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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Saying Goodbye To Another Month

Today, we are celebrating one of the loveliest feast in the Catholic calendar, the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Elizabeth, who was Mary’s cousin was six months pregnant with St. John the Baptist. This feast commemorates the second joyful mysteries of the holy rosary. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greetings, the infant leaped in her womb. In the gospel of Luke 1: 46-55, we find Mary’s Magnificat, the great worship hymn of Mary.

And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.”

I spent the early part of the morning weeding. There are overgrown unwanted weeds interspersed with our carabao grass.  Sometimes, it is really hard to maintain a garden no matter how small it is but the you can’t quantify the joys and fulfillment you find in digging the earth, letting the rich smell reach your senses. And it is even better when you find blooms all around.  The quiet time you spend in a garden just feels like you are meditating, learning about the wonder that nature brings. You may find a stray plant that you haven’t seen for quite a while. Annuals just sprout in a corner, more like, now you see them, now you don’t.

I now have several blooms of my lovely Gardenia plant. Almost every tip has a bud waiting to open. How enchanting and lovely to see the white flowers hiding behind the silky green leaves.  I was able to buy another type of Begonia last week.  I have two Semperflorens in white and red but I couldn’t place the name of the one I bought recently. Its flowers are elongated and are deep red and the leaves are somewhat thicker.

The month of May is ending.  I wish to see more blooms this coming month of June. And as always, I greet the new month with enthusiasm and joy.

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Summer Blooms

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer– Albert Camus

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What’s In A Garden?

 

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
~Dorothy Frances Gurney, “Garden Thoughts”

We had the garden refurbished today. The landscape gardener came to redo a part of our fence by changing the buho with Thai bamboo.  Last year, when we had it landscaped, a two-meter expanse of the rear wall was left with the original buho fence since the Thai bamboo that they brought was not enough to cover the long expanse of the wall.  Anyway, it now has a uniform look.  Hubby ordered several sacks of garden soil and some cut bamboo for his trellis.

I am glad that they brought with them several pots of white and light pink Ruellia and a few pots of Golden Duranta plants to highlight my recently bought Texas firecracker plant. Golden Duranta or golden dewdrop as it is commonly called has a bright lemon colored leaves. It should have at least a minimum of four hours of sunlight to retain its golden lemon color, otherwise, the leaves  will remain a soft shade of green. I am looking forward to see  the flowers of the Ruellia plants which they planted today. I only have the purple blooms and I can imagine the varied mix of white, pink and purple in a few days. Ruellia are quite similar to Petunia . They are heat-tolerant perennials that are used as ground covers.

Don Manuel is  also known as scarlet bush, hummingbird bush and Texas firecracker plant.  I don’t know how it got its name, guardian of the forest. It is a semi-woody plant that grows to a height of at least 3.5 meters. Flowers are a mass of tubular, reddish-orange.  The  plant could be shaped and is best planted in areas with enough sun to grow best.

I would have loved digging my hands at the rich soil, sadly though, I still have cough and severe cold so I just took shots of the garden. The landscape gardener taught us how to propagate Aglonaema. They are foliage plants and they have narrow oval leaves that are attractive  and eye-catching.  I didn’t know that the stem needs to be cut at a two-inch length and planted in several lines in a huge pot, facing down. The upper stem with the leaves could be planted in  separate pots. Our bromeliads are now repotted too, so instead of just three pots, we now have eight, just great. I was afraid to repot them this early because they might die but the landscape gardener also taught us how to do it.

What a lovely afternoon being with nature again. My heart sings every time I am in the garden.

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