Anthurium

One typhoon left, but a new one's here again... hope you peeps here in the Philippines are doing a-okay.

This morning, I decided to germinate my zinnia seeds. I know it's been raining and all, but I figured I might as well start with my zinnia project so if the seeds germinate and grow, I might have plants big enough to be replanted outside.

I also took time to check on my tomato seedlings - reinforcing the sticks that keeps the plant standing, and after my little garden errand, I saw that our pot of anthurium now has three small flowers. My camera was on my hand as I took pictures while gardening, and thought I might take a picture of this flower, too.

Among the flowering plants we ave here at home, this is one of the oldest. Thankful are we that it still hasn't stopped blooming.

*** Jenn ***

Oriental Pasta Delight

It's rare for me to share food pictures on my photo blog(s), so this week, I am going for food:

My sister cooked this one the other day, following the recipe we learned from a food demo we attended at the supermarket near our place. She added quite a lot of chili garlic sauce, but it still came out good. Our brother ate a lot that time. If you want to cook this, too, you can check the recipe HERE.

Enjoy the weekend!

*** Jenn ***

Fabulous Friday | Berry Berry

Last Tuesday, I went out the house to find subjects for another photo meme, and it led me find these berries.


Even if I took this stem off the plant just so I can have a subject to take pictures of, I did love the outcome of the shoot. I shared one image over my other photo blog (reasons why I have two is a long story to tell, haha), but there was this other image I took that I really liked and I decided to share it this week on Fabulous Friday.

Editing this, I used the Ancient Warm action and Kim Klassen's "The Wall" texture.

*** Jenn ***

Fabulous Friday | Ampalaya Flower

One of the favorite pictures I took this week, was this one, which I took two days ago. That afternoon, my siblings were busy checking the roof because the heavy rain fall last week caused some water to enter our house through the ceiling. They were able to fix what was wrong (blame the "back door" neighbors for dumping quite a lot of sand and small stones due to a house renovation), and when sister came back inside the house, she told me that one of my ampalaya (bitter gourd) plants now has a flower. I went to check it and there was this one flower, but because the vine already crawled to the chicken wire fence, I thought I'd just come near and take my camera real close to the flower, but as I used the fence as my leverage, the flower fell. Boo hoo.

It was a good thing I already photographed the flower still intact to the vine a few seconds earlier - I used my camera's zoom, but as I went down to go back inside the house, I noticed the flower fell quite graciously on one of the potted plants. If I wasn't able to get a picture of the flower real close while it was still attached to the vine, might as well take a picture of it like this - afterall, it didn't fall graciously for nothing. :)

*** Jenn ***

Fabulous Friday | Wanted

Last night, my sister and I attended the first ever Bloggers' Buffet at Carol's Texan 5, and one of the coolest things at the restaurant was this wall where diners can have their pictures taken. There were different props to be used - cowboy hats, scarves, as well as toy guns (Western style). At first my sister was a bit hesitant to have her picture taken, but when other bloggers started trying out the hats, my sister went to have her pictures taken, too.

I really like it that despite her chubby figure, my sister really looked confident. She's not afraid to wear clothes she likes, and she doesn't really mind what other people will say about her. I am glad she can now have her pictures taken without really having to smile.

*** Jenn ***

Fabulous Friday | Mt. Pinatubo Crater

Let me share a short clip first before I share my Fabulous image this week:


The first magmatic eruption happened 03 June 1991, and the first large explosion happened a few days after. When the volcano erupted, I was only 11 years old, and even if we were hundreds of kilometers away from Zambales, we still was able to feel its fury because we had shovel out the ash falls on our roof and bathe all our plants covered in ash. It was a very scary moment for the whole country. Its explosion was so strong that there were traces of ash fall in neighboring countries and it made the temperature in the whole world slightly cooler.

Last Saturday, I was with some bloggers trekking to the crater of the volcano. If I did this slightly two years ago, the trek should be fairly easy because there was a sky way and the 4x4 jeeps would take the people a few meters away from the crater, but because of typhoon Ondoy (international name: Ketsana), the sky way was closed and the trekkers had to trek 10 kilometers just to reach the crater. While the trek was mostly flat lands, what made the trek extremely difficult was trying to keep ourselves balanced while trekking on rocky paths, crossing river streams (very cold water), and putting up with sudden weather change - one part was scorching hot, other parts were rainy. I really thought I couldn't make it, but I did.

I successfully trekked to the crater of Mt. Pinatubo, and seeing its turquoise water from afar just made me cry. I asked myself, how can something so pretty can be ugly as well? The trek was really memorable and a good way of soul searching. Of course, I also took the time to go down and dip my body in its "sulfuric" water. I don't see any reason why not... it's a matter of seizing the moment. :)

Our trek happened 04 June, which made us part of its 20th anniversary since its eruption, and echoing what another blogger said, "I wish the volcano will never wake up again, because she is just so beautiful sleeping."

*** Jenn ***

Fabulous Friday | The Newlyweds

Last Tuesday, my mom and I attended the wedding of our neighbor Cindy. It was a celebration that came as a surprise as we really didn't know she was about to tie the knot. They were together for such a short time, but of course we are all happy for her, as she has been hoping to meet her Mr. Right. The wedding was a small gathering - only attended by close friends and families.

When I took this picture, I was actually fighting for a space as there were also a few people who wanted to take pictures of the newlyweds. The spot I found was blocked by the flower vase and I could see from my camera's LCD that the focus was on the flowers. I tried to turn the cam on and off, yet the camera was still focusing on the flowers, probably because the light was quite bright on that side. The newlyweds might be out of focus, but somehow I liked the effect, and this has been one of my favorite pictures from that day.

*** Jenn ***