Thank You for 2023!

I am immensely grateful for each and every one of you who read my blog regularly, occasionally or just look at the photos! My site host reports more that 2,000+ “hits” online at my website/blog every month! 🙂 And that doesn’t count many of the 500+ subscribers who only look at the email version nor most of the 650 Facebook Friends who look at the one feature photo without clicking the the link to the post! 

I also appreciate the hundreds of comments left on the posts monthly and many “contacts” or messages through my contact page or by email. Just yesterday I responded to a man in England with questions about photographing wildlife at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and a friend in the States commented with a meaningful Bible verse about my post yesterday on hugging the 800 year old tree. Nature is fun! :-) And you who read or just look at the pictures are the ones who make it fun for me! :-) THANKS! Keep reading or looking at the pix! And click the gallery links for more pix!

As usual, I’m ending the year with 12 photos from this year, equaling one per month but not literally from each month, since some months have weaker or fewer photos. Nor are these necessarily my top 12 favorite photos from this year, but are representative 2023 photos from “Retired in Costa Rica” this year, with birds and butterflies obviously being two favorite subjects again! :-) One shot here for the email version and eleven more online with a quick click below of “Read More”!

Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Thank You for 2023!”

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 . . .”

3 Waterfalls at Lodge

The three falls on the lodge property rival some of the big commercial falls in and around the little town of Bajos del Toro where there are 31 waterfalls you can visit! But these lodge falls are assuming that you are willing to walk 2km, mostly uphill to get to them and then they are fairly close together once you get to the first, which is Melody Falls. Then hiking back to your cabin is another 2 km, though mostly downhill and a lot easier and faster! 🙂 I was hiking solo, thus I did not wade into the stream for a better view of Melody Falls. Unfortunately I have history of slipping and falling on wet rocks! 🙂 So all of these photos were made from the dry trail or flat land by the three falls. Tomorrow I will share a few pix of the streams and other views along the trail to and from the falls which I think is almost as beautiful or interesting. But here’s one pix of each waterfall with it’s sign to identify it. And it works better if you go to the website to see them, so after the first one in emailed version, a link to the other photos in the blog post online . . .

The Silence Waterfall

El Silencio Waterfall, El Silencio Lodge & Reserve, Bajos del Toro, Costa Rica
Continue reading “3 Waterfalls at Lodge”

Wall Art Available in Atenas

I will always prefer that you order wall art directly from my online Photo Gallery which is hosted by SmugMug.com who uses professional printers to print each of these, whether on paper, canvas or my new preference of “Float-mounted Metal Print.” I ordered each of these from my gallery.

There are 11 new ones ordered especially for the new local gallery that did not get established, plus about that many more I already had. You can see them online in two places:

  • Wall Art Images in a sub-gallery in my big Photo Gallery on SmugMug.
  • Or on this website at: Art Gallery at My House, but you have to scroll down past the floral accent pillows which I listed first with wall art second. Everything available is presented there on one page, while in the galleries there is a separate sub-gallery for each category.

The feature photo is one of the bigger images, a sunset from Cancun with Costa Rica on that horizon! 🙂 And below is one of the four Red-eyed Tree Frog photos available.

Red-eyed Tree Frog at Arenal Observatory Lodge, 20×16 inches, Metal, $100 USD or ¢55,000 CRC.

¡Pura Vida!

Coffee & Art, June 24, 9-12 am

Come and Go as you please! – ¡Ven y Vete como quieras!

Dry Season Waterfall

There is not a lot of water in many streams during dry season, though springs provide some, and this Waterfall #5 is the biggest one during the rainy season, but not much to look at on my last morning hike down the steep path to see it. Of course there is a much larger and nicer falls at Arenal Observatory Lodge and even better are the 3 giant falls at El Silencio Lodge in Bajó del Toro, but still I like all waterfalls, so here’s 4 shots of a little one from this morning.  🙂

 

Waterfall #5, Xandari Costa Rica

Continue reading “Dry Season Waterfall”

My 2022 in Photos

From the top of a volcano to the mangroves at the ocean’s edge and even in the tiny garden behind my casita, I’ve daily photographed nature for 8 years here and called that photography “Nature as Art!” and shared it in this blog.  🙂 

I like this Collins Online Dictionary definition:

Nature is all the animals, plants, and other things in the world that are not made by people, and all the events and processes that are not caused by people. 

Thus in nature I worship God and find my peace & inspiration from Him, the creator of it all!

Each year I find it difficult to select only 12 photos from the year and I first tried to come up with 12 “categories” of nature to make sure I selected a variety, but that became as cumbersome as trying to have a “photo-a-month.” So I decided to just stick with “12 favorites,” even if more than 12 are favorites! 🙂

So, however labeled, here’s 12 photos I made in 2022!

Happy New Year and Pura vida! 🙂

This 1st of 12 is looking out at the Pacific Ocean from Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce, Piedras Blancas NP and the 12th photo below is a shot  looking out over the Atlantic Ocean at sunrise from Hotel Banana Azul. Coast to coast nature photos!   🙂

To the nearly 500 email subscribers: I hope you read on for the other 11 favorite photos . . .

Continue reading “My 2022 in Photos”

Danta Waterfall

As a waterfall lover, I don’t miss any waterfall that a lodge or park has and this “main” falls at Arenal Observatory Lodge is one of the nicer ones, and it’s my third time to visit it! There are other “seasonal” waterfalls here for when the rain is heavy, but the longer trails to them are more dangerous when wet for this old man who falls easily, so I haven’t tried any of them.  🙂

The people who were at the falls the same time as me were all Europeans from England, Holland, Germany and maybe one more country. We also have other countries represented at the lodge this week including Canada, Japan and China and though I haven’t met anyone from the states yet, there are most likely some here. The ones playing in the waterfall plunge pool are Europeans – 4 shots including this first scenic one for the email notice . . .

Danta Waterfall, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica.

 

Continue reading “Danta Waterfall”

What will I Have at the Art Show?

Wall Art

I’m bringing 21 photos printed on metal with a special mounting piece to give your wall art a contemporary 3-D look or a nice little shadow. In many sizes and subjects!

This Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth is just one choice! There’s birds, butterflies, monkeys, and flowers too!

Plus three other product categories . . .

Continue reading “What will I Have at the Art Show?”