The Future We Choose

Cristiana Figueres
Cristiana Figueres

We have just entered the most consequential decade in human history. The scientific assessment of climate change suggests this can either be our final hour, or our finest. The Future We Choose is an inspiring manifesto from Global Optimism Co-Founders, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac. It explains what’s to come, how to face it and what we can do.

Practical, optimistic and empowering, this is a book for every generation that shows us how we can move beyond the climate crisis into a thriving future.

Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican citizen and was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010-2016. Ms. Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy.

One of the best things you do with your “down time” due to COVID19 is to read this book and participate in saving the earth before it is too late! Celebrate Earth Day 22 April 2020!  FIND THE BOOK HERE or simply do a search in your favorite online book source or ask for it in your favorite physical bookstore.

My friends in the U.S. especially need to read this due to the “rollbacks” of policy or the backward movement on climate change the current president and Republican Party have brought the last few years. It is not too late, but if we don’t start doing something now it soon will be too late! And how you vote does make a difference!

Go Green!

VOTE Blue!

¡Pura Vida!

 

Breathtaking Moments!

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,

but by the moments that take our breath away.

~ Unknown

And with the extra “down time” I’ve had, thanks to Coronavirus, and the inability to travel around Costa Rica, I’ve been able to organize more of my past photos which represent “the moments that have taken my breath away!” And I hope to start collecting more new “moments” by restarting my Costa Rica travels in July – I will have to wait and see if lodges are open and that can happen!   🙂   So for now it’s Tennessee & other travels!   🙂

When not busy with all the daily necessities of life, Spanish lessons, other reading, or writing one of these blog posts, I am usually working on organizing thousands of past photos, mostly made between 1999 & 2014. They will soon all be in one place, in my public photo gallery hosted by Smugmug.com and seamlessly looking like a part of my WordPress website/blog page, charliedoggett.net, where you are reading this right now. Just click “gallery” at top of the page to see the photo galleries. Or for the new ones . . .

International & Non-TN Travel Moments

All of my travel photos outside Tennessee have been organized into travel galleries collectively called Pre-Costa-Rica TRAVEL Gallery (trips before Dec. 2014) found below all my Costa Rica galleries in the Big Gallery with many breath-taking moments from the Amazon to Africa + Yellowstone to Grand Canyon! In addition I have started TRAVEL pages on my website where I will continue to add stories and other information beyond these photos, including travel-related pages from my journals over the years. As always, this site is a creative work in progress!

Some Tennessee Moments Now Ready

I’ve completed what may be the two biggest “Pre-Costa Rica TENNESSEE Photos” galleries with my Tennessee State Parks gallery (the feature photo) and Tennessee State Natural Areas gallery, but much more to do for Tennessee yet, not to mention thousands of Nashville photos for that separate gallery!  But . . .

Costa Rica Moments are Up-to-Date!

I call my big gallery “Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA” and it is pretty much up to date in every sub-galleries about Costa Rica, especially the Costa Rica TRIPS gallery which is mainly what this post is about.!   🙂   Or my biggest collections are my BIRDS galleries.

My life has been blessed with many “breath-taking moments” and I’ve recorded a whole lot of them in photos. Check ’em out!   🙂

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
― Rumi

¡Pura Vida!

Hope is the thing with feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers 

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.


~Emily Dickinson – 1830-1886

¡Pura Vida!

Featured photo is a Red-legged Honeycreeper I photographed at Maquenque Lodge in Boca Tapada, Costa Rica where I hope to be again in July if re-opened.   🙂    See more in my Red-legged Honeycreeper Gallery or also my bigger BIRDS Photo Gallery for many more birds. Pura vida!

“There’s No Place Like Home”

Or almost no place better for birds than my home in the Roca Verde Neighborhood of Atenas, Costa Rica. My long-time intentions to do a photo book of birds photographed at home just got fulfilled!

Roca Birds Book
For preview, click image or address below:

Check out the free preview of this book of 80 photos of more than 40 species of birds found in my garden and neighborhood. Plus this book is bigger than my travel series books, a full 8 x 10 inches, making it acceptable as a “Coffee Table Book.”   🙂    The hardcover edition is printed on a higher quality of lustre photo paper, though the paperback edition is nice on standard paper. Enjoy!   🙂

 

https://www.blurb.com/b/10034408-roca-verde-birds

 

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

~John Muir

¡Pura Vida!

Moving furniture

When you are forced to stay home I guess it is normal to change things in your house as well as to play on the computer!   🙂

For the 5 years I’ve been in this house I’ve always had my breakfast table at the left or NW corner of my terrace (best mountains vista) and the two rockers at the other end, nearer the driveway, SE corner. Since I’ve gone to sitting in the refinished rockers a little more now, I decided to move them to the left with a better view of the mountains beyond Atenas. Next I will ask my gardener to replace that old-looking plant in the frog pot. Of course I’m old-looking too, but don’t replace me just yet!   🙂

Rearranged Porch or Terrace

 

 

You will notice on the photos title I used “porch” which is what I grew up calling it in south Arkansas, while later, by my Tennessee days, I called it a “deck” and now here in Costa Rica it is called a “terrace” or la terraza en español, maybe because most floors are made of tile here? And I evolve with my surroundings!   🙂

Coming eyeball to eyeball with a hummingbird on my terrace is as exciting to me as any celebrity I’ve met . . .

~Lesley Nicol

¡Pura Vida!

Dental Emergencies Only

Monday I returned to my dentist to see if the infection was gone so they can finish my root canal, stuffing it with something they get from a tropical tree. Unfortunately it still had infection though improved a lot and not painful, but I need more antibiotics and time. I wait 2 more weeks for it to be completed. Patience!

And when I arrived I witnessed this new sign (feature photo) taped to the front door that they now accept only emergencies, but they assured me that my infection is included in what the government accepts as “emergencies.” So I do get to go back in 2 weeks for what I hope is the last time!   🙂

Everything is different now with Coronavirus! The whole world is in a state of change!

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

~Confucius

¡Pura Vida!

 

And if the virus caused you to cancel your Costa Rica vacation, try this very short 1 minute “Virtual Vacation”  video clip. ¡Pura vida!

Butterflies

These two common butterflies were photographed in my garden last Friday – not brilliant but always interesting as all wildlife! See more of my butterfly photos in my Butterflies Gallery.

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine.     

~Jeffrey Glassberg

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Green Orchid Bee

The Green Orchid Bee or Euglossa dilemma (Wikipedia) is a Central American Bee found only here naturally (and occasionally in my garden) though recently introduced into South Florida (an invasive species there). I like them for their iridiscente green color added to my garden from time to time. I do have a Bees Gallery for more photos of this and other bees here. Just one of the thousands of interesting insects in Costa Rica that I enjoy watching!   🙂   See also my Butterflies and More Insects Galleries for more bugs!

Green Orchid Bee

In my garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

Saturday’s BIRDS!

I got usable photos of 19 species of birds from my little one-hour walk yesterday morning, 6-7 AM, in the neighborhood on Calle Nueva, the little country gravel/dirt road that separates Roca Verde neighborhood from the adjacent farmland. Nineteen is not bad and as good as some longer walks I take when at expensive birding lodges!  🙂   PLUS, if my identifications are correct, I got 3 new species, “lifers,” for me, though I may get corrected by an eBird expert reviewer after I post them on eBird.   🙂   The new ones are Giant Cowbird, Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher and a Yellow-green Vireo.

This road and my own street uphill above my house always yield a lot of birds early in the morning. And I have another neighborhood further away that I intend to try for even different birds, a place my birding friend Margaret found to be good.

Saturday AM Birds

 

 

“Every bird, every tree, every flower reminds me what a blessing and privilege it is just to be alive.”
― Marty Rubin

¡Pura Vida!