CLICK above cover image to go to a free preview of all pages.
This will probably be my last butterfly book, so I encourage you to get one now or at least go look at it. Every species includes the available English & Spanish Common Names plus the Latin Scientific Name which is available for all, while a few species don’t have “common names.” 🙂 There are three rare butterfly species included that are rarely ever seen.
And for you neighbors of mine in Residential Roca Verde, don’t forget that I have a smaller 7×7 inches book of just Roca Verde Butterflies with 180 species photographed here, mostly in my garden.
I searched my quotation sources for a good summary of this unusual lesson:
“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh
I am still trying to wrap my brain around this unusual lesson on breathing. If interested, click the above link to my notes and see the two videos and determine what you think of this as a help to mindful photography.
I’m surrounded by green plants that are constantly producing the pure oxygen I breathe.
I hate to admit that I succumbed to an advertisement on Facebook for an online class titled “Photography & Mindfulness.” But I did! 🙂 I have now gone through the first 2 of 10 classes which we do on our own time but are rationed out at 2 per week. In short, the first class left me very disappointed and sorry I paid money for it, but lesson 2 was much better and I have hope that it will get better and give me some more inspiration during this time of fewer birds and butterflies! 🙂 And even though the rainy season has started early this year, the wind is still blowing too much, though at least less than the previous 4 months. The weather is still blamed on the stronger than usual El Niño this year. Sooooo . . .
I followed their suggestion of starting a paper notebook of my notes, etc. on the class but by the second class decided I preferred typing than writing and by doing it online, I can include photos and links, thus my class notes are pages on my website under the ABOUT Page titled Photographer. The subpage there is Photography & Mindfulness under which there will eventually be 10 pages for the 10 lessons that Andaña calls “Pauses.” I was a little negative in my notes on Pause 1 as the class was not what I was expecting, but after Pause 2, I’m more positive. You can check out what you want to and I will do a post on each of the lessons, linking to the more detailed notes in the online pages.
It appears that each lesson will feature a photographer that I will link to plus so far she has included a music video with each of the lessons that I can also share on my reports. For example, Pause 2 has this video:
¡Pura Vida!
The featured photo is a Physalis or “Chinese Lantern” growing wild in a neighbor’s yard until he “cleaned up” the yard, cutting down such weeds. 🙂 Wildness sometimes has unique beauties that a cultivated garden will never have! Maybe that is “mindfulness” of wildness! 🙂 I miss that wild flower near me!
Because the photo gallery linked above will go away when I die, I have donated my bird, butterfly and many other nature photos to the following three sources where they can be seen now and for posterity as well as contributing to the science of each species as all three are major sources of nature research for many research organizations and universities around the world, including their professors and students:
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” ~Proverbs 13:12
Cortez Amarillo Trees blooming, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Arenal Volcano National Park, Alajuela, Costa Rica
My blog/website administrative page has a bucket for “Drafts” and occasionally I put something in there that I think I might work into a blog post later (like yesterday’s). Back in 2022 I placed the above quote from Proverbs that I picked from one of my Daily Bible Readings to comment on later and here I am, about 3 years later, commenting on it (with photos!). 🙂
It doesn’t seem as crowded in these photos as it felt in person walking on the beach and the bulk of people were in the shade of the beachside forest trees that I did not photograph, feeling like I would be invading their privacy. Nor did I try to photograph the monkeys that usually hang out in those trees because of all the people and I’m guessing that is also where most of them went to the bathroom with no public baños or porta-potties. The week before Christmas through New Years Day are the busiest days on all of Costa Rica beaches and in public parks, etc. since more Ticos are on vacation those two weeks than any other one time.
Thanks to “GoodReads” for this neat photo of the books I completed this year that does not include the ones I started and did not finish, like Belovedby Toni Morrison that someone in a newspaper article said was his favorite book ever, so I tried it and was bored after reading 20%, even though it was a 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner and NY Times bestseller! 🙂 Having been a part of two dysfunctional families myself, I don’t enjoy reading about others! 🙂 But who know, I may finish it this year – we’ll see. 🙂
Charlie Doggett’s 2025 books completed. Image by GoodReads.
For the last few years, my favorite mystery/adventure book authors have obviously been Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, especially their Agent Prendergast FBI mystery series of which I’ve read all (better than Sherlock Holmes series of which I’ve read all or even Agatha Christie’s two series) and I pre-ordered the prequel book coming out in 2026. 🙂 One of those books was made into a successful movie as was one of Preston’s solo books.
I got started first with a Douglas Preston book, Lost City of the Monkey God, during my first year or two in Costa Rica when I Googled “Central America adventure books.” It was the best of that search and based on a true story of an archaeological discovery in nearby Honduras which I re-read this year. Preston is also an archeologist and so some of the “Indiana Jones” adventure style comes through in several of his books! 🙂
I also try to read one of the “Classics” every year and though “Beloved” didn’t work out for me, I did read all of Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper and it was sort of fun, though the old English language seemed strange and though not the same kind of adventures as Preston & Child, I enjoyed the book and look forward to another classic this year as I read through the 50 Masterpieces you have to read before you die. 🙂
I got to where I did not like TV and haven’t had a TV subscription for most of my time in Costa Rica. My dinner habit is to read 2 or 3 chapters out of whatever my current book is. Right now I’m reading a Lincoln Child book, Deep Storm, a science fiction mystery/adventure on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. I’m at 40% at this writing. Kindle keeps one posted on how far through a book you are. 🙂 It will appear on my 2026 books report and with this I’m starting a new series, The Jeremy Logan Series Book 1, which I think will be science adventures or science fiction and so far I’m inclined to continue the series. 🙂
Put simply, for me, Preston & Child are both just great story tellers who hold my attention and interest through almost every word. I read them because I enjoy them. Better entertainment than TV! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Last Night’s Visit with Steve & Sherrell Hewko & Children.
During my 3 years as a missionary in The Gambia West Africa, a group of Campus Crusade Student Missionaries came for about 2 years of that time and we became friends and cohorts with multiple joint projects, especially remembered was a retreat I coordinated for them at Sindola Lodge.
Stephen Hewko was one of the students and the group leader of those students that included Sherrell, his now wife. That was 23 years ago! He brought his family of Sherrell and 3 teen children to Costa Rica on vacation last week and today they fly back to Toronto, Canada. I visited with them at their pre-flight hotel last night, or mostly with Steve as Mom and the kids were in and out of the pool, our poolside table and their hotel room. Last night’s photo of Steve is below beside a photo copy from my scrapbook of him in The Gambia back in 2002! Today he is Director of the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research at Wycliffe University in Toronto after doing several years of mission work back in The Gambia.
Steve Hewko in the Gambia, 2002.Steve Hewko in Costa Rica, 2025.
Every once in a while, a nice little surprise drops in on me. 🙂
