Category: Culture

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Last Week of Moving Sale! 8-14 November

There has been no time for blog posts this week with an off and on flow of local people responding to my Moving Sale Galleries (linked) and I have continued to add items for sale, so locals please keep coming back! 🙂 THIS WILL BE THE LAST WEEK OF THE SALE! Ending Saturday 14 November.

The most over-looked or not used categories have been the arts, except for my African Arts Sale Gallery (linked) which has only 3 items left! And they are 3 of my favorites! 🙂 Now I’m telling you about the three other art categories with hugely discounted prices that might interest you . . .

Letting some of my Art Collection go at bargain prices at https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE/Wall-Art-By-Other-Artists OR CLICK THE ABOVE IMAGE

This sub-gallery has some of my “Collected Art” from over the many years of my long life and though I love it all, I will likely live the rest of my life in a small apartment without space to display or store it all, so some must go. CLICK ON THE ABOVE IMAGE TO SEE THAT GALLERY, then call for a time to come by and check it out as with the next two sub-galleries.

Last chance to get a Charlie Doggett photo! See what is left at: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE/Wall-Art-My-Nature-Photos – The above image is not complete, more have been added, but still going fast!

My first 12 years living here in Costa Rica and many of the last 10 in the USA were given to nature and travel photography and above is mainly wall art from over these last nearly 20 years with a few other things like two mouse pads and I have 5 coffee mugs left that I am just giving away if interested in a mug with a butterfly photo. Like with the previous gallery, call for a time to come look at what is available and finally I have everything clearly labeled with the price and other information. And yes, much of the above are items that did not sell in my earlier efforts in an art gallery and some arts & crafts fairs, but ALL ARE DISCOUNTED AT LEAST 75% with a few as low as $1!

Accent pillows with flower photos on both sides. Go to: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE/Flower-Accent-Pillows-1-each

And lastly, one of my favorites, the Flower Photos Accent Pillows, that I never understood why they did not sell at the gallery or the craft fairs, but now you can get a brilliant $20 accent pillow for only$1!

Then My Last Week Here (15-22 November) . . .

If you have ever moved, you know that there are a million things that have to be done and the moving sale prevented me from doing many of them including a physical for entry into a Senior Adult facility along with address changes and cancellations, etc. etc.! 🙂

That last week will be capped off on Sunday 22 November with a “Farewell Charlie Luncheon” at a neighbor’s house with several local friends coming to say goodbye. Then 23 & 24 are the very last minute packing with the actual move on 25 November and the beginning of another chapter of the old man’s life, an adventure to still be discovered from the greenway to the city streets! A lot to explore and discover! Plus a lot of new friends to grow old with. Thanks to all of you for your kindnesses and good wishes and the blog might be quiet again for a while as I finish the transition to a blog from a slightly different perspective. We will see what happens! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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MOVING SALE!

It is coming together and I will continue to add more items over the next week I’m sure, but the website Photo Gallery Listing of Items For Sale is well underway and can be seen at this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE

It is of course mostly for local people in or near Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica, but if someone anywhere in the world is willing to pay the shipping cost for anything (like some of the art or the stamp collection) then I will get it shipped to you once paid. If you have any questions, use the CONTACT menu item at the top of this page.

This is all happening very fast for me! It has to end no later than November 20 and probably sooner as I have to get rid of everything one way or another.

¡Pura Vida!

And THANK YOU! Blog Readers!

My blog/website host just reported to me that I had 11,000 views or visits in the month of October 2026! That just makes me want to do a better job, but be patient with me while I make this big move in November, then I’ll settle down to an even better nature blog! 🙂

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My next Big Adventure

During the last week of November (23-29) I begin my next big adventure in life and what for many is their last. On whichever day that week the apartment is ready, I move to the Verdeza Senior Living Apartments in Escazu, a suburb of San Jose, Costa Rica. I start with the independent living but will be there if and when assisted living or nursing care is required. And one of the most attractive things to me is that the dining room is a real restaurant with multiple-options menus, changing weekly, plus morning and afternoon snacks provided! 🙂 Also, there will be much more social interaction than I have been getting in my little Atenas hideaway! It is a change that I believe I am ready for and probably need. A lot of things have been happening to lead to this change and I decided not to try and explain.

One of multiple “living rooms” at Verdeza.

I will not be immersed in as much nature as I have been in Atenas, nor will I be able to afford as many trips to nature lodges and national parks, but I will be just a 10 minute walk from the Rutas Naturbanas Greenway at Avenida Escazu and similar distances from at least two city parks, so not completely without nature! 🙂 Plus I will be just a 10 minute walk in one direction to a very large Walmart and in the other direction just a 10 minute walk to Office Depot that I often need and it is next to the large Multi-Plaza Shopping Mall with a big screen theater, all near the Rutas Naturbanas greenway! 🙂 It is reminding me of my 10 years in a rowhouse in downtown Nashville across the street from the Bicentennial Capital Mall State Park. 🙂

Most areas of the Naturbanas will not be this busy, but it is popular and that is good! 🙂

I will keep you up to date with information on my move, though during that last week of November I may not have much time for blog posts. 🙂 We will see. It is kind of like that last month in Nashville, trying to get rid of my accumulated “junk” or stuff for a move into a much smaller apartment this time and a thousand other details to manage. Not an easy challenge, but doable! 🙂

One of the entrances to Verdeza Senior Living Apartments.

¡Pura Vida!

And a link to an instagram video about the Rutas Naturbanas en español of course:

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DSJH03ikelN

And hopefully publishing my new address online won’t create a problem or an onslaught of marketing mail! Effective 23 November:

Charlie Doggett, Apartamento 315

Edificio Verdeza a mano derecha

De Oficentro El Cedral, 1 km al oeste

Trejos Montealegre, Escazú

10203 Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Rainy Season Feast

We had a rather dry rainy season May-September, but at the time of this writing October has been fairly normal with rain every afternoon or evening. If it will continue through November, we may not suffer as much during the dry season with this year expected to have public water shortages and more grass fires. This is for the Pacific Slope, while the Caribbean Slope (Atlantic side) has had more than usual rain. Crazy weather this year!

Most, if not all, of the cows that rotate through this neighborhood cow pasture are Brahmas, as most in Costa Rica are. But in my gallery Cows, I haven’t bothered to try and identify all the cow photos made from trips all over the country. And I think a few are other species. They aren’t “wild” life, but have been fun to see and photograph, both in my neighborhood cow pasture and when traveling across the country over these last 12 years!

¡Pura Vida!

Click title to see post online.

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Blue Morning

I was out on the beach early yesterday morning with hopes of a brilliant sunrise. Instead, God gave me a rich blue sky, quickly followed by a nourishing rain in this tropical forest. This year’s more extreme weather promises some more extreme experiences! 🙂

Sunrise Caribe South, Banana Azul, Limon, Costa Rica

And as the light increased from the above first sight, see the changing blues added to other colors in the next three shots . . .

Continue reading “Blue Morning”
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Listen. Wonder. Belong.

A local friend just shared a free online article titled “The Voices of Birds and the Language of Belonging” by David G. Haskell (linked) that is partly technical and partly inspirational.

It reminded me of the Tropical Screech Owl that often sings to me during the night hours from my Higueron Tree, singing me to sleep (never got a photo of it). The article also reminded me of how I prepared for works presented by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (15 years ago) by going an hour early for a 30 minute discussion of what we were about to hear. It’s amazing how much more you hear and experience when you prepare to listen! 🙂 That was back when Giancarlo Guerrero (from Costa Rica) was the Music Director. But, back to the article whose author said in the last line . . .

Let’s answer the birds’ invitation, stepping outside to give them the simple gift of our attention. Listen. Wonder. Belong. ~David G. Haskell

Here’s one of several YouTube videos of the Tropical Screech Owl singing . . .

Or if really into it, you can listen to archived audio recordings and calls of the Tropical Screech Owl (Megascops choliba) through the Xeno-canto Tropical Screech Owl Database, which features hundreds of field recordings.

Or read about them and see their distribution map on eBird. And thanks to Judith LaBelle for the article on listening to birds! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Listen. Wonder. Belong.

And the featured photo of a Tropical Screech Owl in Costa Rica was copied off the internet and not my photo. I am yet to photograph one. The one I hear singing at night is in the dark and I don’t have the equipment to photograph at night and when I got up and looked for him once, I never even saw him. BUT, I do have photos of 6 other owls here in Costa Rica that I photographed in daylight . . .

And my favorite is probably that last one, the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, though I like them all! 🙂

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My “Wake Up TV” Interview

Mauro Protti, the producer and videographer of a 30 minute weekly TV show for a Costa Rica TV station and it’s own YouTube channel lives across the street from me right now. And the episode that was on local TV yesterday titled: “Wake Up TV Atenas, Costa Rica” includes about 10+ minutes of an interview he did of me Monday on my terrace in English with both Spanish and English subtitles that have a lot of computer misspelled words from a funny-talking old man, but the footage he made of Atenas shown after my interview is really good with shots of Central Park, parades, the central church, etc.

The first 5 minutes are a presentation about The Retreat, a very upscale resort in Atenas, then the interview of me, the videos of many activities and parts of Atenas followed by a video of the more affordable Hotel Colinas del Sol just three blocks from my house and they are the ones that suggested he interview me when he filmed there. 🙂 Finally an interview of someone here who plays music to plants that I did not understand, but you might find interesting. Of course everything is in Spanish except me. And what I say is answering his questions. He kind of focused on Butterflies because of my two new books of butterfly photos that he has a few quick camera scans of. I think I sound kind of strange, but it is what it is. Many people here are amazed that I spend my time photographing nature rather than watching TV or sitting in my rocking chair, so maybe I’m an oddity they are showing to locals. 🙂 Pura vida for me! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Charlie Doggett being interviewed by Mauro Protti for TV video. This is a still from the video and I evidently just said “was for” which is translation of “fue para.” 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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My Arrival Yesterday on Flooded River

I did not do a post last night because I’m way behind on processing photos. I photographed 15 bird species just while eating lunch in partial rain yesterday and more yesterday afternoon and even more this morning on a pre-breakfast birding walk with guide Ronald! We were fortunate to have no rain for that hour and a half! 🙂 It is raining off and on just a little so far today, but so far nothing like yesterday!

So Walter would have a companion for talking with on his 4 hour return trip to Atenas yesterday, he brought his cousin who has a digital radio station in Atenas and here is the video he posted on the station or its Facebook or WhatsApp page (not sure how it works). It is of them leaving me at the boat dock on the flooded Rio San Carlos with Maquenque across the river. The first speaker in black is Walter’s cousin (forgot his name) and then Walter in the bright green cap speaks. My brief appearance is just waving at the camera from the boat. 🙂 I’m hoping that a WhatsApp Video works on this blog/website. I’m not a tech kind of guy! 🙂

Nope!

Well, it did not work, saying I’ve already used my one free video and must enroll in “VideoPress,” which I’m not doing, so I will just share two of Walter’s cellphone photos of their difficult return trip in a hard rain yesterday.

A tree blocked the highway for a while and then . . .
. . . they had a flat tire!

All that trouble just to get me to a favorite nature place! I’ll soon start sharing photos of the immense amount of nature here! 🙂

¡PuraVida!

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Remembering Diane Parish

Yesterday Diane died peacefully in her sleep after a long battle with cancer and all of its ugly side-effects, but also with the most exemplary support from Aubrey that I have ever seen. There are so many good things to say about Diane who was always happy, smiling and energetically ready to take on another project. But I will let others speak of her many attributes and just say that a mission trip is one of the best ways to get to know someone and I had the privilege of being with Diane on 3 mission trips. I pulled the photos of Diane from my galleries of those trips and created a photo gallery of “Mission Trip Diane” below.

Continue reading “Remembering Diane Parish”
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Bitter Melon?

The question mark is because this strange, edible, vine-growing vegetable has a long list of “Common Names” around the world with “Pepino Cimarrón” the most used one here in Costa Rica says iNaturalist, though they refer people to Wikipedia for more information on the scientific name of Momordica charantia (linked to Wikipedia article). And somewhere you will hear about “Balsam Apple as similar (that’s what Google-Lens called it), but that is a different species in the same family, which by the way, includes cucumbers! 🙂

I photographed this less than a half-block from the front gate of Residencial Roca Verde on my Sunday morning walk to El Fogon for breakfast. It was on a vine growing on a barbed wire fence of a vacant lot in Barrio Boquerón. They originate from Asia and Africa and were brought here in the 1800’s where they grew well in the tropical climate. Some are farmed, but this one was growing wild. They are eaten as a vegetable and used as natural medicines, especially the leaves of the vine. And only God could design a bright orange vegetable with bright red seeds! 🙂 Read more on Wikipedia.

Bitter Melon, Pepino Cimarrón, Momordica charantia,
growing wild on a fence in Barrio Boquerón, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

And the next morning I saw something a little different at the same location . . .

Continue reading “Bitter Melon?”