What’s Happening?

Some comments went to “pending” and when I approved of them, they got lost in cyberspace.  I couldn’t find  them.

What’s happening WordPress? Even some of those comments which I already answered are still in my  comment box without replies. Crazy!

I haven’t tried using that block editor yet. I feel comfortable with this old format.  Hopefully, I could use it for a long time yet.

I started reading  Ruth  Reichl’s  memoir last night entitled Tender At The Bone: Growing Up at the Table.  A delectable read,  full of simple recipes that you can experiment on.  A short read at 304 pages. I think this is my third book of hers. When you have a hopeless cook in the family (like her mother), you would try learning how.

Oh, September is about to end. I welcome October with gladness because it is my birth month.

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A Precious Gift

For Nissa, this is a precious gift from her unico hijo.  Nate always ends up his greeting with “you’re the best”…. 🙂

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Some Birthday Photos

Nissa sent me some photos which they took last night. I was so happy to see them happy too. So glad she enjoyed her birthday even without us around.

With Nate, the ever-loving son. We had a video chat last night.

 

The loving family. I think Obet is older by 8 years.

 

They ordered Samgyupsal, grilled pork with all those side dishes. It’s a Korean cuisine. Notice the grill pan in the middle.

 

And the birthday cake of course.

I really wished we were there if not for this pandemic….haha 🙂

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I’m Back

My, we didn’t have internet connection since last night until about 4pm today. Maintenance again? At least it didn’t take them long but I’ve missed Interaktib last night. I could always watch the video but it is kind of different when you watch it live online. The interaction there is addicting.

Surprise!

Of the three seeds of Adenium that I bought a week ago, two has sprouted yesterday. This is just a trial and when they grow a little in the coming days, I will buy more. Some sellers don’t really care if they give you old seeds that won’t even grow so one has to choose a seller who is reliable and has nice reviews.  The three bonus Sunflower seeds haven’t shown their faces yet. Waiting with bated breath.

You know that feeling of joy when you see some of your plants sprout and grow. It is just so wonderful. I ordered different colors of Zinnia, but they haven’t arrived yet. So excited.

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Nissa At 38

She calls this her birthday selfie which was taken a while ago.  Cheers to 38 years.

Thank  You Lord for all Your blessings. It’s another year –  more memories to hold, more dreams to discover and more lovely experiences to treasure.

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Celebrating Life

It’s Nissa’s 38th birthday today. We just satisfied ourselves  talking to each other over the phone this morning. First time in 38 years that we won’t see each other before or after her birthday. This pandemic surely changed all that.

I made her some sort of greetings with her favorite color….lavender.  She chose it when they got married years ago and some of her things left here are also color-coordinated.

I’ve written this on every birthday that she had:  the most important even on her birthday?  It’s the Feast Day of our first Filipino saint – San Lorenzo Ruiz.  He is a Filipino saint venerated in the Catholic church, the first canonized Filipino martyr.

Nissa told me that they just ordered food online  to celebrate her birthday. That’s one thing that  has changed too. The family used to celebrate together by having lunch-out. The first few years though, I have always prepared something for us every time we hold our birthdays. Josef let her choose her gift and he reimbursed it  afterwards. Obet gave her a Lacoste wristwatch while Kev sent her an electric oven. Her gift from me is still here. I don’t know when we’ll be able to see each other again. I know it is a quiet birthday since they are still working from home.

I can’t believe I have a 38 years old daughter. I am really getting old.

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Growing Things

I need potting bags or seedling bags.

My youngest brother and I had a nice talk last night.  We talked about gardening and he showed me his garden, his vegetable plot and some plants that Lanette, his wife is nurturing inside the house.  Some had LED lights focused on them so frost would not let them die.

I showed him several photos I took  of the garden. He was so impressed and suggested to have some  replanted so I could sell them too. Anyway, gardening is the “in” thing here now because most people stay in their homes with not much to do because of this pandemic. Why not indeed?

This morning, I transferred some Fish Eye  in five pots. Since I don’t have extra pots, I decided to order seedling bags at Lazada and  I plan to grow some cuttings of our  plants here.  I haven’t seen any Arius tree around except the one in our garden. Crossandras are self-propagating like crazy at the back of the house. Maybe I need to separate my Bichetti grass too into several pots. I need soil, looking for sellers on the net. My Shrimp plants and Syngonium need to be trimmed so I am thinking of propagating those too.  Bleeding Hearts are aplenty, so with my Fukien Tea plants.

My brother said, “start now so you would have something by December”.  He talked to  Alden, my brother who resides in the province and the latter told him about the plants they have sold lately there. Our garden in the province is quite big and my sis-in-law is an avid gardener too.

A friend promised to send me one of his plants this week – a gold moss stonecrop.  I saw their  garden and some are growing in bottles with water.  A few months ago, I sent him some seeds of our Ternatea plant for his collection of dragons. Yes, they eat flowers. Maybe, he is just returning the favor and I appreciate it.

Wanna sell seedlings? Why not? Gonna try it one of these days.

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Saturday Blues

Lazy, lazy afternoon! For the first time in so many days, I spent at least two hours in bed having a siesta. The afternoon was cold but it didn’t rain.

I opened the computer just to post the Bible readings for next week at our Catholic page in Facebook. Then I received this message from Fr. Pao, he is one of those anchors of Interaktib. The name of the program is Catholic Sync and they were in its first episode this morning. Catholic Sync is devoted to religious education and catechism.  Fr. Pao was  the speaker. He was introduced by  a brother at St. Paul . I was surprised when the latter said that Fr. Pao graduated Summa Cum Laude in his Theological studies. I told him he should be proud of it coz I  know how a parent feels having a child garnering  Latin honors.  He said Nissa must be a literati too. I told him in passing that she is a bookworm and very strict with grammar.

I finally finished the book I  Will Always Write Back last night. Beautiful, beautiful story. And there were real pictures of the authors which make the book more real.  Memoirs have always been fascinating reads  for me.

I set aside some books on my TBR list to read Sommersgate House by Kristen Ashley. Ghosts and reincarnation? Must be  intriguing.

And it’s a lazy evening, perfect time to have that hot cup of rice coffee.

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I Will Always Write Back

Intriguing title, right?

But I just borrowed from a book I am reading at the moment that I simply could not put down. It is actually a memoir  but it is a contemporary YA book.

Zimbabwe.

It’s the first time I read something about this country, formerly called Rhodesia, a land-locked country located in Southern Africa.

How one letter changed two lives is the main theme of this book. Two teens exchanging letters from two continents.  They are pen pals. A Zimbabwean boy and an American girl. The former is dirt-poor, on a hand to mouth existence  while the girl came from a well-off family. I cried so many times reading this book and I have only finished two-thirds of it but I can’t ignore writing about it. Besides, if I could, I promised myself to write every day until the end of September. Another challenge, I guess.

Caitlin and Martin –  and the lovely narrative simply written. I almost forgot that this is a memoir.

Back in college, I had an opportunity to meet two Japanese girls and an Australian  via pen pal writing. It came about when a fellow student librarian gave my name to them and they started writing to me. I could still remember their names until now – Junko Yao, Satomi Hasegawa and Suzanne Gilding. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could find them now? Junko was the more diligent writer and she sent me some packages before – Japanese green tea, chopsticks, Japanese candies, a hair accessory ( a lovely Japanese comb)  and stationeries. I am just sorry I stopped  corresponding with them when I started work at the bank.

I  Will Always Write Back is just an awesome read.

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The Beauty of Gardening

After the heavy rain last night, my garden is happy. Good thing I transferred my six  pots of Adenium in the shade so they were not saturated. They love the sun and require once-a-week watering.

I have dwarf Snake plants in a big rounded pot but they have grown so I transferred some of them direct to the soil. Put some in bigger pots and I had one planted in this little vase to put inside the house.

Do you know that “the Snake Plant cleans air better than most other indoor plants as it has the ability to absorb excessive amounts of carbon monoxide? Additionally, it emits oxygen and filters other toxins from the air such as benzene, xylene, trichloroethylene and formaldehyde”.

A few days ago, I harvested green chili peppers and left two to ripen. They just did and I planted them today. We use these for our famous “sinigang”.

The beauty of gardening!

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