Costa Rica #3 - Inspired Clippings

What do you do if you have a park of sculpture hidden inside the cypress bushes?

Help it out, of course!

Since the 1960's, gardener Evangelisto Blanco has been the gardener at this city park in Zarcero. No money for stone to carve? Make the most of your day job!

These arches are quite large and wandering around in them feels like being in another world.

We just happened to drive through this town and I had to check it out. There was a wedding in the works up at the church. And plenty of people enjoying the park and the flowers throughout it.

Click on the label "Exc-Costa Rica", below, to see other parts of the excursion.

Costa Rica #2 - Living Fences

This post is stepping back a day from Costa Rica #1. The first morning, we left San Jose and headed north. The beaches will come along later! It wasn't long before we saw coffee and fruit farms and then hillside farms and pastures.
We started noticing the trees growing in the fence lines along the road. Then we realized the trees where the fence posts! Were they intential or were they wood fence posts that sprouted due to the climate (as willow does at home)?
Planted, we decided, but often purposefully kept trimmed. The one above has other plants growing on it, too.

Flowers growing in the fence row.

It also wasn't long before we noticed the cows and their bird friends. Every cow would have a few to many bird friends. Apparently, the cattle egrets finds more to eat when their have cow friends to stir up the bugs. You know you almost waited too long for a vacation when cows and birds prove to be so entertaining! The tree in the center of the photo above is also a fence post.

More fence line flowers.

Above, this area had many fields where the fence posts had become tree rows.

Fertile soil and hillside farms.

Costa Rica #1 - Blossoms

While I am waiting for seeds to sprout and snow to melt, I thought I'd share a few sights from Costa Rica. Only thing is... the seeds are sprouting already and the snow is melting. I'll post Costa Rica anyway! Our first morning out of San Jose and we were ready to do some volcano spotting in the Arenal area. Whoops! Rain and clouds. So we headed off to a good breakfast spot. What else did we find there? Brugmansia (I think)!

Immediately, I thought of Libby. So, Libby - are these the flowers that you grow? I think you would love all of the tropical Costa Rica plants!

That's the brugmansia bush, below, there by the banana plants. We saw a lot of very happy flowers in Costa Rica that struggle even in the best of our summers back home.

Costa Rica proved to be an excellent excursion beyond the garden fence.