What a beauty! What a name!

I finally caught the blooms of this wild Philippine endemic tree called Putat!  What a name for an ethereal and ephemeral cascade of flowers. The beads started to swell then opened late this afternoon. It won't be there when I wake up tomorrow morning. The flowers will be floating on the pond beside it that indulges this young tree the moisture that it needs.  

How short-lived. 

Sweet Tomboy

I grew up raised by plants and trees since my parents were busy pursuing their dreams and would be away at the same time that my imagination kept me busy too.

My mother's rows of dahlias, crysanthemums and roses were my favorite playmates. Mommy would make sure that there were corners of wildflowers and weeds with tiny, tiny flowers that were present in her garden too. She told me once how great God is for making every detail as perfect and beautiful even in His microscopic creations. Everything is a whole and is a universe in itself. 

Dad would call me on the breakfast table with mangoes or chicos he peeled and sliced especially for me. There were sweet pomelos that i learned to expertly disassemble (all my siblings did), guavas i picked from the trees every morning, atis galore, cacao pods and pods and pods, lanzones, duhat... 

Growing up sweet and feminine is what my mom's garden of flowers taught me and the trees taught me strength and pursuit and gave me  comfort when I run to them to cry on their branches much like crying buried in your father's warm and assuring embrace. The trees taught me to be tough too for if I am not sure of my foothold and my grab, I would not be spared from falling. They were the cradle of my imagination as well as my introduction to entrepreneurship. 

Aling Alang paid me 30 centavos for 100 pcs of calamansi ( daddy taught us how to pick the fruits). I sold guavas too but honestly preferred to eat them with a little side effect- the morning offering would be difficult because guavas and an overdose  gave me constipation. 

Pretty much, I had a wonderland and a source of income and the best surrogate parents in the persona of trees asides from a wonderful aunt who helped raise me sitting down.

That is another story.

          My first granddaughter, Sofia

            First borns Jacob and Sofia

What is growing in your garden?

photo by Sofia

          
Snails, some tadpoles, spiders in suspension?

Lichens, ferns, lemons and some scraggly lettuce?

photo by Sofia

                  

If you look deeper into the root of all,

there's energy that supplies life to everything and that energy's absence discontinues growth. 

It is the highest form of spiritual Being, the Energy,  that orchestrates life in my garden including mine.  This Energy manifests in all things imaginable and unimaginable.

My macopa tree promises abundant harvest in a few weeks. 

The rambutan trees are getting ready. We are blessed! The birds are happy and so am I.