Category: Sunrise

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The Sun Rose

I’ll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time. The steeples swam in amethyst, The news like squirrels ran. The hills untied their bonnets, The bobolinks begun. Then I said softly to myself, “That must have been the sun!

~Emily Dickinson

Charlie Doggett Photo of sun rise on the Central Church of Atenas, Costa Rica.

NOTE: Today’s photo makes 8 days of blog photo posts all from the one morning walk of photos last Thursday, 10 December, a week-a-go today. And I had prepared all 8 posts by Friday afternoon the 11th. I don’t always do a week’s worth at once in advance, but glad I did this time as I have other projects I’m working on. Starting next Monday I will be doing daily blog posts one day at a time, reporting at least a portion of that day at Arenal Observatory, Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica, My Christmas Treat Trip! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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The Cattle on a Thousand Hills!

God is speaking . . .

For all the animals of field and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountains! 

~Psalm 50:10-11 The Living Bible

On that overcast morning of so many other hazy photos of birds I see this group of cows on a nearby hill just waking up. Yep! I’m up before the cows! 🙂 At least the ones on that hill shot below on my cell phone. The cows above were zoomed in on my big camera. It was truly an inspiring morning as I tried to photograph “all the birds upon the mountains (the last few days of photos) and the cattle on a thousand hills!” God provides a lot for me to photograph! 🙂

The sleeping and waking cows are under that central tree on the horizon. A nice wake-up scene! 🙂 I zoomed in on that central tree for the feature photo at top.

And God concludes that Psalm and my walk by saying . . .

But true praise is a worthy sacrifice; this really honors me. Those who walk my paths will receive salvation from the Lord.

~Psalm 50:23 The Living Bible

And with that I’m preparing to spend time with God in Nature for Christmas next week, my favorite kind of worship and photography that I will share daily. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Sunrise Obliquely

Yeah . . . that’s sort of how I get it – every morning at breakfast – from a slanted, sideways view (obliquely) with the distant hills lit first, then part of the town and then it reaches my tiny patch of wildness. Kind of fun – makes me smile – and it’s a great way to start a day! 🙂

The feature photo is of sunrise over Atenas as seen from 105 Roca Verde yesterday morning. The sun is rising from behind a hill to my far right, thus not hitting me yet, but it soon will! 🙂 Our world can be magical!

My Vistas Gallery has lots of different kinds of sunrises & sunsets – all of which are fun! 🙂

“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.”

― Jo Walton

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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New Hillside Views

I love walking up and down my hill and the others around me, even if they leave me winded sometimes! 🙂 And when I take my camera (in addition to the cellphone) I can zoom in on things like our village church or the cows on the next hill over! It’s fun! And one of these new views is from my terrace and living room! (The feature photo) And of course these were made a few days ago with sunshine before the hurricane rains started. 🙂 Yesterday’s post of cloudiness was what I expected more of plus rains, but this hurricane did not have a lot of rain like the last one. It is partly overcast and partly sunny today.

CLICK an image to see it larger:

  • From My Terrace
  • Our Farming University Next Door
  • UTN Cows
  • Central Atenas
Some of My Hillside Vistas

“There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.” —Charlotte Eriksson

See also my Costa Rica Vistas Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

🙂

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The Overcast Between Rains

This photo was made yesterday morning when for awhile the Hurricane Iota rains had stopped but the skies still overcast. The last hurricane (Eta) gave us 4 days of non-stop rain, so at least this one has given us a break in the rain, even if overcast! 🙂 And I even got to walk to town without opening my umbrella! 🙂 Tomorrow I will show these same hills in the sunshine from last Sunday’s walk.

Post Script: As of this morning, still very little rain compared to the identical sized hurricane on the same path, thus we are not getting as much rain from Iota as we did Eta. No two the same! 🙂

“Gray and overcast from my earthly perspective, but it’s sunny above these storm clouds. Grace lets us see life from God’s point of view.” ~Mark Hart

¡Pura Vida!

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Morning Fog

A fog — Covering — My hills

In nature, everything has a job. The job of the fog is to beautify further the existing beauties! ~Mehmet Murat Ildan

These photos were made on an early morning walk yesterday above my house looking for birds but finding a different beauty. I leave at noon today for Bajos del Toro, checking in at about 1:30 this afternoon. I hope for another post this evening and at least one a day from there this week.

See my Vistas Galleries

¡Pura Viida!

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Cabanis’s Wren + 5

I left about 5:30 this morning for a walk to help me shape up for the coming week of hikes and to maybe get some birds on the hill above my house, always hoping for a “lifer” or first time bird. It was cool and very foggy and so I wrote my first blog post on the fog which I’ve already scheduled for tomorrow morning.

THEN I went through my bird photos and found that I did indeed get a “lifer” this morning, even if not a good photo. It is the featured photo, a Cabanis’s Wren (eBird article link) in bad light and too far away with lots of limbs and leaves, but I got it! 🙂 Another new bird in my gallery and that now makes 5 different wrens and a total of 344 identified birds in Costa Rica plus a few unidentified ones. So a nice surprise this morning in my neighborhood. All the other birds today are fairly common, except maybe the Yellow-faced Grassquit which I have photographed in two other places (better photos) plus one juvenile here earlier.

  • Gray-capped Flycatcher
  • Clay-colored Thrush or Yigüirro
  • Cabanis’s Wren
  • Yellow-faced Grassquit
  • Variable Seedeater
  • White-winged Dove
My morning walk birds today. CLICK image to enlarge.

¡Pura Vida!

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Adding to the Charlie Doggett Library

This weekend I go to Xandari Nature Resort near Alajuela, which is the only place in Costa Rica that you can see all of my Costa Rica Photo Books, other than at my house. I installed the library of photo books in January there for the benefit of their guests and this weekend I will be adding two more books, the only ones made since January for all of Costa Rica. (I also did a photo book on my Roca Verde neighborhood birds, but figure that is too narrow a focus, but may decide to take one of those too.)

Two new books for the Charlie Doggett Photo Library at Xandari Resort.

¡Pura Vida!

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Impulsive Weekend Plans

Doing some things on impulse is part of being retired in Costa Rica I think and I’m tired of being cooped up at home in Atenas. One of my favorite nearby get-a-ways announced they were open on weekends only for now with special discounted prices, so I took the bait and will go to Xandari Nature Resort this weekend, an hour away, Friday afternoon to Monday morning; to hike their forests, waterfalls and most beautiful gardens. Hope to get some good photos and will avoid group hikes or any other interactions with people, eating alone, maybe even relaxing in their solo hot tub by reservation. But mainly some new nature experiences, some with my mask and face shield as we continue to fight the spread of COVID19 here. I will stay safe! And I forgot to say yesterday that I now have my “Permanent Residency” in Costa Rica! 🙂

The feature photo today is one of the sunsets from my last visit to Xandari in January.

Retired in Costa Rica!

¡Pura Vida!