Lato, Anyone?

Gosh, I can’t believe it’s been almost a year now since I posted something here. I am always updated with my main blog though, a link of which is attached here.

Sharing this photo I took yesterday, we locally call it Lato salad, a appetizer. I love seaweeds and I buy them once in a while fresh from the wet market.

 

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My Gardenia Blooms

 

These flowers used to be permanent fixtures in my small garden. I had the lone shrub for years and it produces such lovely white flowers  every year. Some months ago, the leaves slowly turned yellow then they dried up to brittle brown ones. This afternoon, my son and I decided to finally put it to rest so what is left now is a small stump  of the trunk.

My gardenia is gone. All I have left are random photos  of its flowers. Funny but I still could smell their heady scents from here.

 

Chance

Took this shot from a moving car in one of our road trips.  I rather like how the end of the tunnel was perfectly balanced on both sides and the blurred effect is just that…blurred 🙂 I guess, the distance and the speed worked.

What Happiness Is

–  Waking up to the song of a sparrow

outside your  window

– Feeling  the cold breeze that gently bites

your cheeks

–  A cup of hot black coffee

–  Freshly baked pandesal

–  A visit to the garden

– Discovering new blooms

– Raindrops lingering on the bright

green leaves

– The fresh look of the garden

on a cold morning

–  Watching the day unfolds

–  Seeing a patch of blue

in a cloudy sky

– Turning the pages of a favorite book

You see,  life is simple

And happiness could be just within your reach.

Beyond

Unforgettable Precious Moments

There is a different kind of joy when you are around a kid like Nate.  We are indeed so blessed to have him in our lives.

I taught Nate how to say three with his fingers but he found it hard to raise his three fingers all at the same time so I told him, “two plus one” using two fingers on the left and one on the right. He laughed and when I asked him “how old are you?” he said “three, three, three”. Oo nga naman, it is easier to say them in words, right Nate? Smart boy 🙂

We were both admiring their small aquarium  and I asked him if the fish inside have names. He smiled, pointed at each one and said, “Nonna, Josef, Mommy, Daddy, Nathan….” Sometimes, I am simply amazed how he makes me smile.

We were singing happy birthday while he was blowing the spare candle on his birthday cake and he was singing a little louder than we were. A the end of the song, he added, “happy birthday Nathan“.  Then he bestowed the usual wet kisses and warm hugs on each of us. Priceless moments of joy.

May you always be blessed little one. You are a wonderful blessing to us all.

Provincial Life

In one of our trips back to the province, I saw this at a neighbor’s house. They make charcoal  out of fallen trees  destroyed by typhoons.  So this is how they make it now. When I was younger, my grandpa would gather tree trunks (they had plenty back then), dig a hole in the ground and arrange the cut  wood then put rice husks on top , let them burn all night and gather the newly made charcoal early in the morning. A pail of water is on hand where the charcoal is dipped and let them under the sun to dry for a day or two.  We used them to cook on a wide wooden stove.  I remember my grandma using charcoal on metal irons. There was no electricity back then and life was simple.

It is so sad that the recent typhoon that hit the province destroyed some of our fruit-bearing trees. It takes years for them to grow and it is hard to replace the robust ones. My mom would gather firewood and neatly arrange them in a pile. Yes, they still use them from time to time  especially when there are occasions that need preparations in cooking . It is more convenient to use  large pots and pans in preparing several recipes, where firewood is a necessity.

I smiled when I saw this, it reminded me of the times when I was ten and it was a joy to help grandpa arrange the cut stems and branches in a pile like this.

I hope they would plant more trees to replace those which were destroyed by calamities. Trees prevent erosion which in turn prevent floods.