A City On A Hill | Matthew 5:14 You are light for the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden."

the other photos

Posted on 22 January 2012 :: 3 Comments

As promised, the other photos from the other day.

a prong off the barbed wire fencing. all the fences have them, and boy do they hurt!

branches in the sky! :)

the fence line for the cow pasture.

some natural prettiness.

…write me a poem…

the tops of the trees that are scarcely touched with leaves.

as ever,
-Ra’chel

Pearlie + a few other things

Posted on 19 January 2012 :: 20 Comments

Well, due to some badgering about some photos of Pearl the Goat [hehe!] I decided to go out to the field and take a few shots of her to satisfy my brother-in-law’s wanting to see some. So, Isaiah, I hope you enjoy these photos. :)

click on photos for larger view.

She was eating out in the cow pasture [a bigger photo of that a little farther down there!]

Then she wanted to go home… I found out later she wanted water.

But first, a detour down the roads a ways to eat some of the nommy nommy grass.

*munch munch*

*eat eat eat*

She loves to eat that grass!

“Hey… how ya doin’?”

Now that those are out of the way, I’ll show you some of the photos I took.

#1. the beautiful scenic view of the cow pasture. Awesome isn’t it? I was SO proud of myself for taking that photo!

#2. the view on the left hand side of the above photo, of the road.

#3. Some of the wild culantro we glean from the fields and by the pasture:

I hate the smell of the plant; makes me wanna puke! but it’s good for you so I eat it when sick people [i.e. Jocelyn and Mom. :D] put it in my food. Ew.

#4. I saw this thistle-like flower and thought it was pretty. We had a tone of thistle plants at home, but they hada purple flower. I can’t remember the name of it.

#5. The ‘shortcut’ that I call the path. I took another panorama view, only using two photos this time, of the little path:

It runs through the field on the side of the house. I like that path.

#6. The sun was in the western sky, and the road was half shadowed.

#7. The guanacaste [gwahn-ah-cahst-ay] tree is getting green again. It was like that when we first got to this house at the end of January last year too. I think it has some more buds on it right now than it had then; maybe it was late in growing its leaves last year.

Samo wanted to go out to the field with me, but I told him he couldn’t. Mainly because he was pantless. O.O So I promised him a photo when I came back.

Ain’t he sweet?! Can’t resist that grin!

*goober* :)

I have some more photos of different natural things, such as trees, which I will put up sometime later this week. :) Hope you all enjoyed the photos; I enjoyed getting outside with the camera again. Thanks for the motivation. :) Photography is awesome.

as ever,
-Ra’chel

a not-so-bizarre reoccurence

Posted on 17 January 2012 :: 3 Comments

It was always amazing to me when it would thunderstorm or rain hard in Indiana and then all of the sudden, the clouds would part and the sun would shine down through the opening. It seemed like it was all wrong: the sun shining while it was raining?! That sounded and looked ludicrous to me. It seemed like it was a different world than what I had known; it was really just strange to me!

click image for larger view

Here in Costa Rica, that anomaly I thought so bizarre, happens so often that it shouldn’t amaze me anymore. But it does. I am still amazed by the fact that the sun is shining when the rain is blowing in torrents down from the clouds that only cover half of the sky. The wind and the rain always amaze me here.

Psalm 135
5 For I know that YHVh is great,
That our Elohim is above all elohim.
6 Whatever YHVH pleased, that he has done,
In heaven and in eretz, in the seas and in all deeps;
7 Who causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the eretz;
Who makes lightnings with the rain;
Who brings forth the wind out of his treasuries;

I remember there were some storms in Indiana that I thought were really a scary thing. I remember them quite vividly, and astonishingly, they still seem so real and fantastic even now. I suppose it is because they made an impression on my mind; they are still engraved into my brain. Etched, so to speak.

But today was such another day where I am baffled by the natural happenings of the world around me: the sun was shining while the rain blew through the air. The front of the house, because it basically faces east, and that is the normal direction of the blowing rain and wind, was spray-painted by the rain:

click image for larger view

I thought it was cool. And the reason that the rain and winds mostly come from the east direction is because that is the direction that Lake Arenal is.

The chickens were still out in the backyard in spite of the rain and wind:

click image for larger view

They were out of the goat pen where Pearlie stood in shelter from the rain, crazies. Sol was also out with Midnight and another of the red hens… which I have dubbed Anne Shirley, because she is a red head. :P And I have named those three too in the photo:

Clementine, Pumpkin-Elle and Sienna.

Anyhow. Just thought you’d all like to know all of that. I know you did, don’t lie to me! :) I know you did… hehe!

as ever,
-Ra’chel

i’ve got a box of tea! i’ve got a box of tea!

Posted on 15 January 2012 :: 12 Comments

Hehehe! I couldn’t resist the temptation on the title… I was saying it like “I’ve got a jar of dirt! I’ve got a jar of dirt!” and had to put it as my title. That teasing, taunting, “look what I’ve got and you don’t!” line… Sorry, my fault!

Anyhoo, a blogger friend, Emily D. tweeted that she was drinking a cup of tea about a month or so ago, and I tweeted and asked her what kind it was. She said it red raspberry, and so the conversation went on until she said that she would pick me up some tea and send it to me. I was thinking like a box or two of tea…

nope…

she sent me six boxes!

Boy! I was sooo happy about that! All herbal teas! The teas here, especially the herbals, have a sort of taste that I can only describe as being a sort of ‘perfume’ taste. Know what I mean? :) I love herbal teas and she sent me some of my favourite kinds!

my favourite: lemon zinger!

red raspberry!

sweet dreams!

Tazo passion!

berry zinger!

cozy chamomile!

Mom was just asking a couple of days ago if we had any of the sweet dreams tea to make because she wasn’t feeling good and she wanted some nice hot, calming and reviving herbal tea. Now?! I have a whole box to make her! [doesn't help with that feeling a couple of days ago... but hey! it will next time!]

Samo wanted to help me unpack the tea and “Make tea!” That’s what he says whenever he wants a cup of tea. He talks so well; he says almost every syllable when he repeats something. He’s so awesome! He talks so good. :) I loves him!

He took all three of the boxes out of the box and was juggling them. He looked over at Mom who came in the room at that moment so he wasn’t looking at the camera.