Mornings

DREAMS AND ESCAPES

Sometimes there is an advantage in attending anticipated mass. As Josef was free last Saturday night, we decided to go to mass at 6:30 pm.  It made my Sunday free.

For the past two mornings, I’ve been in the garden digging, replanting and weeding . Getting ready for the rainy days.  The satisfaction one gets from gardening….priceless. I know some won’t agree with me.   Sometimes I don’t wear gloves at all.  It’s nice to feel the rough and coarse earth in your hands once in a while. And it’s nice to see recently trimmed plants lining the garden wall.  One of my friends who visited me last Thursday brought  a pot of pink shrimp plant for my garden. I have the yellow variety so this pink one would add to the beauty of the yellow flowers. I hope I could propagate it later.

Pretty in pink. Can’t wait to see…

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What’s New?

If this blog could speak, it might probably say, “you left me all alone”.

“I am sorry, I am really sorry. I got carried away updating my main blog I forgot about you.”

Maybe, that would be our conversation early this morning. There was a time when at least I get to update it once a month but being engrossed in updating just one particular blog is truly pathetic.  For one thing, the reason why I created this is to show my garden and my garden blooms, more pictures than words in the process. When you are into a free platform,  there is a limit to everything.  You can’t just upload hi-resolution photos to your heart’s content, they eat up the space allotted to you. hence, this separate blog.

The rainy season has set in and along with it are sometimes drenched plants and over watered pots in one’s garden. I am grateful though that I still see the sun shines every morning although thunderstorms are a daily occurrence now. Unwanted weeds grow by leaps and bounds too. Shame! Every day, I would visit my small garden and look at the plants and the budding flowers which are mostly the lilies now. I noticed my amazon lilies are in bloom again so with my orange lilies and rain lilies in purple and white.  The ruellia never stops flowering. it used to be only in purple shades but now I have it  pale pink and white.

This is an African rose. I used to have lots of it in a corner of my garden but it is too invasive. Last year, I opted to remove it because it was growing wild until a few days ago when I noticed  a bloom on one that was left in the ground before. It produces lovely blooms actually but the stems are full of thorns.  I wonder if I will let it grow wild again.

The sense of fulfillment cannot be quantified when you see tiny shoots and flowers that give color everywhere you look.

I love the smell of newly cut grass and the pearl-like sheen of water droplets every time it rains. How I wish I could capture everything here. And they say that you bury a lot of troubles digging the earth.

 

 

Garden Blooms

It’s been a long time since I updated my blog here. As I only have my cellphone now and my tab used as cameras, I am not taking more pictures. This morning though, I was at the garden looking at some  summer blooms and I can’t help but take these shots with my tab.

My two jackfruit trees are bearing fruits again. I counted, there were about twenty of them excluding the two  young fruits I harvested earlier to cook in coconut cream. My family loves Guinataang Langka.  That’s what we call it here.

My shrimp plants are blooming too. They are here everywhere in the garden.  Even my sweet-scented Amazon Lilies are bearing flowers.

The morning sun is trying to show its face in these lovely shrimp plants.  I wish I could just point my cellphone camera in the beauty of my small garden.

One Afternoon At the Garden

DREAMS AND ESCAPES

It’s one of those days that I get to trim the carabao grass again. Although they are growing   a little slow because it is summer I need to weed out unwanted grass too.  The weather is just right for afternoon gardening. I am just halfway through,  I still have so many things to do in the garden.  It was quite windy but the sun shone brightly.

Our two jackfruit trees are bearing so may clustered fruits again. I noticed the small  fruits at the base of the second tree not knowing that the first tree has born fruits earlier.  I took one to cook in coconut cream.

The remaining five are now large enough to ripen. They were a little up the tree so we really didn’t notice them earlier.  Maybe in a month or two, I could harvest again. Every year, these two trees give us  fruits. All we…

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Glimpses

My first gardening blog post after so many months of not posting here.

DREAMS AND ESCAPES

My sparrows are back.  I heard them singing outside my window very early this morning.  Good morning world!

When dawn breaks, you discover something wonderful in the garden. My son gifted me with two metallic pots last Christmas from Parish  Garden along with a sturdy gardening gloves  One container  has kitchen herbs like Basil, Parsley and Coriander. The other one has Lavender seeds. Both came with potting medium, you just have to add a centimeter of soil on top. I planted them last December 30 just so it would be easy to remember when  if ever they grow to be robust plants. I’ve seen them growing a little every day, just small sprouts which look  so frail and dainty.   I wonder about the Lavender though, I haven’t seen anything yet.  I have more seeds here for planting which I bought late last year, a packet of  Celosia Armor Orange and…

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Indoor Shots And More Blooms

I so love my tab, it is so easy to point and click, capture some blooms and freeze them forever. Mom says she likes all the flowers blooming in our small garden.

A few days ago, I blogged about this, newly planted. My purple shamrock. I have this in green but they are in bigger pots.

Ruellias are easy to care plants. They self-propagate so all you have to do is transfer them to a sunny pot in the garden. These purple flowers are similar to Petunia blooms.

I love the pink ones though. I also have them in white.

Trying to take a macro shot of this Ornamental Pineapple plant.

Japanese Bamboo is a sturdy indoor plant, it needs minimal care.

I was trying to capture that curved stem. I should have used my Canon camera for this shot.

Purslane or Portulaca, plant them today and tomorrow it would surprise you with lovely tiny blooms.

Thick dark clouds, threatening and promising rain.

Today, the sun is shining bright and clear.  Perfect time to garden again. My three pots of turmeric are thriving nicely, their leaves are showing off. Have a good day everyone. Let us enjoy the sun.

“Close to nature, closer to God.”

 

Garden Scents

Just so lazy to make another post so I’ll just reblog this here.

DREAMS AND ESCAPES

I went back to gardening  after letting my hands heal for a few days. Goodness, I have to trim the carabao grass again, they have grown quite wild in three weeks.

This morning I was at the garden at 5am, still dark for some but it was nice to see the world unfolding with a hot cup of coffee and the company of our dog Noki.  Mimi went back to sleep besides mom as soon as I opened the door to our dirty kitchen.  Have you ever spent an early morning smelling different garden scents? The sweet aroma and spicy scent of oregano, the spicy and sharp fragrance of ginger leaves that linger,  the lemony smell of calamansi flowers and the intoxicating scent of gardenia flowers  captivate the senses. You wish you could put each scent in a bottle and maybe use them to make scented candles.

Last week, I…

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July Bloom

It hasn’t rained for more about three days now so I have to go out and water the Ruellia plants I lined up outside our perimeter wall. While I was watering the plants, I noticed this lovely bloom. It was just a month ago when we trimmed this shrub and all that were left were the big trunks and a few leaves. Look at it now, this is such another lovely surprise.

I noticed more buds at the tip of each remaining branch.  And I though I have to wait for a few more months before I see a bloom. My Gardenia shrub usually don’t bear flowers this late. It’s the rainy season here now  so I didn’t expect this.

What a lovely morning 🙂

 

The Rewards After

After a few days of a back-breaking job, it’s finally done. I’ve finished trimming the carabao grass and replanting some plants. There is still one corner though that I haven’t touched. I wonder if I could manage to do it alone.  I took a few shots yesterday morning of the Vietnam Rose.

Vietnam rose and prayer plants. One corner of the garden.

 

This is how the flowers look in the early morning…still buds.

 

Once the sun shows its face…..

 

I love all the colors. Planted a red one early this morning.

 

In clusters, they look like this….

 

In front of the house, across the street.

 

Vietnam rose and white Vinca.

The rewards of gardening. When Nature shows its face, you can only smile and say,  “I am blessed”.

It’s A Nice Morning To Garden

It’s so wonderful that listening to music at 3:50am would give you that much-needed lift to face another day…..gardening! I am excited though, even if my hands look like gnarled roots from an old tree, rough with age.

The Ruellia I planted outside is thriving well. My Vietnam Rose blooms every day with so many colors of flowers. I haven’t taken photos of them yet except these:

Another attempt at macro…my lovely purple Ruellia.

 

More purple blooms . they also come in pink and white.

 

Pink Ruellia

 

Pink Vinca…

And my pink rain lilies are showing those tiny shoots. again. They are nice grown covers but they produce flowers during the rainy season.  Next on the agenda, I have to repot these too. The bulbs are overcrowded.

My Amazon Lily in bloom.

 

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul. “ This is a lovely quote by Alfred Austin.