charliedoggett.net
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| Common Rain Frog (probably), though similar to Wet Forest Toad and Rain Forest Toad. There are more frogs/toads here than anywhere, ID is difficult! This one from my garden is waiting at my front door! About 3-5 inches, 10 cm. +/- Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica Click to enlarge photo. A third the size of Giant Toad shown earlier. |
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| Iglesia La Soledad, Alajuela |
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| A Simple Elegance |
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| And a young church for Costa Rica! Many are dated to the 1500’s! |
When I took Anthony for his going away lunch at his favorite restaurant in San Jose (Tin Jo), we saw this nearby church and made a brief visit. In Latin cities there is a church in almost every barrio or neighborhood. This is one of those. A simple beauty that I like and part of my “Costa Rica Churches” photo collection that is bound to begin soon! 🙂
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| Zerumbet Zerumbet Ginger, Maraca Plant in Costa Rica, and in other places Shampoo Ginger or Pine Cone Ginger (links are to Google photos of flowers) |
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| It is the tall plant, two spears now with the little yellow flower on ground at base. They grow 7 to 8 feet tall and can have a large cluster of flowers at base. Click photo links under top image. |
I’m really excited about this addition to my garden which I requested in the beginning, but they are very difficult to find. They surprised me the other day! In a year or two it will be developed more with multiple shoots and multiple flowers. The flower starts small and yellow like this one and by October will be more like a pine cone and will have turned red or sometimes orange. This may be the neatest addition to my garden yet! A Heliconia plant was in that location and they moved it to my front yard for more color there! It is fun to live in a garden! Plus I start traveling next week.
Postscript: Back in 2015 I knew almost nothing about butterflies and incorrectly named this a “White-striped” (not stripped!) 🙂 But today I know that it is a Teleus Longtail. 🙂 But you can see the others in my White-striped Longtail Gallery.
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| Teleus Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Teleus Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica |
And actually, I still have trouble identifying the many longtails, but know a lot more now than that firs year here in Costa Rica! 🙂 20 April 2025.
What’s a butterfly garden without butterflies?~Roy Rogers 🙂
See my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery. Or the Teleus Longtail Gallery.
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| Both children and adults were excited about my nativity collection. All sold! |
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| It was a wonderful community party for families, here watching one of the Music School performers. With my photos & paintings all around them! |
Some of my art collection was sold in Nashville, but I shipped a lot here and after going through it for the pieces I could use in my house, everything else went in the Silent Auction, a first time experience for many here. The hundreds of people who came were nearly all Tico, wonderful local folks. Only 3 or 4 expat or gringo households showed up. Everything was purchased and some at bargain prices! It does my heart good to know how much of my art/photos are in Tico homes here in Atenas! And the Atenas Marching Band (free Music School) and Su Espacio have benefited pretty well from the sales. But, as David said, the best thing about it was how much fun people had being here and being together and discovering new things cheaply. He is thinking of beginning a monthly flea market as a similar social experience and opportunity for struggling people to bring in a few dollars. It is all about community at Su Espacio!
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| The Music School Choir sang along with lots of individual music acts, almost like a recital among my photos & art. |
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| The Music School Mom’s sold yummy Tico Food to help with fund-raising. Mi tamal y el café era muy delicioso! |
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| David (my Spanish teacher) and his wife Corinna were the cashiers. They operate Su Espacio Community Center. He is a Tico from Atenas and she is Italian! They have two beautiful children! |
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| And of course it was the Tico adults who bought the art, in spite of my other photos showing mostly kids! |
And now Atenas has been introduced to “Silent Auctions!” Before this weekend, an “auction” meant some men were selling their cows at the bull ring. And our cultures continue to blend! 🙂
“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”
― Barack Obama
“No one has ever become poor by giving.”
― Anne Frank, Diary of Anne Frank
You can thumb through it electronically for free! My very first book in Spanish! 🙂 Be sure to click the “Full Screen” button bottom right.
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| Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica |
“and when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.” ― Ruskin Bond, Scenes from a Writer’s Life
See my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery.
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| Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Costa Rica (On the back of the couch in my living room! Looking out the screen window.) |
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| Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Costa Rica Making himself at home on a drink coaster. This is what happens with doors left open. |
Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.
~Psalm 104:12 ESV
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| Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Costa Rica Singing outside my window in the Strangler Fig Tree |
See my CR Birds Galleries or specifically this bird with a new name: Rufous-backed Wren (my gallery link). Updated note made in 2025, 11 years later. 🙂
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| Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Its top side looks much like a Julia, but underside (folded wings) different. Sorry – not a good image, but only one made of top side. Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica |
My garden is getting to be about as good as one of these butterfly houses or farms! It has been like a new species every few days! But the book says June and July are the two best months for butterflies in Costa Rica, so this show may start tapering off soon! I’m enjoying it while I can and don’t miss my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery!
The average butterfly life is between 5 and 14 days. And I think I don’t have enough time?
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
~Rabindranath Tagore
Enjoying the moments in Costa Rica! -Charlie
I reach for a paper towel in my kitchen and there is something alive on it!
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| Colobura Dirce butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica I read that they like Cecropia leaves and I have a new Cecropia Tree! But not inside my house! |
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| I don’t even have to go outside to photograph butterflies! 🙂 But he startled me at first. |
| synonyms: | (happy) chance, (happy) accident, fluke
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And all my butterflies at Costa Rica Butterflies by Charlie Doggett photo gallery