Have A Nice Weekend

Howdy friends? Did a bit of gardening the last two days. It always rains here so it is easier to uproot the weeds. I am thinking of finally removing our native guava tree since it hasn’t bore fruits for a year now. I removed some branches yesterday but I will ask Josef over the weekend if he could help.

A month ago, I ordered some seeds of dwarf papaya, red and green bell pepper and dwarf tomatoes too. Some seeds took root so I transferred them in pots except the papaya which needs more days to grow. I also planted bottle gourd at the back of the house. We have a permanent trellis there for climbing vegetables.

I had a nice chat with a friend from Quezon yesterday. I admire his big garden. He sent me seeds of powder puff plants and guyabano. LBC will deliver it today. The flowers of powder puff plants look like balls of red cotton candy. I am excited to see the package.

Do you know that I recently found some books by Primo Levi? He was an Italian Polish chemist and a Holocaust survivor. He survived Auschwitz. Lucky to find a set of his complete works. I love historical novels, most of his books were based on real life experience. I don’t know but it seems I could not get enough of what happened during WWII in those German concentration camps. Tales of journeys, dreams of surviving, memories that changed the lives of so many war victims. Done with If Not Now, When. It has been on my wishlist for so long. Reading If This Is A Man and had a glimpse of his other book, Survival In Auschwitz. Primo Levi, you rock.

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What’s In A Garden

Just updated my garden blog at https://arlene1027.wordpress.com and posted some photos there.

The tomato seeds that I just threw at the back garden have grown and are bearing fruits now. Our two jackfruit trees are showing off. In a month or two, I would pick one and cook ginataang langka, a yummy dish cooked in coconut cream. My two old kalamansi trees are still bearing fruits. Ah, squash is growing too.

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Saturday Delight

Good morning🤩

Just updated my blog Gardens and Empty Spaces early this morning. Sorry, the link does not work on a tab.

I am saving on space so all my garden photos will be posted there. So glad to see my insulin plant with a flower, it is so lovely. I took shot of it of course. If you can’t see the link, you can visit my site and click Gardens and Empty Spaces.

https://arlene1027.wordpress.com

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A Windy Afternoon

The sun is shining bright but the weather is windy, those moments that you enjoy the breeze touching your face and making your hair dance. Perfect time for gardening. Since our house is fronting northeast, the sun shines on the southwest. I uprooted stubborn weeds and pruned and removed the dried leaves of our ferns. The six doggies were busy gallivanting around in the garden. Sadie who is so close to me, watched me while gardening.

My Calatheas are blooming nicely together with my ferns and Crossandra plants.

Tonight will be the second night of Simbang Gabi, nine nights novena before Christmas day. Since I could not hear the mass clearly while inside the church, I opted to watch online mass last night. My sense of hearing is clearer when there are no noise obstructions. One can choose which church to visit online because most of them simultaneously start at 7 :30 pm. Dawn masses are held at 4:30am.

Amazing, my left ear hadn’t hurt since I left my ENT’S clinic yesterday, thank God. I hope this would be the start of the healing of my left ear.

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What Life Is

Good morning blogger friends!

I woke up around 3am and could no longer sleep so I just waited for Josef to leave the house at 5am. He still works from home Thursday and Friday, same with Nissa but on different days.

I know, I am neglecting blogging. It used to be when I miss it when I don ‘t blog at least twìce a week. I told you before that I joined posting a blog a day back in 2011. I lost my badge somewhere. And when you blog every day, even such mundane things like writing about what you had for breakfast, lunch or dinner is worth-sharing. I think I am really growing old, I’ll be turning 66 in a few months. Would that be worth-celebrating? I think so even if my body is beginning to give up on me. Pains, unexpected laboratory results that I worry about. I’ve been through so many things – two major operations, chemotherapy, kidney bypass and the like. Still and all, I am still here standing tall. My kids and I have gone through twenty years without the hubby by our side except for one month every two years for vacation. He worked in KSA. I acted as the tatay con nanay of my two kids. He came home ten years ago only to leave us again for good for another woman. I’d like to think that I was strong enough facing these life’s challenges.

Every day is quite different, sometimes I feel sad, at other times exceedingly happy. I was even more elated when Nate came into our lives. Nowadays though, their monthly visits were cut short because of Covid-19. Nissa and I thrive on daily conversations on Messenger and occassional hi and hellos from Nate and Obet. The last time we saw each other was when my brother Alden died three months ago.

I still enjoy gardening but I could no longer trim the carabao grass because I feel exhausted after a few minutes cutting the grass so Josef is always to the rescue. I am glad though that I was able to transfer some of my plants in new pots. It still rains here every day. I hope September won’t bring too much rain that would cause flooding.

My stash of e-books are filing up. Right now, I am reading some books by James Patterson. Hopefully, I’ll finish the Goodreads’ challenge well and good by December.

Dawn is beginning to show a bright morning. Daily chores are at hand. Bye bye for now.

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Gardening

After a week, we have finally fixed the overgrown plants but I have yet to change some pots which are broken. The carabao grass was trimmed by Josef except that very small patch under the Calamansi tree. I hope by tomorrow morning I’ll get to clear it. I have to hire one of our village’s maintenance workers to clean our front and side yards of weeds.

I could smell the lemony scent of the flowers of our Calamansi.

That’s Sadie. She is always besides me when I am gardening.

This is our small garden.

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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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New Post

Just updated my gardening blog, Gardens and Empty Spaces located in my blog links here.

Evergreen. It’s been so long that this book was in my shelf. It was published in 1978, first book of Belva Plain. I wonder why I ignored reading it for so long. It is my first book of the author, a wonderful saga of an American-Jew family. A richly written and finely detailed story about the family’s struggle in American soil. This is the second time I am giving ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to a novel. Have you read it?

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Gosh, It’s October

I have wanted to blog at the start of the month but laziness prevailed again. Haven’t been here the last four days I think. Don’t get me wrong, I was just too lazy to write. Sometimes, you lose your muse and and forget what is to write about.

I am mostly at the garden but every day, it rains at unexpected moments. I couldn’t seem to finish uprooting weeds and I have yet to start pruning the carabao grass. Gardening is a job of the hardworking🤣😅😂. And I am not one lately.

The weather here makes one lazy. I am looking forward to this month though because finally, it is my birth month. Can’t wait for the 27th. There is something about birthdays that makes one wishful, nostalgic and you remember the days of old, when you were so excited to face and dream of big dreams to happen. Then as the days go by, you finally realize that not all those big dreams come true. That one does not travel in a straight path but there are barriers you have to face. Birthdays also make us realize that we’re not just adding years to our lives but we are also growing. Hope should not be set aside because as long as we are alive, there is always hope.

It’s been two years now that we haven’t celebrated Nissa’s birthday together because of this pandemic. Good thing there is always the reliable Messenger to get us through and the ever ready Grab drivers to bring and deliver food and our gifts. We celebrated too even if there were just the four of us at home. Maybe, when Nate’s birthday and my birthday come, they’ll be most likely repeats.

The whole afternoon, I was looking for Christmas gifts for the family at Lazada. There is nothing yet except filling my cart with possible gifts and ordering gift tags and twenty five pieces of Christmas wrapper.

What did I say? It’s 83 days to go before Christmas🍀🌲☘

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Monday Musings

Finally, finally. Our guava tree which I nurtured for many years is now bearing fruits, they are almost the same in sizes. I didn’t even see flowers bloom. Silly me but I counted them all. There are fourteen of them🙂

It’s my unica hija’s birthday tomorrow. She’s turning 39. I guess Nate would be their only child. I would have wanted another grandchild, a girl if possible…hehe! It’ll be a second pandemic birthday for her and the last time we saw each other was last January 29 on Obet’s birthday although Obet and Nate stayed here with us last March when she was at the hospital because of Covid.

This pandemic changed everything even family reunions during special occasions. We just have to rely on Messenger to see each other. Nissa works from home and supervises Nate in his online classes. She is busy even during weekends because they no longer have a househelp.

If not for my books and e-books I’ll probably get bored staying at home. They are my constant companions.

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