Category: Culture

Posted on

Cigar Plant Shredded by Wind

A couple of years ago my gardeners planted this Cigar Calathea, Calathea lutea (linked to Wikipedia). It has many other cigar names which I guess is because of the cigar-shaped flower, but the leaves are not used for cigars! Rather, they are used for the presentation of food in some restaurants or to wrap food to go. It was surrounded by other tall plants like the Ti Plant, but I had those removed because they blocked the sun and flowers below would not bloom without sun! Here’s a series of photos made this week, with a couple earlier showing un-shredded leaves.

The Cigar-shaped Flowers of Calathea lutea, Atenas, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Cigar Plant Shredded by Wind”
Posted on

Nature Art for a Traffic Jam

Because of numerous doctor appointments in San Jose, I get to “ride shotgun” and be the observer while Walter deals with the traffic! 🙂 Anyone who regularly drives back to Atenas from San Jose will recognize this “bottleneck” where traffic must narrow down to one lane for our side of a two-lane bridge and then enjoy the multiple lines following that for the toll booths. 🙂

Well, my philosophy is to always “make lemonade out of lemons” (rather than screaming at the idiots in government who wouldn’t pay for a 4-lane bridge on a major highway like Ruta 27). So I notice the other day this black tree contrasting with the yellow & green grasses on a hill where the traffic jam begins. Walter says that there was a grass fire on that hill a few years back and that tree burned down. Now its charcoaled figure graces the hill like a statue on a museum pedestal. 🙂 Welllll . . . use your imagination! 🙂

Here’s two shots on my cellphone through the car window glare, one from a distance and one closer as we passed it. You locals look for it the next time you drive back from San Jose! And I know . . . this is only one of many places where one side or the other of 27 narrows down to one lane. And it is beyond my comprehension why the new bridge on 27 west of Atenas is only 3 lanes instead of four! But – just enjoy the gorgeous vista from that bridge! 🙂 Beauty in every inconvenience! 🙂

Ruta 27 westbound from San Jose.
Nature As Art on Ruta 27 westbound from San Jose.

Nature as Art!

¡Pura Vida!

And for all kinds of views of Costa Rica, visit my photo gallery online called Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA + with 10 years of CR photos plus all my old Tennessee and other historical photos. The galleries represent my whole life but especially my retirement years. It has been fun! 🙂

Or maybe you would prefer to see my San Jose Gallery.

Posted on

Simple Beauty

I continue to photograph dying palm fronds and other leaves because, to me, there is a different and simple beauty in each one, kind of like people! 🙂 And the colors vary greatly from bright yellows and oranges to rusty browns or coffee colors, and yes, even almost black sometimes. Then there is the overall shape of a frond, slightly different with each species of palms and the multiple lines and shapes that each frond forms. Oh well, I guess “Simple Beauty” says it best! 🙂 Enjoy!

Dying Palm Frond, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

And of course I have a gallery of Leaves & Nature Thing! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Mango Tree Flowers

In a neighbor’s garden, snapped with my telephoto lens from my own driveway. In a tropical place like Costa Rica I seem to find something new and wonderful to photograph every few days, even while standing in my own garden! 🙂 I love it here!

Mango Tree Flower, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Mango, Mangifera indica (linked to a Wikipedia article)

Or perhaps you would enjoy my “Trees” GALLERY which I just noticed has had 3,000 views since February 2022, in just 2 years! Seems that someone else likes trees too! 🙂

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” – Nelson Henderson

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Close & Far Panoramas

The first shot on my cellphone is close, as I step out through my gate onto the road by the cow pasture and begin another walk. The second photo on my camera is a merging of 3 shots of the far mountains in a common panorama vista from my terrace. I love where I live! 🙂 Plus it is not far from some totally different vistas I can visit in rainforests, beaches or cloud forests. Pura vida! 🙂

The cow pasture across the road from my casita on a hill, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
And the distant view from my terrace, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

See the photo gallery titled: From My Roca Verde Terrace for many more similar vistas. And FYI: “Roca Verde” (Green Rock) is the name of the housing development where I live, named after the big green (moss-covered) rock just inside the entrance gate. 🙂

Atenas: “El mejor clima del mundo!” “The best weather in the world!”

🙂

Posted on

Happy Valentines Day!

From my garden to you with nature’s red, heart-shaped flower, the Anthurium, Anthurium andraeanum (linked to Wikipedia). It is native to Central and South America and has many common names in English such as anthurium, tailflower, flamingo flower, pigtail plant, and laceleaf. They bloom year-around in my garden and in a pot on my terrace where these photos were made.

Anthurium, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Anthurium, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Happy Valentines Day!

Posted on

“I don’t know.”

That phrase, “I don’t know,” is becoming my old-age mantra as an 84-year-old who turns 85 in just a few more months.  Unlike the “Know-it-all” teen and young adult years, I continue to feel that “I don’t know” about more and more in life! 🙂

Like many my age, this old man walks into a room and asks himself, “What did I come in here for?”  “I don’t know.” Then a new pain comes in a different part of my body or some other part is not functioning properly. Why? “I don’t know.” Where did I put that? “I don’t know.” Is the doctor appointment tomorrow or next week? “I don’t know.”  What am I having for dinner?  “I don’t know.” 🙂

Followed by deeper thoughts, like when am I going to die? “I don’t know.”  When should I move to a Senior Adult home? “I don’t know.”  Why did half of my home country vote for a lying, immoral, convicted criminal to be their president? “I don’t know.”

With all of these doubts and multiple health problems I have now, why am I still happy? “I don’t know.” Maybe it is because of this mantra of accepting that in life there is so much that “I don’t know.”    🙂

Socrates famously observed, “I know one thing, that I know nothing.”

He also said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

And finally he said, “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less”

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

A Related earlier Post: Merton’s Prayer of Abandonment

Aren’t you glad that I don’t get philosophical too often? 🙂 Now back to nature!

Posted on

A Fave Flower Finally Identified

My Costa Rican gardener has always called this flowering shrub “Once de Abril” as a local name honoring our one war hero who fought off the North American Rebels trying to turn Central America into another slave state in the 1800’s. Thanks to Google Lens & iNaturalist, I’ve discovered that it is “officially” . . .

Duranta erecta, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Scientific Name = Duranta erecta

Common Names in English

  • Golden Dewdrop
  • Pigeon Berry
  • Skyflower

Nombres comunes en español

  • Coralillo (iNaturalist CR)
  • Tala blanco (en Argentina)
  • Flor celeste
  • Fruta de iguana (I like this because my iguanas eat those yellow berries) 🙂

So there you have it for all the “official” names I could find! 🙂 Which like pretty much everything in nature, the only sure name is the scientific name and sometimes even that changes! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

See all my flower photos in the Flora & Forest Galleries.