Pics n stuff

I have had a few requests for a pic of the front of the house so here ya go! The doors on the bottom go into the living room and the one on the top goes into the bedroom. Poor planning for the upstairs door because although it is so great having the light stream in and the balcony right there, everyone walking by can look right into the bedroom! Ok so like maybe everyone walking by is like 1 or 2 people a day, but still it's a little creepy. I wanted to buy tension rods and put up a curtain since we can't put holes in the door for a regular rod, but apparently no one in Costa Rica uses tension rods or my spanish sucks because they all look at me like I have 2 heads when I ask for it in the stores. They get the idea of what I want, but keep coming out with shower curtain rods. Same concept, wrong scale. Oh well, I go to the states again in Oct so I know what's on the list.

We ordered a bunch of furniture from Mario's brother-in-law and it is really great! These are the loungers and table that he made us. Eventually we will get cushions for them, but I am really enjoying laying on the balcony reading. Diego loves it too, he has become a lap dog!

This is a crappy picture of the garden that Mario put in for me. It's nice that he is planting everything while I work. I have tall orchids with mexican petunias in front. In front of that we put lantana. The butterflies love lantana. There is also a tree that gets really pretty pink flowers but I doubt we will be here to enjoy it when it is tree size. I like the flowers so I will enjoy them while it is still small. There is also a fig tree and mamon chino that I plan to keep at bush size. Easier to pick the fruits and they tell me the fruit is better too. The center of the driveway has portulaca which is beautiful on sunny days. We hope it will fill in the dirt strip with a burst of color. The redish mounds were here when we moved in. Mario thinned out some that were close to the house and filled in the holes. It should look like a strip soon. He did the other side of the drive today, hopefully they grow fast. It is challenging here because unlike the soil in Los Angeles this is awful orange clay. We have been buying sacks of organic fertilizer, abono here, but still things seem to yellow quickly. It's a shame because there are palm trees and other flowering bushes around the perimeter of the property and they are dying. We are doing our best to save them so maybe with some TLC they will make it.

I was trying for a pic of the planter here, but I love how the sky looks. Sitting on the balcony just makes me glad to be alive, it's incredible how beautiful it is here. We are starting to look at properties. Mario wants to sell or trade his house in Los Angeles for a property in this area so we can stay.

Well that's it for now. There is a whale festival in Playa Ballena tomorrow and we are going to go out on a boat to see the dolphins and whales. I can't wait! I will put up pics as soon as I can.