they were working on:

This is dry season, but we've been getting a ton of rain --- if/when it gets dry, I will paint the metal and then move the plants into the new porch/greenhouse (plants tend to object to paint on their leaves).

closet ...

It took 4 years to decide on what we wanted for a permanent closet, but this is the start of it:

And a few more pieces added:

With Calisto supervising, of course (he's the one in the cap)

& now you see the bits all put together ---- we did not want doors on the closet because mold and mildew are problems in areas where air does not circulate, so until we can figure out a solution to that issue, we prefer to avoid the problem by not having doors:

These final 2 photos are of everything in the unit:

If we ever want, we can take out the shelves below the computer & use this area as a desk:

Makeovers...

Our Szuki Jimny looks about the same from the front, but if you look closely, you'll see that she is sporting a snazzy new luggage rack:

AND from the side, perhaps you'll notice that she's got stylish new rims:

You can really notice the new, stylish rims, when you look at her spare tire:

We had nothing to do with the other makeover - below you'll see that moss is growing on 'seal rock' in a pattern that resembles waves on the 'tummy' and it's even growing an eye! Wish I'd thought of this - I'd have looked for buttermilk to paint on the desired pattern, but I really don't think this natural one can be topped: