delights

Every weekend, Mark (my husband) and I make it a point to visit both set of our parents. This past Sunday, we were lucky to squeeze in both set of parents within the jam packed day. At my Mother-in-law's house, I was greeted with these beauties, take a look:

Cattleya Orchids

I brought these orchids to my in-laws over a year ago. The Cattleyas were never a dissapointment, they bloom continually. The Vanda on the other hand has a different temparament. I bought her in an orchid show over a year ago but ever since today, she never bloomed. We placed her under the shade of the Sour Sop Tree before and she only received morning light. My in law did some rearrangements and moved the orchids to an area that receives about  six (6) hours of  filtered light. Viola! It worked because the Vanda finally bloomed, she is just a show stopper, don't you think so too?

Vanda Orchids

Since my sister-in-law is currently working overseas, so we took charge of her bonsai of a Balete tree.  Balete Tree is a close cousin of the Banyan Tree  both are under the genus Ficus. Some variety of the Balete tree are strangler figs wherein they start upon other trees, later entrapping them entirely and finally killing the host tree. While some are also called hemiepiphytes. Initially, they start as epiphytes or air plants and grow several hanging roots that eventually touch the ground, and from then on, encircling and suffocating the host tree. (from the definition of wikipedia)

 Bonsai of the Balete Tree

I made mention of our Balete because lately, she is bearing fruits like little berries. This is not the first time I have seen our bonsai do this but I think it is rare that bonsai of baletes do this.

Balete bearing fruits

But what is most interesting about Baletes Trees here in the Philippines are the myths that our old folks say about these trees. They say that these trees are the dwelling places of supernatural beings.  But its just some local folklore, I guess, that nannies would tell their naughty children, or is it?

Work in Progress

In a previous post, I mentioned about some projects I am working on. I'd like to share where I am exactly at. Here goes...

I saw a pretty shawlette pattern at Interweave Crochet designed by Kristin Omdahl. Not only is it pretty, the diagram looks easy to follow too. The pattern called for some silk yarns but I used a japanese yarn of cotton and white pine fiber blend . My brother got some stashes for me in Singapore.

my unfinished shawl

the stitches

(Note to myself, I should be taking pictures with natural lighting the next time). This pattern uses simple single chains and single crochet stitches only, but what makes it interesting is how the pattern develops like the veins of a leaf as the shawl increases in width and length. Its delicate and sweet.  

A couple more rounds and edging, this shawlette will be done. I spent about  3 hours to get this done. But this might be a work in progress for some time yet because I ran out of yarn. So I sent an SOS to my brother. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping the yarn is not discontinued or the same dye lot is still available since he bought the yarns about a year ago.

Hope to post the final outcome - using the same yarn or probably a substitute which is not an option I would like to take. Otherwise, there's also the option of unraveling  everything.... 

Crochet Blog Finds (Nov. 7, 2012)

 

I love to read books, web pages and blogs! I read about 2 to 3 pages/blogs a day. It doesn't really matter what I read, it depends on what I fancy at that particular moment. 

For today, I found this crochet tutorial blog, Meladora's Creations. Hope you find some inspiration projects too!  I found a lot of interesting projects and there new stitches created by the author of this blog.  Here's a re-post of her stitches:

Meladora's Butterfly Stitch

Meladora's Raspberry Stitch

Meladora's Mesh Stitch

And I'm eyeing on this crocodile stitch shawl. It may be a future project. I still have my hands full on 2 crochet projects. (Yes, I'm crazy like that.)

an inspiration project - crocodile stitch shawl

Is it too late to start a project for Christmas gifts? I think this is so cute for toddlers:

for more crochet tutorials, visit meladoras creations.

taking down notes 10.24.12

Aside from tending to my garden, I also do research to check on things I can do to improve my garden. But really, I just like to read a lot, about gardening and things that interests me in general. Here are some links to blogs and pages that I really enjoyed reading, hope you will find them helpful too:

No to Aphids

lady bug

My tomatoes, pomelo and basil are all attacked with aphids! Everyday, I check and spray them with diluted dishwashing soap. However, monsoon has come and my efforts would just be washed away by rain. So I came across this very helpful blog about lady bugs/beetles. These helpful creatures are voracious aphid eaters... so now, off to finding lady bugs.

Tomatoes and Weight Loss

When I started my edible garden, my first plant was a tomato because I've read that its easy enough for beginner gardeners (still am a beginner, though). But here are more reasons to love tomato and much more reasons to plant more tomatoes. Weight loss, fighting diabetes and cancer, yes to all those, from tomatoes!

Just a winged bean

winged bean, after all

Now this one's funny. There is some veggie that my family loves to eat. In Cebuano (a dialect in the Philippines), we call this veg, garabanso. A friend gave me some seeds of this veggie a few weeks back. Tough luck, this friend didn't know a thing about growing the plant but just wanted to pass on the seeds. The seeds are now germinating, the cotyledons are starting to fall off as true leaves started growing. I had to research fast so that I would know how to take care of this plant. But you see, this is a bit frustrating.  Researching, especially on the internet, would mean finding the correct English/American name of the plant. I started with looking at google images of Philippine vegetables. (Because there is no easy Cebuano to English Plant Dictionary yet... hmmm.... now that might be a good idea!) There were some pictures that looked like the garabanso and the label would say bitsuelas. The research didn't end there, because it is not bitsuelas, not Garbanzo beans. I continued looking at images of vegetables, until (finally! thank you!) I found the google image above which lead me to this blog. Sigarilyas in Fipino and it's Winged beans in English. That was it!  Now I can finally get a good night's sleep. 

Here's a little something to enjoy, a foreigner singing a Filipino nursery rhyme about the simplicity of provincial life in our country

Iced and Herbed Tea

We Filipinos have a knack for "pasalubongs". I dont know any exact equivalent English word for it. But the closest I can think of is present or gift. Pasalubongs are given by a person who traveled to a different locality or country and would bring some presents or pasalubong to one's friend or family once he/she comes back home.  The prized pasalubongs are those that are not readily available here in our country or locality. Like my cousin who arived from the USA some months ago, she brought home Bath and Body products - lotions, colognes and hand sanitizers. Thanks, Sheelah for my Berry Twinkle hand gel. It's that hand gel that can be hung like a bag charm. Although these items are available here in the Philippines, they can be a bit pricey. 

I mentioned pasalubongs today because I just got one from my office mate. Her husband works overseas in Abu Dhabi, came back home some months ago and of course brought home a box load of chocolates, coffees and teas. Those goodies have all long gone but only the tea bags are what's left. She's not a big fan of tea after all . Instead of having those fine black tea go to waste, my office mate shared her tea bags with us. 

But I'm afraid that in the next pasalubong box, my office mate might not share her tea  with us anymore. I shared with her some tea recipes that I have tasted in a Thai restaurant, Lemon Grass. Just a disclaimer, this is not the restaurant's exact recipe but here is my own rendition of some tasty iced and herbed tea. After a few tries and mistakes, I got my tea to taste the same with that of the expensive version.  I like them iced but they can be taken hot too, I guess. (I'm using tea bags, adjustments will have to be made if using tea leaves.)

Black Tea (or any tea of preference)

Lemongrass 

Lemon

Honey (optional)

A cup of water (for each tea bag)

Bring water to a rolling boil and turn off heat. Steep together the tea and lemon grass. Cover the pot for a few minutes. This can be taken hot but I like mine iced. So I put some ice cubes (wait for the tea to cool off a bit before adding in ice) and squeeze in some lemon juice. Finish off with honey to sweeten the tea. If I run out honey I just use brown sugar. 

I usually prepare a big batch of this tea and store it in the ref. So that anytime I like to drink something sweet and cold, I take this refreshing tea. 

I use the whole of the lemongrass including the white thick portion near the roots, roots are removed however. To infuse more flavor, I pound the thick white part before using it. 

Lemongrass

There is a way of fitting the whole of the lemongrass to the pot, fold it like so:

how we "fold" the lemongrass

Here in the Philippines, we have a citrus that we often substitute for lemon which we call Calamansi and  Calamondin for the rest of the world. Calamansi is more intense in flavor. For this particular beverage, I think using Lemon gives the tea just the right citrus scent and flavor.

My office mate got excited about trying this concoction. She says lemongrass has healing benefits that may help in her condition (high cholesterol and high blood pressure). Here are more health benefits of lemongrass.

Working on this article, I wanted to make sure that I'm using the right terms: herb and spice. So I did a little research and found some interesting definitions in a blog, fooducate. Just a bit of a recap of what I've read, the term herb is used when talking about ingredients coming from the green and leafy part of the plant while the term spice is used when referring to parts of the plant, other than the leaf like roots, stems, bulbs, barks or seeds. Spices are usually dried before being used. The American Spice Trade Association, however, have a different definition: Spices are defined as "any dried plant product used primarily for seasoning purposes." This really broadens the definition of spices, allowing it to include herbs, dehydrated veggies, spice blends and spice seeds.