Perseverance/Watery World Wednesday

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins---not through strength but by perseverance." 

~ Jackson Browne

Linking to Watery World Wednesday

Gifts from the sea

I was in Cebu last week for work and since it was Holy Week, there was nothing else to do in the city.   Everything shuts down during Holy Week and a friend was kind enough to invite me to stay with her family in Liloan, a town 18 kilometers from the city.   So on Wednesday morning, I checked out from the hotel and met with my friend at the mall to get a cab to Liloan.

It is usually very hot during Holy Week, and humidity levels in Cebu are high all year-round---averaging 70-80%.   By noon, I started feeling sluggish, then a really bad headache hit me.  I had all the symptoms of a heat exhaustion which I never experienced before.  I didn't want to spend the afternoon sleeping so I drank lots of water, took a shower and stayed in an air-conditioned room for about an hour.  When it cooled down in the afternoon, we decided to walk to the beach.

I am used to the white sandy beaches of Mactan and the nearby islands and didn't expect this rocky coast of Liloan.  At the distance is a new, upscale subdivision called Amara, located in Bagacay Point.  It was low tide and the sea bed revealed a thriving meadow of sea grass.  These underwater grasses are commonly found on sandy bottoms of calm bays and between coral reefs.  Sea grasses are sometimes called ecosystem engineers because they partly create their own habitat:  the leaves slow down water currents and the roots stabilize the sea bed.

Sea grasses don't only control soil erosion of coastal areas but also hold the oceans' CO₂ storage and support a great deal of marine life.  Starfish are abundant here, as well as various species of sea urchins and other sea creatures I haven't seen before.  

Sea urchin roe or uni sashimi is expensive in Manila restaurants, and when the kids learned that I love uni sashimi, they picked some sea urchins for our sushi dinner.  But they stayed away from groups of black, long-spined sea urchins, locally known as "tuyom"---they were everywhere. I was warned to be very careful not to step on them.  Sea urchin spines can be venomous and can cause infection.

Not many people like the looks and taste of sea urchin roe.  I offered it to a British client once, and he said it looks disgusting---like sh-t, like brain matter, something Hannibal Lecter would eat.  But after he tried uni, he was a convert. Sea urchin roe or swaki is an acquired taste for most---it completely grosses out most people but I love its briny, rich flavor and creamy texture.  Try it when you have a chance.

Starfish are so pretty---I've been fascinated with them since I was a kid.   I believed that starfish were there for the sole purpose of making sea beds and beaches beautiful.  But I guess everything in nature has a purpose.  And I've read that starfish have an important role in ecology and biology, and a well-known example of the keystone species concept in ecology.

The brown spotted creature with two "horns" on the head is sea hare or Aplysiomorpha.  Sea hares are also edible and they secrete something really interesting---it's a noodle-like thingy locally known as "lukot".  I had "lukot" ceviche and it was really good!

The black worm-like creatures below (right) are sea cucumbers or sea slugs, locally known as "balat".  Sea cucumber is typically used in Chinese cuisine and traditional Chinese medicine.  Locals eat it raw with vinegar.  

The girl in red shirt had a basket full of sea urchins after about an hour.  It's wonderful that people here enjoy the gifts from the sea for free and with minimum effort.  When you take care of nature, it rewards you back.

Linking with Our World-Tuesday

Watery World-Wednesday

Rocky coast/Mandarin Orange Monday & Monday Mellow Yellows

A rocky coast near Edgewater in Subic Bay. 

"You are only as strong as your purpose, therefore let us choose reasons to act that are big, bold, righteous and eternal."  

~ Barry Munro

Linking to Mandarin Orange Monday and Monday Mellow Yellows

Blues...Across the Universe

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind,
Possessing and caressing me.
Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
They call me on and on across the universe,
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box
They tumble blindly as they make their way
Across the universe
Sounds of laughter shades of love are
Ringing through my open ears inciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a
Million suns, and calls me on and on
Across the universe...

~ John Lennon

 

Join us @ Our World Tuesday
 Water World-Wednesday

NF Waters

Journey/Mandarin Orange Monday

The seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs. ~ Wally Lamb

Here's to new adventures in 2013!

Join us @ Mandarin Orange Monday

Rocky/Watery World Wednesday

“Do not assume that he who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, he would never have been able to find these words.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Linking to Watery World Wednesday

Solitude/Water World Wednesday

“We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” ~ C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Linking to Water World Wednesday

 

Wordless/Water World Wednesday

 "What we've got here is a failure to communicate."

Linking to Water World Wednesday

Morning/SWF

Morning at the beach after a stormy night.

Linking to Sky-Watch Friday

Here comes the rain again/SWF

around 10 A.M., Sunday

I was in Dasol, Pangasinan with a couple of friends over the weekend.  It had been rainy and windy, and the big waves discouraged us from taking a swim---we danced in the rain instead.:p

The bad weather was a combination of the southwest monsoon and two tropical depressions (Igme and Julian).  It didn't stop us from having a good time at the beach.

@ 12:09 P.M., Sunday

Dasol, Pangasinan is 310 kilometers from Manila via Subic, Zambales


Don't ever let your mind keep you from having a good time. ~ Jason Mraz

Join sky-watchers from around the world @ Sky-Watch Friday

Beach boys/Water World-Wednesday

The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us.  When the world seems familiar, when one has got used to existence, one has become an adult.  ~ Eugene Ionesco

Linking to Kim's Water World-Wednesday

Nature heals/Water World & NF Waters

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature---the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter. ~ Rachel Carson

Linking to Water World-Wednesday and NF Waters

Persistence/Water World Wednesday

People are always blaming their circumstance for what they are.  I don't believe in circumstance.  The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.  ~ G.B. Shaw

Mangroves in Atwayan Beach, Coron Island

Linking to Water World Wednesday and NF Waters

Be gentle with yourself/Watery World-Wednesday

 Speak quietly to yourself and promise there will be better days. Whisper gently to yourself and provide assurance that you really are extending your best effort.  Console your bruised and tender spirit with reminders of many other successes.  Offer comfort in practical and tangible ways--as if you were encouraging your dearest friend.  Recognize that on certain days the greatest grace is that the day is over and you get to close your eyes.  Tomorrow comes more brightly...

~ Mary Ann Radmacher

Join us at Watery World Wednesday and NF Waters

Driftwood/Water World - Wednesday

Humility is the only true wisdom by which we prepare our minds for all the possible changes of  life. ~  George Arliss

Linking to Watery World-Wednesday and NF Waters

Ambition/Watery World-Wednesday

We pay the price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement. ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery

Linking to Watery World Wednesday

and NF Waters