Seasons Shifted; What I Noticed - Feb 27, 2023

MaryBea Gallagher

28 Feb 2023 • 12 min read

Seasons - Rainy to Dry, Rainbows to Windy: Over the past three months, the season shifted from rainy to summer. You might remember me announcing that the rainbow season had begun in December, and we had an intense double rainbow yesterday, in fact. The photos start to get a sameness about them, but the effect on my psyche hasn't waned over the past 2 months - every rainbow has me running outside to oooooh and ahhhhh, and I watch it fascinated as it waxes and wanes until it finally disappears. Summer, as in Seattle, doesn't mean it doesn't rain, it just rains for less time, and here, it mists more (hence the rainbows). Starting in late January, Windy Season also set in. Last week there was a lot of seismic activity that kicked up wind storms that reminded me of hurricane season in September/October, and we were out of power for most of one day. Because we are in a valley between mountains, once the winds start bouncing around in the valley, they just keep bouncing, so you never know what direction they will come from next - not like a weather report that will tell you that the winds will be coming from the northwest at 30 miles per hour. These gusts make me feel like we are in a pinball machine, and the next blast could be coming from any direction and at any speed.

The Summer/Dry season lasts until around May, then we move to the rainy season again, which rolls until December-ish. We are told to expect wind storms to cause frequent power outages between late January and mid-April, and when hurricanes move past during hurricane season from late May to late October. Expect an uptick in generator sales. Most people do not own generators, partly because the investment is too high - $250 for a generator that will last only a few hours. Here in the mountains, where there is no need for heat or air conditioning, the average electrical bill is $30 per month, and many families cannot afford that - so buying an emergency backup generator is not a priority. A good generator is likely to cost $750 - one that would outlast the 6-12 hour outages that we had during our bad week and during the hurricanes, and that logic just doesn't make sense to most households here. Buy some candles. Remember that cooking is already on gas stoves, though if you rely on a refrigerator, it better be packed enough for all the cold goods to keep each other chilly! The good news is that we can get through the dark periods with Kindles and power packs that are charged up in advance, and we have emergency lights and flashlights that will last for eight hours or more. The internet might be out, but having twenty books downloaded onto the Kindle is reassuring: I will not be bored.

Equipment required for power outages: Kindle. Flashlight. Power light. Device backup charger. Water close at hand. Small lamp to tell you when the power returns. Check!

When I lived in Hawai'i for three years, I always looked for seasonal signs. Other than the three days of heavy rains sometime in January and mango season in June, the signs were subtle. That is true here, also.

In the summer, from January to May, if it is going to rain, it is likely to rain in the later afternoon, like 4:00/16:00. It might mist earlier, but if it is going to rain enough to keep you from needing to water the lawn, it will be around 4:00. Summer showers are usually limited to 30 minutes, then they fall out to mist and finish with a rainbow as a reward for your patience. You might have some heavy winds to make it a miserable 30 minutes, but it is not a long bout in the summer. During the rainy season, it will rain in the afternoon, but it could happen any time after noon and last anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours.

Coffee is harvested here in January. We went on a fortuitous coffee plantation tour and learned a lot, and watched coffee being harvested and processed in real time because it was January!

Fruits and Veggies: I don't know!

This time of year, our mangos come from Costa Rica - why they cannot ripen 30 miles south of the border, I am not sure, but we eat Costa Rican mangos right now. Other than the fact that it is not mango season in Panama, I haven't identified a fruit season cycle yet. Oranges and limes are ripening on the trees in the yards around us, and bananas are on the trees in the yards. I need to keep watching to see the cycles better, so more later on the fruits and veggies.

Flowers:

Some of the flowers seem to blossom, pull back, and then blossom again - with a three- or four-month cycle. Not all of them simultaneously, not like there is a season for bougainvillea, but more like the plant itself needs to re-group to go full force into the leaf/blossom cycle again. I was very worried about a couple of my planters, that I had done them wrong, but they just needed to shed everything, re-group, and now they are all out there leafy and blooming again. I think it has to do with variety, as some are going through this cycle, and some are not. It might be a difference between extroverted flowers, and introverted flowers who have to do customer service jobs.

Two trees in bloom across the street. The orange trees seem to be in perpetual bloom, and they are all over the place, but the whitish/lavender tree seems to be seasonal and has an orchid kind of blossom similar to the purple tree in our yard (which is still in bloom since we moved in October).

I have been looking for flowers that bloom now, but didn't bloom during the winter/rainy season - but I cannot tell which are blooming because they are getting attention, and which are blooming because it is summer.

Lilies: We have some burgundy lilies that popped up in the past few weeks, but I suspect that is due to me fertilizing and standardizing the care, and I am not so sure about the season. The color is fascinating, and we shall see as the year progresses if they are akin to the yellow lilies that bloom whenever the mood strikes, or if they are summer flowers that don't like the rainy season.

Geraniums: We do have a few geraniums that have blossomed - and they seem to be a summer season plant - I should be able to confirm this in July!.

See that little fungussy stick with a couple of branches? Those branches were bare until January, and then they started with a few little leaf buds sticking out. Now that we are watering consistently, the poinsettia is identifiable and getting a bit bold! We are thinking of transplanting it along the cyclone fence where it can do its 7-foot thing and still get watered twice a week - this planter for lilies is not going to make it happy in the long run. I never would have guessed that a fungus-laden stick would turn into a poinsettia...

Poinsettias: A couple of sticks in the dirt have turned out to be poinsettias that are growing now that they are getting sun and water regularly, plus some fertilizer they don't have to share with the weeds. Those little tabletop versions we buy at Christmas are quite difficult to find around here! I didn't realize that poinsettias are quite leggy when they are at home in the tropics.

Roadside poinsettias grow to 7 feet high, and people make fences out of them. They are quite leggy when they are at home in the tropics! This is half a block down the street, and I think our planter poinsettia, plus Miguel's tabletop Christmas plant could start a fence beautification project.

**Moss Rose:** One of our dramatic hanging plants is this Moss Rose, which has these hot pink flowers that only bloom for a single day - but there are new blooms every day. So intense!

**Orchids in Parking Lots!** While waiting in line for the cash machine, I found these orchids tucked behind some plants in the bank parking lot! It must be February in Panama!

Coleus with Leaves like Flowers:

Around three sides of the house, we have different kinds of coleus plants. In Seattle, I raised coleus as houseplants, and they never got more than ten inches high. Here they get three feet high, the wind knocked them over, and the fallen pieces root themselves and start new plants. All we have to do is water them and pick off the blossoms before they get too big. If the plant goes too far into bloom, the whole plant invests itself in reproduction, and the original plant withers and dies.

And yet another. We have 6 or 7 varieties around the house!

Birds:

Some of the migratory birds have left for the north already - they were only around for a few months.

The Baltimore Oriole is the most noticeable departure, apparently needing to get to Arizona for the pre-season before the trip east for the opening game. The Baltimore Oriole is called "Primavera" in Panama because it comes for Spring here, and not really for the summer.

The Baltimore Oriole returned for Spring Training, only staying in Panama through mid-February.

Rose Throated Becard: An exciting find in our yard is the Rose Throated Becard, which is not in my listings of Birds of Panama or even in the Flikr photos of birds photographed in Panama. I looked at a map on the Cornell birding app, and there are very few sightings as far south as Panama. A small troop breakfasted in our yard from late November through mid-February, though the sightings are getting fewer - I think they are heading north back toward Mexico.

This Rose Throated Becard (male) stood still for a photo in our yard. Waiting for a place at the banana feeder. Nice mask, yes?

Hummingbirds: There are many more hummingbirds around lately - I don't know if they are trusting that there will be food, maybe there are more flowers in bloom, or perhaps this is hummingbird season. There are two feeders on opposite sides of the house, and they are going through twice as much sugar water in 4 days as they were a month ago. When I took newly filled feeders out yesterday, three birds were trying to drink as I carried the feeder to the hanger! Right now, the Rufus (red-tailed) hummingbirds are my biggest clients, sometimes in groups of seven or eight, but we are still getting the emerald and shimmery blue. I also see a few tiny black hummingbirds with a white ring around their necks - fierce but small, and I haven't been able to photograph or identify them yet. ‌
‌The owner says there used to be "thousands" of hummingbirds in the yard, and when we moved in there were only a couple, so perhaps it is just the consistent availability of food and flowers.

The backyard hummingbird feeder - but they skedaddle when they see me with my phone!

Bugs:

This green cricket came as a friend of Miguel's, hung around the kitchen for several weeks, and enjoyed watching him do dishes. Quite the cutie!

This blue bug is almost 4 inches long! I didn't have a good way to show her size, but she was kind enough to just sit still so I could take her photo for you.

This colorful bug was headed into the kitchen when I spied him. And he froze in place. I watched, He watched. I stepped back. He watched. I went to get my phone for a photo, raced back, and he was still frozen in the same place (I would have turned coat and run!). Apparently, a runway trained but, he held this his position until the photo was taken, froze a while longer, then crawled onto a paper I put in front of him, and I moved him out to a low-traffic section of the lawn. Nice tats!

This three-inch brown cricket came to the back door one day and just sat there for the longest time - like 36 hours. Miguel felt like he was playing "where's Waldo", trying to blend into the woodwork. When he tired of hanging on the door, he crawled into my shoe and fell asleep - but I went to put on my shoe and found him out - and off he hopped into the back yard, not yet to return.

Bees:

Apparently, January is bee hive building month - which makes sense, as it is flower festival month. All three of our Julieta balconies hosted new bee hive builds. Ameth came in the dark when the hives were quiet, cut the hives down, and took them to another part of the property where there were trees and fruit - each to a different area, and released the hives. I doubt the bees kept the same hives, as they were detached, but Ameth said that they re-build nearby. We do have a hive in one of the trees along the driveway - they don't bother us, just buzz around the yard. It was an honor to have all three balconies chosen as hive sites, but not a pleasure to have bees in the house 24/7.

We have lots of little lizard friends around - this one camped out in the shower for a couple weeks, hiding under the stool upon which we put the shampoo and accoutremount while we showered. She's not a bug, but cute as a bug, and smaller than the cricket friends!

So, can I tell you much about the seasons yet? No; I have much to learn. Summer has mists, rainbows; lots of winds from lots of directions. Flowers like love. Bees like January and February. Coffee is harvested in January. I don't know much in the way of the subtle specifics of tropical seasons yet. But, we have Summer until late April, then we have an Autumn-like transition to the Rainy Season which officially runs concurrently with the Caribbean hurricane season from June to November when we have a Spring-like transition of a couple months to Summer again. It may take me a few cycles to get up to speed with the subtlety!

Until next time!

MaryBea y Miguel

from Panamanian Paradise

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