Category: Trees

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Artistry of Tree Limbs

Cows find shade here and . . .

the Cattle Egret roost in these limbs! 🙂

Trees

BY JOYCE KILMER


I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

All three trees were photographed by me at Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica. And if you like trees too, check out my Trees Photo Gallery which is a sub-gallery under Flora & Forest Gallery.

And PLANT TREES! They absorb carbon dioxide & give us oxygen to breathe!

¡Pura Vida!

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Village Church

Like the hills yesterday, I never tire of trying to get a better photo of the Atenas Central Catholic Church, especially from the Roca Verde hills, so here’s another one! 🙂 The official name (en español) and website link is Parroquia San Rafael Arcángel.

The cluster of palms in front of the church is the Central Park which has been closed since March because of the pandemic, as has the church for large crowds, just open for solo prayers and small groups distanced and masked. Costa Rica has taken the pandemic seriously with national mask and distancing required, no large gatherings and strict restaurant rules, though unfortunately many restaurants have closed permanently for a lack of business. A sad time for many people world-wide. But the central church is still a symbol of hope for many. And fortunately Costa Rica has fewer cases of COVID19 than any other Central American country.

And some trivia . . .

Most Catholic Churches face west so worshippers are facing east towards Jerusalem. I haven’t put a compass to it, but have been told that is the case here. In Costa Rica it is also tradition for most central parks to have the central church on the east side of the park and on the west side of the park, opposite the church, is a Banco Nacional, the main national bank in Costa Rica. That is the case in Atenas and Alajuela I know and in many other towns when I’ve thought to check. Hmmmm . . . is that elevating money? Sounds more like the U.S. 🙂

Well, maybe TMI – too much information! But I find it fascinating living in a culture that I did not grow up in and thus notice little things like these and I love living here! For more pix of just Atenas, see my Atenas Galleries and CR People, Fiestas & Arts (mostly Atenas).

“Let the villages of the future live in our imagination, so that we might one day come to live in them!” ~Mahatma Gandhi

¡Pura Vida!

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Forest Window

Not only does one create his/her own happiness but also the world in which you want to live. When I moved into this fairly new rent house it had the basic trees and shrubs but I immediately planted a garden and added other plants around the yard and that now big Cecropia tree that appears in so many of my photos.

Another one of those early plantings was a row of palms outside my two bedrooms to gain additional privacy from the street that my bedrooms face, howbeit down a steep hill through lots of other trees and flowers and my big Strangler Fig Tree. It was not only for additional privacy but for the feeling that I live in a forest as seen from any of my windows and doors. Yes – we can create our own world! That is what I was trying to show in an earlier post: My Windows – My World, and back then the above bedroom window feature photo was different with an indoor palm (at right). I have to change pot plants occasionally because this window gets minimal sunshine! 🙂

And because it also changes a lot, there’s another earlier post titled Kitchen Window View. I love being surrounded by nature, the main art in my house along with some of my nature photos.

“Nature is the art of God.”

—Dante Alighieri

My Monstera deliciosa plant provides a good habitat for the birds in my photos! 🙂

“Just remember life is all an illusion…..

it’s your creation and you can dismantle it and re-create at will.”

― Nanette Mathews

¡Pura Vida!

For more pix of my “forest house” see photo galleries: My Home Garden, or My Rent House in Roca Verde, or Vistas from My Terrace, or Vistas from Hill Above My House. Of course all of Costa Rica is my big backyard and I travel to all parts of the country about every other month in national forests, parks and reserves, so watch for reports on the blog and/or check out my big gallery where I have photos documenting more than 80 Costa Rica trips in the CR Trips sub-gallery! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Costa Rica offering all-expenses-paid vacations: How to enter

An article in Tico Times on how Canada and U.S. Citizens can win one of 15 free trips to Costa Rica for 2 people each. Just write a brief article or statement on an “Essential Person” to you during the pandemic. The 15 best will be published and you get the free trip! 🙂

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Short, Squatty Trees

On the front end of the cow pasture across from my house are a couple of short, squatty trees that remind me of the acacia trees I saw in the Masai Mara and Serengeti of East Africa and I’m embarrassed that I don’t yet have the identification of these here. But all trees are worth showing photos of, named or not! 🙂

Short, squatty trees in Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica.

“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”

— Kahlil Gibran

¡Pura Vida!

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Today’s Birds

Close to home I usually photograph my most birds along the 1 km or so up the hill from my house. Today I met a neighbor to show her where I find them and we spotted or recognized a minimum of 12 species. Here’s photos of 8, having no good photos of female Blue-black Grassquit, Hoffman’s Woodpecker, White-winged Dove and Inca Dove. The two doves I have so many photos of I just didn’t even try to photograph today. 🙂 The featured image is an immature Tropical Kingbird which is fairly common all over Costa Rica. CLICK an image below to enlarge and/or start a manual slide show.

  • Blue-gray Tanager
  • Tropical Kingbird
  • Red-billed Pigeon
  • Barred Antshrike
  • Great Kiskadee
  • Stripe-headed Sparrow
  • Blue-black Grassquit Male
  • Tennessee Warbler

See all my BIRDS galleries from many countries or just Costa Rica Birds if you prefer! 🙂

If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.

—Aristotle

¡Pura Vida!

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The World needs a “Forest Bath”

The Japanese health system has developed the practice of shin-yoku, literally forest bath –

“spending mindful time in the woods. It is beneficial for soul and body as it boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, aids sleep, improves mood, and increases personal energy. It has become a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japan.” ~from Chapter 7 of book The Future We Choose

I highly recommend this book to anyone concerned about climate change and the future of our globe. It is full of optimism in the human race, even though if we don’t start doing more to eliminate carbon dioxide, our earth will begin self-destructing by 2050. And the above passage reminded me of an older book I also highly recommend, especially if you are a parent or teacher: Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv.

And lastly, encourage world leaders to do more to return earth to nature! Thankfully the U.S. will soon be back in the Paris Agreement with a real president coming into the White House! As the worse offenders, the U.S., China and India must do more to reduce carbon dioxide, but it is still a job for the whole world and the UN tries as seen in this latest summit agreement as another tiny step forward . . .

world leaders’ pledge for nature – enough?

Read about it with BirdLife International’s article: UN summit on biodiversity: world leaders’ pledge for nature. The world is still losing its nature at an increasing rate and we are generally doing too little too late! But if everybody would just plant a tree, it would make a difference! The nature-deficit-disorder in the peoples of the world is great!

For relaxing photos of the forests, see my gallery Flora & Forest. or all my Costa Rica Galleries that include links to my nature photos in Tennessee, Africa, and many other places as well as all over Costa Rica! And the feature photo is of the Lower Falls of Nauyaca Waterfall, Dominical, Costa Rica.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

—Albert Einstein

¡Pura vida!

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2021 Calendar with a Purpose

I’ve always had a wall calendar by my desk to see the current month at a glance even though appointments, etc. are on my electronic calendar. I mark only my trips on the wall calendar. And for the last few years I’ve zeroed in on calendars by the Costa Rica Nature Photographer PUCCI. The one I just bought for 2021 (feature photo) has a greater purpose than just nature, part of the price I paid goes toward planting trees in Cost Rica! It is called Árboles Mágicos and supports one of the best ways to fight Global Warming! Our trees absorb some of that carbon dioxide the fossil fuel cars are emitting and Costa Rica is already working on that, planning a future of only electric cars. And if you don’t already know, Costa Rica already has 100% clean electricity now! 🙂 The United States should be embarrassed that this little developing country is so far ahead of them! The Árboles Mágicos proposition in a one minute video en español:

Árboles Mágicos Propósito

“Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that? Let us love trees with every breath we take until we perish.”

― Munia Khan

¡Pura Vida!

And for those interested in more details, this year (2020) I had Pucci’s “Backroads & Trails” Calender with photos of twelve trails/roads, eight of which I’ve been on! 🙂 I love this place!

Now here is just one month from the new 2021 calendar to show how it looks:

The November 2021 page of my calendar.

And here’s the back with all 12 month’s photos shown if you can see the small image. The majority are flowering trees.

My 12 months of tree photos on the Pucci “Arboles Mágicos” calendar.

And of course I have a Trees Gallery as a new sub-gallery of my Flora & Forest Gallery. 🙂 All photos made in Costa Rica, the most bio-diverse country in the world!

¡Pura Vida!

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New Hillside Views

I love walking up and down my hill and the others around me, even if they leave me winded sometimes! 🙂 And when I take my camera (in addition to the cellphone) I can zoom in on things like our village church or the cows on the next hill over! It’s fun! And one of these new views is from my terrace and living room! (The feature photo) And of course these were made a few days ago with sunshine before the hurricane rains started. 🙂 Yesterday’s post of cloudiness was what I expected more of plus rains, but this hurricane did not have a lot of rain like the last one. It is partly overcast and partly sunny today.

CLICK an image to see it larger:

  • From My Terrace
  • Our Farming University Next Door
  • UTN Cows
  • Central Atenas
Some of My Hillside Vistas

“There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.” —Charlotte Eriksson

See also my Costa Rica Vistas Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

🙂

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Morning Birds Today

I just walked up the hill above my house this morning with my camera this time and lots of different photos as usual. I’ll share only 8 of the birds I got and today tried to present some in different positions that the usual side-view on a limb or power line, like the Yellow-throated Euphonia male grooming himself (I also got a profile of him) or the two Inca Doves napping. Enjoy these and I may share some landscapes & flowers tomorrow.

  • White-winged Dove
  • Yellow-faced Grassquit
  • Barred Antshrike
  • Tropical Kingbird
  • Tennessee Warbler
  • Yellow-throated Euphonia Female
  • Yellow-throated Euphonia Male
  • Inca Doves

¡Pura Vida!

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Celebrating in Costa Rica!

  1. Hurricane Eta Rains are gone and we have blue skies!
  2. JOE BIDEN IS PRESIDENT ELECT of the USA!
  3. And Trump is gone!

The featured photo is looking towards my house from my street along side the cow pasture. The visible house on the left is my neighbor across the driveway from my house which is hidden in the clump of trees behind that street light. I like being in the woods! 🙂

The “Big House” is barely showing on top of our hill which our landlord has rented out since he now lives on the beach north of Jaco. And that’s today in my neighborhood! 🙂

“Love thy neighbor — but don’t pull down your hedge.”

~Benjamin Franklin

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¡Pura Vida!