I took a day-long trip today and as our plane passed over Japan, there it was. Standing apart from the surrounding peaks, the famous snow-capped volcano is said to be rivaled in beauty only by the Philippines’ perfectly-shaped Mt. Mayon. I would tend to be biased towards the latter (it’s in my home region) but I find it hard to imagine how anyone can be immune to Mt. Fuji’s charms.
(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.
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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I’m sorry.
I’m so, sooo sorry.¹
I had three slices.
Yes, three.
Tres.
Trois.
Tita Buds
*****
( ¹No, I’m really not. It was gooood. 
)
“It is a hard matter, my fellow citizens, to argue with the belly, since it has no ears.”
~ Plutarch ~
May this day be filled with hugs, laughter and wonderful surprises.
(Here are more photos of my mother’s garden, along with some choice quotes that I’m sure ring true for everyone.)
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.
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!
Street altars are a major part of the festivities during the fiesta de San Vicente Ferrer in Valencia, 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.
