Fire in the Sky

Last night the sky lit up with fireworks.

New Year in the Philippines. The view of the Metro Manila skyline from Monterey Hills in San Mateo, Rizal. Photographed by: Paolo Nacpil. From: Photographs by Paolo Nacpil on http://capturedphotos.tumblr.com

In a fireworks crazy country like the Philippines, people spend crazy amount of money on fireworks to welcome the new year.  Manila was practically a war zone last night - fireworks exploding here, there and everywhere. Fireworks debris fell from the sky.  Ash fell from the sky.  My cars were covered  in ash and worse, my plants were covered in ash.  Smoke was everywhere.  The runway of Ninoy Aquino International Airport is usually closed every year on new year from twelve midnight until two hours later because of zero visibility.  Consistent with our government's tourism slogan . . .

. . . new year celebrations are more fun in the Philippines, unless you have asthma.

Click to read more ...

Sounds Greek to Me

Disticha.

Sounds Greek, right?  That is because it IS Greek. 

I learned today that not all scientific names are Latin or Latinized.  Some are Greek, like this one.  I wonder if there are other scientific names out there that were derived from other languages aside from Greek or Latin.

Click to read more ...

The Painted Cycad

Wow!  I just realized that it has been a month and a day since I last posted.  

Explanations first.  

I decided a while back to limit my posts to weekends which is when it is most convenient for me to take pictures and research.  The past weekends, however, have not been conducive to blogging which is why there have been no posts from my end.  It also explains why I haven't been commenting on your blogs.  The number of Google Reader items to read to play catch up = Scary!  I already started last night but I've barely made a dent in the numbers.  

There were two long weekends to enjoy last month, one of which was spent out of town communing with nature at our favorite go-to mountain home.  Here is a picture of Pals (from the "Plant Clinic" post) and I heading down to the stream for a swim.  You can almost make out the stream above my head.

Click to read more ...

Another Year (2012)

My blog turns 2 years old today!

What to do to celebrate?  Last year I held three raffle contests.  The first raffle was for my blogging friends.  The second raffle was for the people who "liked" my Facebook page.  The third raffle was for my Twitter followers.

This year, I thought a sort of recap would be appropriate.  You are too many to mention individually but I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you plant and garden bloggers who make my green blogosphere and feedburner so much more interesting.  Special thanks go out to:

Image from Donna's Buffalo Garden Walks. Used with permission.

Click to read more ...

A Plant Addict in Cavite

Remember Paul from my Plant Clinic post?  He and his wife, Michelle, have become avid tillandsia collectors. Michele works at a university with a Centennial Garden and Botanical Park where she happened to find, surprise, surprise, tillandsias.  It turns out that the airplants were being brought there and cared for by Joel N., a consultant of the university's Environmental Resource Management and Campust Development Office and another tillandsia lover.  He invited Michelle and Paul to visit his collection and I invited myself (hehe) and tagged along.

Joel lives south of Metro Manila and to avoid traffic, we decided to visit him on a Sunday.  Here is a quick peek through the grills of Joel's gate.  His plot is filled with plants.

Click to read more ...