I woke this morning in my new home in El Cajon Costa Rica to a nighttime sky at around 4:30 a.m., so I took images (through the master bedroom screen) every thirty to forty minutes while the landscape in front of me changed from la noche escura (the dark night) to pleno dia (broad daylight):

As you can see, at night it looks like the valley is small but as sunshine encroaches, it appears to expand, so much so that you finally realize that the far ridge is probably at least a good two miles away not as the crow flies but when you have to actually get there in a vehicle of some sort.

 

It’s a big valley!!

 

Which is why a two dimensional image can in no way do it justice, any more than a photo of the Grand Canyon can do that vista any kind of justice. Until you can step out onto my porch and take in the grandeur with your three dimensional eyes, you will have no real idea of the immensity or of the allure of this place. And Sarchi is just 15 minutes away.  I don’t know by which route, but that’s what the info in this casita says. I will ask Cat about that next time I see her.

 

After the sun was up some — but not yet at my place because there’s a  tall hill behind that blocks the rays here until 8:30 a.m. or so — I took images of my surroundings on two sides:

 Notice the oranges on the hill behind me!

And look what it delivered to my doorstep overnight… free and fresh!

This is the image out the side door from the kitchen…

This is the image from the left side of my casita from the front porch

Another image of same side, next to the casita

Image of the hill behind me

My landlady Cat helped me connect my phone and laptop to her wifi thingamabob, so that’s why I’m able to connect with y’all again via this website. Thank you, Cat!

 

Wanna see the inside of my casita after I moved in? This probably isn’t my “final draft” of how it will look, but it’s what I’ve done so far:

This is the image on the small entryway table

Kitchen

Bathroom

Shower curtain reminds me of my mother who — when I asked her (as part of a school assignment) what song reminds her of me (back when I was a teenager), said “_________________”! (Congrats! You guessed it! LOL!)

 

And, of course, I had to bring my two favorite bathroom signs from the U.S.:

Charli’s self help “escalator” to the top loft in her bedroom

 

Charli’s “bomb shelter” when people come to visit or she just feels like vegging.

She sleeps under the covers with me at night on my bed in the master bedroom.

 

Close up of part of the kitchen counter

Kitchen table with my shopping list in English and Spanish

Livingroom chair with De’s Star Trek VI cap on it

My workspace, light on..

Notice the tiny “pato”/duck Madison gave me on the base of the lamp!

My work space, light off

On left is an image of Robert F Kennedy Senior and his wife Ethel Skakel Kennedy

I loved this Bobby Kennedy sooooo much!

(No comment on his namesake — doing so would defile the entire post!)

Charli’s room (not the final draft)

The master bedroom with Charli’s big cat tree…

Charli is the sound asleep lump under the comforter in this image!

I haven’t been here in this casita long enough to offer more  insights about it or this location, but I do know I’m in the right place for at least a year.  Probably more!  I will share more as I learn more.

 

And now… about my very few ancestral furnishings

 

In the images below you’ll see a crocheted doily which my grandmother on my mother’s side created. It’s well over 100 years old.  I brought it along in homage to the fact that 1.) I loved her dearly, and 2.) she came from Germany as a child of about ten  years old without knowing a single soul over here other than her parents and without knowing a single word of English. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like for her. It may not even have been her choice to leave Germany!

 

During my recent transition from the US to Costa Rica, I wanted ancestors “along” on my journey to help guide and encourage me, so I brought her handiwork along to pave the way spiritually and to remind me that others have taken similar journeys without even the benefit of choice and without knowing a shred of the language of the country to which they would be moving.

 

In that respect, I have two advantages that my grandmother didn’t: I chose Costa Rica as my final home and I speak enough Spanish to flail amiably enough to be understood.  I also have two translation apps on my smartphone that I can use when I absolutely need to, but I’m determined not to use them routinely.)

 

So, the above image shows the crocheted doily. It’s under my latop as I type this, but I’m going to move it so it doesn’t get hot or dirty. I may decide to pass it along to a niece or nephew someday. It should stay in the family.

 

In the image below is a porcelain lamb. I bought this lamb for my dear (since departed) mother. She told me it’s the first permanent gift I gave her as a child. (Before then I gave her beautiful dandelions and other backyard,  backwoods and swampland “flowers”. I can only imagine what those other flowers were! Hopefully cattails and pussywillows and not skunk cabbage!)

 

Mom kept it her entire life so every time I saw it, it was HER in some elemental way.  When she received a terminal brain cancer  diagnosis, she gave it back to me.  I cherish it.  It has had more broken legs than it has had legs to break, but Mom and I just keep gluing it back together because  it has always been our connection to each other — through thick and thin, through life and death…

 

My third ancestral touchpoint is the neck pillow in the image below, which my mother and DeForest Kelley slept on during their final days and weeks of life. I bought and brought it to mom when she was dying, and later to De. They both said it eased their neck discomfort enormously.

 

I sleep on it often. It’s always on my bed. It’s forever in my heart for the comfort it delivered to two of earth’s dearest human beings when they needed comfort most.

On another note

 

Laurie Barron sent me a message saying that one of the Villas Escondidas residents just missed wishing me well… and then she attached this image.  WAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!  Well, I hope to see one with my own eyes up here before too much longer.  I sure hope they live at this higher elevation!

 

 

It got down to 68 degrees here last night in El Cajon.  That’s about as low as it can go here, and I LOVED it!  I was able to sleep with the master bedroon window wide open even with a soft sheet and cushy bedspread over me.  I slept like a baby. Night time temperatures here are just perfect for me.  But it’s winter here.  (CR has only two seasons — summer and winter. The diffference in temperature here at this altitude between the two seasons is negligible, I think and hope.)

 

It gets humid here in the afternoon. Or, to be more precise, it’s humid here all the time, but the condition makes the environment feel muggy as the temperature rises. I got kinda “glowy” (semi-sweaty) yesterday afternoon for a period of time, but it didn’t last very long.

 

That’s it for now. I want to go for a walk and get the lay of the land.  Then I want to do some online grocery shopping because I have an extensive list and today and tomorrow are not good shopping days.

 

More later!