I am continuing the “Photography & Mindfulness” online class with #4 being day before yesterday or done yesterday for me. And of course a blog post each time with a link to my notes, comments and one or more of my photos that I think sort of relate. I’m not quite as “ethereal” or maybe it’s “psychological” as my teacher in Spain, but hoping this focus on mindfulness will help me to be more mindful and sensitive in making creative and meaningful nature photos. If interested, go to my online notes on this particular class at : Pause 4: Sensation and Emotion -May 15, 2026 NOTES.
I think that a red flower always produces more “sensation or emotion” than any other color. 🙂
And About the Feature Photo . . .
Dying Cecropia Leaf with green spots or “Green Islands”
From Google AI: “Green islands” on a browning leaf are caused by living pests or pathogens that manipulate the plant’s hormones. They excrete cytokinins (plant growth hormones) that trick the leaf into delaying its natural death and keeping its green chlorophyll active in that specific area.
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.
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. 🙂
A new mural has been added to Atenas Central as encouraged by the Mayor to represent memories of the past in this medium-sized coffee farming town and I was glad to see that it included a Lesson’s Motmot bird! 🙂
“Athenian Memories” Mural in Atenas Central next to the old High School building.“Athenian Memories” Mural in Atenas Central next to the old High School building.
Google AI Summary:
The new mural near the City Hall in Atenas, Alajuela, is called “Memorias Atenienses ” and was inaugurated on September 24, 2025. It is the result of a collective effort involving the Municipality of Atenas, the community, and the mayor, with the aim of creating an artistic legacy for the canton. • Name: “Athenian Memories” • Location: Near the City Hall in Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica (Adjacent the old high school building across from Central Park fountains.) • Inauguration date: September 24, 2025 • Description: It is described as an artistic legacy for the canton, created through a collective effort and strong teamwork between the municipality, the community, and the mayor.
Some of you may remember that back in 2017 I started a collection of handmade “Artisan Birds,” mainly from artists in Costa Rica, but a few from other Central American countries and ended up with 2 from countries outside Central America. The collection has not grown much since the first two years or so, but I finally I now have a better tree on which to display them.
Up close on a few of my artisan birds. See each one individually in the linked gallery.
And you can see all of my “Artisan Birds” collection with labels of where they are each from in my photo gallery:My Artisan Birds Tree
The first year (2017) was the best display tree, a dead tree branch with lots of branches and I never found another like that. Last year I finally bought an artificial green bush or shrub which I kept most of the year in my living room with or without the artisan birds, but never liked it and the artificial limbs were too weak and droopy and earlier this month it went to the garbage man. And I vowed to find a better one this year!
Well, last week I found this all white artificial small tree with little tiny lights and decided that was it! But again, the limbs were too weak and droopy to handle the small weight of my tiny ornaments! (See the BEFORE & AFTER pictures below.) Grrrrr! BUT, “where there’s a will there’s a way!” I figured out how they made it with a real little tree trunk and wires going up and out for limbs, “they” just used too thin or flimsy wires. I thought, “why couldn’t they have used stiffer (heavier) wires?” Then I realized that if I could tell them how they “should” have done it, I could just do it myself! And I did! 🙂
I went to the main hardware store here in Atenas (La Ferretería Vargas & Hijos) and bought some heavier or stiffer wire (12.5 m roll) for a fraction of what the 3 rolls of white electrical tape (cinta blanca) cost and two days later I have totally “rewired” my little Christmas tree with the new heavy wire held to the older thinner wires with lots of white electrical tape wrapped around every centimeter of every limb and the trunk! A LOT OF WORK! But, ta daa! I now have a new tree that is strong enough to hold the artisan birds! 🙂 Here are two pairs of “Before & After” photos to show you what I accomplished . . .
Sometimes one of my photo books “just happens” and not as originally planned! 🙂 I now give a gift book to each of my favorite lodges each time I visit and no longer do custom books for the lodges, so I needed a new gift book (which other visitors to that lodge will enjoy). Plus I sometimes give one of my doctors or other persons serving me a gift book and was needing a newer and fresher book.
I started out with the idea of just 8-10 photos in each of 3 categories: birds, butterflies and landscapes and would call it “Birds, Butterflies & the Bucolic.” (I like aliterations!) But I started curating photos of birds first. After the Hummingbirds I started choosing from the many water birds (seashore and freshwater) and collected so many I liked that I suddenly changed my mind and said it would be a “water birds book.” And even that turned out to be more photos and pages than intended, but I am pleased with this latest creation! 🙂
As always, you can see it without buying. Simply click on the cover image below or the web address that follows. In the bookstore page (link) under the cover photo is a PREVIEW button. Click that and you can see the entire book electronically for free! Click a page to turn it. 🙂 And I hope you enjoy my latest effort to be creative! 🙂 And if you like electronic books, there’s a cheaper PDF version you can download immediately.
In this small, Latin American farming town (and somewhat Expat Retirement town), the young Ticos are having an impact on the future “look” of things which I think is symbolized in this modern bicycle rack at the new Banco Popular building here in Atenas, as it was earlier shown by the contemporary architecture of the remodeled Central Park and the contemporary new small houses being built here now with lots of glass. But I see the bike rack as the “symbol” and I was reminded of similar bike racks installed in Nashville in 2010 when I lived downtown there. (& that’s my bike in some of those photos!) 🙂 I don’t ride a bike here because the streets are so narrow that it would be too dangerous for this clumsy old man! Plus lots of steep hills! 🙂 But here, walking is just as good and healthy! 🙂
Bike Rack at the new Banco Popular building in Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
The two main banks in Costa Rica are Banco Nacional (my bank) and Banco de Costa Rica with the third, smaller national bank being Banco Popular that tries to compete by offering lower fees/rates for their services, making it “popular” with the young Ticos who, as the young everywhere, are challenged with the high cost of everything on their younger, lower incomes. And though it is two blocks further from the Central Park than their old location, it is their own building now and they built it next door to two popular young adult hangouts, a big gymnasium and a Foodmart, plus close to the Atenas public health clinic. Are we looking at the future?
