Pebble park

"My life is full of mistakes.

They're like pebbles that make a good road."

~Beatrice Wood (1893–1998), American artist and potter

A wooden bridge connecting two of the buildings of Greenbelt, a large retail complex in Makati City, seen through the trunks of some very tall and skinny palm trees. I like how Ayala Land used light and dark pebbles in this part of the park—they make the ground look like freeform art.

Lush

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap

but by the seeds that you plant."

~Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Scottish novelist, poet & essayist

It is easy to see how Greenbelt, a large commercial and retail complex in Makati City, got its name.

Postcards from Cambodia: Ta Prohm

Back in November 2013, my husband and I spent five days in Siem Reap, Cambodia with a couple of friends. We got home to news of a large typhoon forming over the Pacific whose projected path would take it directly over the Philippines. I used my spare hours tracking it and didn't bother with my blog—only for a few days, I thought. It took me several months after Typhoon Haiyan to start blogging again. So, half a year late, I will be featuring photos of our "Temple Run" for the next few days.
  Ta Prohm is one of the hundreds of temples found in the Angkor area of Siem Reap. It was built as a monastery and university in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and, unlike other Angkor temples, is kept in pretty much the same condition as it was found.
  Except for one particular temple, Angkor was abandoned in the 15th century, and the temples neglected for centuries. The jungle reclaimed the land and, now, Ta Prohm is best known for the trees (mostly kapok and banyan) growing out of the ruins. (It is also known as the temple in the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie.) A few carvings in the temple stones survived centuries of exposure to the elements.

Some of the trees growing out of Ta Prohm are huge. The exposed roots of this one need propping up so the ruins don't collapse further.
  A look back as we were leaving revealed the entirety of the highest tree growing out of the temple.

Moss

Yellow santan

When we were children, we would carefully pull out the fine filament in the middle of each floret to suck the santan's sweet nectar.

Weed

Yet another flower which I have no name for has just bloomed in our garden. This time, I'm quite sure that it's not from the seeds which I planted several years ago.

Heart

One of the common names of Colocasia plants is "elephant ears" because of the shape of their leaves. Some species look more like hearts to me.

Fern

Sweet sleeping beauty

I don't know what this flower is, but it bloomed one day in our front yard and now, several bushes line the curbside. All I know is, the flowers go to sleep at night and only wake up if they're kissed by the sun. And bees seem to like them more than any others we have.

I confess, we ended up with nameless flowers because I bought several seed packs of different perennials several years ago, planted all of them in the front yard, and tossed the packets. I like surprises.

Twenty for half

An itinerant fruit vendor on the sidewalk outside the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish church was selling green mangoes, sampaloc (tamarind), and kamote (sweet potato). Green mangoes are sour and those who like them eat them with bagoong (fish or shrimp paste) or sea salt. Tamarind is also sour but it can be candied, and the fruit is also used for the soup base of one of our most popular dishes, sinigang. It was the tamarind that was selling for twenty pesos (less than 50 US cents) for half a kilo.

Touched by the sun

The view which greeted me when I stepped out of our office building a little before 6:00pm yesterday, taken above the roads, parking lot and cars. A few trees across the field not blocked by buildings had taken on a red glow from the setting sun.

Pocket jungle

The house across ours has been empty for about half a year now. It was supposedly bought by a developer who was going to build row houses, but nothing has been done yet and we have not even seen a shadow of the new owner. In the meantime, the trees, vines and grass have so grown unchecked that the house can hardly be seen anymore.

By great luck, one of our barangay security was walking down the street when I was taking this photo. I guess that was only when he took a hard look at the state of the property, because the next day, there was a small army of barangay ecoworkers mowing the grass and trimming the trees.

Creativity

The designer of Basil used the naturally-occurring outcrop of adobe in its small lot—filling its crannies with plants and building a waterfall which flows into a pool at its base—to create a lovely, tropical rainforest ambiance for the Thai restaurant's interior.

Walking on fire

A flame tree blossom-covered sidewalk at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Fashionable plants

At Resurrection Furniture and Found Objects Gallery (see yesterday's post), reused and recycled objects are not only found in the pieces that they sell. Everything at No. 10-A Alabama Street is old, refurbished, recycled or repurposed. I couldn't help but notice the planters all over the place. I saw tub and toilet planters in the back yard, huge old CRT monitor planters inside the house, and a fashion show of shoe planters lining the path from the gate to the front door.

P.S.
Jetro Rafael of Van Gogh is Bipolar thought up and made these shoe planters.

Dressed to the nines

The second floor landing of our office building got all dolled up with a lovely faux indoor garden for its blessing yesterday.

This is my fifth location in the twelve years that I have worked in the same office at the Ateneo de Manila University. I just have three things to say about it. One, I really hope that this is my last move; it's just so stressful, especially when you're the one who has to manage it. Two, I'm very, very thankful that this time, I didn't have to manage the building's renovation, unlike back in 2008. And three, I'm going to miss our jungle (though maybe not the bugs and pythons).

Thumbelina's bouquets

Since I'm absolutely awful with plant names, it's kind of useless asking me what these flowers are called. Each flower looks like a tiny bouquet of even smaller flowers. When I was much younger, I remember seeing only all-yellow or all-white ones. I like this dual-color variety so much better, and I love how the gardener mixed the baby pink/ fuschia and yellow/orange bushes together.

Spotlight

…on my favorite flower: white lilies.

Simple blessings

Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) grows in our garden all year round with absolutely no effort on our part. White is more common but we get pink ones like this every now and then.

Wishing you all a beautiful and peaceful 2012.

A most welcoming host

I like how some people grow plants on the branches of trees. The trees don't seem to suffer for the presence of their guests and the variety of leaf shapes make everything even more interesting. Just don't ask me what tree or plants they are, okay? :)