Mmm, smell that? It's the Narra tree!

     You never know what tomorrow will bring. Tomorrow is today, and today is heady with the scent of the narra trees' flowers.  How lovely to wake up to this naturally-fragranced air! The  exotic "bango" (scent) comes in wisps, swirling in the air, blown in through our windows by the breeze.  The lush green leaves are making a graceful brushing sound as I type.  Music and fragrance from the trees and air!

     I was going to start posting yesterday, but then it was going to be an angry post, a bad start for a new blogger.  Yesterday, and on some days since last week, we have been inhaling, no--choking, on smoke from one of the 'developments' out here in Santa Rosa.  It rained "abo" strips (ash).  We left Makati alongside EDSA, after years of trying to stop the burning of leaves and grass at the seminary near us.  Not even reporting them to the MMDA headquarters across their lot stopped it. To be fair, there seemed to be a period when it stopped right after my call to the chairman.  After a brief spell, the "pagsisiga", an illegal activity, really, went on during weekends and holidays.  We endured black dust from EDSA buses settling stubbornly on all our appliances, furniture, and heaven forbid, in our respiratory systems.  Then we moved here, and everyone who learned about it understood, it's for the "air".  There is space and air here because of unoccupied fields of cogon...which are burnt.

     Oh dear. I started my blog on that negative note anyway. This is how I really hoped to begin:
Narras in bloom!

underneath the narra tree...see the fuzzy leaves? It's windy.

If only the scent could be posted...!

     The scent is rich, perfumey but just so, not overpowering in a headache-y way. There is no way I can describe it any further except to say it reminds me of the scents of jasmine or honeysuckle. Oh but this narra, it's potent after all ha. Smelling it makes me feel...pretty? See? It's affecting my brain already.  People outside should be happy today, not the happy that is drug-induced though, haha. 

    Last March, when they bloomed one day, I learned narras bloom a day after a rainshower in February or March.It hasn't really rained, but it's been overcast and cold here. The flowers last only one or two days and then they are yellow little dots on the ground, flying together toward the sidewalks' edges.  Tokyo has its cherry blossoms in bloom right now, and these are our own temporary flowers. Not outstandingly pretty, they make up for yesterday's smoke and ashfall. Alright, I must not complain too much about my air now.  I've been thinking of what our Japanese brethren are going through. 

     My milflores also currently in bloom is for very a good Japanese friend in Tokyo who remains optimistic despite the empty grocery shelves she has been facing each night after work. You have a home with us, my sister.