And in the garden ....

Orchids are budding:
... these flowers aren't huge, like the ones florests sell, they're 'typical size' of a native orchid - see?:


Actually today is just another lovely day in Tisingal ... though it does look like autumn - the way I can tell is that some of the trees have barren branches raised to the sky & there are leaves to add to the compost pit, otherwise the climate is typical.

If it were not for various plants having 'dormant' times and the area having a dry season, every day would seem like every other day. This is not a bad thing, but it tends to give me problems keeping track of the season in the States.

Yesterday, when we checked on how the paperwork was progressing for our water concession, we discovered several bags of plants in the back of the place (the water department shares the building with the agricultural department) ... of course, Paul had to ask what they were & when he was told 'mountain avocados' he wanted to know how much one cost .... we purchased 5 & were happy to pay the dollar, now I'm wondering just where to plant something that gets a big as an avocado tree.....

And this is our animal photo of the week ... these deer have been monitoring progress on our yard and house since we started the rock wall, but it's the first time we had the camera handy to show them to you:

Coriolis Effect

When we went offshore when during hurricane season, many friends/family got frantic over our safety.... Thus, I want to remind y'all of the coriolis effect, which is more than the determining factor over which way toilets flush ... basically, anywhere we sail/live during hurricane season is within this protective area / in other words, we're within 10 degrees North of the equator (10 degrees South is just as safe). Panama lies at 9 degrees north, which places it and it's surrounding waters are in the buffer zone.

Note: you can click on the title of this post to go to Wikipedia's more complete definition.

In the yard...

A little over 2 weeks ago, we went to see how EvenStar was and ended up spending the week ... only a day or so of which was spent cleaning her.

Since we returned, we've taken these photos:We were welcomed by this lovely butterfly, who was only about the size of Paul's thumbnail but too skitish to be photographed with his hand:
Another lovely 'welcome home' sunset:
Some happy ferns:
Jeanne's favorite flower of the week:
Favorite orchid of the week:

Landscaping by Bobcat (& Tommy, too)

"Itty-bitty" orchid of the week (and this isn't the smallest one in the yard!).
Started out with this:
Hind sight being 20-20, we would have held off on starting the construction of the house until after Tommy leveled the building site, but we assumed that the contract covering the house included that. It didn't. As people say, "This isn't Kansas any more."

And the certainly translate 'turn key home' differently, but that's another story.

Regardless, we're now working on getting the land leveled and will eventually start planting. We've been held up as we waited for Tommy and the Bobcat to have time for our project - they are the ONLY ones I'd ever trust to work in my yard, especially now that there is a house with eaves to dodge.

After 2 days of Tommy and Bobcay zipping around with loads of dirt and rock, I can honestly say that not a leaf was harmed on anything we'd planted and the house is totally intact. even though they were literally working within inches of the eaves and walls for quite a bit of the project.

Didn't even bother this bee:
& finished (except for hand work) project:

The area ...

These Ngobes live near us. Most of the ones that we've met seem like nice, honest folk. The guy on the far right, who is proudly holding the baby, is Victor, who helped Paul build some of our rock walls. Some, not all, as he became ill - he initially thought someone had cast an evil spell on him, but his main employer insisted that he go to the doctor and he was diagnosed with diabetes.
One of our orchids started blooming ... and a cute little green hummingbird loved it - as if typical, though, the bird escaped getting his photo taken, so we only captured the flower:

And this beauty is a local flower:

Electrical update, etc.

Union Fermosa has amended their '15 day' estimate --- now, we've only got '3 more months to go' .... told you that Panama has a different calendar than anywhere else in the world!

While we wait for our permanent visas to get approved and power for the house, we putter at projects and find new things in the yard like this huge, gorgeous caterpillar ... I'd be fascinated to know what this beauty morphs into:... Our latest project created such a sensation that a war raged over it... an avian war, that is. Of course it took the hummers a couple days to figure out the feeder.... I'd colored the sugar water to help them find the feeder and they found that right off, but they were so busy admiring the ruby hue that they initially didn't find the 'nectar', so Paul put a bag over the bottle and it didn't take long for the great discovery to be made ... the only problem was that this fella wasn't the only one to stake the claim:
As far as I've been able to tell, we have at least four types of hummers feuding over ownership of the feeder - the tiniest is an iridescent pale green with a red throat, then there are two medium sized ones: a bluish purple and this teal green one; then there's my favorite, a big blackish fellow that looks to be 5-6 inches from top of head to tail - he's the guy with a curved beak and also one who is hard to photograph... not that any of them are easy to get pictures of... I've decided hummingbirds are the jets of the bird kingdom (and the butterflies that live around here aren't slouches, either.)

Another 'wet' subject

Our photo of the week - another spectacular sunset over Tisingal - 5 minutes after the photo, the 'heavens openes':