Can’t believe February is almost gone. It is the shortest month of the year. This month has been an uneventful one for me. The quiet days were spent gardening – replanting some bulbs, trimming the grass and buying vegetable seeds for germination.
One of the mulberry cuttings that our good neighbor gave me has sprouted new green leaves and the persimmon seeds I tried to plant in a pot are doing nicely. Such rewards despite the morning heat of the sun and the windy afternoons once in a while.
Summer is fast approaching and contrary to what some foreign visitors think that it is always summer here, we Filipinos consider the months of April and May as summer months. They are the hottest months of the year. We only have two seasons, the dry and the wet. The dry season usually starts in late November and ends in May the following year. The rainy season starts in June and lasts till October, sometimes we still experience typhoons by early December.
Ah yes, books of course.
According to Goodreads, I am done with 29% of the books I committed to read this year. I am still looking for those classic books. I have about three on my TBR list but discovering new books and authors always keeps me distracted. The allure of reading!
I bookmarked a particular blog here about reading books and authors all over the world. How I wish I could do that too. She has a list of all the books she has read arranged alphabetically by country. She included Philippine authors too. I recently finished a book about Guatemala and Mexico.
I don’t want to think about our political situation here but one can’t help seeing the news and the way our government is being run. It is sad that almost all of the appointees by the president belongs to his party and most of them don’t even have enough experience and expertise to do their job. It seems to be a case of “utang na loob” (a sense of obligation to return a favour owed). I am getting tired of all the jokes and the fake news. Trolls are everywhere. Imagine a president saying that the Philippines could be a province of China. My goodness, even if he says it is a joke, it is in bad taste. The Philippines is an independent nation, why would he even think of something like this? He is beholden to China, like a lap dog that just follows. Imagine even allowing China to co-own the West Philippine seas. What is happening to my country? This is a big question for me.
I hope the month of March would be more productive and lovelier than February.
Still hoping for the best. Welcome March 🙂
May the best come eventually
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Hoping for that too!
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Sorry to hear about what is happening to your country, Arlene.
The world is going through some strange times indeed.
Best wishes, Pete.
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It is sad Pete. Their moral values have eroded.
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Happy March to you Arlene. Summer has just ended here.
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Same to you Miriam. Be blessed always.
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You too my friend.
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Thank you.
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Not only the Philippines Arlene, we seem to have these Lap-dog governments all over the world…
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It is worse here Ivor. There is even the big problem of extra-judicial killings.
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Oh, that sounds terrible Arlene.
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It is Ivor.
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Us humans haven’t learnt much, after all this time on our beautiful planet….
https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/its-time/
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I agree. By the way, your poem is lovely! Thanks for the link.
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Always my pleasure
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🙂
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Until the election, when it is my duty to research and to vote, I just ignore the news about politics. My life is much better for it, plus it frees our mind to focus on our “real” lives.
Nice to hear your gardening updates. I hope I am able to stick to my goal of adding a plant inside and outside in March.
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One can’t help but react Debbie. They have even passed a new tax law and most commodities and the price of our utilities are affected.
I love gardening, I hope all my veggies would grow soon.
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May you find peace and beauty in your garden.
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Thank you so much Carolee, both for your visit and your comment 🙂
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May March bring in happier times Arlene. We are also bracing for the summer. Here it is very hot from March to early June till we get the first showers.
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Looking forward to it Radhika. I think we have the same months of hot weather.
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Yup!
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🙂
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May you and your countrymen and women find peace and positive change Arlene.
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We really need that. Thank you so much Brigid.
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There are a couple shooting tragedies in Feb. We still have no policy to control gun issues…
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That was really sad Amy, innocent people killed in the process.
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17 high school kids were killed, a week or 2 ago…
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We have gone from bad to worse. I wonder if those people who do those atrocities still have conscience so to speak.
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Then, today a high school teach fired a shot from his handgun out of a window, didn’t kill anyone….
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Oh gosh, what’s happening to the world? It seems they don’t value life anymore. So sad.
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Crazy… !
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I agree Amy 😦
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😦
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As I have mentioned, our presidents are cut from the same mean cloth. May we outlast them without permanent damage to both of our countries.
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I do agree Elizabeth. They seem to think like they own the countries they are supposed to be serving. Even our Philippine peso has already depreciated, I am praying the economy won’t collapse because of their doing.
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Our March started with rain and high winds. It looks spring-like through the window, but the temperatures were down to freezing during the night.
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Oh, I thought it is spring there already. Take care Anne!
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Spring never obeys the calendar. We have daffodils blooming outside, but that’s the only thing at our place so far. that looks like Spring.
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Based on some readings that I’ve done, Spring is a beautiful season. I love the flowers of Spring but I always like to see falling leaves and the change of color of most trees.
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Spring never lasts as long as the other seasons. I don’t know who put it on the calendar or who decided the divide the year into quarters. It doesn’t work that way here!
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Sad to hear that Anne. There is always the promise of Spring. I think because of climate change, the weather we encounter every year is quite erratic.
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It’s just my opinion, but I think weather has always been erratic. It certainly never did what I wanted it to!
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I hope you’re not too much affected by the weather there. It’s almost summer here.
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John and grandson David have been driving in snow through New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
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Wow!
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