Category: Atenas

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More Birds on My Tree & Little Theater Experience

See also my other posts of tree birds:  Animales Fantasticos,  Arbolitos de Pajaros and still one more coming!

LITTLE THEATER EXPERIENCE
For you guys back in the states who think I just live with the birds and have no social outlets, you couldn’t be more wrong! Sometimes I have too much going on to live the slow, simple life I’m here for. One group I belong to is expats that take charter bus trips to San Jose for cultural activities plus some local recreational activities. Last week we went to the San Jose Little Theatre Group for a very interesting little play titled The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. It was about a teen boy with Asperger’s syndrome that was a little emotional to me since that was one of Juli’s problems. But I enjoyed it and our group of 40 filled the theater which we had to ourselves. It was a late afternoon private performance and then we went to an Argentina Steak House for a very good dinner before returning to Atenas. Thanks to Tony Phillips who puts these trips together!

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A Golden Leaf

Front Side

Back Side

I picked up this leaf along the side of the road walking home from the bus stop after a trip to Alajuela. It just attracted me, and I felt the need to photograph it with more than my cellphone. (I know, “Get a life Charlie.”) Living slow in Costa Rica, I now pause to “smell the roses” or enjoy the simple beauty of a leaf, its design, shape, colors (front & back totally different), textures, and what was simply pleasing to me. 
After getting it home and photographing it, I gave to my artist neighbor Anthony who painted the back side (lighter color) and pressed it on art paper to use as part of the background for one of his bird paintings. Neat, huh? Now I will pay more attention to leaves, for awhile anyway. 
For more leaves, shot in Tennessee, see my older Closeups gallery, scrolling down
Or if you want a more spiritual application, see my Gambia Journal Miracle Leaf Stories. 

For more leaves in Costa Rica browse through the tree and flower photos in my Flora & Forests gallery with a lot more of the cool leaves here in Costa Rica! It is a nature lover’s paradise in Costa Rica and my today’s find of a “golden leaf” is just a tiny sample of the simple pleasures I find here.

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Its a Jungle Out There!

From my kitchen looking across the DR/LR and terrace at another rain.
Our rainiest rainy season in years has everything growing. 

Step out my back door and the flower garden is 6-7 feet tall!

And the screen of little palms outside my office/guest room is growing too! 

Usually by December the “Dry Season” or our summer has begun, but it is raining again today and forecasts are for more. Its a good thing that I love the jungle!  🙂

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My New Toy: Macro Lens

Not the expensive one, just a simple Canon 100mm zoom, 1:28, Image Stabilizer (for hand-held) and auto focus. Here’s a few flowers with it and MY VERY FIRST HIBISCUS in my garden! I only recently got the plant which is slow-growing, but here’s the first bloom!

 

Hibiscus
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Once de Abril  (haven’t found an English name yet)
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Heliconia
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Plumbago
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Red Ginger
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Porter Weed
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

I think I did okay on close-ups of flowers before with a telephoto lens from a distance, but this is suppose to be better! It has the capability of a 1:1 ratio if I get close enough. Insects will be more difficult because they scare off, so I’ll probably continue with my 300 mm for them. Though, note the little tiny ant on the Porter Weed above.  🙂 And it is so nice having flowers blooming year around!

My Flora & Forests photo gallery

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Trogon During Class

Gartered Trogon
in the Cecropia Tree beside my terrace
during Spanish Class Tuesday morning at my house.
Quick cell phone shot & he flew away.
I’ve traveled many miles to get a photo of this guy
and he finally comes to me when I’m without good camera.
🙂
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No Official “Thanksgiving” BUT “Black Friday” Everywhere!

Thanksgiving Day is a unique American Holiday only, not here, so the banks are open here today and there are no parades or football games! BUT, tomorrow is a huge day here as Black Friday or Viernes Negro as possibly the biggest shopping day of the year here too! The malls are so crowded I wouldn’t think of going tomorrow! Even for the big sales! Not even for Star Wars which I will see next week. 🙂

We have a neighborhood chef now who prepares very good dinners to be picked up at his house Monday to Friday and today he prepared a traditional turkey & dressing dinner which I enjoyed with my neighbor Anthony along with a cranberry salad and pumpkin pie Anthony had prepared. I’m stuffed and ready to take a nap!

Our Thanksgiving turkey dinners came in decorated bags,
here on plates at Anthony’s house ready for us to eat. 

And at my Spanish Class this morning we joined with another class for coffee and homemade goodies, language games, and each of us presented what we are thankful for, en español of course! Here is my paragraph as presented this morning: 

Gracias a Dios
Doy gracias por una vida lenta y tranquila en Costa Rica. ¡También para una casa muy agradable y propietario excelente! Y para la gente amable de Atenas y muchos buenos amigos. Y muchos hermosos pájaros y mariposas.

¡Y oh sí! ¡Para el mejor clima del mundo!   J  Cuando me mudé aquí, yo era el único en Atenas que lo creía.
The second paragraph is kind of a joke about the slogan Atenas uses everywhere, saying “Atenas – The best weather in the world” which most locals don’t believe and often joke about. But I still sorta believe it! And definitely thankful for the weather here!
And oh yes, Hurricane Otto passed north of us with only a little more rain this morning and no major winds, so that “best weather” town of Atenas still is!  🙂 We had no flooding, power loss, trees down, evacuations, or anythingf else that was going on in the path. Fortunate again! ¡Gracias a Dios!
Read about it in La Nacion. 
¡Pura Vida!

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Ready for Hurricane Otto!

Copied from La Nacion  –   Heavy rains & flooding BEFORE the hurricane hits in Caribe.

Costa Rica’s first hurricane since 1851 is expected to hit land tonight in the northern Caribbean near by beloved Tortuguero National Park or further north in Nicaragua. Atenas is not in the “Red Zone” that expects the most wind and rain, but we will get both all day on the American Thanksgiving while I eat turkey with my neighbor.

For more on the hurricane, today’s Tico Times article

And track it on The Weather Channel and a hundred other websites!  🙂

And the best coverage in Spanish is in our national newspaper La Nacion which Google will translate into English for you. Lots of photos and videos.

They are forecasting up to 20 inches of rain and very high winds in the path (north of us) as it travels all the way across the peninsula to the Pacific Ocean. We will get rain as we have all day today and some winds, but probably not the very high, damaging winds. Yet hurricanes do change paths sometimes, so I bought my bottled water and prepared if it knocks out our power and water. Which could mean no blog post tomorrow night! 🙂

There wasn’t a run on water at the supermercado,
meaning I guess that most don’t really expect us to have much damage.
I’m always the Boy Scout! Being prepared!

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Seeing Behind the Leaves

In the forest or my garden, one must look through tiny windows to see behind the leaves:

Blue-crowned Motmot at breakfast this morning
In Yellow Bell tree that will soon be blooming, Atenas, Costa Rica
As usual, I said “Oh fuey! He’s not in the open for a good shot!”
But this is a more common view! 

Tropical Kingbird (pretty sure, can’t see breast)
From my terrace, Atenas, Costa Rica

Maraca or Shampoo Ginger
In jungle of my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Heliconia behind Heliconia plants
My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Red Ginger amongst the ginger leave
My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Red Ginger amongst many plants
My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Layers of Leaves
My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Heliconia
Overshadowed in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Between the leaves in my garden
Atenas, Costa Rica
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Maybe My 2 Most Frequent Visitors

These two I see from my terrace every day and possibly more often than any other birds.

Rufous-naped Wren
Seen at breakfast from my terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
White-ringed Flycatcher
Seen at breakfast from my terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Similar to the very common
Social Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee & Boat-billed Flycatcher.
But white on head makes a complete ring around his head
and Kiskadee & Boat-billed are noticeably larger with larger bills.

See also my BIRDS Photo Gallery