Silence is golden.../SWF

Silence

It has a sound, a fullness.

It's heavy with sigh of tree,

and space between breaths.

It's ripe with pause between birdsong

and crash of surf.

It's golden they say,

But no one tells us it's addictive.

~ Angela Long

Linking to Sky-watch Friday

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

Driftwood

Don't be a driftwood...know where you're going, focus, keep growing.

"If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you." 

~ T. Harv. Eker

Linking to Mandarin Orange Monday
Monday Mellow Yellows

Beyond the green/Watery World Wednesday

There's the ocean beyond the trees---from the terrace at Edgewater.

"You have to be still for a moment to even notice that there is silence outside." ~ Eckhart Tolle

Linking to Watery World Wednesday

Blessed/OWT & WWW

A quick glimpse at the sunset while visiting  a friend at her beach house in Subic.  I wish we stayed longer here but we wanted to get home early to avoid the weekend traffic going back to the city.  My friend and her family were loving the cool breezes from the West Philippine Sea that they decided to extend their stay.   This was a quiet sunset, not as fiery as the sunsets in the summer but it's beautiful nonetheless.  And I feel incredibly blessed to have seen this beauty---we're enjoying a great weather while the southern part of the country has been drowning in torrential rains that have brought flash floods to communities that are still recovering from a devastating storm last month.

"The most significant gifts are the ones most easily overlooked.  Small, everyday blessings:  woods, health, music, laughter, memories, books, family, friends, second chances, warm fireplaces, and all the footprints scattered throughout our days." ~ Sue Monk Kidd

Linking to:

Our World-Tuesday

Watery World-Wednesday

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

Sailing at sunset/SWF

We are all inventors, each sailing on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate.  The world is all gates, all opportunities.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Subic Bay, Philippines

Join us at Sky-Watch Friday

Bare tree/Watery World Wednesday & NF Waters

like an old woman's boney fingers

the tree's bare branches stretch out

in gnarled twists

swollen and knotty with time...

~ by Hank Kalet

Linking to Watery World Wednesday and NF Waters

Subic sunset/SWF

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. ~ Ernest Hemingway

Sunset at Subic Bay, looking towards Grande Island.

 Linking to Sky-Watch Friday

Outrigger Canoe/Blue Monday

I wonder if this canoe dreams of becoming a ship someday.:p

An outrigger canoe, locally known as banca, by the shores of Subic Bay.

More blues @ Blue Monday

A summer sunset/SWF

I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer.  My bank of wild grass is majestic and full of music.  It is a fire that solitude presses against my lips.  

~ Violette Leduc

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

Orange glow/SWF

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.  ~ G.K. Chesterson

An orange glow illuminated the sky a few minutes after sunset at Subic Bay; Grande Island on the foreground, Subic mountains at the background.

Linking to SkyWatch-Friday

Diving in Subic Bay/OWT & WW

From the second floor terrace of the beach-house at Edgewater, I noticed this boat anchored not far away from the pier. Em told me scuba divers frequent the area.  This area of Subic Bay is a marine sanctuary where commercial fishing is not allowed.  Aside from the rich marine life, there are also ship wrecks here--either from the Spanish-American War in 1898 or the World War II.

Subic Bay is part of Luzon Sea at the west coast of Luzon, the biggest island in the Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay.  The shores were formerly the site of a major US Navy facility, now the location of an industrial and commercial area known as the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Linking to Our World-Tuesday and Watery Wednesday

By the bay/Watery Wednesday

Wildflowers by the bay

@ Edgewater, Subic Freeport 

Linking to Watery Wednesday

Kamana Sanctuary/OWT & WW

We were driving around Subic one Sunday afternoon when M asked if we wanted to go to Kamana Sanctuary.  I relished being just a passenger that weekend and told M to just take us anywhere she wanted to go.  

Kamana Sanctuary is a fairly new resort in Subic Freeport, nestled between a rainforest and Nabasan Bay, and overlooking Grande Island and Subic mountains.

There was only a short stretch of beach so the main attraction here must be the eternity pool.  The casitas (rooms on stilts) looked interesting.  We wanted to see the rooms but we were told at the reception that the resort was fully-booked.  We chilled by the pool, sipped fresh fruit shakes, enjoyed the cool breezes and the view.

There is a spa here but I guess it's not open just yet.  I am actually more interested in the spa than the pool or the beach.  This is not my kind of beach resort.  Besides, their room rates are expensive.  I'd rather go to an island and sleep under the stars.:p

However, I'd say this resort is a good weekend getaway...just a short, easy 2-hour drive from Manila and there are lots of things to do in Subic.  And according to M, Kamana Sanctuary serves good food---that's a plus in  my book.:p

Kamana Sanctuary is inside the Subic Freeport, a former US naval base.  Subic Freeport is about 2 hours from Manila via SCTEx.

with my girlfriend, Maria

Linking to Our World-Tuesday and Watery Wednesday

Sparklers/SWF

 Sunbeams like diamonds falling through sunshine.  

Triboa Bay, Subic

Linking to Sky-Watch Friday

Reflection/Watery Wednesday

In reflecting on the times of my life, it occurs to me that the difficult, arduous experiences always pass, or at least wane to a tolerable level.  On the other hand, thankfully, the positive, uplifting aspects of my life journey seem to hold strong and steady throughout, as long as I appreciate and nurture them.  

~ David Weatherford

Taken from Edgewater, Subic Freeport 

January 29, 2012

Linking to Watery Wednesday