My Birthday Party

And I’m a little late reporting on what was this past Tuesday, but thanks to those who wished me a happy birthday (July 4) from around the world! And it was, as always, happy when I’m in a rainforest! 😊 The photo is of the birthday cake the lodge made for me, decorated with local fruits and topped with a sign that translated to all English says: 83 – Happy Birthday! – Charlie – We wish you a happy birthday full of joy and you enjoy it very much. From: Esquinas Rainforest Lodge.

My 83rd birthday cake in the rainforest!
83 – Happy Birthday! – Charlie
We wish you a happy birthday full of joy and you enjoy it very much. From: Esquinas Rainforest Lodge.

¡Pura Vida!

“The Wind in the Trees”

“Nothing has ever been said about God that hasn’t already been said better by the wind in the trees.”

~Thomas Merton

With that, I renew an old adventure that will certainly become an even grander new adventure . . .

Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas NP, Golfito

It was in October of 2018, the peak of the rainy season, that I first visited Esquinas Rainforest Lodge at La Gamba Research Station, Piedras Blancas National Park, north of Golfito, Puntarenas. It rained pretty hard every afternoon with the mornings and short spaces between rain full of wonderful birds to photograph! And the planned boat trip to Rio Coto Mangroves turned impossible with high winds and heavy rain on Golfo Dulce, but the ingenious boat captain took me back into the smaller Gulf of Golfito (shielded from heavy wind by trees) for some of my better bird shots in between downpours – an unplanned but excellent substitute for an always good mangrove tour! Making Lemonade from Lemons! 🙂 And how could you not in this incredible rainforest? See more photos from my first trip there & a video link below . . .

Continue reading ““The Wind in the Trees””

Salome or Boisduval’s Yellow?

Maybe! Again, another yellow that is not an exact match to any in the book or online. Another one I got in my garden a few weeks ago. Nice, whatever he is! 🙂 NOTE: In 2024 I decided that this is a female Dina Yellow, Pyrisitia dina.

Salome or Boisduval’s Yellow – Maybe! Atenas, Costa Rica
Salome or Boisduval’s Yellow – Maybe! Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And for those following it, my Saturday morning “Coffee & Art” photo sale did very well. Of course I didn’t sell everything, but I sold a lot! 🙂 THANKS to all who came! You are appreciated!

15% OFF All My Books

for the next two days, June 21-22, 2023 by using the Discount Code: BSTORE15 when checking out from the Blurb Bookstore. Check out all 79 of my photo books with the most recent on top and save 15%! Go directly to my bookstore at: https://www.blurb.com/user/cdoggett or click this image of the first page:

CLICK IMAGE to go to my bookstore where you can preview every page of every book!

And by the way, I will have 14 of my photo books available this Saturday, 24 June, at my Coffee & Art show at my house, 105 Roca Verde #2, 9-12am! See you there! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Art Show at My House Next Saturday!

One week from today! Anyone in Costa Rica is invited to my casita to view all of my many photo-art items that are available here now. I spent about $5,000 getting ready for a new art gallery that was to open June 15 in Atenas that did not open for various reasons. Now I’m stuck with piles of art work in my tiny casita with no storage space. So almost everything must go! And all is PRICED BELOW MY COST!

COFFEE & ART

9-12 am, Saturday, June 24

Come & Go as you please

105 Roca Verde #2

See photos at: ATENAS ART GALLERY AT MY HOUSE

INCLUDING:

¡Pura Vida!

Wall Art Available in Atenas

I will always prefer that you order wall art directly from my online Photo Gallery which is hosted by SmugMug.com who uses professional printers to print each of these, whether on paper, canvas or my new preference of “Float-mounted Metal Print.” I ordered each of these from my gallery.

There are 11 new ones ordered especially for the new local gallery that did not get established, plus about that many more I already had. You can see them online in two places:

  • Wall Art Images in a sub-gallery in my big Photo Gallery on SmugMug.
  • Or on this website at: Art Gallery at My House, but you have to scroll down past the floral accent pillows which I listed first with wall art second. Everything available is presented there on one page, while in the galleries there is a separate sub-gallery for each category.

The feature photo is one of the bigger images, a sunset from Cancun with Costa Rica on that horizon! 🙂 And below is one of the four Red-eyed Tree Frog photos available.

Red-eyed Tree Frog at Arenal Observatory Lodge, 20×16 inches, Metal, $100 USD or ¢55,000 CRC.

¡Pura Vida!

Coffee & Art, June 24, 9-12 am

Come and Go as you please! – ¡Ven y Vete como quieras!

Another Strange Bug

Sometimes it feels like no two bugs are alike here, but of course that is not true, but here is another one I cannot identify and don’t remember ever seeing before, photographed with my cell phone on the bathroom floor. The long antennae remind me of the Longhorn Beetle, but nothing else about him seems to match that ID. As I tweaked each photo a little different, he sort of looks a little different in each. As always in these blog galleries, click an image to see full-width and larger.

Why I Slacked Off Blogging . . .

For more than two weeks now I’ve put all my energy into preparing my many wall art photos and many more other photo products for a one morning art sale at my house on 24 June which I’ll tell you more about in the blog over the next few days. And much of my time has been spent in going to Alajuela to pick up packages of different items being shipped here for what was first going to be a new art gallery business in town and now for my one morning “Coffee & Art!” Plus I like to label every image with information on where photographed and of course a price tag.

In addition to that one morning of “Coffee and Art,” I’m accepting art shoppers by appointment and had 3 ladies come by today with lots of compliments and $40 in sales of little things, so it sort of began today, though I will not encourage such private showings until after the Saturday Morning Coffee in another week. 🙂 And I was encouraged that one of the ladies wanted a particular sloth image in a metal print (I don’t have now) and will order it from my online gallery which I’m hoping more people will do! 🙂

Tomorrow I will feature the wall art that I hung in my living room for the sale and hoping that it will be the big attraction, while the ladies today bought tote bags and greeting cards 🙂 , so it is difficult to predict what people will like or want to spend their money on! 🙂 Stay tuned for more information on my temporary Atenas Art Gallery in my casita!

My new ABOUT Page

When I went to my ABOUT page to add a link to my temporary art gallery, I found formatting errors and a repeated paragraph, possibly due to many “upgrades” or changes in the many WordPress softwares and I couldn’t correct some errors, so just deleted almost everything and started over with the newest WP Editor and put a more recent photo of myself which is what I really look like now. 🙂 That’s the page with all the personal information and probably not a lot of people go there, but it is now updated and the menu has a link to my new temporary art gallery in Atenas. 🙂 There seems to constantly be little things like this that I need to do! But hopefully slowing down again after the June 24 art show!

¡Pura Vida!