Merry Sound

The sound of the sea echoes

As the wind blows

She loves this,

The pretty conch shell to her ears.

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January Ends

Time flies…yes…really fast!

Seems like yesterday that we were just celebrating Christmas and New Year but now, January is almost gone. Several years ago, I used to blog about month-ends and beginnings but I got tired of it.

One thing that somehow makes me proud is, I was able to blog the whole month of January. If I will include this, it is my 33rd post. I didn’t actually participate in the Bloganuary initiated by WordPress but I chose some topics that I could relate to.

Aside from going to my audiologist and endocrinologist for check-up, I tried another hobby and finished two Painting by Numbers in two weeks. Come to think of it, my first real painting was done in 2018, a few days after my 62nd birthday. Painting needs concentration and patience but once it’s done, my smile was up to my ears.😉🫠☺️

I experimented on veggies that are diabetic friendly. Cooked lumpiang shanghai using thinly sliced head of cabbage and grated cheese wrapped in lumpia wrapper. Yesterday, I tried curried eggplant with two slices of green pepper and boy, it was so yummy. Do you know that both cabbage and eggplant are good for diabetics? They are high in fibers and low in glycemic index, they help reduce blood sugar.

Welcome February, be good to us and it reminds me, Ash Wednesday falls on February 14. It marks the first day of Lent, six weeks of penitence before Easter.

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Mary Oliver, Here We Go

Done with thirteen books for this month so far. I’d like to go back reading the works of Mary Oliver. The last published book I read before she died was Devotions. A close friend living in the US gave me a hardbound copy. It features more than 200 poems some of which were also published in her other books. Nature is always featured in her lovely words, embracing the gift of long walks within the woods, the serenity of standing still, admiring the moment and the now. Not long ago, I blogged about her book A Thousand Mornings, another lovely collection of her poems. Every time I read it, I love the smooth feel of the dust jacket. She always wrote about her beloved home in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She wrote about ordinary things that most of us simply ignore. Upstream, is a collection of essays that gives us a fuller picture of how she was as a writer. I learned about Emerson, Whitman and Poe through this lovely and small hardbound volume. She ended her essays with these words, “I don’t know if I am heading toward heaven or that other, dark place, but I know I have already lived in heaven for fifty years. Thank you, Provincetown.” I also have a copy of her New and Selected Poems Volume One. She wrote:

“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don’t want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.

I don’t want want to end up simply having visited this world.“

Her book Dog Songs tells us about the special bond between human and a dog. She tells us about her beloved Percy and the other dogs which emerged as fellow travelers and guides teaching about connection and the joys that nature brings.

I haven’t read the following books yet:

Blue Iris

Blue Horses

Thirst

House of Light

Felicity

There you go, an afternoon spent with one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver.

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A New Friend

Your eyes met,

She smiles,

Friendship is born.

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A Golden Birthday

Today is Obet’s 50th birthday. It was one reason why they went for a short vacation in Korea. It’s Nissa’s birthday gift to him. Nissa told me that it is so cold there even without snow. They are enjoying their stay though.

Based on those photos that Obet and Nissa shared, Seoul is a lovely place. Winter lasts until March.

She said they are having their own Kdrama in Seoul having her own oppa. I smiled because I remember those times when she was in-between jobs and waiting to start as management trainee at Bank of the Philippine Islands where I used to work. Both of us were ‘couch potato’ every afternoon. She even bought DVDs so we could watch the whole thing in one go. My favorites were Coffee Prince, Lovers in Paris, Full House and some other stories which titles I can’t remember. I wrote a lengthy review of Boys Over Flowers back in 2009. The only actor whose name I remember was Lee Min-ho. He came over to the Philippines to greet his fans.

I tried playing some golden oldies songs on YouTube. Glad to hear music again even if they are not as clear as when I din’t have hearing aids yet. Instrumental music is good though.

Back to reading again. Lovely🩷💛❤️

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Not Fond Of It

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

I don’t know why I am even answering this. I am not really fond of sports. Back in high school, we had basketball and I only had one shot the whole semester. When I was in college, we had dancing, handball and physical exercise. The only thing I enjoyed in those two years was one semester of table tennis. No more, no less.

The only basketball games I used to watch on television were those of UAAP, among the universities here in Metro Manila. I was for University of Santo Tomas of course but nowadays I don’t even watch television.

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GIRAFFES

It is my second project on Paint by Numbers. Finally done. This is all for now. Took several shots but I could not find the right exposure for it. Took this at the garden.

I guess it is sunlight, right? In photography, I like silhoutte shots so I chose this.

Maybe I’ll try it again when I find the right subject or create something on my own, like flowers maybe (quite ambitious…haha). So many acrylic paints left but I don’t have green ones.

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My Second ‘Paint by Numbers’ Project

I thought it was easier than the first one since the dominant colors are large but those tiny, tiny numbers at the top of the silhouette tree are just so confusing. You can hardly make tidy lines, they always overlap. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish it by tomorrow. I’m excited! It might take a while before I could hold a paint brush again. Then…back to reading.

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My Favorite Hobby

What books do you want to read?

I need not tell you how I love reading and books, I have been reading since I entered high school and that never waned. I have a virtual library at Goodreads and have read about 1,759 books, reading 6 books at the moment alternately. This does not include my early years in high school since most of them were romance books, haha.

I joined Goodreads back in 2011 when Shelfari closed and have participated since 2014 in Goodreads’ Reading Challenge. I set a limit every year with the number of books that I can read. I want to read other books by Tessa Afshar, more of Mark Sullivan, new books by Charles Martin and more books of Richard Paul Evans. What makes them such wonderful writers creating books that I usually rate four and five stars, the latter being the highest in the score board? They write about varied subjects that I can relate to and love.

If you were to ask me now what books I want to read? I want to go back reading children’s classics. There were several I read too when I bought Nissa those children’s books when she was a kid. Sadly, we were not able to save them when we got flooded back in 2009. I want to discover again what’s in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, the great story of Wilbur, the pig and Charlotte, the spider. This book is full of lessons about friendship. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie would be a great reread too. Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume was such a joy to read. If I have time, I will read it again. Let us not forget Alice Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I love Stuart Little too. Bought Nate a harbound copy in one of his birthdays. Nissa and I were able to watch the movie adaptation years ago.There are many more, I probably wouldn’t have time to buy and read them again, who knows?

Here are some quotes from the book The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. I have it on my tab.

“When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but Really loves you, then you become Real”.

“….because once you are Real you can’t be ugly , except to people who don’t matter”.

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Another Project

Got so engrossed with the Man With Flowers on His Head that I decided to buy one for myself yesterday. It is a silhoutte of giraffes on a sunny day. My fascination with giraffes started when I did a cross-stitch of them several years ago. I have it framed and still displayed in our living room. There are 25 colors this time in various shades of yellow, orange and black. Hoping I could make justice to it.

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