FOTO FrIDAY:OUTTHE KITCHEN WINDOW

FOTO FRIDAY: I love a kitchen window with a view, don't you?

• The plant growing in the tires is called CULANTRO. And yes, it's related to cilantro.                                                                                                                       

 Last week's FOTO FRIDAY: LIFE IMITATING ART

TBT: ORDER

TBT:A throwback to 2019 and I had just finished watching the Marie Kondo methods of storing one's socks. I actually am still employing this method for my socks altho I might not have left my sock drawer as neatly as this pic. 

* My winter socks are in another area with those sweaters for cooler weather.

MIDWEEK MUSINGS: REMEMBER FAMILY?

 MIDWEEK MUSINGS this week reflect the Costa Rican family life. As I have mentioned my Costa Rican host family are two women, a mother about my age,  and her daughter,  Marcela. I should add they are both strong and independent.

Terri, the mother of the household, is a retired dietician with a pension and her daughter works for the company that brought me to this volunteer position, Maximo Nivel.

Every day the two women shop and cook for not only their 2 foreign guests but also make breakfast and lunch for Terri's brothers who live across the street. A couple of houses down is one of Terri's sisters. Her 20 yo niece took a bus 6 kilometers to hike with her aunt. She brought with her her 12-year-old cousin since kids are on vacation. 

I can't even imagine this labor of daily familial responsibility. We as a nation tend to move where our jobs take us regardless of where our nuclear families reside. (Of course, later in life we tend to move our parents geographically  closer.)

Did your parents live close to their siblings? I know my Grandmother did.   Never ever heard of my grandfather's side of the family...

tUESDAY tUNES: MARIA, MARIA

This week's tUESDAY tUNES selection comes from Costa Rica with a tico orchestra La Solución playing . Old school never gets old.

Take a listen:   María, María

How can you sit stil with cumbia classic. Cumbia, anyone?

This afternoon will be a free salsa class. Can't wait!

MONDAY MUSINGS: LIVING LA PURA VIDA

 MONDAY MUSINGS : I am so fortunate to be living la Pura Vida in person for a month in Costa Rica. Pura Vida's direct translation the pure life/simple life, does not really do it justice as it is all encompassing and probably is why it has been on my radar for about 20 years.

You see the Master Gardeners have taken 3 trips here over those years and I never could go due to that responsiblity called a job. But there was nothing stopping me now. And as one of my past students from the senior program, LifeQuest, admonished me for not having taught the term Pura Vida after she had attended my Spanish for Travelers class before vacationing in Costa Rica.  Well, touche as I had no clue of its importance until experiencing it personally on my first day here. 

Not only did I see it in marketing inn the airport but as I sat in the taxi heading for the bus station, I heard the taxi driver's phone conversation with the director of the program as she scolded  him that other students had arrived at the airport already and he needed to be there 20 minutes ago. He chuckled, and said we weren't even close to the bus staion yet and he would head back as soon as possible. Ending his convo with a pura vida. 

The term is a reflection of  Ticos (Costa Ricans) who tend to be more relaxed and worry-free. Who should worry when you live in Paradise? So it is a greeting and a goodbye, an answer to the question, "how are you?"  and even an expression. How special to enjoy life regardless of one's circumstances. A simple appreciation of life. 

Costa Rica is often listed among the happiest places to live and also is also known among all countries for its long life expectancy. 

My hosts, a mother younger than I and her daughter, my daughter's age , couldn't be more hospitable, a true representation of  Costa Rica's people.

I am really appreciative to be in this atmosphere and wish all of us could work on incorporating la Pura Vida, ¿no?

          On our 4 hour bus stop in the women's room, no less!

   PURA VIDA is something that we all can learn from incorporating        into our lives.

FOTO FRIDAY:SERIOUSLY!

 

FOTO FRIDAY: Shockeroo in January! Looked what popped up this week.  I know I live in the South.

Crazy, right?

TBT: 5 YEARS AGO TODAY

 TBT:January 15, 2021 Natureman has been on my mind a lot as the fifth year anniversary of his passing is in less than 2 months.

 In spite of his chemo treatments, here he was 5 years ago, where he loved best- out in the elements, snowshoeing no less, even when the week before he didn't want to get out of bed. The fresh cold air would cleanse him. And he did sleep really well after all that fresh air.

Natureman loved the outdoors. And I know he will be with me in spirit as I go birdwatching, hiking to waterfalls and swimming in remote areas in Costa Rica this next month.  He would have gone with me and enjoyed the ecotourism but be all the happier to be back in his own element as part of the End of the Rainbow Valley as we lived in our own paradise nestled in a valley...