Category: Atenas

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White-stripped Longtail

Postscript: Back in 2015 I knew almost nothing about butterflies and incorrectly named this a “White-striped” (not stripped!) 🙂 But today I know that it is a Teleus Longtail. 🙂 But you can see the others in my White-striped Longtail Gallery.

Teleus Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica
Teleus Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica

And actually, I still have trouble identifying the many longtails, but know a lot more now than that firs year here in Costa Rica!  🙂  20 April 2025.

What’s a butterfly garden without butterflies?~Roy Rogers          🙂

See my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery.  Or the Teleus Longtail Gallery. 

¡Pura Vida!

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Banded Peacock Butterfly

Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

“and when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.” ― Ruskin Bond, Scenes from a Writer’s Life

See my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery.

 

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House Wren?

Well, actually it is a Rufous-naped Wren who happened to come inside my house!

Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Costa Rica
(On the back of the couch in my living room! Looking out the screen window.)
Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Costa Rica
Making himself at home on a drink coaster. This is what happens with doors left open.

Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.

~Psalm 104:12 ESV 

Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Costa Rica
Singing outside my window in the Strangler Fig Tree

See my CR Birds Galleries or specifically this bird with a new name: Rufous-backed Wren (my gallery link). Updated note made in 2025, 11 years later. 🙂

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Dione Juno Silverspot

Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Its top side looks much like a Julia, but underside (folded wings) different.
Sorry – not a good image, but only one made of top side.
Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

My garden is getting to be about as good as one of these butterfly houses or farms! It has been like a new species every few days! But the book says June and July are the two best months for butterflies in Costa Rica, so this show may start tapering off soon! I’m enjoying it while I can and don’t miss my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery!

The average butterfly life is between 5 and 14 days. And I think I don’t have enough time?

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
~Rabindranath Tagore

Enjoying the moments in Costa Rica!  -Charlie

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Colobura Dirce Serendipity

I reach for a paper towel in my kitchen and there is something alive on it!

Colobura Dirce butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
I read that they like Cecropia leaves and I have a new Cecropia Tree!
But not inside my house!
I don’t even have to go outside to
photograph butterflies!  🙂
But he startled me at first.
The only other place I’ve seen one of these was at a butterfly farm a few years ago. My Guarumo Tree is a type of Cecropia and that may be why he is at my house. This is what happens when your doors are open without screens during the day. The book says this butterfly does not eat the nectar of flowers like most but the above leaves and rotting fruit and for some reason likes to get on wet clothes drying on the clothes line. The top of his wings are dark brown with a yellow stripe. He hadn’t moved when I went to bed, but saw him by the sliding glass door the next morning and observed the top of his wings, but couldn’t get a photo.
ser·en·dip·i·ty
ˌserənˈdipədē/
noun
  1. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
    “a fortunate stroke of serendipity”
    synonyms: (happy) chance, (happy) accident, fluke

     

And all my butterflies at Costa Rica Butterflies  by Charlie Doggett photo gallery

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Costa Rica Fresh Fruit!

On Feria Day (Farmers’ Market Day) I process some of the fruit purchased . . .

. . . and then have a fruit plate for lunch!  🙂

I cut up half or more of the mango, pineapple and papaya into little squares and put in zip lock bags in the freezer to use in my fresh fruit frescos, refrescos de frutas, batidos, jugo de naturales or just smoothies for people from the states. And there are a lot of other names for drinks made from fresh fruit, plus a rice, cinnamon, and milk drink call horchata or an even better version with vanilla ice cream called leche muella. Fruit rules in Costa Rica!

Images, Descriptions & Uses of The Tropical Fruits of Costa Rica  NEAT PAGE!
Probably at least one fruit here you have never heard of! And sorry, but I have not tried all of them yet! And this list is not all of the fruits found here. 

When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.
~Vietnamese saying

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Life-giving Rain

At 1:30 I saw the clouds moving in over bright sunshine.

By 4:30 the sun is gone and rain is everywhere, from the mountains to the valleys. Cooler too!

After two weeks of a “mini dry season” it has been good this week to have rain again every afternoon and/or evening! Today it started at about 4:15 PM and is still raining at 8:00 PM which is good after the short dry period here in Atenas. The other extreme is the north of the country and the Caribbean coast has been inundated with rain and flooding, displacing many from their homes and closing several  roads. So Atenas is still living up to our “best climate” fame.

The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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2 Garden Additions Today

A stone-looking concrete bench (banca) by my garden door facing the garden.
I hide garden shoes under it, can sit and watch the butterflies (mariposas),
humming birds (colibríes), and toads (sapos). Sorry! Working on my vocabulario.
🙂

Also got a pot to match two others I have and planted a cluster of little palms
that will grow twice that high with nice looking palm fronds.

Night photos because I just thought to make them!  🙂  On cell phone of course!  You are welcome to come sit on my garden bench or balcony rocking chairs (sillas mecedora) any time!   Pura Vida!

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Sidewalk Flowers in Atenas

This Bougainvillea is in Roca Verde where I begin my walks. Most other photos are in Atenas Central.
Except for church yard, all flowers are in front yards of local homes, small and large. All homes have flowers!
And this is just a small sample of what I see every day!

Atenas, Costa Rica

Atenas, Costa Rica

Atenas, Costa Rica
Atenas, Costa Rica

Atenas, Costa Rica
Atenas, Costa Rica
Atenas, Costa Rica
Atenas, Costa Rica

Atenas, Costa Rica
Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out-values all the utilities of the world.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson