My Gardenia In Bloom

It showed its face slowly

And I can’t wait

For the petals to unfurl

But I can smell

The sweet scent from here.

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A Nice Surprise

I was just checking the stock market two weeks ago then I saw that Union Bank declared stock dividend last month. I wrote to their Stock Transfer why I didn’t receive my certificate and they replied that it was still with them. The address was incomplete so the courier brought it back to their office. Got it the other day and I received almost 400 shares. Wow! All the stocks that I invested to before I left the bank are long-term. By March cash dividends will be declared. Blessings🙏🙏🙏.

I went to Bank of PI yesterday to deposit the fractional share of UB then I dropped by our “suki” vendors at the market after more than two years of not seeing each other. One of them told me I am leaner now. “Palakpak naman tenga ko”. I lost a little weight during this pandemic.

Have I mentioned before that we now have nine new puppies from the three doggies that Jovy and Josef adopted from the pound? They were sired by Noki. We are only retaining two and the rest were promised to Jovy’s officemates. All of them eat more than we do. The garden is their playground but I am getting tired of cleaning their poop every morning. Some puppies destroyed some of my small plants planted on the ground.

I had a nice surprise this morning. My Star Jasmine had just bloomed bearing tiny flowers. The scent is like a Gardenia bloom. And my guava tree have so many fruits. Blessed!

Good morning🎍🌏🦩🌺

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Gardening

I recently updated my gardening blog at GARDENS AND EMPTY SPACES (arlene1027.wordpress.com). I posted some garden blooms and my new finds there. You may want to visit it. Thanks.

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Practicing

Harhar…don’t mind this, I am just practicing how to upload an image here. These are the three pots of my Adenium seedlings. Look at the first one, it has a smaller sprout so this will make it four. Hopefully, they would thrive.

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What’s In My Garden?

Six months of lockdown. Whatever you may call it, we’ve reached six months of quarantine.

Home-based small businesses  have suddenly sprouted in the metro and most of them are selling food – cooked  for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you’ll have it here. Even small- scale selling of meat, poultry and vegetables have also suddenly grown. The thing is, as long as we remain in the comfort of our home and we don’t go out unnecessarily, it’s okay. So long as your neighbors in the subdivision deliver for free, it’s okay. For those you can’t buy nearby, there are always vendors who charge for delivery fees and you can just wait for your orders.

Yesterday, I ordered several kinds of dried fish and today my order of Gyoza from David’s Tea House arrived. A few days ago I also ordered several items from Lazada including a desk fan and some gifts for Nissa’s upcoming birthday.  Online transactions are the “in” thing nowadays although I only use cash to pay them all. I am afraid to use my credit card without seeing my purchase in advance. I haven’t been to the mall for more than six months now. Bank transactions are online too except when I need cash and I let Josef  withdraw some money from the ATM.

I am taking photos of my garden blooms almost every day, documenting every bud and flowers worth-capturing.  Gardening has suddenly boomed here. Never mind if some have started a few pots and they call it a garden. I just smile seeing friends suddenly interested in nurturing a few plants. Even if these are not indoor plants, they place them in one corner of their homes. Not all plants could thrive indoors, they need the sun to grow.  There  are indoor plants that help us in lessening the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There are indoor plants that are anti-oxidants.

Ah, these are my green peppers. I  am waiting for some seeds to mature so I could replant them.

Look, one is about to ripen.

 

We use them for our famous sinigang. They are also called green chilies.

I have transferred my Adenium seedlings to pots several months ago. I have grown them from pods  from my lone Adenium plant. They need the sun so I transferred them to a sunny spot near our grotto.

It’s nice to see these plants thriving well. I wonder if they will bear the same pink flowers later on.

I hope everyone is COVID-free. This pandemic doesn’t choose its victims. I wonder when it will die a natural death. Praying for our safely.

 

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Those Blooms

I  visited the garden yesterday and early this morning. Took some photos of the flowers thriving there at the moment. Those tiny white blooms are a joy to behold along with the purple and pink flowers.

I am posting some here.

I love the heady and intoxicating scent of this Kamuning plant. Winner!

My dwarf Pandakaki, compared to the Kamuning blooms, they have no scent all.

 

My green Shamrock. I have the purple ones too.

Don’t you just love staying in the garden for a while and admiring those blooms. I do.

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April Is About To End

I’ve missed so many comments which didn’t show on my tab the past days. That’s one of the things I don’t like about using my tab to check my posts. Unless I open my computer to check everything, I miss a lot. I told you, life has become lazy days too.

April is almost gone. Tomorrow we’ll start another month.

One thing that I am always reminded of every time the month of May sets in is the song by The Bee Gees, First of May. And I silently sing it in my head. Aside from December, May is one of my favorite months – the month of flowers and the month of Mama Mary.

♫♫♪when I was small, and Christmas trees were tall♫♪

April seemed to take a little too long, what with this pandemic, lockdown and all.  Sometimes all you think is what to have and what to cook in your next meal. There are lots of idle times and you have lots to do but you can’t start.  It’s like the days pass by and you just go with the flow. You think, when will this ends? When will we have normal lives again? When will this stop? And you feel helpless, do a lot of prayers and cling to your faith.

I talk to Nissa every day now asking how they are coping. Yesterday, her brother-in-law brought home the remains of their Papa in a sealed urn. It is supposed to stay in a columbarium but the lockdown hinders one to move normally. They take their temperature every day even if they know he didn’t die of Covid.  It’s been more than three weeks now since he got sick and died a week ago. His doctor siblings said it was bacterial and his kidneys were not functioning well. Such is life, surprises (even not good ones) are lurking nearby.

For the last three mornings, I woke up early to tend the garden. I am finally done trimming the carabao grass. The garden hose is new, we had to call the plumber who did the installation of the aircon three days ago to fix it.  My Pandakaki plants and Tagaytay cherry plants need pruning too. That has to wait until this afternoon when it is not too hot. Gardening is really a great way of  de-stressing, a therapeutic activity that does not need too much  expertise but just the love of the soil and all its environs.  It’s more of  experiments really because they say that there are no gardening mistakes, everything that you plant becomes a part of the garden.

I planted some squash seeds at the back garden and they have sprouted. What a joy to see new shoots.

Let’s just hope the month of May will flatten the curve worldwide.

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It’s All I’ve Got

I’ve tried planting some a few years ago, those crowns that we usually just throw away but I was not successful. Maybe they don’t want afternoon sun although what I know of them is that they are sun-loving plants.

Yesterday, I was surprised to see this. Finally, my lone pineapple plant is now bearing fruit. I planted it along with my Crossandra, getting the touch of the morning sun almost every day.

It is always lovely to see something that you have diligently watered and it gives you that nice feeling of seeing it bear fruit. Do you know that it usually takes two years for a cutting to mature and bear a flower? Then it would take six months for the fruit to be ready for harvest. I am waiting for it to produce a sucker that I can transfer later.

I am really excited. Counting the days 🙂

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Gardening Thoughts

Gardening is really a great way of de-stressing, a therapeutic activity that does not need too much expertise but just the love of the soil and all its environs. It’s more of experiments really because they say that there are no gardening mistakes, everything that you plant becomes a part of the garden. Every gardener knows the joys of witnessing a seed waiting to sprout or a bulb opening to light and a bud straining to unfurl.

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Pretty In Pink (Survivors Of The Storm)

Took a few photos this morning while the sun is up. They are the same plants but the flowers have survived the storm.

 
Our grotto which we had constructed after my treatment ten years ago. We used to have Koi fish here.

I was surprised by this lovely Adenium, the flowers are no longer split.

 

A cluster of pink Vinca. Sturdy blooms.

 

A single-petaled Zinnia.

I harvested Calamansi before the typhoon. The two trees shed off some of the ripe fruits during the storm. I need to transfer my Papaya seedling soon.

Have a lovely Wednesday all.

 

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