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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A New Blogger Friend

Hello friends and fellow bloggers. If you are into poems and reflections about life, I have a friend who is quite shy to show her posts. It was only today that I got hold of her WordPress blog. You may want to visit her site here. fishminz153.wordpress.com

She is my co-admin at our Catholic site on Facebook. Thank you so much.

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Waiting For The Sun

I am still frustrated. It rained the whole day yesterday so I still could not go out and garden. Monsoon rains and a typhoon in the north are affecting the country.

Visiting some random previous posts from my blog and the most emotional so far were those I wrote during my cancer journey twelve years ago and when Pope Francis visited the country in January 2015.

Sometimes I wonder how I was able to write sincerely from the heart, feeling everything with tears in my eyes. But I did. Those earlier posts were certainly inspiring for me now that I could look at them without being so emotional.

Oh yeah, I am now focused on reading. I’ve read 80 books since the start of the book challenge. I may be able to finish the hundred books I challenged myself to read this year. Lately, I’ve been reading historical fiction. I don’t know why but I love books describing about how life was centuries ago. Riding on wagon wheels instead of cars, candle lights instead of electricity, farms filled with different kinds of vegggies and ornamental plants, beautiful.

I started a different genre though last night about the story of identical twins. One died accidentally. The parents just relied on the story of the twin who was left behind when she uttered the name of twin number 2 when she saw the accident. They were seven years old. The parents were confused which twin really died because the one left behind seemed to manifest the character of the dead one. This is intriguing. I am in the middle of it.

A friend posted a photo of her graduation from graduate school. I told her what an accomplishment. Several years ago, she was a stay-at-home mom then she enrolled in an Education course. She is a guidance counselor in their school. Now she has finished her MBA. What a feat.

I wish the sun would show its face today.

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Ah, Blogging

I was reviewing some of my old posts back in 2014 when likes and comments were quite nil. Most of you who are now regular followers and commenters at my site were not yet in the picture.

I have been blogging for so long now, 12 years more or less that sometimes I think I have written about every subject close to my heart. There were only two challenges I participated in which were initiated by WordPress, the 2011 Post A Day Challenge and the Weekly Photo Challenge around 2014 or thereafter. I enjoyed both, finishing more than 365 posts in one year. Those were real challenges indeed. I was new to blogging and I was inspired. I kept saying that when you blog everyday, everything comes easy. WordPress encouraged me when they would say a few words after every blog – that was where I encountered the words beautiful, fascinating, inspiring, keep it up and such. Then you would see how many posts you have done. That was why I was so proud when I reached my 1,000th post and blogged about it. I wonder where my badge got to. In Dreams and Escapes alone, I now have 3,209 posts including this one.

When they introduced Weekly Photo Challenge, I got more excited. It was my chance to share pictures I took on my Canon camera. They were all in high resolution shots. I didn’t realize that they ate up most of my limited free space so I created another mostly for photos and one about gardening. When Nate was born, I made a separate one for him too.

Blogging!

Some close friends are urging me to compile those inspirational ones into a book. Just thinking of it is hard enough. I found two venues though when I got appointed to be one of the admins of two private Catholic groups at Facebook. I post mostly morning thoughts and my own prayers which I wrote here years ago. That is fulfilling for me, I gained more friends in the process. That is why, I am reviewing my old posts and taking note of the titles and date published so I could go back when I decide to share them.

I’ve always said that if you could touch one soul out there through your writings, then it would be enough.

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Here We Go

Gosh, the past few days, all my afternoons were spent reading. Recently, I read paranormal and historical books, a bit of romance and now I am presently reading an epistolary novel about Alaska. I don’t know why every time I find a book about Alaska, I am always tempted to read it. I can’t remember now but a few years ago, I watched a film featuring the place and I was overjoyed to see those places I only read in books.

Can you believe, a study showed that the Philippines ranked second to the last among 53 countries in terms of pandemic resilience. Pathetic isn’t it? I don’t know what happened to the billions of pesos this administration borrowed supposedly for Covid. To think that private companies who purchased the vaccines are required to give 50% to the government. Hay!!!

It rains every day now, mostly thunderstorms in the afternoon. I am spared from watering the garden. I dread the times though when heavy rains arrive during the months of August and September. I am afraid of floods.

I hope I could write a post more than once a week. Sometimes though, I feel so lazy.

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Life As It Is Now

I think the last time I wrote a post was almost two weeks ago. This has never happened before even when I was on chemotherapy twelve years ago when I have just started blogging. I was able document my treatment.

I guess the longest time when I haven’t even visited WordPress was when I got sick with Covid. Having Covid and fighting it is not really worth blogging about, it does not deserve such.

To tell you the truth, I suddenly lost interest in blogging and sharing my thoughts in cyberspace. Maybe I deserve this hiatus, maybe not. And again I am sorry that I haven’t commented on your posts lately.

I could do just about anything now except gardening though I was able to trim some of our Pandakaki plants and Josef started cutting the carabao grass, finished a third of it. Some of our stepping stones are showing now. It may take several afternoons yet before we could put it into order. Really need to replant.

I took shot of our large jackfruit fruits which have grown bigger while I was sick. Our lone papaya tree has lots of fruits too. Our kalamansi trees are presently flowering but there are large fruits that we haven’t harvested yet.

I got engrossed again reading. An eclectic mix of historical, romance and lately started a book by Thomas Merton. It isnot the type that you read in one seating so I am biding my time reading it.

I haven’t been to the doctor yet. I still don’t have a normal sense of hearing. Still afraid to go out.

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Almost In The Middle Of March

AND it’s been a week since I wrote anything here. When you start not writing everyday, sometimes you just get lazy even visiting your blog. And it holds true for me. Did I miss blogging? I did of course but not as much as before. I think I have exhausted every subject that I could think of blogging about.

IF I were to collate all the blog entries I wrote on my five existing blogs, it would probably reach more than 4,000 posts. I seldom get to update the other four, my blog about Nate’s growing up years, my photo blog, blog about my garden and another one I started three years ago just in case I get to use up my remaining free usage. Yes, I am still on the free format.

MAYBE, I need to take a break for a while and blog again when I find a nice subject to blog about.

I am on my 36th book at Goodreads’ 2021 reading challenge. Talk about ghosts and hauntings, that’s what I am reading now. We’ll be celebrating 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines and Pope Francis will celebrate a mass intended for the Philippine Catholic Church.

May your weekdays be blessed and fruitful.

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Blogging Woes

I am having an intermittent headache. Been taking pain reliever for two days now. It has stopped a few minutes ago.

I was trying to read some of my earlier posts back in 2011 when I joined WordPress’ Post A Day Challenge. How I was able to blog every day back then was such a big puzzle to me. The endurance of thinking of what to write about every day without fail. I wonder where my badge got to, it was lost somewhere when I tried to change my blog format. Those were the times I got so many visitors although commenting and liking was unheard of. There were words of encouragement though from WordPress, inspiring words at the end of each entry and the total number of posts you have written since you started blogging. They got lost somewhere along the way. There are so many bloggers now. There are new ones who post a few entries and then suddenly stop writing. Some maybe disappointed by the slow rise of followers and readers.

No matter how good your contents are if your tags and categories are not, you can’t expect people to follow you right away. You build your blog slowly. It always takes a number of years before you can be recognized as a seasoned blogger. There are followers who never take time to even like your posts. Some are there who are bold enough to say that we should follow their blogs too. You don ‘t need to tell me that I should follow you back because if I like what you write about, I will follow it.

I wonder why I could no longer see my dashboard since I started using my tab. It always shows that I have to log in but when I do, it reverts back to the same log in option.

As I have always said, blogging has become a way of life.

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Monday, Monday

Yeay it’s cold here even in this early morning. The Siberian winds are bringing this cold weather and we call it Hanging Amihan.

Again, I got lazy blogging. Sometimes it is better to just listen to music and I have been busy making memes for our two groups that I also manage. They are mostly religious in nature since both are Catholic sites.

Here’s one I’d like to share with you. I haven’t published it yet anywhere else. The photo was taken by Nissa in one of their road trips.

I think this was taken in Baler, Aurora province. Last year was the only time they didn’t plan a trip so they bought a new car instead. They are planning to transfer to their new house this year.

I am in the middle of reading Birdsong by Sebastian Falks. Finally, I found a copy. It’s been on my wish list for so long.

Imagine, it is already February. They call it the love month. The first leaf in the calendar is gone. Happy new month to us all, may it be better than last month.

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Opps

I don’t know what happened but this morning when I opened my computer, it won’t boot again. Sigh 😕👩‍💻🤔 Maybe it really needs a major overhaul or….I need a new one. But the latter is not an option because I just purchased my new tab last August and my new cellphone last October during my birthday.

I finally figured out how to take photos direct to my Media library. It’s quite easy, you just have to choose how to share using the traditional photo on your camera or let WordPress take it. Learning this tool is quite a feat.

Here’s our sala after I removed the Christmas decoration.

Another try with these left-over black grapes from our media noche.

Got it but I need to adjust the size of the photos. There are three options, medium, large and full but it does not say the exact size.

Anyway, it’s nice to practise taking these two photos.

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