Photo Shoot With Kuchi

Finally, we’re done trimming  the carabao grass. It’s son’s day off so we spent the late afternoon finishing the patch of grass that we left yesterday. It’s summer here now and 4pm is still a bit too hot for gardening.   Took time out to take a few shots of our lovable and cuddly dog Kuchi. She’s been with us for more than two years now and she has definitely grown. She has learned to open our screen door at the back . She has grown a little longer with those short legs and fan-like tail to boot. She is so “makulit”, always inching her way to get inside and sleep under our dining table. Lately, this is her favorite spot, a small area in our garden.

Her name is Kuchi!

I am saving on space so I compressed the photos. A friend is giving us a new  male puppy, a mixed breed of Japanese Spitz  like this one.  Dogs have been constant companions for us since we moved here nineteen years ago.  I call our backyard garden “pet sematary”, it is where our previous dogs are buried.  Remember Stephen King’s book of the same title?

We did our marketing this morning by going back to Pasig market, an hour trip from our place when there is traffic. As usual, I enjoyed the haggling, I am happy with even just a peso discount on fruits and vegetables.  It’s been some sort of ritual for Josef and me to eat breakfast at the nearby Jollibee outlet before going to the market. He would always order hotdog with egg  and local sausage (longganisa) for me either with two hot cups of coffee or hot chocolate drink.  We would go back there to explore the garden center we saw this morning. I would love to buy a pot  each of citronella, rosemary or marigolds. Citronella is the most common natural ingredient used in formulating mosquito repellents.

We’re having fun at making simple kitchen recipes again. This morning, Josef prepared lumpiang shanghai made of different veggies which we bought earlier. Then we recycled the left-over spaghetti sauce my making pizza  using sliced bread.

Our Tootsie roll sandwich is made of flattened sliced bread, with ham and cheese inside and rolled in bread crumbs before frying.  It is best served hot.

One can always experiment on  these simple and easy to prepare snacks without making a dent on one’s pockets.

Or you can boil fresh corn or sweet potatoes and they will give you enough fiber and they are healthy.

So much for this, have to catch up on reading Archetype.

 

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Just A Warm Hello

I miss sitting in front of my PC but the days are so filled with “things to do” so I am greeting you a warm hello and good morning in the meantime. I promised myself I would write another blog soon.

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Good Morning Tuesday

It’s supposed to be the start of summer in a few days but it rained the whole day yesterday and when I woke up this morning, there was a drizzle that made  the morning a little cold, perfect time to enjoy a hot cup of coffee. I welcome the rain at this time of the year but I pray  that the low pressure area would leave the country soon.

Welcome summer! I’d like to feel the sun on my face again. Here’s a prayer I have for you today: May you be filled with God’s blessings.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

I know, I know, this comes a bit late again but I just have to post these two pictures that I took of one of the lovely places I went to with the whole family. The Farm at San Benito is located in Lipa, Batangas, a three-hour drive from our place in Rizal. One thing I do remember so well is the night swimming at their Secret Pool with the lush green all around. It was so relaxing and it makes me smile thinking about my reaction to the place when I first saw it, the “oohs and aahs” and the excited anticipation of exploring it.

…then you wish you could stay here forever just absorbing the silence.

…and maybe a copy of a favorite book in hand.

 

 

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Hello!

I haven’t visited this corner for a while. No particular reason though except that I’ve been busy the past days. It’s Lent and I have to make advance  posts and do some research  for my apostolate at Apostles Filipino Catholic Community in which I am one of the admins. We now have  an astounding 51,000 members with a total reach of around 5 million views daily. We’re definitely growing.

Last Wednesday, some friends and I had a wonderful lunch at Max’s in SM Megamall. One of our members came home from Canada and she treated us  to lunch. I love bonding with them, we could talk about any topic under the sun, catching up on each other’s lives after almost three years – precious moments filled with laughter and sharing. One day is not always enough for all the things that we have to catch up on.  Friends are wonderful gifts from above. It was also my first time to visit the chapel located at the 5th floor of Megamall. One of these days, I would love to attend a mass at the Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord.

One thing that I always notice every time there is a slack in my blogging is, it’s quite hard to write again.  One somehow loses the momentum of sharing one’s thoughts.  Oh well, sometimes, I feel so lazy to sit in front of my computer and think.  Apart from doing research, I have gone back to reading e-books.   Who knows, I may even reach my goal of 70 books to read this year. I am keeping tab of it  so I would know.  Right now, I am on my 17th book and just finished a wonderful one yesterday entitled The Help. I am less inclined to make a review though because I am excited to read the next book on my list. Finally, I was able to watch the movie adaptation of Markus Zusak’s  The Book Thief.  Read it four years ago and it was one of the best read I ever had. One can’t compare the movie versus the book because definitely, the book is more detailed but the acting is also superb and charming. Sophie Nelisse is perfect as the protective and loving Liesel.  I cried reading the book and watching it onscreen is equally touching.

It’s my grandson’s 16th month today but that would be in another blog.

 

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It’s St. Patrick’s Day

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and I wish you these old but familiar Irish Blessings.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

It’s been a while since I last posted something here for the Weekly Photo Challenge. Sometimes, I just forget, at other times, I don’t have the resource photo to upload here. I have several shots on this subject but I’d like to zero in on this particular shot since it makes me remember those days that we used to visit several Catholic churches for our Visita Iglesia during the season of Lent.

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It’s My Sixth Year, WordPress Says

Early this morning I received a message from WordPress with their familiar logo. Thanks a lot WordPress for this lovely message:

Happy Anniversary!

You registered on WordPress.com 6 years ago!

Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging!

Maybe, I ought to congratulate myself for maintaining a blog this long, sharing life’s journeys – the happy moments, the pains that a heart sometimes feels,  self discovery  and the joy that one feels when other bloggers and followers say that they are somehow inspired by this blog.

I remember the first time I registered a blog here choosing the Spring Loaded theme but I didn’t even know how to get about it and customize my blog. Oh yes, of course, I posted a single blog entry that remained just a single post for so long, almost a year in fact before I felt brave enough to share my thoughts with the world at large. I used to blog at  Multiply and it was confined to about a hundred close friends, most of whom I know personally and some online friends  I met at the site.  For so long, I’ve been using the Misty Look theme  and learned to customize and personalize it a little. I love its clean lines and easy to read font.  And  here’s one of the very first posts I did at WordPress. It’s about a book by one of my favorite authors, Rod McKuen.

SEASONS IN THE SUN

I’ll catch the sun

and never give it

back again

I’ll catch the sun

and keep it for my own.

And in a world where no one understands

I’ll take my outstretched hands

and offer it to anyone.

– I’ll Catch The Sun
Rod McKuen

The first time I encountered Rod McKuen’s poetry, I was hooked and that was almost thirty years. ago. A singer, a songwriter, a poet! He was part of my days and nights of finding myself, searching for  a lost love. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t there at all but the poetry of Rod McKuen was. Seasons in the Sun was one of his popular books and he was a friend, a companion during dark nights and an imaginary shoulder to cry on. He speaks for a generation with gentle and always intelligent poetry. In vain, I am still trying to find some of his books and they are still included in my wish list.

I would ask of you

that you ever be warm

willing to be kind

not letting me forget

that kindness is the passport

and the proven way

for two to journey through

a lifetime, each other,

or a single summer’s day.

I’ve spent some of my younger years wishing that I could put my thoughts on paper as sensitively as he does. I’ve spent some of my younger years wishing that I could reach out through poetry too just like he does, but that will never be. Ambitious thinking! And in my heart, I truly believed in finding one true love.  And  somehow I was brave enough to give it a try.  Listen to this:

Cloud formations

on a given day

and wondering

if  you’d seen them too

are enough to make

a morning pass for me.

Was your day
filled with wanting
or the needlepoint
of knowing that I waited

I did
I do.

Rod McKuen! he still could turn my days into sunshine and makes me appreciate the times that certain rain must fall.

 

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Thought for the Day

My Mokara orchids are blooming nonstop, same with my Hoya. I noticed two more buds while the last bloom is drying up. It’s such a joy to watch them unfold into lovely blooms.  When you are lucky to have Nature’s gifts, you can’t help but smile.  I am using most of my shots to make quotes for our Catholic page at Facebook.  This is one of them.

 

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The Joy Of Baking

“There was a mood of magic and frenzy to the room. Crystalline swirls of sugar and flour still lingered in the air like kite tails. And then there was the smell-the smell of hope, the kind of smell that brought people home.” – Sarah Addison Allen

One thing I love about baking, be it a simple banana bread,  moist carrot bars or cookies  is the smell that permeates the whole kitchen once you place the baking pan in the oven. I love the  combined smell of cooking raisins, nuts, vanilla or cinnamon or whatever ingredient a particular recipe calls for. This afternoon, I baked my second apple pie confident enough to tweak the recipe a bit and  experiment on brushing just egg whites on top instead of a beaten egg with the yolk.  The top part of the pie may not be as silky as when you use the whole egg but it adds a flaky feel combined with sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon. Whereas before I didn’t even know how to make a dough, it’s now as easy as kneading something for our local steamed bun called “siopao”.  I also sliced half and half of Fuji apples for a natural sweet taste and the tart flavor of Granny Smith.  It came out good, son said, “it’s yummy”.  I laughed when he asked, “did you take pictures?” He knows that I document almost everything that I cook in the kitchen  just like I do with my flowering plants when they are in bloom. He cut a slice even before it cooled down. I got three remaining apples, would love to try making apple sauce and use it on my next baking adventure.

Here’s one more that I experimented on a month ago, a simple recipe for vanilla cake. I didn’t put icing because I love the flavor without being too sweet.

I love the quiet, concentrating on the task at hand , the calming effect of kneading, measuring and  mixing to make something  yummy and  scrumptious.

I got a lovely surprise this afternoon when a friend sent me a lovely tin of Fannie May Colonial Assortment chocolates via LBC.  Aren’t I lucky? Can’t wait to take a bite. Thank you Ex.  🙂

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