Chapter 68 - Start of the Rains

            The past couple of days the clouds have come in the afternoon and a strong shower fell.  It makes the air so sweet and that is great after the sugar cane burns.  I thought there would be rules against that kind of think in Costa Rica because of their clean and green policies, but out here in the country they don’t seem so particular. 

            I must cut back my fingernails. They are getting in the way of playing the keyboard and typing.  I need a good manicure right now.  I was out scratching in the dirt trying to get some handle on the peanut grass that tries to creep into the flower bed.  I do have some nice roses that I tend.  My Amaryllis Lilly out front bloomed.  The flowers are spent now.  It didn’t last as long as I thought it would.

            I walked next door to the neighbours’ a few days ago.  She has a nice veranda in the front of their house on the north side.  It is well covered but has direct airflow through from east to west.  She has a large display of growing things.  I salivated over two orchid plants.  They are available at a little town not far from here, so that will be my next investigation.  She had aloes and two stag horn ferns growing on stumps and hanging from the rafter.  There were two plants that are like the Florida bougainvilla.  They flourish around here and make shrubs ten to twelve feet high with broad waving wands of gorgeous flowers.  There were other pots that I can’t remember right now.

            John, the neighbour’s husband, is making dirt.  The soil here is volcanic and very course.  It is all right for trees and shrubs, but altogether too rough for tender plants.  In North America one can run to a greenery and buy moss and prepared soil in bags by the truckload, but that isn’t the case here.  I wonder if that could make a business for some of the poor people around here. I should look into it.

            The negative side of the rains is that it will bring about an influx of insects towards the house.  I murdered three large beetles which were writhing on their back on my back veranda.  I don’t have any hesitation to getting rid of that kind of pest.  After the experience we had last week with the ants, I keep a pretty sharp lookout for bugs.  We also purchased a can of bug spray.  As a freebee to the can, there was a small package which contained an electrical unit that heats a pad of the insecticide (like the glade aerosol fragrances).  Mel claimed that for her bedroom.  Perhaps it will discourage the spiders from sending her into a panic. (No, it won’t. I will still panic.—Mel)