Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Shelter [Watery Wednesday]

@ mirandablue
 "Weeping Willow with your tears running down, why do you always weep and frown?  Is it because he left you one day?  Is it because he could not stay?  On your branches he would swing.  Do you long for the happiness that day would bring?  He found shelter in your shade.  You thought his laughter would never fade. Weeping Willow, stop your tears, for there is something to calm your fears.  You think death has ripped you forever apart, but I know he'll always be in your heart."


Join us at Watery Wednesday

Monday, August 29, 2011

Blue Monday: Bridge

@ mirandablue

Blue ropes in one of the bridges at Fontana Hotel and Leisure Park in Clark.


Join us at Blue Monday

Friday, August 26, 2011

Garlic cheese focaccia

@ mirandablue
Garlic Cheese Focaccia with Checca
I was faint from hunger while waiting for my newly-married friend [and hubby] at CPK-Greenbelt.  Apparently, they were caught in a Makati traffic jam. My lifesaver was an Italian-style pizza bread topped with Mozzarella cheese, garlic and herbs, hearth-baked and served with a combination of fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic and evoo. By the time the couple arrived, I already finished off four slices of focaccia!  As for the rest of our food...I got a bit shy to take photos--it was my first meeting with my friend's husband, I didn't want him to think I'm a camera-freak. *LOL*


P.S.  I'm having a hard time uploading photos.  Is it just me, or are you experiencing it as well?



Join us at Food Trip Friday

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Rainy day

@ mirandablue
It's another dark, rainy day here.  I wish I could stay home all day and just snuggle with Fritz and watch TV.  But there are things that I need to do this afternoon, which I hate doing---it deals with a certain government agency.  I am also expecting traffic to be bad today. To paraphrase a beautiful quote, "One thing a person must always save for a rainy day is patience."

For Thursday 2 Questions - you are invited to answer and join:

1.  What is your favorite rainy day quote?

2.  When was the last time you danced in the rain?

@ mirandablue

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Silent strokes [Watery Wednesday]

@ mirandablue
 To follow the drops 
sliding from a lifting oar,
Head up, while the rower
breathes, and the small 
boat drifts, 
quietly shoreward...

~ Theodore Roethke

@ mirandablue
 So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald


Get virtually wet at Watery Wednesday

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Drink [Photo Hunt]

@ mirandablue
 A thirst-quenching drink on a hot day.


Serving drinks at Photo Hunt

Ripe mango shake and a glass of water to go with my spicy garlic shrimps pasta.

@ mirandablue


Friday, August 19, 2011

Oyster Omelet

@ mirandablue
Bagoong Fried Rice
I have written here that I prefer raw oysters, but if there's none available and I'm eating it with rice, then an oyster omelet would somehow fix the craving.  The delicate flavor of oysters was perfectly complemented by the tasty bagoong (shrimp paste) fried rice.  It was a delicious meal at Penang Hill in Shangri-la.

@ mirandablue
Thai Oyster Omelet


Join other foodies at Food Trip Friday

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Fountain @ The Ruins [Watery Wednesday]

@ mirandablue
Who wouldn't love a fountain especially on a hot and humid afternoon such as this?   The soothing sound of water, the fresh sensation, the transparent movement draws every visitor to this spot in the garden---a treat for the senses at The Ruins.  This 4-tiered fountain was constructed after the mansion was completed at the turn of the century.

@ mirandablue
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.  
~ Sir John Lubbock

@ mirandablue


Get virtually wet @ Watery Wednesday

Monday, August 15, 2011

Jalandoni Ancestral House [My World]

@ mirandablue
I have been mulling over these photos for months now.   I would like to tell you that this is just another ancestral house I visited in Silay City during my vacation in May.  But fact is, I purposely went to Silay to see this house. The Jalandoni ancestral house in Silay City was built by my maternal great-grandfather, Bernardino Jalandoni, in 1908. Although we don't have a relationship with this side of my mother's family, I was naturally curious.  Bernardino, according to my mother, used to visit them at my grandmother's house in Valladolid in the late 1940's up to the early 50's.  He would then take my mother and her siblings to Hda. Parnaso, a hacienda owned by the Jalandonis, to spend the weekend.  

@ mirandablue
Aside from my mother's childhood memories of weekends spent in Hda. Parnaso, there was no kinship between the families.  It was probably because the connection between them, my grandfather, [Bernardino's nephew] had  passed away.

So I explored the house like the usual tourist.  I am glad that the heirs decided to preserve this house for future generations---to see how the elite families lived during the grand old days of Negros' sugar industry.  The guided tour gave insights as to how the house was built and how the family lived.  It's a huge house made of stone and wood but it's design, according to the guide, follows the typical Philippine nipa hut.  The existing wooden structures are the same hardwood that came from Mindoro, an island known for its forests and logging industry.  Most of the embossed tin ceiling trays were imported from Hamburg, Germany.  It's wooden transoms done in "calado" or cut out style, using elaborate French design are a study of combined visual aesthetics and function.

@ mirandablue
the living room
The creative use of glass, capiz shells, steel grills, wooden louvers and panels for windows continues to maximize light, ventilation and security today as it has since it was designed a century ago.

@ mirandablue
the master's bedroom
The carved antique furniture, a retablo with religious iconsthe solihia (rattan weave) daybed and chairs---the ambiance of this house illustrates the lifestyle of the Negrense elite at the turn of the century.

@ mirandablue
The heirs have entrusted the care of this house to the Silay Heritage Foundation, and it has been turned into a museum.  A doll collection, framed old photos and other memorabilia are displayed at the ground floor. 

@ mirandablue
the daughter's bedroom
The Jalandoni Museum is at Rizal Street, Silay City.  It's 10 minutes from the airport, about 30 minutes to Bacolod City, the provincial capital.


More photos in next week's My World - Tuesday


Saturday, August 13, 2011

One [Photo Hunt]


@ mirandablue
The Ruins is one of the places I would like to see again when I revisit my home province.  I would love to take photos here at sunset.  I wonder how it is to spend one's childhood in a house like this and grow up with just memories of how it used to be.

This was taken in late April.


Join the Photo-Hunt

Friday, August 12, 2011

Before sunset [SWF]

@ mirandablue
 "Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day.  Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down.  And this is all life really means."  ~ Robert Louis Stevenson


More sky photos from around the planet at Sky-Watch Friday


Classic Pancakes

@ mirandablue
Classic Country Medley - Classic Pancakes with country sausage from Pancake House
I didn't know physical therapy can make me hungry.  Or maybe I was rewarding myself after a backbreaking session with a physical therapist.  It's nothing serious, really...I slipped in the parking lot last week, landed on my butt, strained some back and arm muscles.  But that is beside the point---the point is, I had carbo overload which is not good for my back at all (I get backaches when I gain weight :().

Why do they have to put Pancake House at the hospital lobby?  Talk about temptation!


More treats at Food Trip Friday

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

By the bay [Watery Wednesday]

@ mirandablue
A serene morning by the bay in Punta Bulata.  A couple of bancas, a type of outrigger boat,  berthed while fishermen were checking their nets in preparation for the day's  fishing expedition.

@ mirandablue
"Surely a man needs a closed space wherein he may strike root, and like the seed, become.  But also he needs the great Milky Way and the vast sea spaces, though neither stars nor ocean serve his daily needs." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery


Get virtually wet at Watery Wednesday

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

At the countryside [MWT]

@ mirandablue
When you visit the Philippine countryside, you are most likely to see a carabao (a subspecies of the water buffalo).  This animal is still a very important draught-animal in the rice fields and farming villages.  If  not working the fields, carabaos are usually found wallowing in a puddle of mud or a watering hole just like this one I met in a river in Manapla.

@ mirandablue
The lush countryside made us linger.  Time drifted leisurely here, a refreshing escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

@ mirandablue
It was almost time for lunch when the gentle carabao emerged from the river, fresh and energized, to take the kids home.  Nearby, a family prepared to have their picnic lunch under a truck---food was eaten kamayan-style (with bare hands), while sitting on banana leaves.

@ mirandablue
I smiled and waved at these kids, remembering a simpler time.

@ mirandablue

Manapla is a coastal town in Negros island, about 45 kilometers north of Bacolod City, the provincial capital.  One of the earliest sugar mills in the country, North Negros Sugar Company, was built here in 1917. 



Show your world at My World - Tuesday

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Painted [Photo-Hunt]

@ mirandablue
An expat friend moved to Manila a few months ago, and I accompanied him to buy paintings for his apartment.  I brought him to Malate, a district of Manila---through a narrow alley that houses a row of makeshift art galleries.  It's a treasure trove of artworks painted by local artists.

@ mirandablue
We even caught an artist-in-residence painting a school of colorful fish in acrylic.  These paintings sell from $70 to $200 each---a bargain, according to my friend.

@ mirandablue


Join us at Photo-Hunt

Friday, August 5, 2011

Morning walk [SWF]

@ mirandablue
After 3 storms this past week, we experienced a bit of sunshine this morning and it's gloomy all over again.  Many places are still half-submerged in water, villages were alerted for signs of a landslide.  So I'm sharing this photo taken during a family vacation last summer.  I am not a morning person but my body clock seems to change when I'm on vacation.  A morning walk at the beach for me is as rare as a total lunar eclipse.  But being here early in the morning was energizing---I had the beach all to myself and the sun was not too intense.  It was a great way to de-stress.


Beautiful sky photos from around the planet at Sky-Watch Friday