Tag: Charlie Doggett

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Online Class: Photography & Mindfulness

I hate to admit that I succumbed to an advertisement on Facebook for an online class titled “Photography & Mindfulness.” But I did! 🙂 I have now gone through the first 2 of 10 classes which we do on our own time but are rationed out at 2 per week. In short, the first class left me very disappointed and sorry I paid money for it, but lesson 2 was much better and I have hope that it will get better and give me some more inspiration during this time of fewer birds and butterflies! 🙂 And even though the rainy season has started early this year, the wind is still blowing too much, though at least less than the previous 4 months. The weather is still blamed on the stronger than usual El Niño this year. Sooooo . . .

I followed their suggestion of starting a paper notebook of my notes, etc. on the class but by the second class decided I preferred typing than writing and by doing it online, I can include photos and links, thus my class notes are pages on my website under the ABOUT Page titled Photographer. The subpage there is Photography & Mindfulness under which there will eventually be 10 pages for the 10 lessons that Andaña calls “Pauses.” I was a little negative in my notes on Pause 1 as the class was not what I was expecting, but after Pause 2, I’m more positive. You can check out what you want to and I will do a post on each of the lessons, linking to the more detailed notes in the online pages.

  • Pause 1: Photography & Mindfulness – May 5, 2026
  • Pause 2: Looking With New Eyes – May 8, 2026
  • Pause 3: Breathing – May 12, 2026
  • Pause 4: Sensation and Emotion -May 15, 2026
  • Pause 5: Light and Shadow – May 19, 2026
  • Pause 6: Silence – May 22, 2026
  • Pause 7: Rhythm and Movement – May 26, 2026
  • Pause 8: Looking Inward – May 29, 2026
  • Pause 9: Contemplative Storytelling – June 2, 2026
  • Pause 10: Final Project—Your Mindful Photography Journal – June 5, 2026
  • Final Questionnaire
  • We Continue (They are going to offer me more courses.)  🙂

Interesting to me was that the second lesson’s theme, “Looking with New Eyes,” was the theme of one of my earlier books of titled:  A Voyage of Discovery, Having New Eyes for Costa Rica Landscapes.  

It appears that each lesson will feature a photographer that I will link to plus so far she has included a music video with each of the lessons that I can also share on my reports. For example, Pause 2 has this video:

¡Pura Vida!

The featured photo is a Physalis or “Chinese Lantern” growing wild in a neighbor’s yard until he “cleaned up” the yard, cutting down such weeds. 🙂 Wildness sometimes has unique beauties that a cultivated garden will never have!  Maybe that is “mindfulness” of wildness! 🙂 I miss that wild flower near me!

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White Angled-Sulphur & Atenas Weather

The wind is slowing down a little and that helps to see more birds and butterflies like this White Angled-Sulphur (my gallery link) photographed day-before-yesterday in my garden. This is a typical folded wings sideview showing a little greenish hue, while the top view is bright white with bright yellow patches under the two dark spots. See that in my above linked gallery, which I was unable to capture this time.

White Angled-Sulphur, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

“The Best Weather in the World”

or “El Mejor Clima del Mundo,” is the slogan of the town of Atenas, where the temperature stays in the Fahrenheit 70’s or Centigrade 20’s year around! It is usually windy just January to March, blowing in both regular dust and sometimes volcano ashes, which are black, making them obvious. Dry season is December to April or May and Rainy Season May to November, with April and November called “shoulder months,” meaning that it could be either dry or rainy and this April, also windy, which is not normal.

When I walked out of my bank across the street from Central Park on Tuesday, there were no other people by the city sign (unusual), so I did the touristy thing and made a selfie in front of the sign, which I haven’t done since it was first installed. The ATENAS letters have colorful drawings of places and activities in Atenas, while carved in stone beneath the name is the weather slogan: EL MEJOR CLIMA DEL MUNDO, which is also on the back of all Atenas buses.

Charlie Doggett, Central Park, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

We were suppose to have a big rain last night and I hope it will be the early beginning of the rainy season, which is my favorite time of year here with most days having only a couple of hours of rain in the afternoon or evening, and everything is greener and more beautiful! Plus that is when I see & photograph more wildlife including butterflies! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Amateur video in español . . .

Amateurish, but it does show a lot of Atenas including the county villages . . .

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Merry Christmas!

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! 🙂

Continue reading “Merry Christmas!”
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My Christmas Tree Adventure

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 . . .

Continue reading “My Christmas Tree Adventure”
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Book of Nature Quotes

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.

See a free preview of book by clicking above cover image or go to this web address: https://www.blurb.com/b/12572121-quoting-nature

¡Pura Vida!

And because I’m almost two weeks ahead on blog posts, I will just send this one out as an “extra” post now. 🙂

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Rainforest Caiman & My Birthday Cake

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.” 😊

See more of my photos of Caiman in my Caiman Gallery.

Caiman at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Rainforest Caiman & My Birthday Cake”
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Repotted My Desert Rose

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! 🙂

Desert Rose plant, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Repotted My Desert Rose”
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El Arte de las Flores

The Art of Flowers! There is no limit to the creativity in flowers!

Morning Glory! – Nature as Art!

See the flower slideshow below . . .

Continue reading “El Arte de las Flores”
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And the Runners Up are . . .

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 . . .

Inca Dove, Atenas
Continue reading “And the Runners Up are . . .”
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2024 Favorite Photos

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! 🙂

Yellow-throated Toucan, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Costa Rica
Continue reading “2024 Favorite Photos”