Category: Places

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Tropical Kingbird

Tropical Kingbird is one of the more common birds in Costa Rica and I have seen him in my gardens several times before this photo. Yes, there are two other birds with similar coloring but clear distinctions can be seen between this and the Western Kingbird and Gray-capped Flycatcher. Click above name link for more information on the Tropical Kingbird.

Seeing and sometimes photographing birds like this in my garden is just one of the many joys I have in living here. Tranquilo is a favorite Spanish word used here to describe Atenas and translated to English that means “calm, quiet or peaceful.” Fellow residents like this Tropical Kingbird help make it so as do  other birds in my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

“A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.”

—Cicero

¡Pura Vida!

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Glowing Orange

Triquitraque or Mexican Flame Vine was the name of my article last April when my vine was at its best. This year it seems to be peaking a lot earlier or hopefully it will be for longer! As stated then, “Triquitraque” is the Costa Rica name of this profusely blooming and glowing vine while most Americans call it “Mexican Flame Vine” and now I read online line that in Florida they are actually calling it “Florida Flame Vine.”    🙂

As planned when I planted it around three years ago, it is mostly covering the stark concrete wall behind my tropical garden giving a blaze of color when traveling up or down the hill. My landlord likes it along his driveway! The butterflies & hummingbirds do too! Here’s a couple of views from above and one from the kitchen window through its glare and reflection of my hands and the kitchen sink. When not traveling, I enjoy my gardens!  ¡Pura Vida!

Orange is the happiest color. 

Frank Sinatra

Click image to enlarge:

This sun-loving, evergreen vine is also known as the flame flower or the golden shower. It’s native to Brazil and Paraguay, where it flourishes in rocky scrub habitats and forests that are seasonally dry. It grows quickly, spreading with tendrils; a single stem can be 80 feet (24 meters) long! Its genus name Pyrostegia comes from Greek words for “fire” (pyr-) and “cover” (steg-), and when it flowers in fall and early winter, it is engulfed in spectacular, flame-colored blooms that attract hummingbirds.    ~San Diego Zoo

University of Florida Article on growing Flame Vine 

San Diego Zoo Article on Flame Vine

Report on My “Weekly Post” Survey

Basically everyone who responded to my request for comments are simply very kind and flexible people; meaning I did not get any strong opinions one way or the other and you readers are divided on your interests, so I am probably going to continue mostly the way I have been blogging, with no more pressure to have a daily post, feeling free to skip days every once-in-awhile, maybe several in a row.

I will not legalistically stick to my original theme of “Retirement in Costa Rica” though that is who I am, thus all related! Even the above flowers!   🙂    And I will always strive for better quality writing and photography! I live a “Pura Vida” life here and will continue to report on it, sometimes daily, sometimes every few days or weekly. Since it was flowers today, I’ll do a serious article tomorrow and then back into my usual groove!   🙂   And by the way, if you ever wondered, those 3 “Related” earlier posts at the bottom of each post are not my choices but something the WordPress blogging computer chooses based on subjects and key words. Interesting!f And usually very well related!

 

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A Weekly Blog Post?

A Change in the Blog . . .

I am thinking about a purpose and need for this blog, my goals, and what the 20 to 100 actual readers per day want to see here.  (Tell me!)

As I re-evaluate the blog I see it in danger of becoming a personal journal, more about me than my original purpose of “How to Retire in Costa Rica” or now about “Being Retired in Costa Rica.” My retirement hobbies of travel, birding and photography don’t speak to all, but that’s a given.

Beginning this coming weekend, my new “trial approach” is to post only one weekly, quality article on Friday, Saturday or Sunday (flexible day).  I will seek to:

  1. Use fewer/better photos with a gallery link for those wanting more.

  2. Try for shorter, easier to read posts. This is already too long!   🙂

  3. Try to include some “inspiration” though not always my purpose.

  4. Try to improve my photography so one photo says it all!

Please Give Your Input  —  Reader Survey

Use the Comments box below or email saying:

  • Keel-billed Toucan on my Terrace

    What subjects you would like me to include?

  • What you think of a weekly approach?
  • Do you read this for information or photos?
  • Are your interests (1) Retirement in CR?  (2) Costa Rica in general?  (3) Nature photography?  (4) Travel?  (5) Birding?   or  (6) Keeping up with me?

If your prefer a private message click Contact on top menu to email me.

 ¡Pura Vida!

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God’s Glory in the Skies

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Psalm 19 The Message (MSG)
A David Psalm
19 1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their words aren’t heard,
their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
4-5 God makes a huge dome
for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
racing to the tape.
6 That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
warming hearts to faith.
7-9 The revelation of God is whole
and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
down to the nth degree.
10 God’s Word is better than a diamond,
better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,
better than red, ripe strawberries.
11-14 There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep me from stupid sins,
from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

(Emphasis is mine.)  Sharing what struck me in my devotional reading 3 mornings ago as I read this Psalm. And really, everything in nature has God speaking to me whether in a Bible passage or a famous quotation or not. I am in closer harmony with God in the natural places of Costa Rica than anywhere I’ve been before – like an anteroom to Heaven!   🙂    No predictions intended, but I’m ready!   🙂   Being close to nature is one of my ideas of heaven!

¡Pura Vida!

See also my GALLERY:    VISTAS, BEACHES, SUNRISES, SUNSETS 

One little slice of the joys of being “Retired in Costa Rica!”

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This Mountain

This mountain, the arched back of the earth risen before us, it made me feel humble, like a beggar, just lucky to be here at all, even briefly.          ~ Bridget Asher

Mountains surrounding Atenas seen from my terrace at breakfast.

Cellphone photo by Charlie Doggett –click panorama to see larger.

After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone. 

~ Matthew 14:23

¡Pura Vida!

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Weird Drums of Pipes & Pots

Just another one of the unusual things I see in Central Park Alajuela. Yesterday this guy was drumming away on his psychedelic apparatus in the park for tips. A quick snap of it  on my way to the bus station. He looks and acts more like a young American, but some young Ticos try to be that way.

¡Pura Vida!

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Tortuguero – THE BOOK

The book is now finished with photos from 3 different trips to Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica and I think it is pretty interesting. You can go to the book online and Preview it electronically free! And of course best seen at fullscreen since it is all photos. Click this link or the book image below for the preview:

http://www.blurb.com/b/9315463-tortuguero

Tortuguero

 

“A brave heart and a courteous tongue. They shall carry thee far through the jungle, manling.”
~Rudyard Kipling

 

See my 2019 Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge Visit Gallery for more on this exciting rainforest trip!

Or the Turtle Beach Lodge website or Laguna Lodge of my previous visits.

¡Pura Vida!

 

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Terrific Trees Tortuguero

After saying last night’s post was the last from Tortuguero, I found the tree photos and just have to add one more Tortuguero post!   🙂

I did not focus on trees nor photograph all the neat and big ones seen in Tortuguero but here is a sample of the great variety of trees there and all over Costa Rica. Click image to enlarge:

 

“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky. ”   
―   Kahlil Gibran

 

For more tree and flower photos see my galleries called FLORA & FOREST

See my 2019 Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge Visit Gallery for more on this exciting rainforest trip!

Or the Turtle Beach Lodge hotel website

Or my photo book on 3 visits to TORTUGUERO, The Amazon of Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Flowers in Tortuguero

I know that the flowers I show from different Costa Rica locations are often the same species but they are all different to me with each individual flower a particular work of art with its own personality! So here’s a few from my 3 nights at Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge – most in their gardens but a few photographed in the wild rainforest where there are especially a lot of Heliconia. Click to enlarge or start manual slideshow. Enjoy!

The Amen of nature is always a flower.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

And that will be the “Amen” of my Tortuguero reports until I finish the photo gallery to send you to and then the book which will cover all 3 trips there. I always have something fun to work on!    🙂    And you might like seeing some of my other Costa Rica flower photos in my FLORA & FOREST Gallery. Or if particularly interested in Tortuguero and the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, then the sub-gallery CARIBBEAN COAST  flowers gallery.

See my 2019 Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge Visit Gallery for more on this exciting rainforest trip!

Or the Turtle Beach Lodge hotel website

Or my photo book on 3 visits to TORTUGUERO, The Amazon of Costa Rica

 

¡Pura Vida!