Tag: Charlie Doggett

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Last Week of Moving Sale! 8-14 November

There has been no time for blog posts this week with an off and on flow of local people responding to my Moving Sale Galleries (linked) and I have continued to add items for sale, so locals please keep coming back! 🙂 THIS WILL BE THE LAST WEEK OF THE SALE! Ending Saturday 14 November.

The most over-looked or not used categories have been the arts, except for my African Arts Sale Gallery (linked) which has only 3 items left! And they are 3 of my favorites! 🙂 Now I’m telling you about the three other art categories with hugely discounted prices that might interest you . . .

Letting some of my Art Collection go at bargain prices at https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE/Wall-Art-By-Other-Artists OR CLICK THE ABOVE IMAGE

This sub-gallery has some of my “Collected Art” from over the many years of my long life and though I love it all, I will likely live the rest of my life in a small apartment without space to display or store it all, so some must go. CLICK ON THE ABOVE IMAGE TO SEE THAT GALLERY, then call for a time to come by and check it out as with the next two sub-galleries.

Last chance to get a Charlie Doggett photo! See what is left at: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE/Wall-Art-My-Nature-Photos – The above image is not complete, more have been added, but still going fast!

My first 12 years living here in Costa Rica and many of the last 10 in the USA were given to nature and travel photography and above is mainly wall art from over these last nearly 20 years with a few other things like two mouse pads and I have 5 coffee mugs left that I am just giving away if interested in a mug with a butterfly photo. Like with the previous gallery, call for a time to come look at what is available and finally I have everything clearly labeled with the price and other information. And yes, much of the above are items that did not sell in my earlier efforts in an art gallery and some arts & crafts fairs, but ALL ARE DISCOUNTED AT LEAST 75% with a few as low as $1!

Accent pillows with flower photos on both sides. Go to: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE/Flower-Accent-Pillows-1-each

And lastly, one of my favorites, the Flower Photos Accent Pillows, that I never understood why they did not sell at the gallery or the craft fairs, but now you can get a brilliant $20 accent pillow for only$1!

Then My Last Week Here (15-22 November) . . .

If you have ever moved, you know that there are a million things that have to be done and the moving sale prevented me from doing many of them including a physical for entry into a Senior Adult facility along with address changes and cancellations, etc. etc.! 🙂

That last week will be capped off on Sunday 22 November with a “Farewell Charlie Luncheon” at a neighbor’s house with several local friends coming to say goodbye. Then 23 & 24 are the very last minute packing with the actual move on 25 November and the beginning of another chapter of the old man’s life, an adventure to still be discovered from the greenway to the city streets! A lot to explore and discover! Plus a lot of new friends to grow old with. Thanks to all of you for your kindnesses and good wishes and the blog might be quiet again for a while as I finish the transition to a blog from a slightly different perspective. We will see what happens! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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MOVING SALE!

It is coming together and I will continue to add more items over the next week I’m sure, but the website Photo Gallery Listing of Items For Sale is well underway and can be seen at this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE

It is of course mostly for local people in or near Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica, but if someone anywhere in the world is willing to pay the shipping cost for anything (like some of the art or the stamp collection) then I will get it shipped to you once paid. If you have any questions, use the CONTACT menu item at the top of this page.

This is all happening very fast for me! It has to end no later than November 20 and probably sooner as I have to get rid of everything one way or another.

¡Pura Vida!

And THANK YOU! Blog Readers!

My blog/website host just reported to me that I had 11,000 views or visits in the month of October 2026! That just makes me want to do a better job, but be patient with me while I make this big move in November, then I’ll settle down to an even better nature blog! 🙂

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My “Wake Up TV” Interview

Mauro Protti, the producer and videographer of a 30 minute weekly TV show for a Costa Rica TV station and it’s own YouTube channel lives across the street from me right now. And the episode that was on local TV yesterday titled: “Wake Up TV Atenas, Costa Rica” includes about 10+ minutes of an interview he did of me Monday on my terrace in English with both Spanish and English subtitles that have a lot of computer misspelled words from a funny-talking old man, but the footage he made of Atenas shown after my interview is really good with shots of Central Park, parades, the central church, etc.

The first 5 minutes are a presentation about The Retreat, a very upscale resort in Atenas, then the interview of me, the videos of many activities and parts of Atenas followed by a video of the more affordable Hotel Colinas del Sol just three blocks from my house and they are the ones that suggested he interview me when he filmed there. 🙂 Finally an interview of someone here who plays music to plants that I did not understand, but you might find interesting. Of course everything is in Spanish except me. And what I say is answering his questions. He kind of focused on Butterflies because of my two new books of butterfly photos that he has a few quick camera scans of. I think I sound kind of strange, but it is what it is. Many people here are amazed that I spend my time photographing nature rather than watching TV or sitting in my rocking chair, so maybe I’m an oddity they are showing to locals. 🙂 Pura vida for me! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Charlie Doggett being interviewed by Mauro Protti for TV video. This is a still from the video and I evidently just said “was for” which is translation of “fue para.” 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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The Charlie Doggett Photo Library

Xandari has more of my photo books in their lobby than maybe any other hotel/lodge in Costa Rica. And they were on a bookshelf in a back corner of the lobby for quite a while, but when that corner was made into an office, they moved my books to just inside the front door, nicely displayed on top of a miniature oxcart, one of the historical symbols of Costa Rica. And my friends in Reception tell me that a lot more people are using the books now! 🙂

All of the lodges that I regularly visit have some of my books in their lobbies and I know that people use them as I have received letters of thanks from tourists by way of my website Contact Page. 🙂 It is kind of fun to gift people I don’t know from around the world with a tiny expression of my Costa Rica Pura Vida in my nature photos here! 🙂

Charlie Doggett Photo Books displayed on a small Ox Cart in the lobby of Xandari Resort.
Charlie Doggett Photo Books displayed on a small Ox Cart in the lobby of Xandari Resort.

¡Pura Vida!

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Contemplative Storytelling – Photography & Mindfulness

Here is the link to my notes and report on Phase 9: Contemplative Storytelling.

Using a cardboard “window” to find an image outside or anywhere is an old trick in photography classes, but it gets you focused. I may have shared this vista before, but it was the overwhelming image in this lesson’s activity.

¡Pura Vida!

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Blue-vented Hummingbird

This is my other “non-Rufous-tailed” hummingbird from the one shared yesterday and actually the first species of hummingbird that I photographed just 3 days after moving into this house back in 2015. (Bad photo but good memory!) 🙂 As today’s featured photo shows, it has a rich, deep blue tail that helps it to stand out among other birds. See more of my photos of this special hummingbird in the gallery: Blue-vented Hummingbird. And almost all have been photographed in my garden, though maybe my favorite of this species was photographed at Xandari in 2018! 🙂

Blue-vented Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Blue-vented Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

14,000 Views!

That is how many views my blog & website got during the month of May according to the Jetpack program on my site. That is a lot! THANK YOU for reading my blog/website and the related and linked Gallery! It makes my retirement activities seem more important to have that many people looking at my photos! 🙂

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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!

Go to: My Notes on Photography & Mindfulness Class

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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”