Cozy garden/Our World-Tuesday

 Growing up in a place surrounded by trees and flowers, I miss having my own garden, which I never have in over 20 years of living in the city.  So I was delighted when I got invited to this "weekend home" in Tagaytay.      

  Tagaytay is about 52 kilometers south of Manila, and its high altitude gives the place a cooler climate.  

The city is lush---flowers and fruits are everywhere.

It was about a two-and-a-half-hour drive---the long and winding road brought us to a house at the end of a dirt road in the middle of a pineapple plantation.  

This chair was calling my name!

I love the verdant foliage and cozy nooks surrounded by flowering vines.
Anthuriums graced the pathways around the garden.
Various species of orchids and other tropical flowers filled the property.  

The garden set provides a casual yet intimate space for new friends to get to know each other.

Tucked behind the cascading white and purple Angel's Trumpet vine is another set of garden table and stools.

A retired wooden cart  sits in the garden surrounded by orchids and bougainvilleas.

Linking to Our World-Tuesday

Girlfriends/Water World-Wednesday

Two girlfriends dancing in the pond at the Paradiso Terrestre.

Linking to Water World-Wednesday

Lantern/Blue Monday

A colorful stained glass lantern at the Bag of Beans in Tagaytay. 

Linking to Blue Monday

Para sa 'yo [Litratong Pinoy]

sana’y paggising mo sa umaga
ay tulad ka ng bagong bulaklak
namumukadkad sa liwayway
at ako’y iyo,
iyong hinihintay...

ang aking mga saloobin
ay sa iyo
ngayong araw ng mga puso,
hindi kita makakalimutan.

Posted for Litratong Pinoy

International Fountain [Watery and Outdoor Wednesday]

Originally built in 1961 for the 1962 World's Fair, the International Fountain is the centerpiece of the open space and lawn at the Seattle Center. The original design was replaced and rebuilt in 1995 with over 20 spouts and programmed cycles of shooting water patterns synchronized to music. It was playing a symphony and then a mix of rock 'n roll while I was taking these pictures. The fountain bowl is 220 feet across, and the silver dome is 10 feet tall and 27 feet wide.

photos were taken in August 2009

Posted for Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday

Roses [ Ruby Tuesday]

The flower offered of itself
And eloquently spoke
Of Gods
In languages of rainbows
Perfumes
And secret silence...

~ Phillip Pulfrey

roses from the University of Washington garden

Posted for Ruby Tuesday

Bulky [Photo-Hunt]

Everything in this garden was humongous. Sally wanted to take home the coconut but it 's too bulky for the car trunk. The coconut and pumpkins were not genetically modified to solve the world's food crisis...they're garden sculptures made of concrete.

Garden at Silangang Nayon in Pagbilao, Quezon

Posted for Photo Hunt

Purple

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.... People think pleasing God is all God care about.  But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.  

~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, 1982

Stop and smell the roses - Ruby Tuesday

The sight of flowers makes my heart flutter in a way that some women feel when they see a shoe sale or a sexy guy smiling across the room.

While on a business trip in Seattle, I took time to smell the roses, literally, at the University of Washington.

Frosh Pond and Drumheller Fountain

Posted for Ruby Tuesday

Weekend Snapshot: meditation garden

A meditation garden at the back of Tayabas Basilica. There are stations of the cross, a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer for Roman Catholics, and benches for those who seek some peace and quiet and a cool shade on a hot Saturday afternoon.

Posted for Weekend Snapshot

"124" Book Tag - Heirloom Dahlias

I got this tag from a blog buddy, Gizelle, early this week, but I was up to my eyeballs with work. Finally, I was able to do the tag today.

Here are the easy-to-do tag rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people.

Problem is, I'm at work and I have no books here. I only have tons of catalogs, trade manuals and magazines. The pile on my desk right now consists of 3 issues of Veranda, Elle Decor and Wallpaper magazines---I hope these counts since there are also words and sentences in it.:D

I grabbed the one on top of the pile...a 20th anniversary issue of Veranda. When I opened page 123, it's a full-page ad so I flipped on the next page. Mine is a "124" magazine tag, Gizelle! Hahaha

my desk

Page 124 is an article about Heirloom Dahlias, with photos of the bold and captivating bloomers in deep burgundy, old-rose pink and maroon hues. The article was written by Katherine Whiteside, who wrote that these flowers “have everything to do with young, impetuous love in a hot, sanguine country.”

The next 3 sentences after the first five sentences read:

The Hollands continued to live a romantic, peripatetic ex-pat life in France and Spain. While in the latter country, the now-Lady Holland saw dahlias in bloom for the first time. It was love again.

page 124

To give you an idea what the three sentences were all about---here's the juicy part: it is Florence at the end of the 18th century. And there, Sir Geoffrey Webster and his 23-year old wife, were enjoying the lavish life of wealthy Brits living abroad. Enter Lord Holland, age 20, and his wife. This young couple was making the European grand tour, while in Italy, stopped by to visit the Websters. Before you could say cocoxchitl (which Dahlia was called by the Aztecs), Lady Webster and Lord Holland began a torrid affair, ran off together and, in 1796, produced a son. A year later, Lord Webster divorced his wife, and Lord Holland and the former Lady Webster were able to marry.

Years later, the now-Lady Holland sent seeds of dahlia back to Britain and, thus, has been credited with jump-starting the dahlia's introduction into English gardens.

Originally, dahlia tubers were grown by Aztecs for food. Spanish explorers in Central America tried this indigenous treat but declared the taste "repulsive and nauseous." Sometime in 1785, some unnamed explorer sent the tubers to Spain and it was christened in honor of Anders Dahl, a student of the great botanical name-dropper Linnaeus.

A subsequent story about a dahlia tuber that was once exchanged for a diamond is perhaps an exaggeration, but later in the 19th century, the dahlia was so popular that there were more than 10,000 different types in cultivation. Lord Holland was rightly proud and wrote the following bit of dahlia doggerel for his darling after they had been together for almost 20 years:

The Dahlia you brought to our isle

Your praises for ever shall speak;

Mid gardens as sweet as your smile,

And colour as bright as your cheek.

Crown of Thorns

I took photos of this flower in my friend’s garden in Angeles City last week, and posted it in my last blog. Gzel asked for a name of this plant and I had to ask around. A co-worker identified it as Euphorbia. I googled and found that it is also called “Crown of Thorns”. Euphorbia is a very large genus with over 2000 species. The sap is poisonous, can burn skin, and can cause temporary blindness if it goes in the eyes.




Euphorbia milii var splendens is a straggly, spiny shrub bearing bright red bracts and, given a chance, will grow to 2m. Euphorbia milii was named by Des Moulins in 1826 and, while not a succulent, can withstand long dry periods when the plants will shed their leaves. The stems are furrowed and furnished with stout, tapering spines about 2cm long. The leaves occur at the top of the shoots and the branched inflorescences grow from the leaf axils. The variety splendens is simply a larger form than the species itself and occurs naturally. In fact there is considerable variation in the wild in south-west Madagascar and several have been named, including a yellow flowered form, also grown for the pot plant industry.

My aunt had an episode where she and her friends would drive around Negros looking for other colors of this shrub. She claims that she has all the colors of this flower in her garden. I love the colors of this shrub's flowers. They’re all vivid—reds, yellows, and oranges.

Arni, whose garden these photos were taken, is a former colleague vacationing from NYC. She took care of me when I visited New York for the first time a few years ago; gave me a tour, and brought me to Broadway to see “Mama Mia”. I drove to Angeles City last week, stayed overnight, and we went to see a movie in SM Clark---Arni and I were movie buddies and we had been teased in the office that we attended more "Lupang Hinirang" in the theater than in school because we were fond of going to the movies during the last full show. After Arni left for New York, I was a regular patron of Greenbelt's "midnight workaholics" with screening time after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Oh, those were the days! :D

And one shouldn't leave Pampanga without dining at the famous Aling Lucing’s, home of the original Sisig. We braved the smoke from the ihaw-ihaw just to taste the appetizing Sisig one more time.

my old movie buddy

My little garden

ginseng flower

There’s a small patch of soil outside my window. I dreamed of planting roses there but it remains a dream to this day. Besides, I have never grown a rose in my life! Six years ago, when I was new in the apartment, I asked my mother to plant squash and ampalaya outside the window to shield the living room area from direct sunlight. I wanted to plant ivy to cover the exterior wall of the apartment but my landlord thinks it’s a bad idea.

I’m not really a gardener although I love flowers, admire gardens and enjoy being in one. My mother is more of the gardener in the family. She planted a hybrid blue gumamela in my garden but my landlord’s dog ate it. A friend gave me a bonsai but it died after 6 months in my care. So I’m not really ambitious when it comes to gardening. I like plants that grow on their own.

A few months ago, I got inspired and planted oregano because I love to cook pasta, and I also use the dried leaves to some meat and fish dishes. My oregano is now a small forest! Now, I’m thinking of buying potted basil, bell pepper and other herbs.

oregano

My mother planted ginseng because of its medicinal benefits---although we have not tried it yet. Ginseng roots are said to be adaptogens, aphrodisiacs, nourishing stimulants, and could treat type II diabetes, including sexual dysfunction in men.

There are also a couple of ‘alogbate’ (a slimy vegetable) stems my mother planted, and a bunch of other plants that I don’t recognize. My landlord also contributed bougainvillea and a few pots of red-leaf plants.

When I visited my grandmother in Fairview late last year, I saw an enchanting white flower at her neighbor’s garden. It’s an all-white flower, beautiful in its simplicity. Through my grandmother, her neighbor gave me a bulb that I planted outside my window. Yesterday, I was playing with my dog when I noticed the flowers. They’re pink instead of white, but I like them anyway. I don’t know what this flower is called…my office mate said it’s a Lily.

So, this is my lily.

"In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful."

~Abram L. Urban