Fields of Angels

   I had noticed the bamboo lined entrance years ago, just past Mr. Moo along the highway in Silang.  Eventually I noticed a small wooden sign "Angelfields".    Each time we drove by I wondered...to where did the path lead.  

   I was feeling out of sorts...terribly out of sorts.  In my head echoed "you need to find your center. You are out of balance".  Things came to a head when the kid would not take an afternoon siesta again, had been waking up for midnight snacks.  After weeks of "good" sleep on her part, and enough shuteye for myself as well, that routine broke down inexplicably and so did I. This is just a long-winded way of saying, I was tired.  So this day, I just demanded that we "go, go on a drive!".  He needed to have a destination...he grumbled about possible notorious Saturday afternoon traffic at the direction I pointed--South.  South is THIS way, the kid said. Haha, not the supermarket today, dear.  South toward the ridge but not all the way. 

    A destination, he demanded. "Angelfields", the head whispered...I want to finally check out that angel fields.  I love bamboo.

    The guardian at the gate, sorry...the man at the entrance was very friendly saying it is a wedding/events place. Ohhh. Just go down the road and follow the right side, he directed.  Voila, down there, more bamboo. I love bamboo. And bamboo led me to this sanctuary.

The bamboos creaked as they swayed, their leaves rustled. Instantly I was healed and that's just the entrance.  Sounds of nature--birds, wind, trees. That's all.

      This being a quick, sudden drive out, I forgot to bring a proper camera.  

    The very accommodating and cheerful guest officer who showed us around explained that the owner being "very religious, a devout Catholic", set this property up as a place for prayer.  It does make a pretty garden wedding location.  It's like having a wedding at home.  It is actually also a B&B.  With casitas named after saints, crucifixes and statues marking each, it looks like a Catholic retreat place.  It is conducive to contemplation, reflection on the faith.  The birds are cared for--the owner avoids fumigation, etc which may harm them. It is after all called a "Nature Sanctuary" and well, St. Francis, animals, you get it.  On the table as we dined was a black bug with white patterns, and a caterpillar.  Good signs, but in my humble opinion maybe they should have carabao grass and not the bermuda grass (or is it zoysia? philippine grass?) they were watering to rehabilitate. I mean the lawn is pretty, but...I don't know...maybe too high maintenance. 

     I hope their wide and deep drainage system is enough for the monsoon season. There is a creek along the property and it is currently dry, but the place looks like a catch basin. Oh what do I know, they know what they're doing. Just a word of warning I suppose, for monsoon weddings...

     A pavilion named John Paul II, a devotion to St. Francis, with his image everywhere...interestingly this was opened a year ago.  Will a Pope Francis pavilion come next?

     Oh I forgot to mention, yes there is all-day dining for walk-in guests.

     

coffee machine in every casita

There is a piano in here

It is pretty in the evening. Huge appeal for weddings

mahogany trees planted by the owner 13 years ago

   

South Supermarket

  Standing next to the Caltex station at the corner of Laguna blvd. and the Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay national highway, the South Supermarket looks as if it has always been there.  It just opened in time for the Christmas holidays last year, and the neighborhood is there all the time. I run into someone I know each time I'm there, and that's nearly every week.  The staff knows many of us by face, in the same way the old Rustan's Express staff down the boulevard beside the St. John Bosco parish does.  Perhaps sadly (?) for Rustan's, many of our faces are...missed.  However, I'm sure it remains a destination for after-work, after-school and after-mass.

  There are still a few items South Supermarket does not carry, that Rustan's stocks up on, though. Things like Likas Papaya soap, and Antonio Pueo Excellente Chocolate tableas.  So I have been back to Rustan's occasionally for these. One of those times, the manager happily (and reassuringly, it seems, to her subordinate) reported to me that Shopwise is soon opening in Nuvali.

  Many Filipinos in the neighborhood are Alabang folk, and previously made the drive to the Alabang branch of South Super for their groceries. When we moved to Sta. Rosa and took the long route to the SM Sta. Rosa--via the bayan--we saw the old South Super Sta. Rosa along the way. It was "out of the way" for this side of Sta. Rosa, and the parking lot was EMPTY. So it was not surprising to hear they had closed down. Opening on this side, and smack in the middle of the busy intersection of Paseo and Laguna blvd, is, if I were a competitor, extremely enviable.  It is not only an after-work, after-school, after-play destination, it is also a stop for those traveling further to Tagaytay or Batangas.

  My own history with South Supermarket goes way back to my childhood in the Pasay-Paranaque border.  It was also the neighborhood store, very homey with red brick walls.  We would stop by South Super for groceries after school, or for supplies for school projects, or for a quick snack. There was a soft-serve ice cream machine, where a very kind gay man cheerfully served up twists of bland, creamy vanilla and chocolate twists of ice cream.  She/he knew us all as well, and if you were as kind to him/her, you could get an extra tall serving.  He/she later had to man an ICEE slushie machine as well. Remember that slushie drink with the Polar bear logo, and flavors colored ice blue, brown for cola, and red?  I later realized he/she watched many of us grow up, as I had a college friend from the same neighborhood who claimed he was a favorite of this server.  I wonder where he/she is now.  I wonder what happened to the ICEE brand.

   In South Supermarket Sta. Rosa, the barbecue kiosk lady who now knows us by face is fast becoming my kid's version of my ice cream vendor.  Now that I think about it...she looks familiar because she looks like that ice cream vendor. Or at least that is his/her smile I remember.  How uncanny.