Paving paradise part nth

  So we chose to move up to the hills...far from the highway now regularly jammed on weekends...away from the commercial areas...never mind their convenience...

  But now the two big developers have joined together to create even more of the same up there too.   

  Saw the forest bulldozed...very very very sad.

  And yet in the future, I know I will patronize it. Or even be a tenant. 

  Surely, an asthma attack after twenty years of clear lungs...may be related to the construction around.  And what about EVERYONE now having respiratory problems.  It's not just the pollen, I say.  For former Manila residents maybe it's even being used to the cement dust and THEN experiencing pollen.

  I used to hear about "Green Lungs" in the city of Kuala Lumpur every day. Not once have I heard it here.  Just because we are not prone to the smog from Indonesia, or are not in a valley like KL is, does not mean we do not need the "green lungs" too.

  Bye bye birdies.

  

Hope, Birds, and Flowers

      There is! Hope.  I open my front door to see a long-wavy-haired teenage boy turn back, stop his scooter in the middle of the road outside our fence...and look down. I thought he was going to pick up the brown object...maybe something he dropped?  But he sped one direction, and returned quickly, with another boy behind him.  They both looked down and the second boy picked up a little maya (Sparrow) bird...

      I asked..."...alive?".  Wavy-haired kid turned to me, and nodding said "it can't fly...we'll take care of it".

      He looked sincere and their discussion was serious...I trust that they were taking it home to heal it. What else?

      At this hormonal, cranky and cynical phase of my life, when I have begun to mutter "teenagers" whenever I find some irritating, I pause. No, I bonk myself on the head.  There are many good kids out there, and the world is still a good place.  Heck, they are better than you, I tell myself.   

      And no, this isn't a maya...it's a sunbird. It sang from 5-6 pm, also today, directly overhead. Watch out for the droppings, my kid warned.

    A year ago...or maybe even more than a year ago...(I really ought to resume a gardening journal), I cut a small stem off the hydrangea (milflores) pictured in the first March 2011 post.  Now, finally, blooms from that cutting.  I am pleased, because I didn't think it possible.

   I've also just learned they are pink because the soil is alkaline. Apparently they are originally blue and turn pink depending on the soil (or water?).

   We don't have Spring in the Philippines. But if we did, today would probably have been it. Just today. I bet tomorrow the hot Summer begins.

Natural Life

    I found a January 2010 issue of Natural Life Magazine in Booksale last year.  I had earlier found a Mothering magazine.  I didn't know the two were published by the same company Life Media of Canada.  Anyway, I reread the mag yesterday and just got a digital subscription to access the back issues.  I really prefer holding print copies,but it's cheaper this way and more environmentally friendly I guess.

  http://www.naturalifemagazine.com

   I'm not extremely into unschooling, nor have I been very successful at ''green living" despite believing in it and trying for more than ten years.  But actually subscribing tells me I'm determined to really be on my way towards the goal. I just enjoyed reading and rereading it. Something tells me many readers who find their way to this blog (haha, MANY? there might not even be one) will be just as attracted to this magazine. 

  Another Booksale find is Brain, Child magazine.  Very cerebral, very entertaining.