charliedoggett.net
My profession is to always find God in nature.
– Henry David Thoreau
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| Bumble Bee, Atenas, Costa Rica Found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere but do occur in South America Technically, I’m still in the Northern Hemisphere at Latitude 9.98 in Atenas 🙂 We are less than 10 degrees above the equator. |
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| Bumble Bee going for the deep nectar! Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Bumble Bee approaching another flower in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica |
Note that I see hummingbirds every day in my garden but the moment I walk out the door they usually fly away. I don’t need feeders. They love the flowers! But they don’t stay still for photos!
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| Green Orchid Bee, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett Another “fruit” of my garden! |
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| Green Orchid Bee, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett Note: This bee lives only in tropical Central and South America |
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| LifeWay VBS 2015 Theme Journey Off the Map, and yep! Parts of Costa Rica look like this! Remember, Jurassic Park was here! Some thought of Costa Rica with Avatar, but there are no blue people here! 🙂 |
I just read about the jungle theme “Journey Off the Map” and focus verse of Vacation Bible School at my church back in Nashville. I love it! It is where I have been and where I am now both physically and spiritually:
Isaiah 30:21, “And whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: ‘This is the way. Walk in it.'”
I taught in Vacation Bible School this time last year at First Baptist Nashville and learned then this would be the theme and verse. I liked it. Soon afterwards I wrote a poem based partly on this Bible verse: “Metaphors of Modification” which was one of the early posts on this blog. I’ll let you click the link to read it if you wish. It was back when I was still dreaming, before even the relocation tour.
I have felt at peace ever since about my “Costa Rica Decision Process,” the first title of this blog, and at peace about the final decision I made in September, and all that has happened since then.“This is the way. Walk in it.” (And I understand that the spiritual meaning of this is not specifically about my move. I hope to write more about the verse later, because in some ways it is another “life verse” for me.) I will miss teaching in VBS this year and especially the theme. If you are one of the good guys who helps in VBS, think of me down here in Costa Rica! 🙂
ADDENDUM: WORSHIP WITH FIRST BAPTIST NASHVILLE ONLINE TODAY
When I was in the apartments the first four months, I was walking to the nearby little non-denominational evangelical church most Sundays and the two times I tried the “streaming worship service” from First Baptist Nashville, my connection was not good enough to get more than little hiccups of video. With my new and better internet connection in this house I discovered today that it works very well here! I’m thankful for many reasons! The local worship in Spanish is not always working for me and Pastor Frank started a new sermon series on “Mile Markers of Life” today. I’m looking forward to his messages and thank Bill Latham for sharing them on Facebook.
But the biggest surprise today was that the flower arrangement in the Nashville church looks like it could have come right out of my Costa Rica garden, with Heliconia and Red Ginger dominating the arrangement! Both are blooming in my garden every day! Maybe they chose it for the exotic VBS theme! VBS starts there tomorrow. Here’s the two dominate flowers in their arrangement:
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| Heliconia in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Red Ginger in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
Both of the above two flowers in my garden were a part of the flower arrangement at First Baptist Nashville today as I saw them on the computer screen in a streaming of their worship service.
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| One of the many Metalmark Butterflies, I’m pretty sure. No positive ID. Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett |
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| Metalmark Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett |
My private gardener team came and did some good work yesterday. I’ve retained them for once or twice a month maintenance of garden and trees. (The ones who installed my garden.) The property gardener does a lot but works for about five or so properties doing mainly the big maintenance, weed-eating, etc. Most people here get a maid, I get a gardener! 🙂 Maybe a maid later. Still emptying boxes now.
I have meds and electrolytes to take and a list of what foods I can eat and not eat. So I should feel better soon. I am to go back if not better by Thursday. Medical care here is done very well, just mostly in Spanish! 🙂
Since all my posts have photos, here’s an unrelated butterfly shot made recently:
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| Colored like a Duskywing and tail like a Swallowtail but no match so far! And a green head! If you know what it is, please contact me! charlie@charliedoggett.net |
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| Four-lined Ameiva or Four-lined Whiptail found only in Costa Rica and our two neighbor countries of Panama & Nicaragua Okay, this one’s on the floor, but I tend to notice them more on the walls They crawl in under closed door, so no keeping them out! |
Yeah, I told a lot of people I was going to live in the rainforests of Costa Rica. Thus some envisioned me in the pith helmet fighting off wild creatures and vines overtaking my house. Then I start showing photos of my apartment and its great views and four months later photos of one of the nicest houses I have lived in anywhere. One friend in Nashville wrote, “It doesn’t look like you are roughing it!” And for me who loved camping for years, I am not! But let me tell you of a few things that some of you might consider “roughing it:”
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| The lizards in garden are bigger than what come in the house – at least so far! 🙂 |
They are good things you want because they eat bugs and especially mosquitoes when they come.
They don’t bother me and in fact I’m glad to have them! It is just not like living in Tennessee! It is more like living in The Gambia, but easier!
SNAKES
They are here, but I have not encountered one in either house yet! One of my neighbors here and one at the apartment have seen them close to their door. Hope not because both my doors are open all day long when I’m here.
INFRASTRUCTURE
This is what really bugs some Americans because we are a developing country with roads, sidewalks, utilities, and other services not quite up to par with 21st Century United States (Like “Smells” above). As I have said before, some things about living here remind me of growing up in El Dorado, Arkansas in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. And there is something pleasant about the simplicity of a small town (el pueblo). Glad I chose both Costa Rica and Atenas!
And I have never yet considered myself “roughing it!” I love it here! Living here is like traveling and my favorite travel quote is by Mark Twain in his 1872 book titled, of all things, Roughing It. From my personal website travel page:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It
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| Blue-breasted Hummingbird grounded on my balcony. Another first for me. He did fly away later. Guess he was resting. |
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| Blue-breasted Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica |
They are in my garden, on my balcony, and I’ve even had one fly inside the house! This is the third species of Hummingbird I have photographed here. Yesterday I posted a Cinnamon Hummingbird and my first week here was a Blue-tailed Hummingbird. They and the butterflies are little flying jewels around my house! And below is the butterfly in my garden this afternoon:
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| Great Southern White Butterfly on my Tutti Frutti today! You can also see where the leaf-cutter ants are eating it! I’m treating the ants with Mirex-S! |
Today I also planted some new plants in my garden after purchasing them in Spanish (with the help of my driver Nelson). My gardener will make some more improvements, but I couldn’t wait and went plant shopping today!
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| Philodendron Xanadu, 6 plants added to garden. Leaves will fill in, in time. I wanted to put them together in a blank spot, but only about 3 inches of dirt there above my septic tank cover. So, I have to wait on ground cover. The little light green leaves bottom right is my ground cover, Pilea. |
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| Polka Dot plants were added along my back walk where there is more shade. I think these are a type of philodendron too. Can’t remember what called in states. |
A very full and fun day between my two Spanish lesson days! Doing what I enjoy!
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| Cinnamon Hummingbird in my garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Cinnamon Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Cinnamon Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica |
Finally! One stays long enough for me to go get the camera and a few shots! Most have been diving into the foxglove and straight back up in the air, hard to catch even if with camera. But this little guy hung around the Plumbago for awhile, sipping nectar. You may remember that during my first week in the new house I shot this Blue-tailed Hummingbird in my neighbor’s shrub/tree. I’ll try for more of course!
A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel —
A Resonance of Emerald —
A Rush of Cochineal —
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head —
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning’s Ride –
—Emily Dickinson
Above the flower bed. Over the lawn …
A flashing dip and it is gone.
And all it lends to the eye is this —
A sunbeam giving the air a kiss.
—Harry Kemp
I have a gallery of Costa Rica Birds by Charlie Doggett over 100 species!
On the walk through my neighborhood I just couldn’t include all the images, so here are two more that a few of our homes have as their vista, the pastoral farm hills around Atenas. And the third is a similar view from my bedroom and office/guest room.
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| Some have farms, cattle, coffee, or other use while other hills are investments. Hopefully they will not all be developed as the wildness around us disappears! |
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| Some have roads over them like above, for what reason I know not. Some of these hills are coffee farms or were in earlier times. |
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| And from my office/guest room before I added fishtail palms for privacy. |
And how appropriate that on the day I post these pastoral scenes Sarah Bartlett at McKendree sends this link to a visual version of Ode to Joy by Beethoven.