Gemma's photos...

Gemma's Garden

Hi Manong Vic,

 

I love Manang Nitz garden, I wish I have time to do all of that in my backyard too.  But I want to share you our pond garden that my hubby and I built.

 

Best Regards,

Gemma

**********************************************

Gemma Fonbuena Agius' parents Mr. & Mrs. Fred Fonbuena were good friend of ours when we were still in Asingan. Before we left for Canada, we practically spent most of our remaining days in Asingan visiting Fred's shop ( KING'S CROWN )  near the northern gate of the Asingan Market.

 

 

Good photos, Gemma!..These were made more beautiful by the way you shot them. There are ways of shooting photographs which by the way is also a very fine art. You can make or unmake beautiful scenes from Nature by the way you handle and aim the camera...

 

Enjoy the photos!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more to follow----

Miggie's Victory Party

The  Sept. 15th LAWN PARTY

Mig's Victory Party for winning the first prize garden in Ward 2 was originally set for Sept. 7, but there was a conflict with another family shindig, which was our daughter's baby shower. Yes folks, my 7th grandchild is on the way and if she arrives ahead of her ETA ( estimated time of arrival ) she might become a third September 28th b-day celebrant. with Miggie being the first, and Emma being the second...

So we diligently planned the Victory Party inviting just a few people, mainly neighbours and friends along Dixon Road, the street where we live since 1983.

It was only then that we invited to our home the residents of certain Dixon Road houses. Such is the situation in some neighbourhoods here in America ( yes, Canada is part of the North American continent ), some people wants to be CLOSED to their neighbours instead of being friendly with them. In fact, we never talked with our neighbour in 15 Dixon Road for  years already and I do not think we will ever talk again. Why? It's a long story so we will just go back to the original topic.

Thus we had that friendly meeting with some people from our street. We invited occupants of houses number 5, 9, 13, 20, 23, .

I was the babysitter for an Indian family in no. 5. They are from India. They are such good people. I brought their  young girl to the school bus pick up point everyday for the past 4 years. I did that routine for the last time on the final school day of this school year. This year she can already go to school by herself.

The occupants of no. 9 are Caucasians. The lady is a very friendly character who loves gardening too. Her husband is a quiet bearded man who looks like Richard Attenborough.Their two kids are almost my children's age. They stayed in Dixon Road much longer than us. I have been wanting to invite them to our house for the past 20 years because the couple  very friendly and we just talk on the street or in public events ( Farmer's market in Weston, etc. ).

My daughter and their daughter were members of the same Brownie team decades ago. It was only yesterday that I learned the man ( his name is Wilf )  is working for a big digital  laboratory processing company here in Toronto. The company ( to use exactly his technical jargon) converts "daily film rushes from film to digital format " Unlike the old days, film editing now a days are done digitally. He helps convert the original shots are still in celluloid form into digital format. Very technical and exacting job. The monitor they use for viewing the finished digital format of film shots to go back to the editing consoles in the US is around 80, 000 $.. Of course, we did some shop talk on the state of the movie industry here in Toronto which in his words is suffering financially for the past 2 years..

He said Toronto used to be called Hollywood of the North because US companies used to shoot their movies here. Cheaper production costs. Then US started wooing back their own film makers with almost 50% tax rebates. Thus there are no more major film shoots in our city. The last one was CINDERELLA MAN directed by Ron Howard.

Occupants of No. 13 are just recent arrivals to our block. They are from Viet Nam. The lady works seven times a week. The husband has just lost his job. I befriended them one Saturday when I dropped by their yard to check out their garage sale. The couple have a 10 year old daughter who befriended Emma only this week end. The two kids from number 9 and 15 lingered in the house playing in the basement with my old PC until the party broke up at 8:00 pm. This was long after their parents left for home. The kids did not like to go home, which is not surprising.

The occupants of no. 23 are from Shri Lanka. My wife always see the Shri Lankan lady at the bus stop and as such they became good friends. Again we got more acquainted with them through their garage sales.

The occupant of no. 20 is a Korean guy and he runs the Convenience store across the street. That is the store which Emma frequents  each time she visits us. I accompany her in crossing the street ( Dixon Road goes to the Airport so it gets busy all the time ) and to pay for her snacks when we check them out.

When the Korean guy arrived, his first remark to my guests was: "Hey, I know all of you!" All the guests have visited his store at one time or another to buy something.

 

The weather man predicted rain for Toronto yesterday Sept. 14. The party was supposed to start at 12:30 pm. Rain clouds were arriving and leaving the whole morning threatening a downpour any minute.But nothing happened.

At 12:00 noon, the rain clouds dissapeared and the blessed sun came out in full regalia. I almost broke into the song:

"Never saw the sun, shining so bright, never saw things going so right" (Blue Skies, Cole Porter )

It stayed with us until 6:00 pm. By that time, all guests left the house after enjoying Mig's egg rolls, half of a roasted pig and some pleasant chats. Men on one side of our deck, the women on the other. I did not invite any Filipino guests this time.

At about 6:30 pm, rain started to pour and it never let up until early morning.

Coincidence? I call it providence. God still answers prayers even just a small one like a few hours of good weather on what is predicted to be a blustery day.---#

MORE PHOTOS FROM THE GARDEN

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Presenting Miss Teen Asingan 2008..

For a complete coverage of the Coronation, click the following link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9678518@N03/

Photo Album courtesy of FRED PALMA...

 

bird talk

A GATHERING OF SPARROWS

Every morning when I open the patio door to check the backyard, the first thing I would hear is an initial chirping of one sparrow. A look out bird, I would say. The yard is still an empty expanse of grass with freshly fallen brown leaves from the big tree where the bird feeder is hanging. I know then that my pets are hungry and they are waiting for their feed. I would fill up a cup with bird seed then go out and empty the contents into the bird feeder. Then back inside the house..I can not stay outside to watch them feast. For some reason, these sparrows just do not come out when they see a human watching them. Then from inside the glass patio door, I see them coming out from the bushes. One, two then a multitude would appear from nowhere. The first four would find a perch in the feeder. The rest would be down on the ground waiting for some seeds to fall out. Soon there would be about 20-30 "brownies" chirping and pecking their hearts away!.

 

Sparrows are mentioned in the Bible. These birds must have existed even then..."There is providence in the fall of one sparrow.." or something like that.

According to birdlore, the sparrows are originally from the Old World. Then some Europeans brought them over to the New World. From then, these multiplied to a point that some people in the US started advocating for their elimination because they say, they are pushing away the native American songbirds away..Which is true.

Sad to say, nowadays, I seldom see Blue Jays, Cardinals or orioles visiting my backyard. Before I started feeding the sparrows, many robins would come and visit my place, looking for a worm or two to pick. One spring, a mother robin hatched some eggs in the pine tree in front of our house. I also saw several times some cardinals ( their red feathers remind me of the mythical firebird ) checking out what form of nourishment is available in my place.

When I started putting some bird feeders in front of the house, then more sparrows would come. The same batch in the backyard would just fly over to the front yard, squabbling and pecking at each other as usual. Plus they would crap on Miggie's Hosta plants ( much to her consternation ) . I would say, "well people would say ' oh there is a new breed of Hostas with white spotted leaves! ' ". She thinks the crack is not funny.

A friend told me, " do not feed them during  Summer..there is too much food for them around. Then they would become too lazy." I wish I could and then I would.

But then I have grown to love the company of birds. Especially I am alone most of the time in the house. I enjoy watching them do their bird antics. I am fascinated ( and a tad envious) of these creatures because of their ability to fly. We homo sapiens just confined ourselves to walking or driving our cars.

But then, as someone said "If men are meant to fly, God could have given them wings.."

In the meantime, I just keep watching them fly about, hither and yonder against the brilliant blue sky...

--VICTORIO COSTES

 

I found these pictures  and I would like to share them with you and  to to the A+Teamsters at AMB and to all Asinganians.   I remember this was the moment when most of my classmates in boys trade (remember! I am the only female electrician graduated in the history of ASAT!)  wished to dance with me,  but everyone wants to dance with me first.   They were thinking of drawing thier names by lottery  so I told them not to worry because I will be the one dancing with them. What I did to solve the situation was for me to stay in the middle and they will circle me around, the result was amazing! They dance around me in circles and I get to dance with each other one by one pulling them in the middle. It works!. It was a night to remember from all of the alumni's. Ms. Poly, Director  of Philippine Flood Commission Fidel Ginez (Alumni  of Asingan High School,) who donated the Orchestra "ANGELS",  Angela, Marcie and her mother and  of course the Principal of LMNHS   Mr. Venenciano  and the Orchestra  with live dancers graced the party as well. 

I hope some will recognized their faces.  If you noticed one of the great dancers in this group is Kagawad Recto Romero of  Baro (dressed in white shirt) and of course, Rudy Salon, and Kagawad Patricio Tandoc of Domampot along with Cesar Estrada  (the owner of the  well known Sound system in Asingan whose daughter was one of the Princesses in Miss Asingan).

I would like also to thank  Susana Delmendo  (whom I invited to attend the alumni night  when she invited me to her house with his brother Joe)  and her DI partner.  That night was the busiest and hectic night of my life..

God Bless to everyone and take care. See you all next year!

Thank You and Respectfully,
Fe Arsenia

THE PHOTOS ( the last one was too dark to be used )

******************************************

Meanwhile at the EX....

"Elvis is in the building!!!..."

..with Miggie and JS Bach!...

 

Miggie with Anne of Green Gables in front of her famous house!

 

Ruben Tagalog's  Immortal Tribute to the Filipina

aoljvideoUpload, aoljvideoUpload_1

hey Ricky! our Blogs could still make us filthy rich, ha-ha!

pare vic,

yes pare i read your woman named kitty somewhere in one of your numerous blogs.  i hope you'll get your producer!

     tiningnan ko rin pare ko yung iba pang mga pangasinan blogs and they are so numerous pare ko! meron pang pangasinan bulletin board at halos lahat ng mga taga pangasinan na nasa america ay nakalista sa mga blogs ninyo plus their comments.

     yung isang successful pangasinense family pare ko organized his blog very well, parang he arranged his family picture from the day he got there, then how he brought his family, then how he got his job, his house there, etc. etc. etc.

     you know pare ko, there are blogs here and also websites whose owners are already millionaires! ! ! ! you know what they did pare ko?

they organized them so that advertisers and various contacts came in ! !

and then yung mga local media networks natin dito came in also and got their services, and presto! ! ayun pare ko money started pouring in ! !

      sabi ko dun sa masscom daughter ko siguro get in touch kako with your ninong vic so you can start something dollar or peso productive on the internet by using your blogs and/or websites ! ! ! !

     what do you say pare ko? diba magandang ideya yun? tingnan mo pare ko yung sinasabi ko sayong very successful pinoy blog. ang title nya ay yugatech.com

 

       till next time !.

ros

*******

Ros is a UP MassCom graduate and I worked with him in UP Los Banios. In fact he was the one who hired me. Both of us are fond of writing and we wrote human interest stories during our spare time ( which could fall between 8 in the morning and 5 in the afernoon ) just to escape the drudgery of writing articles, slogans, pamphlets about forest conservation which nobody seem to read anyway. But it was our bread and butter.

We stayed in this gorgeous UP Community in the slopes of Mt. Makiling for 4 years until he quit and my visa for Canada was also approved.

Los Banios became a second home to me. It has everything an academic community has to offer. It has an auditorium and once in a while the Philippine Symphony Orchestra would come and perform.

When Martial Law was declared, some of da Apo's military forces swooped down on this place and went after the "activists" which UP is so noted for.

Many "citizens" of UP Los Banios are Asian students who came to learn our "secrets" of rice propagation from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) another research center which is located in the area.

Same students, after classes and during weekends would frequent the beer gardens outside the UP gate bringing revenue to these small joints.

After their schooling is finished, they would go back to their respective countries, apply what they learned. Ironically enough, our government would buy rice from these countries because we could not produce enough rice to feed our own people.

Anyways, I was happy to meet Ros again after so many years through the Internet. ----#