unglamorously, i am currently sporting a rollerskate-shaped bruise on my bum, and two nastily bruised knees. 

not because I am a poor  skater, it's all the beginners getting in my way, kicking me over and otherwise frustrating my pretensions to skating prowess...

though I must confess, I have found it IS true skating is NOT like riding a bike, and it DOES require some relearning before mastering the skill once again...

Bela and Lily are instant champions.

of course.

we had a rink open up just down the road, halfway between palmares and san ramon

lily, and especially Bela are skate obsessed, so we go at least twice a week

wednesdays are free for women using 'traditional' skates!

and they are still playing the roller rink old favourite, another one bites the dust

bela has her own skates; lily is getting some made for her birthday, coming up soon!

 

cousin cali in the orange tshirt has been known to skate with us;

but neither elias nor wilson has been up to the challenge YET.

so the month of MAY 2010 must go down in my personal Xanga history as my least communicative in all these near 10 years of blogging on this Xanganation.

must not let June go the way of May

i probably should admit that as well as being very very busy I have been somewhat slightly mildly depressed. probably mostly about having sold our family home. home. and living far away. and all that.

so i have been rather withdrawn and rather grumpy. luckily the people I live with love me enough to have mostly put up with me. 

i have been fully engaged with work, with scrabble and with my lovely joy-giving children... but nothing much in the way of energy over to write anything.

so it's time to pick up normality again.

i do have lots of great photos to share, so it's time to start doing it.

starting with some pictures of Elias, who today won a MANGA competition in his highschool.

here is a self portrait he did a few months ago

  

and here with my new computer - a few months old now, but never introduced on xanga, i think
 

 

today it finally rained. rained long and hard.

we did not much. i am carrying a long exhaustion from a fast and busy week so mostly have veged about today, in happy vegetable fashion.
I have a sore back for no very explicable reason.  tiredness. 

we went briefly to the 'feria del mueble' in the Palmares showgrounds - the furniture market. Palmares is famous for it furniture makers - there are over 100 workshops, some very small, some participating (in a small way) in the international market.

*

 and since i'm in a couch potato mood, what a better way to tour but photographically, with another look at Zarcero where we might typically go, if we had just a slight bit more enegery and slight bit less rain, for a gentle daytrip, for lunch, and to bring home with some flowers and cheese

*

Zarcero is famous for it's loopy sculpted hedges ( - said by locals to have inspired Edward Scissorhands - ) and its church, to my mind, one of the prettiest small churches in Costa Rica, and the pride and joy of the locals who are continually lavishing all kinds of care and prettification on it.

they not so long ago did a huge job of painting the inside with murals on the ceilings and the wood carefully done to look like marble and gold

they are currently reworking the towers and it seems the roof.
  

i like the way the towers look like lighthouses. I like them with scaffolding, but alas, i think the plan is ultimately to remove that. =)

another reason we visit Zarcero often is the nice playspace it affords. our kids like to skate there, or we take a frisbee or an australian football . they are also prettifying the play area, as they regularly do, now with a new mural showing scenes from rural life.

 

something else the kids never miss is a visit to the ice-cream shop!

   

little Lily

 

SAN JOSE, April 16 (Reuters) - The Costa Rican Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a small Canadian mining company can proceed with its open-pit gold mine, striking down complaints from environmental groups that the project was destroying virgin forest.

The ruling reversed an October 2008 order from the high court to halt construction on the Crucitas mine near the border with Nicaragua and mine owner Infinito Gold Ltd (IG.V: Quote, Profile, Research) claimed the ruling as a victory.

Environmentalists had complained that the miner was breaking the law by cutting down trees in forests that are home to such wildlife as the endangered great green macaw and other precious birds.

"After reviewing the official studies we did not find that this mining project will negatively affect the environment. So the project will go ahead," Vanlly Cantillo, a court spokeswoman said.

Crucitas will be Costa Rica's first major gold mine with a capacity to produce 85,000 ounces of gold annually. An investment of up to $66 million is required to start the mine with an indicated resource of 1.2 million ounces of gold, according to the company's website.

Infinito Gold's President John Morgan lauded the court's decision and said the company was committed to moving forward with the project.

"Now we must show Costa Rica that Crucitas will be a model of sustainable mining," Morgan said in a statement.

With approximately half of its surface cloaked in lush forest, Costa Rica is a world famous eco-travel paradise.

President Oscar Arias reversed a moratorium on open pit mining after taking office and declared the Crucitas project of "national interest," angering environmentalists.

His government said in a statement on Friday it would stand by the court's decision to allow the mine to reopen.

Laura Chinchilla, the country's president-elect who will take office in May, is a protege of Arias and is expected to follow closely the policies of his government. (Reporting by Alex Leff; Editing by Richard Chang)

~ An alphabetical oddessy ~

from a recent visit to the pretty highlands town of Zarcero, famous for it's dairy products, it's pretty church and interestingly sculpted hedges.

This is an idea I saw on someone's site, and shamelessly stole.
In about an hour of strolling about the central Zarcero, Lily and I pinned the town down alphabetically, as follows....

Z : "Zarcero" taxi

Y: "Yerbalax!"  -at the natural medicine store

X: X graffiti - on a wall of the hall opposite to the park

W: "Wheel Wright Liquor Store"

 

V: "Vera Patricia; the Tica with Flavour!"

 

U: "Otilio Ulate Blanco School" (whoops! not quite a U)

"T": Too many good photos

"cloth"

"Store and Shoe Store"

"taller" = workshop "radio TV and Microwave Workshop"
all the junk out the front with a sign : "for sale!"

 

S: "Se Vende" = for sale!

S: soda = "Cafe la Barra!"

R: "Ruiz" part of  the name of the region, Alfaro Ruiz

Q: "Quik Silver"

QUESO = Cheese for sale! the region is famous for dairy goods.

P: "Pasamaneria Zig Zag" - Zig Zag Handicrafts

O: OJO! - look! garage!

N: No dogs permitted!
Menonite Natilla - (sour cream)!

M: "MONDONGO!" - tripe soup! yuk!!!!

MUNDO DE MASCOTAS - pet world!

L: "LIQUIDATION!"

LAND ROVER

  K: Emergency Kit for the traffic laws
20000 colones - about $40



J:  JUGETES - TOYS




I: Imperial Beer - Costa Rica's finest!




H: HORARIO; opening hours: Monday to Friday





G: GRAN DESFILE DE BUEYES  -
Great Ox Parade



F: FERIA DE AGRICULTORES
Farmers' Market

E: ELECTRO OFERTAS!

"ENTER ON YOUR KNEES"
(this was for when the "Negrita"  - Catholic miracle object - was on tour to the local church)








D:  DISFRUTALO - "Enjoy" 

C: Comittee for Youth, Alfaro Ruiz

B: BIMBO - a popular brand of bread!

A: ABIERTO - Open! (Ring the bell)

last friday little Elias, once little Elias, turned 15.

and little Bela, middling little Bela, turned 13.

here they are, all my children, on Elias and Bela's birthday, with their cousin Carli, our honorary extra child

 
Carli - almost 18!, Bela - 13!, Elias - 15! and Lily

it will be two months before little Lily, still littlest Lily, once and forever littlest Lily turns 11.
she is still just 10.

Bela and Lily went skating afterwards in the newly opened skating rink. they skated so long and so well they could barely walk afterwards

elias was loathe to get excited over the birthday cake. he must be too big and mature for those things now.

bela has a haircut the next day

...and Elias, having some time ago passed the stately height of his mother, is now nearly as tall as his dad...

bela

     

Lily
  

Wilson

  

    

 

this is a quiet easter for us. restful and peaceful and some quality family time at last. I have even been cooking and cleaning and organising stuff about the house. and not even minding!

wilson in typical Wilson pose; in hammock, on phone, dog at his feet