Magical Miracle Fruit

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(For my last post in this series about my mother’s garden, which is my way of honoring her this Mothers’ Month of May, I am featuring a most unusual fruit — something that, come to think of it, is like our mothers who help make even the worst of times just a little better. :) )

Of all the produce in my Ma’s garden, this is probably the most unusual — synsepalum dulcificum, better known as miracle fruit or magic berry. It is so called because of the amazing effect it has on one’s taste buds. Simply put, it makes everything, and I mean everything, taste really sweet.

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Fruits from a Southeast Asian Garden

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My memories of childhood summers always include the tambis. One of the bigger trees  in our garden, the tambis or macopa (water/rose apple) was also the only one in our street and bore so much fruit that it gave us our version of a lemonade stand. Every summer afternoon, my sisters and I would set up a small table in front of our gate, arrange the tambis in pyramids and sell them to neighborhood kids for about ten centavos per three pieces.

We also had aratiles and guava trees and our playmates were free to pick a few from those. (I remember that guava tree. I kept peeling off the top layer of its trunk because it was always smoother underneath — a victim of my misdirected quest for neatness even in nature.)

The fruit trees in my mother’s garden are especially prolific now that it’s summer. Around this time, neighborhood kids regularly come around and ask if they can pick aratiles or hagis or tambis. Ma always says yes but also always with a warning for them to leave some on the trees or else, heh. Some things never change. :)

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A New Way to Prevent The Email Flood

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Hi, everyone. I’m sure by now you’ve changed your discussion settings so your readers won’t be dealing with a lot of emails. You’ve also unsubscribed from email notifications on follow-up comments that you unknowingly subscribed to.

But there are still a lot of blogs with the ‘Notify me of follow-up comments via email’ option checked by default. And sometimes you forget to uncheck. Then you have to unsubscribe again because the emails keep coming.

Well, finally, WordPress has come up with a way for us to prevent that.

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The What of Whatsit

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Remember the little guessing game we had earlier this week? Today, it’s time for the little reveal. Here’s that picture of the item again:

Were you able to guess what it is? My sisters and brother say they can’t make heads or tails of it and Kid Bro says I should have allowed comments, hehe. For the record, I showed it to them months ago and their reactions were all along the lines of How Silly Can You Get? which makes this Whatsit perfect for this blog. :D

Ok, here it is from another angle:

See those words? They should now clue you in on the purpose of this little wooden contraption, hehe. So…tadah!

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A Street Altar in Valencia

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When is an altar that is attached to a church not an altar?

When it is a street altar built for the fiesta de San Vicente Ferrer in Valencia in Spain.

As elaborate and grand as a real altar, a Valencian street altar is constructed complete with religious symbols and imagery but it is not one intended for prayer.

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A Flood of Emails

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Hi everyone! I decided to write this (temporary) post about the barrage of emails re: comments that I think some of you have been experiencing recently. I was mostly offline these past days so I wasn’t aware of it until someone called my attention to it after she commented on my post today.

WordPress made changes in our comment forms so that the ‘Notify me of follow-up comments via email’ option is now checked by default. If you forget to uncheck it, you receive a lot of emails about subsequent comments on that post.   Continue reading →

Summer Thriving

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(Because May is the month of mothers, all four of this month’s Sunday/Monday posts will feature my Ma’s garden and all the pretty, lovely, beautiful, delicious things that grow there. Today, some flowering plants take center stage.) :)

I cannot remember a time when my Ma did not keep a garden. Wherever we lived, from the large house and lot that I grew up in to the tiny structure with the nipa thatched-roof that we had to build on borrowed land after we lost almost everything, Ma always managed to cultivate a garden.

As soon as she and Dad acquired the land where they now live, she started planting all sorts of fruit trees and flowering plants on it (even before they made plans to build the house). All that sowing has been paying off in large measures of gorgeousness. Ma chose tropical plant varieties that grow all year round but especially thrive during summer. So from March to June, which is summer in the Philippines, everything in the garden is either abloom or bursting with fruit or both.

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Recycled*: Insturctions

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*Some of you who read my recent guest post may have wondered what my old, now-private blog was like. Or maybe no one did but I want to imagine that you did, so … tadah!!!.Let me introduce you to ‘Recycled’, a new regular (well, until I run out of ‘scraps’) feature where I will re-post some of the stuff my perfect 10 readers used to enjoy (?). Now you will be privy to the best, most edifying content the web has ever produced, hah! :D

First up, something from when we were moving into our new place…

Now I am off to revitalrate myself.

*****

Guest Posting

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Hi, everyone, today I am guest posting on the writing blog, Dodging Commas, in a series on the theme Inspired To Write.

I was asked last March by Stef if I wanted to contribute to the series. Of course I was thrilled and honored. AND intimidated — I don’t really think of myself as a writer and I consider the ‘blogging company’ that Stef keeps to be so far above my level in writing skillZ. :) They are the types of born-with-it writers who produce lyrical, fluid prose that makes me sigh and wish I could write better. But because I blog, I guess I had become some sort of writer, too. So with the bravado of Thomas the Tank Engine, I accepted the invitation.

This is how Stef explains the series:

Writers love talking about inspiration. We like to moan when we aren’t inspired and we like to boast when that sudden rush of inspiration has just jolted our minds into action. Inspiration can come from many sources – we can be inspired by places, images, words, actions, music, current events … and we can be inspired by people.

I have approached the writers behind some of my favourite blogs to contribute to Dodging Commas on the theme Inspired to Write. This is an opportunity to showcase a favourite author, express gratitude to a teacher, or dote upon a friend or family member. Above all, it is a celebration of the people who started us on our creative journeys, the people who keep us going, and the people who inspire us to follow our passion.

(What did I tell you, the girl can write!)

My guest piece is titled Let the Sunshine In. (Yes, I am an Aquarian but no, it’s not about The Age of Aquarius.)  It is about why I write the way I do.

Please click here to go to Dodging Commas and read my guest post.

P.S.: When you get to a line that includes the words ‘appreciative audience’, please know that I am referring to you. And thank you.

Peek-in: InDognito by Karen Ngo

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My sister sent me this delightful picture book, InDognito: A Book of Canines in Costumes by photographer/designer Karen Ngo.

I am not one to put my dogs in costumes. It’s already hard enough for me to imagine just how itchy it must be to have fur, hehe. But one time I bought a red tank top for Bruno and he looked cute in it in a canine Johnny Bravo kind of way but the husband said he won’t ever walk a dog in a costume (on the dog, not the husband). That effectively put the brakes on my non-existent up-and-coming career as a dog stylist. :D

Anyway, the book is a pleasure to flip through. Ms. Ngo obviously has a wonderful way with pets and however you feel about putting dogs in costumes, you have to admit she really upped the adorableness factor in these.

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