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On this cloudy morning I walk up the hill above my house and back at less than an hour with these colorful photos even without sunshine. Nature is everywhere and my favorite way to celebrate “May Day” or May 1.
May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel most alive.
I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.
~Henry David Thoreau
¡Pura Vida!
Okay, yesterday I compared waterfalls so today as I finished my last gallery in the Pre-Costa Rica TENNESSEE Photos gallery, I must do the same with wildflowers. The last gallery for the state of Tennessee is simply Tennessee WILDFLOWERS and again I tried to pick just one photo from each of about 150 species of wildflowers for this gallery with more variety or multiple images in the location galleries where they first appear. The wildflowers were another of the many elements of nature that I enjoyed during my 37 years in Tennessee with an amazing variety!
And the featured photo at top is on a huge Magnolia tree in the same park near my house. The beauty of nature is everywhere!
-o-
Similarly I have enjoyed the beautiful tropical wildflowers (most of my garden is wildflowers). See my Costa Rica through regional flower galleries in my big gallery of flowers I call FLORA & FOREST Costa Rica. Click and enjoy! I’ve only been here 5 and a half years, but spend most of my time with nature now! Just one of the many reasons I love being Retired in Costa Rica!
“Do you know why wildflowers are the most beautiful blossoms of all, my son?”
Dain shook his little head.
Soft waxen curls blew forward in the breeze as she lifted her storm-gray eyes to gaze out over the sea of petals. “Wildflowers are the loveliest of all because they grow in uncultivated soil, in those hard, rugged places where no one expects them to flourish. They are resilient in ways a garden bloom could never be. People are the same, son—the most exquisite souls are those who survive where others cannot. They root themselves, along with their companions, wherever they are, and they thrive.”
― The Maiden Ship
¡Pura vida!
Not Spanish, but the technical name for the new butterfly or skipper I discovered today in my garden with the book’s common name of “Evergreen Poan” as closest match in A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America.
Below are my photos from a walk in the garden this morning and here are some websites that tell you more about this particular species and they say it is only in Mexico, but I think it may be the same or a close cousin! 🙂 And the only ones I find with the “frosting” on the wings are this and a Zebulon which is not as good a match. Mine seems to have longer antennae than the ones on these sites, but otherwise almost the same: – Naturalista – iNaturlist – Wikipedia (Poanes in general) – enciclovida – Not much info out there with most of these sites using the same info and photos! Hmmmm. If you think you know the identification, please let me know!
Check out my Butterfly Gallery
¡Pura Vida!
Sidewalk graffiti? Gang tag? Logo? Coat of Arms? — Something else interesting, like the flowers that I see on my walks. You see so much when you walk! Why would I ever want a car again? 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
NOTICE: Authorities have stated that borders will remain closed until May 15, 2020. We will wait on the Decree that regulates this to determine what other measures are impacted by this new date.
Sorry tourists! You will have to wait until at least May 15 or longer if the border closing is extended more.
BUT COSTA RICA IS ON THE DOWNHILL SIDE OF ITS COVID19 CASES CURVE! All the efforts of social distancing, hand-washing and business and event closings has paid off in a big way! And no stupid Republicans here to demonstrate against health protections! 🙂 We work together here! Read on . . .
TICO TIMES ARTICLES:
Costa Rica adds fewest number of known COVID-19 cases in more than a month
Costa Rica extends coronavirus border restrictions until May 15
Migrants traveling to U.S., stranded in the Panamanian jungle, now face COVID-19
Rincón de la Vieja Volcano registers moderate eruption (One I visited last year. See article for video of eruption.)
All art is but imitation of nature.
And that Yigüirro is singing his heart out every day now “calling the rains in” which happens every April in anticipation of the May rains or the beginning of the rainy season, our winter here. That is why he is the national bird of Costa Rica.
See my FLORA & FOREST Gallery for more flowers or Birds Gallery or Butterfly Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
🙂
“The fog is a chest, a magical chest! What wonders are hidden in it, the only way to see them is to dive into the fog!”
―
Photo of foggy horizon from my house in Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica, April 2020.
¡Pura Vida!
A week ago I showed you how I looked like a cowboy bank robber in my bandanna which I’ve been wearing when out in the public for “necessities” like groceries, etc. Well, an enterprising local Tica seamstress, whom I’ve used for other purposes, is now making masks according to an online medically-approved pattern and a bunch of us in Roca Verde got some at only mil quinientos colones each or about $2.60 each in dollars. Washable and with a choice of several colors and fabric designs! 🙂 Those white medical masks are simply not available here.
Costa Ricans are a “can do” people and this local seamstress rose to the occasion! I hope it will help her little local business. And you may ask, “Why are you going to so much trouble when Costa Rica has only 500 cases of COVID19 and only 2 cases in Atenas?” Well, duh? It is because we as a country and a town are taking all the medically recommended precautions and have basically “shut down” everything that we are not ravaged by the pandemic like the U.S and we did it early. The government here is helping the businesses and tourism hurt by this and in another couple of months (hopefully) we just might be back to “normal” without thousands of people dead like in some other countries.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
~Benjamin Franklin
![20200411_102619[1]-A](https://www.charliedoggett.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200411_1026191-A.jpg)
¡Pura Vida!
Or almost no place better for birds than my home in the Roca Verde Neighborhood of Atenas, Costa Rica. My long-time intentions to do a photo book of birds photographed at home just got fulfilled!
Check out the free preview of this book of 80 photos of more than 40 species of birds found in my garden and neighborhood. Plus this book is bigger than my travel series books, a full 8 x 10 inches, making it acceptable as a “Coffee Table Book.” 🙂 The hardcover edition is printed on a higher quality of lustre photo paper, though the paperback edition is nice on standard paper. Enjoy! 🙂
https://www.blurb.com/b/10034408-roca-verde-birds
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
~John Muir
¡Pura Vida!
When you are forced to stay home I guess it is normal to change things in your house as well as to play on the computer! 🙂
For the 5 years I’ve been in this house I’ve always had my breakfast table at the left or NW corner of my terrace (best mountains vista) and the two rockers at the other end, nearer the driveway, SE corner. Since I’ve gone to sitting in the refinished rockers a little more now, I decided to move them to the left with a better view of the mountains beyond Atenas. Next I will ask my gardener to replace that old-looking plant in the frog pot. Of course I’m old-looking too, but don’t replace me just yet! 🙂
You will notice on the photos title I used “porch” which is what I grew up calling it in south Arkansas, while later, by my Tennessee days, I called it a “deck” and now here in Costa Rica it is called a “terrace” or la terraza en español, maybe because most floors are made of tile here? And I evolve with my surroundings! 🙂
Coming eyeball to eyeball with a hummingbird on my terrace is as exciting to me as any celebrity I’ve met . . .
¡Pura Vida!
One of the things that drives perfectionist Americans crazy about Costa Rica is the multitude of one-lane bridges all over the country even in the cities! Look no further than right outside the main gate to Roca Verde Housing Development! Our entrance gate is on Avenida 8, better known by the little bario (neighborhood) there as Calle Boquerón. Just outside our gate going towards central Atenas you cross the little rainy season stream that goes by the cow pasture in front of my house. And of course on a one-lane bridge! Don’t know why or who influenced it, but the city of Atenas is widening that little bridge.
The concrete tubing for water flow has already been extended and fill dirt and rocks added around it and as I photographed Monday they were pouring concrete for maybe a base to something or a wall? These two school kids out of school for Coronavirus will probably soon be joining the city construction team as they sit here and learn how easy it is to build a bridge over a concrete pipe. 🙂
“If Rome had been built in a day we would have used the same contractor.”
¡Pura Vida!