Christmas Eve 2017 found us nearing completion of the gavione wall. This major project would hopefully protect and stabilize the front yard that slid down the hillside with Tropical Storm Nate, October 5. We’d waited until ‘summer’ dry season to begin – December 18. For the next week–between Christmas and New Years–my new and raw yard became the neighborhood center of activity. Now working from the top of the wall, every day all day was filled with workers and workers’ families. Billy, my Tico ‘like a son’ oversaw it all and the workers were all of my neighbors. My job was to keep water and soft drinks always available on the porch.

What a flurry of activity – wheelbarrows full of dirt being carried/pushed from my carport through the gate and into the yard. At least three additional men or boys shoveling with someone – usually Billy – operating the rented machine to compact the earth. Trucks were still delivering loads of rocks and soil. At one point I could not get out my back door because of the pile of dirt in the carport. Frida and Seurat did the best they could to adjust – creating a path from the back door out to the road. They seemed to take it all in stride. I kept wondering how my car port would ever be clean again. And would it ever be peaceful again.

Just before the final finish of soil, Billy brought in two new workers who created and built the reinforced concrete connections to tie the ends of the gavione wall to Frank’s house on one end and the outdoor studio on the other.

At last we had a finished gavione wall bordering a new and compacted yard of soil – waiting, like a blank canvas for the next phase. Plantings. But first – the leaning coconut palm tree had to be taken down. It’s precarious inclination and proximity to Frank’s house made it necessary. Billy and one of his workers did it all with a chain saw and rope. I could barely watch as it thundered onto the front yard soil. My neighbors below, who were my hired workforce harvested it – and there was picarillos de palmito for everyone!. Though I was sad to see it go, I understood that it was a sound decision.

It was hard to see how massive a project the gavione wall was except from below. Six stepped levels of six end to end gaviones, all tied together and filled with hand placed rocks. Each gavione measured 1m x 1m x 2m (approx. 3′ x 3′ x 6′) Each layer was slightly canted and stepped back into the earth behind it. Each level was covered in porous building cloth so that any trapped water could find its way out through the gaviones. We calculated that the entire wall of 38-gaviones weighed a total of about 152 tons. Finally, I felt that my yard was secure.

The planting part of the yard recreation was next, beginning with topsoil and grass sod. The creative fun and variety would then happen around the edges of the lawn.

The East Garden:  There was a generous amount of space just below the mango tree and heliconias at the eastern side of the lawn. Billy and I went to the local nursery and brought home a variety of favorite decorative plants. Here would be all the colorful leaves and flowers to arrange in vases year around. What variety! Star jasmine, Bird of paradise, various crotons and gingers and lilies backed with brilliant red leaved Ti plants and Reina de la Noche (Angel trumpets_I could anticipate that each morning sunrise would appear to set the brilliant red leaves afire in backlight. The edge was marked with stepping stones and a curved line of bright green false heather

Jimmy the Kiskadee in the West Garden

.West Garden: On the west side next to Casa Tranquila (Frank’s house) Billy leveled the cut coconut palm stump to provide a natural pillar for a bird bath. It felt like the perfect way to honor both the coconut tree and the birds who regularly visited the adjacent bird feeder The feeder, visible from both Frank’s house window and my own front porch provided hours of bird watching colorful interactions with Tanagers, Saltators, Orioles, Honeycreepers and the noisy and opinionated Greater Kiskadee I named Jimmy. Even the occasional Bananaquits entertained! We also added a new palm, the colorful Lipstick Palm, a long time favorite for its colorful banded trunks of brilliant scarlet and green.  And there, just inside the metal fence were three planted bougainvilleas that would one day startle us with their their brilliant magentas and reds.

Gavione Wall Edge  Along the inside edge of the gaviones, we planted several prominent vines hoping that they would eventually grow over the top of the gaviones to cascade over and down the visible front of the wall. The vines included blue trumpet vines and orange flame vines

I love the experiential aspect of this beautiful new yard. Each morning I can sit on the front porch as early as 4:30 – to watch the arrival of the sun. First the colors begin in the eastern sky. The pale gold or orange gently pushes aside the deep blue that morphs into a pale green blue before giving way to the warmer colors.

In the valley below, city lights and orange tinted streetlights gradually give way to early morning light. And there were my favorite low lying horizontal clouds that laid quietly along rivers and low areas. I called them ‘sleeping angel’ clouds and imagined that they softly guarded the hours of night time. Sometimes they almost appeared to rest near the cathedral in town. At around 5:30 the first sun rays will touch the far side of the valley on the Tinnamaste Ridge, and from there it was a slow sweep to light the trees and once again bring morning life to all the plants and creatures. Including me. The first birds come to the feeder at first light while often a flock of white fronted parrots fly excitedly overhead. So often one hears them before seeing them! The red leaved Ti plants suddenly flash backlighted red and the bright green tips of the tangled vines over the gaviones catch staccatos of sunlight. It is morning!

This Christmas Eve, 2018 I am remembering exactly ten years ago when I moved to this place I call Casa de Corazon. I remember exactly how it was that Christmas Eve in 2008 when my sons Mike, Tim and Jay and daughters in law Shelby and Alethea accompanied me to my new home – a very rustic Tico house in Southern Costa Rica. They rented rooms down at La Princesa because I wanted to spend the first night with my dogs, Livvie and ‘Seurat in my bare Tico house on my WalMart air mattress.

Tim and Mike brought me up to the house just after sunset. And suddenly I could not find the key to the front door All of the months of selling, packing, planning, choosing, discarding, leaving suddenly erupted in an emotional outburst of tears as I sat on my suitcase sobbing. I wondered aloud if this was a huge mistake. I well remember sons Tim and Mike gently acknowledging my words with a calm response. “Uh, Mom….now is probably not the time to think about this. How about you and the dogs spending tonight at La Princesa with us? It’ll all be better in the morning.”

And it was.

Casa de Corazon now after ten years of improvements and the new gavione wall and yard.

Special Note: We will celebrate the ten year anniversary in just a few days. And who better to celebrate with? Tim and Shelby will be arriving in the afternoon. I believe we will all be siting on the porch in three rocking chairs at sunset, looking out over the city below. We’ll watch the lights come on and share a toast to ten amazing years with a celebratory gin and tonic with a slice of mandarina made by Tim!