charliedoggett.net
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| From my kitchen looking across the DR/LR and terrace at another rain. Our rainiest rainy season in years has everything growing. |
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| Step out my back door and the flower garden is 6-7 feet tall! |
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| And the screen of little palms outside my office/guest room is growing too! |
Usually by December the “Dry Season” or our summer has begun, but it is raining again today and forecasts are for more. Its a good thing that I love the jungle! 🙂
Not the expensive one, just a simple Canon 100mm zoom, 1:28, Image Stabilizer (for hand-held) and auto focus. Here’s a few flowers with it and MY VERY FIRST HIBISCUS in my garden! I only recently got the plant which is slow-growing, but here’s the first bloom!
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| Hibiscus My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Once de Abril (haven’t found an English name yet) My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Heliconia My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Plumbago My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Red Ginger My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Porter Weed My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
I think I did okay on close-ups of flowers before with a telephoto lens from a distance, but this is suppose to be better! It has the capability of a 1:1 ratio if I get close enough. Insects will be more difficult because they scare off, so I’ll probably continue with my 300 mm for them. Though, note the little tiny ant on the Porter Weed above. 🙂 And it is so nice having flowers blooming year around!
My Flora & Forests photo gallery
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| Gartered Trogon in the Cecropia Tree beside my terrace during Spanish Class Tuesday morning at my house. Quick cell phone shot & he flew away. I’ve traveled many miles to get a photo of this guy and he finally comes to me when I’m without good camera. 🙂 |
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| African Tulip Tree Also called Flame of the Forest and Fountain Tree At a neighbor’s house on the hill above me. Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow Bell Tree I have many of these around my house & just starting to bloom. Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
My photo gallery FLORA & FORESTS
We have a neighborhood chef now who prepares very good dinners to be picked up at his house Monday to Friday and today he prepared a traditional turkey & dressing dinner which I enjoyed with my neighbor Anthony along with a cranberry salad and pumpkin pie Anthony had prepared. I’m stuffed and ready to take a nap!
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| Our Thanksgiving turkey dinners came in decorated bags, here on plates at Anthony’s house ready for us to eat. |
And at my Spanish Class this morning we joined with another class for coffee and homemade goodies, language games, and each of us presented what we are thankful for, en español of course! Here is my paragraph as presented this morning:
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| Copied from La Nacion – Heavy rains & flooding BEFORE the hurricane hits in Caribe. |
Costa Rica’s first hurricane since 1851 is expected to hit land tonight in the northern Caribbean near by beloved Tortuguero National Park or further north in Nicaragua. Atenas is not in the “Red Zone” that expects the most wind and rain, but we will get both all day on the American Thanksgiving while I eat turkey with my neighbor.
For more on the hurricane, today’s Tico Times article
And track it on The Weather Channel and a hundred other websites! 🙂
And the best coverage in Spanish is in our national newspaper La Nacion which Google will translate into English for you. Lots of photos and videos.
They are forecasting up to 20 inches of rain and very high winds in the path (north of us) as it travels all the way across the peninsula to the Pacific Ocean. We will get rain as we have all day today and some winds, but probably not the very high, damaging winds. Yet hurricanes do change paths sometimes, so I bought my bottled water and prepared if it knocks out our power and water. Which could mean no blog post tomorrow night! 🙂
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| There wasn’t a run on water at the supermercado, meaning I guess that most don’t really expect us to have much damage. I’m always the Boy Scout! Being prepared! |
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| Blue-crowned Motmot at breakfast this morning In Yellow Bell tree that will soon be blooming, Atenas, Costa Rica As usual, I said “Oh fuey! He’s not in the open for a good shot!” But this is a more common view! |
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| Tropical Kingbird (pretty sure, can’t see breast) From my terrace, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Maraca or Shampoo Ginger In jungle of my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Heliconia behind Heliconia plants My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Red Ginger amongst the ginger leave My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Red Ginger amongst many plants My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Layers of Leaves My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Heliconia Overshadowed in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Between the leaves in my garden Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Rufous-naped Wren Seen at breakfast from my terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| White-ringed Flycatcher Seen at breakfast from my terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica Similar to the very common Social Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee & Boat-billed Flycatcher. But white on head makes a complete ring around his head and Kiskadee & Boat-billed are noticeably larger with larger bills. |
See also my BIRDS Photo Gallery
Each morning I walk through my garden and then eat breakfast on my terrace. Today I liked:
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| Shooting directly at the moon & cropping for this position. |
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| Pointing camera away from moon I get the earth too? Magic? Reflection? And you can even see a star in the distance. I don’t know how I did it! Cool! Bazaar! Weird! Fun! |
Here’s a better full moon shot I made in Nashville a few years ago.