Home, sweet, home

The month of May was eventful with things taken for granted suddenly changing. But the biggest change was that we decided to buy the house we are living in! Once the house changes ownership we will change the name. Casa Loveless is just.... no, not a name for our house. The house is less than 200 m from the beach, we can hear the waves. The lot is big with fruit trees and a huge pool. There is a lot of work to be done. We started with having the leaking roof fixed!

View from the balcony

Once the rainy season started as early as April there have been more clouds in the sky. And that makes sunsets more interesting and beautiful.

Coco sunset from our mirador.

The sunsets are never the same. And they never get boring.

A different sunset

And another one!

La luna

 Our house is at the end of a gravel road.

View from the balcony to our gravel road.

The beginning of the gravel road.

A Tico house on our road.

 This is down town Playas del Coco a.ka. PDC.

View to the east.

View to the west.

 That's about it. It really does not get much more interesting down the road. A couple of grocery stores, banks, souvenir shops. The puddles are the same.

First of May I surprised the boys by making traditional Finnish 1st of May funnel cakes. They loved it, though they more more on the soft side rather than crunchy. It was the first time I made them. Thank goodness May 1st is only once a year!

Funnel cake, tippaleipä in Finnish.

 Jaakko wanted to take part at the talent show at school. He played in front of an audience of about 300.

Jaakko playing Spanish Guitar.

 The boys have played in a couple of golf tournaments, one in San Joe, the other one in Jaco. Great experiences.

Risto on the green in San Jose.

I play golf every now and then. But I have a different approach to the game.

Body-centered cubic lattice.

Face-centered cubic lattice.

Hexagonal close packed lattice.

We are finally living in a neighborhood with children!! The girl from next door loves to play war games with the boys.

Hands up!!!

 A year ago the boys decided not to eat candy for a year (and earn some money). And they did it!!! Grandma sent some Finnish candy to celebrate this achievement.

Sweet boys!

DH's friend came over for a week and we spent one morning fishing and snorkeling. We saw a sea turtle, dolphins and sail fish, too.

Mr. T with his catch of the day.

One fish.

Two fish.

Dolphins swimming next to our boat.

 Wildlife continues to amaze me. This butterfly was hanging on the balcony ceiling for a couple of days. I thought it was just a dead leaf until I looked closer. I'm glad I took some photos, because the following morning I found pieces of the wings on the floor.

Dead leaf butterfly.

Risto found this Harlequin beetle hanging on the awning. The body was about 7.5 cm and the front legs and antennae a lot longer. A beautiful creature!

Harlequin beetle.

 There are a lot of different types of doves/pigeons around our house. The inca doves hang around the pole the masked tityras use for their nest. A white-winged dove built her nest in a palm tree next to the pool, but the kiskadees were giving her a hard time and she abandoned her nest. A red-billed pigeon made her very well air-conditioned nest in the tree next to the balcony, perfect location for observation and shooting with a camera. Her baby hatched.

Inca doves.

Masked tityra

White-winged dove at her nest.

Red-billed pigeon

Her building skills are not worth mentioning.

The baby hatched!

This is either a Tropical Kingbird or a Western Kingbird. I am guessing the former.

 My friend's horse had a baby. He was named Mañana Jake since it took forever for him to be born. The Prince of Hearts would have been an appropriate name, too. His mother has a similar heart-shaped patch in the same place.

Mañana Jake.

 I know we should have the car washed more often.

Our green car.

I got a sewing machine for my birthday and it feels like I can finally breathe. I made this bag. Love the fabrics, not the combo that much. And the design is not good; I still have to look for things inside it.

Hippy bag.

 I made this basket out of coffee bags. Useless, too, as a hand bag.

Coffee bag bag.

 I made Jaakko a bag for his Nintendo DS. I used this pattern I found. Once again I ignored the old rule about "measure twice, cut once" and ended up with two black trapezoids instead of rectangles. I had to fiddle with the pieces a bit, but did manage to sew them together in the end. Unfortunately the only type of interfacing I could get my hands on was very thin and the bag ended up being a bit floppy. And the pattern had pockets for 36 games. I doubt Jaakko will ever have so many, but I did all the pockets anyway. Appliqueing the name was a pain. It was so small with tight corners. But the most important thing is that Jaakko loves it and now his games, DS and charger are all in one place.

The bag closed

The bag opened with the 24 pockets for the games.

The name.

 Jaakko also joined the world of writers. He can now write in Finnish, English and Spanish. I made him write this.

How to Behave in a Family.

How to Behave in a Family: no shouting, no loosing your temper, no kicking. 1. I was at the compter. 2. I did not obey. 3. I shouted. 4. I kicked at my father.

I hope he learned a lesson. At least in writing!