Category: Trees

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My 2022 in Photos

From the top of a volcano to the mangroves at the ocean’s edge and even in the tiny garden behind my casita, I’ve daily photographed nature for 8 years here and called that photography “Nature as Art!” and shared it in this blog.  🙂 

I like this Collins Online Dictionary definition:

Nature is all the animals, plants, and other things in the world that are not made by people, and all the events and processes that are not caused by people. 

Thus in nature I worship God and find my peace & inspiration from Him, the creator of it all!

Each year I find it difficult to select only 12 photos from the year and I first tried to come up with 12 “categories” of nature to make sure I selected a variety, but that became as cumbersome as trying to have a “photo-a-month.” So I decided to just stick with “12 favorites,” even if more than 12 are favorites! 🙂

So, however labeled, here’s 12 photos I made in 2022!

Happy New Year and Pura vida! 🙂

This 1st of 12 is looking out at the Pacific Ocean from Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce, Piedras Blancas NP and the 12th photo below is a shot  looking out over the Atlantic Ocean at sunrise from Hotel Banana Azul. Coast to coast nature photos!   🙂

To the nearly 500 email subscribers: I hope you read on for the other 11 favorite photos . . .

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Christmas Day Very Busy!

As I celebrated living in Costa Rica for 8 years, I had a very special Christmas Eve Dinner and this morning went to the Butterfly Conservancy in El Castillo on the lake, then hiked one of the trails here at Arenal Observatory and after another great dinner of baby back ribs, I’m going on a private Night Hike, just me and the guide! It was their suggestion since with the regular night hike of a group of 10 they knew I would find it difficult to make photos. Most of “my” lodges here really take care of this old man!  🙂 Photos from the night hike will come tomorrow.

And I haven’t had time to process photos of butterflies or anything else today, so here’s photos of the great sunny weather we had today and my first view this week of the volcano! The lake shot was at about sunset time, though the sun is not seen there this time of year, it’s still more pleasant with clear skies!  🙂  Much more to share tomorrow!

Every day so far this trip the volcano has been covered in clouds until . . .

. . . beautiful blue skies all day today – the first time to see Arenal Volcano from Arenal Observatory Lodge.

Arenal Lake at about sunset time today, Arenal Observatory Lodge.

 

 

 

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Black Spiny-tailed Iguana. . .

. . . in my Higueron or Strangler Fig Tree (Big Ficus). The tree just lost its leaves again which makes it a little easier to see birds or other wildlife like this, though with so many tight limbs it is like “he is behind bars!” 🙂 And this tree has few open spaces where I could have gotten a clear view of his whole body, plus he continued higher up where I could not see him at all. This variety of iguana is the only kind I’ve seen in my yard or anywhere else in Atenas, while many of the lodges I visit also have the Green Iguana which is more colorful but with the same behavior high in trees and sometimes on the ground. See my separate photo galleries:

Black Spiny-tailed Iguana, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Park Renovation Update: Playground

The park staff has finished everything for the playground quadrant except installing the new playground equipment which someone who knows says will be here in January. 🙂 Here’s the area of the playground with swings and monkey bars (or whatever) to go on that gravel area seen from two directions in these two photos.

There will be parent seating on three sides of this area.
Playground area on left. Canopies were for vendors during the Christmas Parade.

¡Pura Vida!

My gallery of ongoing park renovations arranged chronologically with most recent on top. Slow but sure! 🙂

REPORT ON THE RECENT ART SHOW: I sold more than a thousand dollars worth of photos when all was tabulated, much better than I expected! And I was even more pleased with how many local readers of my blog I have, with many showing up at the art show, and buying something and asking for my autograph in one of my photo books! It is nice to have your work appreciated, even when it is a hobby in retirement! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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What will I Have at the Art Show?

Wall Art

I’m bringing 21 photos printed on metal with a special mounting piece to give your wall art a contemporary 3-D look or a nice little shadow. In many sizes and subjects!

This Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth is just one choice! There’s birds, butterflies, monkeys, and flowers too!

Plus three other product categories . . .

Continue reading “What will I Have at the Art Show?”
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New Perspective Each Morning

Yep! I seem to see my garden a little differently each morning and never tire of walking through it. Here’s my snaps of flowers as seen 2 or 3 mornings ago – I know that they are often the same flowers but I am seeing them differently each time. 🙂 Pura vida!

My Desert Rose in a pot continues to surprise me with blooms year around for 6 years now!

A sample for the email announcement and then a slide show . . .

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Baltimore Oriole

A female in one of my trees and the “snowbirds” are coming – both literally and figuratively! 🙂

TODAY is Thanksgiving Day in the States and though not a holiday here, I’m having a traditional Thanksgiving Day Dinner with friends from New Hampshire up the street from my house.

Baltimore Oriole Female, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

¡Pura Vida!

And my Baltimore Oriole Gallery!

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Squirrel Eats Green Fig

He’s the most common squirrel in Costa Rica, a Variegated Squirrel, and I managed to get these two shots of him looking for green figs on my Strangler Fig tree Sunday morning and he did eat that one he’s approaching in the second photo. The first photo would be my favorite if the leaf behind him wasn’t “sticking out of his head” like a Unicorn, but to remove it in Photoshop would mean removing some of his whiskers and I didn’t think that would look right either, so “this is the way it really was!” 🙂

Variegated Squirrel, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

In next photo he approaches the tiny green fig that he ultimately eats.

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