Views from Seda Hotel Nuvali

The Monochrome Events hall far right; Mt. Makiling in the background

Nuvali blvd.; Tagaytay ridge on the horizon; Nuvali's playing Fields;
construction of more commercial spaces on the right

Southern Luzon Hospital in the background; two hours later, visible flames, fire trucks, and thick smoke in the Greenfield Development area AGAIN.  As in every holiday and weekend in the summer.

Yes their windows need washing; will forgive them this at this time

Easter Sunday sunset over Solenad 2

Crown Asia's Valenza village; Cathay Land's South Forbes Chateaux de Paris village in Silang in the background

Lounging by their poolside in the morning is refreshing...cool, breezy

If only I could post photos of the hotel staff...they were all friendly, accommodating, professional... and I have to make special mention of the Night Supervisor who actually spent the next day going around checking on guests in his very perky, sincere manner.  Its people are most important...and this hotel's went about their duties in nothing less than we expected of an Ayala hotel.  Hopefully it's not just because they just opened last month. The lifeguard on duty was vigilant, looking out for the safety of guests as some dangerously traversed the higher edge of the pool, and strictly requiring the proper attire. I observed how staff treated the other guests too.  This is probably why I am forgiving this place the imperfect finishing on the interior walls...the dirty windows...

Bucal, Calamba

View from main entrance of Sol y Viento resort

IMHO only, a waste of mountain, space & spring water pool opportunity; design?! while awesome in size, position and certainly unique, the man-made waterfall is...well...too man-made for my liking I guess

Well, couldn't this town have been much more...quaint

Okay...adequate showers & they look alright imho; but do swimmers use them pre-plunge?
at least they, the guests, weren't in cotton t-shirts and shorts unlike in most resorts here

along the national highway

Oops why is this photo here...Tom Yum Goong made by Indonesian neighbor; two weeks ago, surprise Kimbap made by Korean neighbor. I don't ask! They give :-)  All masarap 

Pho Hanoi restaurant along the way to Los Banos

simple, clean, straightforward, so you know focus is on the food, which must be good; note palochina furniture of which there are many along the road. The pho and some other dishes we ordered were delicious, fresh, in a home-cooked Vietnamese way; but we were slightly put off after realizing the special Pho Hanoi did not contain the ingredients as pictured...and we were only told after we asked about it (and after we had eaten it all, in hunger) that it was all beef, and with added beef as the other ingredients were out of stock. Sadly, the cold dessert (Three Colors--bean, gelatin, with shaved ice and milk) was not available as the gelatin imported from Vietnam was out of stock. Oh prices are alright too. Reasonable.

Earth Hour

   It is this weekend.  We've participated these past four years by turning off our lights for a little longer than the hour.  Back in Makati, the whole village participated. Here, in this village, all lights remain on, there is no notice, and the Earth Hour project seems unheard of.  Lights are out in homes that are mostly empty, and it doesn't really matter to me...I admittedly haven't given much thought to why I participate, except it would not hurt anyway. It is good.  

    These were shot last December.  The last photo, with the vast Indian Ocean front and center, seems poignant now, in the light of MH 370. We may never really know what really happened...and it's one of those mysteries I need an answer for from God.  May their souls rest in peace.

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.

Narra Showers

Coming full circle from the first post 3 years ago...

I will never tire of these...after March 2014 showers...perfumed air yesterday

yellow carpet today

Makopa (Malabar plum?)

  ...and I find I have nothing more to say.

Honeybees and Humans

   Tonight's rant may be inspired by three things, or not. First, my walking along my child's school pathway and seeing a row of about four dead honeybees.  On the other side of this path is a flower bed of different colored blooms.  The school is located on hilly land, blessed with a moderate climate and vegetation is abundant.  I wondered if their deaths were part of the normal cycle of honeybee life...to suck their last blossom's nectar and then just pass out on the side. Or, if the recent almost-daily burning of grass (again by the big property developers...see March 2011 post) had anything to do with their demise.  I did read somewhere that honeybees' navigation has been affected by the world...

   Second...my child's current piano piece, "Honeybee" and her second visit to a farm animal and botanical ''zoo" with a honeybee section have made her wildly passionate about them.  Third, and this is related to the first and second...I just swatted one inside my house today.  The child found it flying against a closed window.  As we were in a hurry to leave and I worried about not seeing it and it buzzing around later when we were asleep...I immediately did the deed.  I apologized, actually apologized to the bee and explained my action to the child.  She only echoed what I usually tell her ..."it won't harm you if you don't harm it".  She was then worried it might harm me in retribution.  I was worried about how it found its way inside.

   Well, my child hasn't grasped the effect of "death", but her worries about retribution are not unfounded.  Honeybees are probably too sweet (sorry) to do that...but the reality is, they go, humans go. It's not retribution, it's self-inflicted.

    And this is the latest out there:

    http://tvnz.co.nz/sunday-news/honey-bees-under-attack-5847035

Santa Rosa Sunset February 9, 2014