Hoping you will have a happy December as I expect mine to be. I will be slowing down with only 3 doctor appointments! 🙂 My health is doing well with mostly the wonderful public health system here in Costa Rica, an ultra sound scan every 6 months showing me cancer free, a monthly nurse visit to my house, checking on me and data on my CPAP machine, and just a month ago I got new hearing aids compliments of the Cost Rica Social Security! Life is good in Costa Rica! 🙂
Some of you may remember that back in 2017 I started a collection of handmade “Artisan Birds,” mainly from artists in Costa Rica, but a few from other Central American countries and ended up with 2 from countries outside Central America. The collection has not grown much since the first two years or so, but I finally I now have a better tree on which to display them.
Up close on a few of my artisan birds. See each one individually in the linked gallery.
And you can see all of my “Artisan Birds” collection with labels of where they are each from in my photo gallery:My Artisan Birds Tree
The first year (2017) was the best display tree, a dead tree branch with lots of branches and I never found another like that. Last year I finally bought an artificial green bush or shrub which I kept most of the year in my living room with or without the artisan birds, but never liked it and the artificial limbs were too weak and droopy and earlier this month it went to the garbage man. And I vowed to find a better one this year!
Well, last week I found this all white artificial small tree with little tiny lights and decided that was it! But again, the limbs were too weak and droopy to handle the small weight of my tiny ornaments! (See the BEFORE & AFTER pictures below.) Grrrrr! BUT, “where there’s a will there’s a way!” I figured out how they made it with a real little tree trunk and wires going up and out for limbs, “they” just used too thin or flimsy wires. I thought, “why couldn’t they have used stiffer (heavier) wires?” Then I realized that if I could tell them how they “should” have done it, I could just do it myself! And I did! 🙂
I went to the main hardware store here in Atenas (La Ferretería Vargas & Hijos) and bought some heavier or stiffer wire (12.5 m roll) for a fraction of what the 3 rolls of white electrical tape (cinta blanca) cost and two days later I have totally “rewired” my little Christmas tree with the new heavy wire held to the older thinner wires with lots of white electrical tape wrapped around every centimeter of every limb and the trunk! A LOT OF WORK! But, ta daa! I now have a new tree that is strong enough to hold the artisan birds! 🙂 Here are two pairs of “Before & After” photos to show you what I accomplished . . .
One more little book for this year, a 7×7 inch book of 41 nature quotes by famous naturalists printed on my nature photos. A good gift for the naturalist in your life! 🙂 And another creative outlet for me! 🙂
CLICK Cover Image to see a free preview of every page.
There are two ponds here at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, and both can have Caiman in them, with a total of 3 Caiman living here, a smaller version of the American Alligator. They are a native wild animal in this area, seen in most forests and farms. The 2 shots on land were at the central pond and the water shot at the Caiman Pond along the entrance road. Below these 3 Caiman photos are three of me and my birthday cake last night when the younger staff members sang “Happy Birthday” to me – in English! The first time since I moved to CR 10+ years ago! I had gotten use to “Feliz Cumpleaños.” 😊
Back in 2017 when my artist friend and next door neighbor, Anthony Jeroski, returned to the states, I got his favorite pot plant, a Desert Rose. It has been one of my favorites also and has literally bloomed constantly, year around, these past 7 years. I repotted it back then and since it seemed a little crowded recently, I had one of the plant nurseries (viveros) repot it for me this time. 🙂
I’ve had a Crown of Thorns that also bloomed year around, but it finally died, while this little guy just keeps on producing! The feature photo is of the new pot which was dormant at first (or in shock) for about a month in its new pot, but has started blooming again and will soon have blooms on every stem! Here’s one shot for the emailed version, followed by the online gallery of multiple shots. Another one of my many joys of being retired in Costa Rica! 🙂
Yesterday’s blog post was my 12 favorite photos of 2024, allowing myself only 2 pix for each of 6 categories. The Birds Category was the most difficult to narrow down, choosing a Toucan and a pair of Green Ibis. Here are the other 9 bird photos that made my next-to-last cut, presented in a static gallery below this one photo for the email notice of the post . . .
As every year on New Year’s Eve, I am trying my best to narrow down my favorite photos to just 12 – pretty much impossible! 🙂 But I always do it anyway and never by the months. This year I created 6 categories of photos and chose 2 pix in each. As usual, the birds category was the most difficult to narrow down, so tomorrow I am publishing another post with the 9 runner ups in the bird category. 🙂
The Categories this year are: 1) Birds, 2) Butterflies, 3) Other Insects, 4) Other Wildlife, 5) Flowers, 6) Landscapes. And the ones labeled from “Atenas” are all from my garden except the vista from Casita del Café.
My twelve choices for 2024 will be below this one photo for the email version. They are a slideshow in the online version, so email recipients please click “Read More” below for 12 great photos! 🙂
Merry Christmas from Charlie Doggett in Costa Rica! And this unusual tropical flower I photographed at Arenal Observatory Lodge in Costa Rica is a Trimezia gracilis (scientific name), and in English variously “Walking Lily, Walking Iris, Apostle’s Iris or Apostle’s Plant.” One of my favorite photos of this year.
¡Pura Vida!
A Two-Day Christmas Celebration in Nature . . .
I’m spending today and tomorrow at Xandari Nature Resort in Alajuela as my Christmas celebration, so you can expect photos from there over the next few days! 🙂 The day after Christmas I go directly from Xandari early to Hospital Mexico for an ultrasound scan of my neck to continue monitoring any possible spread of the cancer removed 2.5 years ago. That and continued removal of small skin cancers (like the one on my nose in November) keep me totally cancer-free! ¡Gracias a dios! And this nature blog continues as always! 🙂
I’m also pleased with my nature-centered photo Christmas Cards over the ten years here and you can see all of those photos in the photo gallery “My Christmas Cards From Costa Rica” (linked). Just one more of my “Nature as Art” creative outlets! 🙂 Merry Christmas!
I got lots of attention all day yesterday but the biggie was dinner with a birthday cake and singing of Feliz Cumpleaños. Plus they decorated chair with flowers and gave me a bouquet of flowers to take back to my room in the tree tops! And I will eat more birthday cake today!
Bouquet taken back to my room.Head Chef or Kitchen Manager posing with me.
