Category: Trees

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Flowing from my heart . . .

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

~Proverbs 4:23

Yes, this blog started as a “reporting” of my experiences of living “Retired in Costa Rica” and the first few years have lots of “how to” or sharing my experiences of the big transition to a legal resident of Costa Rica. Now that I’m a “Residente Permanente,” it is more of the experiences “flowing from my heart,” and the God I love, and his beautiful natural world that he created for us to enjoy and manage. I hope my current nature blogging motivates just a few people to help save the natural world all around this globe, to love it and to be inspired by it while much of the world’s humans are systematically destroying forests and all the nature within! Nature is the theme of my blog now! But I will not change the name because that is still who I am, a retiree in Costa Rica! 🙂

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

~Albert Einstein

I remember as a child in El Dorado, Arkansas (14 miles from the Louisiana state line) walking the three blocks or so to a small city park with a little pond and being amazed at all the life and activity seen in just the shallow edges of the water and wanting to look at drops of that water through a microscope for the protozoa and other life a book had told me about.

WARNING: This is a longer than usual blog post but still with nature photos! 🙂

Continue reading “Flowing from my heart . . .”
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Hoffmann’s Woodpecker

Though Black-cheeked Woodpecker seems to be more common around Atenas for me, this species may be the second most common woodpecker, at least in my garden. 🙂

Hoffmann’s Woodpecker, Atenas, Costa Rica
Hoffmann’s Woodpecker, Atenas, Costa Rica

See my Hoffmann’s Woodpecker Gallery

or read about on eBird.

¡Pura Vida!

And for Halloween see this Tico Times article with video of Spooky Creatures Inhabit Costa Rica’s Jungles.

Camera Trap Photo by Vincent Losasso for Tico Times.
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Los Colinas del Sol Wildlife

On September 30 after my house was fumigated for ants, I spent the night at our little neighborhood Hotel Colinas del Sol and though cloudy and getting dark, I got some shadowy shots of 3 birds and two butterflies seen below. Nothing spectacular, but nature is almost everywhere waiting to be seen and photographed! And I love it, even in bad light! 🙂

Simple Big-eyed Satyr
Juvenile Baltimore Oriole
Great Kiskadee
Hoffmann’s Woodpecker

¡Pura Vida!

And this Banded Peacock Butterfly I posted on that night. 🙂
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2 Views – 2 Smiles

Here’s what I see when I walk out my gate walking to town in the first shot, looking NNW, and the second shot is looking NNE from the driveway behind my house just before the rain started. 🙂

View from my driveway exit as I was walking to town.
Looking up one hill behind my house over George’s roof.

¡Pura Vida!

🙂

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Black-cowled Oriole Eating . . .

I haven’t seen this bird in quite a while, but he was one of about 4 species in my Cecropia Tree the other morning, feeding on the flowers like the toucans sometimes do. And as usual, he was partially hidden by leaves the entire time here! You can see other shots in my Black-cowled Oriole GALLERY showing the same hiding problem always! Except my very first shot here in Costa Rica of one on my window screen inside my house! 🙂 Here’s just two shots . . .

Black-cowled Oriole eating a Cecropia Flower, Atenas, Costa Rica
Black-cowled Oriole eating a Cecropia Flower, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Cloudy Morning Hills & Gallery Opening

The Hills of Atenas the other day (October 2). I tried to do a panorama that didn’t “catch” or all match, so this is just one section that depicts the clouds or fog in the hills surrounding Atenas many early mornings, as seen from my terrace. There seems to be something “magical” or “mysterious” happening when the morning air is like this. 🙂

Cloudy Morning in the Hills of Atenas, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

Report on Galería ARTenas Opening

Gallería ARTenas Opening

We had a great opening to our little art gallery yesterday with hundreds of people coming to see (and some buy) hundreds of pieces of art. I think it was a big success and that many people in Atenas will become regular visitors and customers. We have a VIP Opening November 5 (government officials, etc.) and the JIT or “Just in Time for Christmas” arts and crafts fair the second week of December, so lots of things planned to motivate return visits. I plan to work with the gallery until sometime in January and then I am going to phase out this old man who is finding it a little too much now at age 83, but after that I may have an item or two in the gallery on consignment but will go back to photography just for fun and sharing it on the blog. So keep reading this blog for my usual flow of nature photography. 🙂 ~Charlie

And a few shots from the Gallery Opening . . .

  • My 6 Wall Art Photos
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Young Tico Singer

¡Pura Vida!

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Leaves, Lichens & Nature Things

Sometimes it’s the little things that are usually ignored that become my biggest discoveries in nature and my Leaves & Nature Things! GALLERY has 20 of these discoveries that I found at Hotel Banana Azul and there were more such nature things I shared in the Cahuita and Gandoca-Manzanillo sub-galleries, but click the above link for Hotel Banana Azul. And here’s just one leaves shot and one mushroom! Plus email readers must click the title above to see my feature photo & favorite leaf shot! 🙂

Caribbean Rainforest, Costa Rica
Caribbean Rainforest Mushroom, Costa Rica

Leaves & Nature Things! at Hotel Banana Azul.

¡Pura Vida!

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Nite in Colinas del Sol

Yesterday I had my house fumigated for insects, mainly for an invasion of two different kinds of ants and believed the treatment would be more effective if I left my house closed up with the fogging and spray overnight and thus not healthy for me to sleep there. So I spent last night at our little neighborhood hotel, Colinas del Sol, which is a group of cabins along with a few larger, long-term rental houses. I was put in Villa 3 and snapped a few shots before the afternoon rain started. I can’t go anywhere without capturing photos of the nature there!

I’m writing this last night and my plans are to enjoy their breakfast included with the room this morning and mid-morning return home to open up and air out the house, with all the ceiling fans on for awhile! 🙂 Then enjoy my ant-free house! And tomorrow’s blog post will return to the continuing reports on Hotel Banana Azul in Caribe Sur! I’m still processing photos with a lot more to share! 🙂

View from my Cabin surrounded by forest-like gardens.
Continue reading “Nite in Colinas del Sol”