Bird nest

Fell out of pine tree in the back yard, landed intact, right side up, on walkway.

It’s the middle of winter here, so no harm done!

At the end of the dog walk today

New beach steps

It’s been many months since I’ve been to the beach – surprised to see a whole new structure built to protect the dunes.

Quite elaborately done, in fact. The first ones they did were generally a disaster. They’ve learned.

You can find my past posts about the dune boardwalks here.

Major drain work

New culverts on the Playa Mansa now that tourist season is over. I only knew there was a problem from walking the dog on the beach there once in the past year.

Note the raging surf. Quite amazing to have no waves when the closest landfall looking this direction is over 3,000 kilometers away.

Window at the acupuncture clinic

The mind of the ceibo

As I said a few days ago, I have always thought trees have an innate sense of what, well, makes sense. I received this ceibo as a gift in a bucket, maybe half a meter tall. I let it dry out the first winter, and the main trunk died. What remains are three branches. I tied the dominant one vertical when I planted it out front. It was about half this height.

But obviously it has decided, “I am a branch. I do not grow up. I grow out.”

All righty, then: ¡adelante!

The mind of the palta (avocado) tree

I has always thought that trees have innate intelligence, but one of our two avocado trees is doing its best to prove me wrong. The last time it bore fruit heavily, it had so much weight on this branch that I had to put a board underneath so that it wouldn’t break. And now this.

A little skinny twig forks, one side becoming hugely thicker, then doing a 180 and growing upwards.

Really. Where did this tree go to school?

A day in the life of mushrooms

What a difference a day makes, when you’re a mushroom.

The mushroom advance

Nice try, but your fence isn’t going to stop the mushrooms’ advance on your house!

Palo borracho and yucca

The spiky plants (no idea what they’re called) in our front yard are blooming. The tree in the background is a palo boracho, which has thorns. All this in autumn.

[UPDATE: It’s a yucca. Thanks, Syd!]