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Kevin spotted this Green Spiny Lizard basking in the sun on our wood pile. Kevin had seen it yesterday and was telling me all about it and its beautiful colours. He knew I was eager to get a glance, so he came to get me. I quickly went in to get my camera. At first, I didn't want to stand too close and ruin my chances of getting a good picture. I was very quiet, trying not to disturb it. You have to look very carefully, in the centre of the picture, on the log. I started taking pictures, but even with the sound of the camera's 'click', the lizard remained still, seemingly not bothered by my presence. I approached one step at a time, taking a picture every time until I was about a foot away. It was pretty thrilling. He is just so spectacularly beautiful. And he's completely harmless. We know it's a male because of all its vivid colours. Females are more brown. You will also notice the very tip of his tail is greyish black. This is where it was cut off by either a predator biting it or getting it caught in something. When he loses part of his tail like that, it grows back. Fascinating stuff. I feel like I'm on our own Discovery Channel program :) Passion fruit plants climb wood frames, and the fruit hangs under the leaves. Easy pickin'. These are not ready yet. First they are this deep blue/purple colour, then they turn bright orange when they're ripe. Bright orange outer peel with grey seeds inside. You don't eat the peel or the white fleshy part - only the slimy seeds. I, personally, have no passion for this fruit. Kevin, on the other hand, loves them. It takes all kinds :) Martín and Nacho have been working hard the last few days, building a new fence beside the waterfall. When we found out we had a waterfall on the property, we were thrilled and eager to showcase it, but we also needed to make sure the surrounding area is safe for our guests. The vegetation is so dense and overgrown in the old pond bed below, the waterfall was completely obscured. Martín and Nacho have started the clearing process and we can now see real evidence that indeed the waterfall exists. There's still a lot to do before the area is pristine, but once it's all done, we're sure it will be a lovely feature. We were all ready to tear this old shed down until we found out it's a hundred years old. And, although it's the size of a North American tool shed, this was used as workers' accommodation. The hole on the side is a dog kennel... there's another kennel on the other side of the house, too. These are self-contained and can only been entered and exited through this opening. The dogs would not have been able to get in the actual house. What we used to consider an eye sore, has become our own little piece of Costa Rican history, which we now want to preserve. This was supposed to be a picture of our flowers leading up to the garden and hen house, but when I looked at the picture all I could see was the clear blue sky. I can get used to this weather in December! I was working on the computer all morning, going through all the Copey Learning Center volunteer applicants and wrote 18 letters. I enjoy this type of administrative work, especially when I know it's helping Seidy out. However, Kevin was out all morning following Nacho and Martin to see the trails Martin has been blazing! So Kevin came in and said, 'enough inside work, you need a break'. He wanted to show me all the great trails that are on our property. I was game! I did ask him first if I needed to wear my rubber boots and he assured me the trails were dry. No need for my knee-high boots particularly great for muddy situations. So, I put on my newish and cleanish hiking boots and off we went. I never think of taking 'before' pictures, because I never know that they will be 'before' pictures until 'after' the incident happens. Well, we hiked up the hill beside the river. The same trail I explored when we first arrived 3 and a half months ago. It was barely passable back then, but Martin has done a great job clearing a path. We got half way and Kevin looks back and says 'oh, yeah, I guess there is a bit of mud.... just hop over it'. Well, I certainly didn't want to look like a wuss (even though I really did want to keep my hiking boots still shiny and new). So I jumped and hopped and managed to avoid the mud and only slipped in a little... but then on the way back, there was no saving this girl or these lovely clean boots! I fell in a hole with both feet and got muddy all the way up to my shin. Really? Seriously? Oh well, nothing a little water, a good scrub and sun won't fix. The trail was well worth the hike and I definitely look forward to going up there again soon... but maybe in my rubber boots next time. My blog is often skewed towards my learning and my experiences; however, Kevin works incredibly hard every single day to make our life a little better... a little easier. I think of myself as the 'communications director', but Kevin, without a doubt is the 'operations and logistics director'. Kevin created the gate to close the aqueduct system to prevent dirt and sediment from accumulating in the ponds during rain storms. This gate has alleviated a ton of work over the past 4 months. Without it, we'd be spending all our time in the rainy season digging the first few ponds out. Crazy hard, backbreaking work! Kevin has also levelled the guesthouse, rebuilt two door frames, fixed door jams and rewired all the light fixtures so no one gets electrocuted (great idea). The list goes on. Every day he accomplishes something.
Since we've been here, I'm usually the one in the passenger seat when we drive somewhere together. Being the passenger has its responsibilities: it means I'm the one getting out of the SUV to open and close our driveway gate. The gate itself is a bit battered, but it will do; however, the piece of wood that goes down in the metal latch to keep the gate closed is old and rotting and almost every time I touch it, I get splinters. And when it rains, it's soggy and disgusting. Also, the closing mechanism is a simple design and it probably worked well in the beginning, but now the piece of iron (a bit like a hanger that holds the piece of wood from falling to the ground) is all warped and mangled so it's really hard to manage. So, my dear husband, took it apart and added a new piece of wood. Not only that, but he devised a new mechanism that swivels and works so much better. In fact you only need to use one hand. I'm so happy! All I need to do now is paint the gate and new piece of wood to freshen things up a bit. When I retrieve the eggs from the hen house, I'm usually very careful, taking every precaution not to bang them together and break them. However, I've noticed they feel quite dense in my hands and not quite as fragile as the ones we used to buy from the Canadian grocery stores. When I crack our eggs on the side of the frying pan, I have to put more pressure against the edge than what I'm used to. And when I pack them up to give to Adriana and Roberto, they travel well in a bag. My hypothesis is that the shell of an egg becomes more brittle, hence more fragile, as it loses its freshness. I don't know this for a fact, but so far it's my experience
And lately, we learned that eggs should not be refrigerated unless they are a few months old. Since our eggs are always fresh, we now never refrigerate them. The reason the eggs we buy in local Canadian (or U.S. or European) store are refrigerated, is because by the time the eggs are shipped and shelved, they are in the process of losing their freshness. They are not bad or rotten, simply losing their optimum nutrient value. The global trend is to shop locally seems reasonable. At 3 pm I met Seidy at the Copey Learning Center for my first Spanish lesson with her. I learned the verbs Ser and Estar (two verbs which translate as 'To Be' – each used in specific scenarios). I know the present tense for each, but often get confused with the past and future tenses. Today, Seidy taught me both the past and future tenses and I now have to memorize them and practice so they become second nature. It was a good session and tomorrow morning I will be meeting with Adriana. It feels good to get back to speaking Spanish. Lately, with teaching English, it seems I'm not getting a lot of Spanish practice anymore. And now that school is out for two months, I want to make sure I continue to improve and not fall back.
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EASY
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