comments from all over...

Cool birds!

Comment from abmystica

 

From Ben Soloria,

 I love the way you present something (mundane, shall I say??) like bird watching, and make it so interesting, worthwhile and enjoyable.  I do that too, every chance I get.   Perla and I love watching those avian invaders of our little planet (AKA backyard).  We're fond of the cardinals -  Virginia's
state bird, particularly.  Their eye-catching red-orange plumes glow so brightly and attractively against any kind of background.
   These things you do and write about remind us of the simple pleasures of life that we can easily overlook and take for granted. 

Thanks, buddy.  Keep writing and sharing your gifts.
  I've been keeping a low profile lately just admiring and enjoying the  myriad of literary gems posted in your web. And I've got to tell you how  much fun I have been having being absorbed in them.

***

 

Yep...I do love using the binoculars on the backyard..When the birds become boring, I shift my sight on one of my neighbour's yard..They have 2 YOUNG daughters in there, most of the time they are sunbathing..I AM JUST KIDDING!!

***

From Rain

When I was still in my old job at the British properties one of my delights was throwing bird seeds in the big backyard..Then a flock of birds and small animals come over to help themselves..I love the Blue Jays with gray, blue and black color around their eyes! There  are also ducks which sometimes splash into the swimming pool..there is  also a  noisy Macao bird in the house. He could whistle the opening tune of the THEME FROM THE GODFATHER..And that bird, each time I talk with someone on the phone starts, yaking, screeching and whistling as if he does not want me to talk with anybody on the phone..Many times I feel like wringing his neck, but that bird costs about 3,000$!..Well one time, he flew out of the house into the yard. A big raven came and started fighting with him. He was no match for the black bird and he came flying back into the house! He got his ass kicked at that time..:)

From Annie

I never run out of bird seed any day in our backyard.Terry (my other dog) likes to keep running after the fatso squirrel (he too has his own dried corn ) at the same time enticing Terry to come and get him.I can't open the backdoor since I knew he will run away so we just have to watch them do their tricks in our kitchen window.

 

Bird songs always wake me up everyday as they all gathered on top of the palm trees.At first I didn't like it since I want to sleep more... but I am getting used to it. It is now  music to my ears and am already looking forward to it the following morning.--#

 

***

 I love birds. They are so happy, carefree and full of fun, like little children...What more can I say? And it reminds me of one of the songs of that sage, King Solomon.....

--vic

 

 

 

 

BIRD WATCHING, ANYONE?

I found a more interesting way to pass the time aside from watching the telly or reading silly postings in the DC. It is called backyard bird watching.

After Old Man winter had departed with his blizzards and slippery sidewalks, a kinder Mother Nature takes over and covers Toronto with her beautiful green mantle. She also raises the outdoor thermostat to a very pleasant high, thus allowing the perennials to wake up from their underground beds. Soon the phlox and the hostas start pushing their way up from the ground as if checking who have already waken up from the long winter sleep. Berry Cheery hosta would check whether Stilleto is still within touching distance.

And the birds come back with a vengeance.

They would mysteriously appear in our backyard, and soon there would be a symphony of bird calls 7/24 ..No kidding. The most common birds that fly to my deck begging for food are the thrushes, little brown cuties who built their nests in my chimney. For years, every spring I would go out to the deck and throw out some rice scraps (kelab-ban ) into the lawn. In less than a minute, a number of birds would swoop down and start pecking the rice scraps. And I would also settle down on my easy chair on the deck with my binoculars fascinated while watching them perform some tricks..These would go back and forth with some rice morsels on their beaks bringing them to the roof or to some nests in the surrounding tree. .I guess the morsels are for their young still too insecure to leave their nests....

A few would eat there in the grass until Sam the squirrel, the pesky rodent would come over and shoo the birds away. Then with his paws, he would scoop the rice and munch them like peanuts. I hate seeing him deprive the little ones of their rice. One time, I bought a sling shot from the Canadian Tire store just so I could make a target of his butt. But Emma my grandaughter saw it, took it home and to this day she have not returned it yet...

Sometimes ( but rarely ) a Cardinal would join them but it never lingers very long. It would just fly away shortly as if it could not stand the racket produced by these "riff-raff" birds. The Cardinal have magnificent red plummage as red as Cardinal Richeliu's cape and head gear.

Or a Blue Jay would drop by. He does not join the party. He would just watch from a branch or from the clothesline. After he gets bored he flies away. Blue Jays, by the way is the name of Toronto's baseball team.

Birds they are, but when it comes to food, they show very humantraits. For example: one of them tries to drive away any bird who comes to get a share of the rice. "Go away, its mine," one bird seemed to say. Some would eat away the chunk of rice until it was light enough to be carried. Then the greedy birdie would take it by the beak and flies away, while the rest of the pack would angrily complain and tries to fly after the greedy culprit.

Even after the sun bids good bye to the world and the stars begin to twinkle from the firmanent, the birds never stop singing. The robins ( their mating calls are very recognizable ) could be heard them from my bedroom window. Their singing would lull you to sleep...

This Pastoral Symphony of the birds is at its loudest at dawn. The notes are discordant, and there is no discernable melody line. But to me, it is still the sweetest music in the world. The night sky seemed to be full of singing birds flitting about. No recorded music can match  this all-surrounding sound of celestial thanksgiving---#

 

The pesky squirrel loves to bully the other birds from their food...

 

The brown birds always amuse me when there is nothing much to do..But I have to be ready with my rice scraps...

A zoom lens plus the cropping capability of your graphics software would give you these kinds of photographs..I call them rice birds because they eat rice instead of the usual bird seed---#

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

I am forwarding herewith an announcement for the sale of lots by my uncle and auntie. 

     Can you kindly relay the announcement to your friends especially those in the network who are from Asingan.  Whoever can get a buyer will have a commission from the sale.  The price is negotiable.  The size of lot is also negotiable -- although the priority is to sell the whole Lot A, smaller portions can be bought such as Lot A-1 and Lot A-2 or even smaller  residential size lots along the existing cemented road.

     IMPORTANT: 1) At present, there is a 4m-wide road as shown in the map.  But the present owners of the land are donating additional one meter to the municipality to make it a 5m-wide road; 2) The existing cemented 4m-wide road extends deep inside Domakit area and has become the main road connecting the houses and farms to the town proper; and 3) Lot B is ideal for shops as well as for tricycle station to serve those coming from the interior.

     Dan Ignacio, my cousin in Manila, may be contacted directly by phone or e-mail.

 

Amb. Rudy and Eva Dumapias

RUSH SALE

 

CHOICE LOTS IN ASINGAN

IDEAL FOR SUBDIVISION AND SHOPS

ALONG 5.0M WIDE CEMENTED ROAD

Hurry! Get a place where other BALIKBAYANS built homes for their families and for their own retirement! Be a part of a former farmland now fast becoming a pleasant community of new houses.

LOT "A" – 8,233 SQM

P1,500/SQM ono

LOT "B" – 525 SQM

P3,000/SQM ono

OPTION TO BUY PARTS OF LOT "A":

LOT "A"-1 : 2,755 SQM

LOT "A"-2 : 2,755 SQM

see maps below:

map no. 1

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

map no. 2

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to view map better; right click on each one, press copy on pop up menu..then paste it in your own graphic software ( I am using Paint ) then you can enlarge the copied image in your own software.....

@@@@@@@@@@

On Running

Running for me is the best exercise. It relaxes my mind and strengthen my body. I always jog here in Vancouver. My diet also helps me: I am a vegetarian.

--Rain

*****

 I was talking about you with my son Glen for the last two days. If not for you, I told him, I could not have experience those crazy and  exciting adventures in Agpay. It’s nice to reminisce those days when we were on the top of the mountain ( just a small one )  the three of our companions sleeping while we were gathering and burning firewood so snakes or other reptiles would not be crawling into our space. But when our  turn come to sleep, we had no inkling that instead of guarding the next guard shift went also to sleep. We could have been killed by some NPAs or we could have been mistaken for robbers or cattle rustlers.

Remember the cattle which surrounded us when we woke up? Maybe they were thinking: "What are these people doing here?"

 Remember also the story of those Agpay forest workers who told us somebody was killed and his body was dumped down the cliff near the guest house?.

Ahh what an adventure. When  I remember those stories I feel  shivers running up and down my spine.

--Angelito Domaoan

********

Yep, I visited Agpay several times with different groups. We always rode on a carromata up to San Roque Dam ( the Dam at present is now a multi millionproject worth visiting ) then from here we hiked over a mountain trail straight to Agpay Reforestation Station, the one time pride of San Nicolas, Pangasinan. Each trip has different memories.

The scariest one I remember was when one of my students almost fell about 20 feet into a concrete pavement. I still shiver when recollect this event. Then we always come back to San Roque, via the same route returning to the same spot where our patient carromatero is waiting to bring us back to Asingan.

Yes,the reckless days of youth!---# 

---Vic Costes

 

true or not, these stories are entertaining...:)

Believe it or Not!!

Subject: Travel Agent / From Our Own Kababayans!!!

A friend has been a Travel Agent for 30 Years. She says, of her 30 years
of taking reservation requests from government officials, we are all in
trouble.

Here's a few choice reservation questions from these bright people.

Senator Tessie Oreta asked for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't
get messed up by being near the window.

I got a call from ex-Mayor Joey Marquez, who wanted to go to Capetown.
Explaining the length of the flight and passport information, he
interrupted me with, "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but
Capetown is in Massachusetts." "Without trying to make him look like the
stupid one, I calmly explained," Cape Cod is in Massachusetts. Capetown
is in Africa." His response: (click).

Congressman Mark Lapid called, furious about a Florida package we did
for him and tv star Kris Aquino. I asked what was wrong with the
vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I
tried to explain that was not possible since Orlando is in the middle of
the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida
is a very thin state!" (so he expected to see the ocean on both sides of
the hotel?!)

Sen Ralph Recto's popular wife asked, "Is it possible to see England
from Canada?" I said, "No." She said, "But they look so close on the
map."

Senator Lito Lapid ask! ed if he could rent a car in Dallas . I noticed
he had only an hour lay-over in Dallas. When asked why he wanted to rent
a car, he said, "I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a
car to drive between the gates to save time."

Senator Jinggoy Estrada called last week. He needed to know! how it was
possible that his flight from Detroit left at 8:20 a.m. and got into
Chicago at 8:33 a.m. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead
of Illinois, but he could not understand the concept of time zones.
Finally, I told him the plane went very fast, and he bought that.

Congressman Ronaldo Zamora asked, "Do airlines put your physical
description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?" I
said, "No, why do you ask?" He replied, "Well, when I checked in with
the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and I'm
overweight.I think that is very rude!" I looked into it and explained
the city code for Fresno, California is FAT and the airline was just
putting a destination tag on his luggage.

Former presidentiable now TV star Eddie Gil inquired about a trip
package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, he asked, "Would
it be cheaper to fly to California and take the train to Hawaii?"

I just got off the phone with Senator Bong Revilla who asked, "How do I
know which plane to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, to which
he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these
planes have numbers on them."

VP Noli De Castro asked, "I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola, FL. Do I have to
get on one of those twin engine planes?" I asked if he meant fly to
Pensacola, FL on a commuter plane. He said, "Yeah, whatever!"

Congressman Dilangalen called and had a question about the documents
needed to fly to China . I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh, no I
don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of
those." I double checked and sure enough, his stay! required a visa.
When I told him this, he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and
every time they accepted my American Express!"

Senator Miriam Defensor called to make reservations, "I want to go from
Chicago to Rhino, New York ." The agent said, "Are you sure that's the
name of the town?" "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the lady.
After some searching, the agent came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've
looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Rhino
anywhere." The lady retorted, "Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where
it is. Check your map!" The agent scoured a map of the state of New York
and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo do you?" "That's it! I knew
it was a big animal," she said.

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

postcards from MM

MM  sent me a batch of "postcards", ( beautiful but  uncaptioned ) sceneries . I got the clearance from him to publish them as they are. Maybe you would recognize the places where these were taken...Postcard no. 1 seems to be the Baguio Cathedral...

 

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comments, etc...

from V.de Leon

Nice sharing.Memories are the bridge of bonding.I treasure every bit of memories with my kids just like you.My youngest ,Courtney,  won the 100 meter dash 1st place 2 weeks ago also and got her medal,too.She  is always in the academic honor roll.I am happy to share it with you.

She, too, of course is a Pangasinense like you and me.Aren't we (yes we are! )..Yesterday, her soccer team was in a championship game-they lost by penalty kick.She gets admiration of  most parents in her ability  of playing:she runs fast!.

Thanks for sharing your joy-my joy also.

from SS

Upon waking up today (California time) and opening DC, I saw you have bounced back to vitality after the May 21-22 "free for all" at both MMB and DC. I now call these two days the "dark period" for both boards. I knew that on May 21, your birthday, you were in the best of moods because you even posted early in the day: "Thanks Mark!!!!! First time I received so many birthday greetings!!!!!!"

On the following day (May 22), however, your mood and Rain’s have taken a downturn as evidenced the following successive postings on that day:

Vic: Sometime ago, this board is a nice place to visit, for relaxation or respite from

work. Now it became a barbaric free-for-all mud splattering contest. If you are not

ashamed of yourselves throwing crap from behind masks, think of the webmaster

who is spending MONEY..LOTS OF MONEY on this board. and then you just so

you just post your nonsensical idiotic rantings!!! Shame on you!! Shame on you!!!

Vic: My last posting is supposed to be for the other side of the bridge...

Ricky: Whew!!! Thank goodness, Manong Vic. I almost peed in my pants!!!

Vic: Good thing you did not!..:)

Rain: I'm grateful to DAhman because of this site i found my real friends and family...i

always love to post but i became the target of such attack....thanks again DAhman ...

God bless us ALL

That is Rain’s valedictory post above before she stopped posting because "they’re insulting me na". But I noticed the other day she has started posting again, which meant she has already nursed her hurt also. Good for her.

Actually, I was worried about you and about the fate of AJ. Now that I saw you’re back at DC and AJ has started to come off the pressagain, that’s something to celebrate for me. (The 2-liter Bacardi bottle I opened last week is almost gone!) At least for now, DC is back to its intended norm --- discussion board for intelligent and sensible issues. Again, welcome back to VITALITY!

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

Thanks, SS for the vote of confidence..I do not post much anymore in the DC except for the links..Will leave it to the other posters. But, I went back posting at the Asingan Board. Townmates who know each other accord some token of respect especially to elders ( like me! ). Which is nice...

What really worried me was my inability to use my Blog..I can compose a Blog page complete with photos and text but when I start saving them, my AOL does not do anything..Everyday I searched high and low for a possible solution: went to the control panel..checked the Javascript plug ins ( what is javascript, a kind of coffee mix? ), still of no avail..The last thing I remembered doing today is changing a cache  thingy, from 250 Mgs. to unlimited and I also cleaned up my C drive with the use of  the system tools under the accesories menu. Then I also did a quick Our Father, as a last resort..

After 6 days of cold turkey, I was able to post a blog page into my Journal. Alleluia, PTL!

How did I fix it? I don't know honestly. All I know it worked. maybe it was in one of the steps I did today and I do not know even know why or how I did it..

Just goes to show this blessed PC is still full of tricks, especially to one like me who did not go to a Computer school--# 

from my youngest daughter, Bernadette

AH YEEAH!!

It took me 1 hr and 10 mins to finish the 10K race this weekend!

 

I didn't win a car or $5000 dollars but i got a medal and a free t-shirt!!

 

And no sore body parts!

 

Bernadette

 

***********

Good show, Berna..!!

Did I tell you I was once a runner too when I was younger ( about 3 decades ago )..I used to jog at 5:00 am in Asingan. Sometimes a pack of  mongrels would start  barking and running after me in certain sections of the poblacion.

 

During our hikes from San Roque to Agpay, San Nicolas, I would arrive in our destination still strong, whereas my companions were already sweating, whining and complaining about the hiking I put them through!...:)

 

***********

SOME PHOTOS FROM BERNA'S FIRST COUSINS IN MANILA

 

Architect Gilbert Hufana Viray is Berna's first cousin. Miguelita and Gilbert's mom Ellie are sisters. Shown here is Gilbert's family. Ellie is a retired manila school teacher...

 

 

Miguelita's sister Ellie is the lady holding a yellow life preserver. Her husband Paul is the gentleman in red..No names were sent to me, am just making up the caps as I go along..:)

 

The last time my family met them was last 1988..That was a balikbayan trip to remember. Nothing else could match the gaeity we had then...

BIRTHDAY GREETINGS FROM

BERNADETTE COSTES SOMERVILLE

Happy Birthday again dad!

Here are some pictures from the tulip festival.

Sorry i couldn't take any more of the actual tulips, mom..

they were really pretty but we were running out of time.

b

My youngest daughter Bernadette, now residing in Ottawa. She is with her son, Dillon and daughter Chloe. Chloe is a spitting image of her Mom when Berna was of her age...

 

I have a photo of Berna, same age, doing the same thing, picking flowers from the Canadian National Exhibition grounds...

 

Dillon, my only grandson ( among 5 grandaughters ). In my family tree, my family name will soon dissapear....What's in a name anyway, a rose by any name is still a rose, Bill S. once said. And this guy is not Bill Sykes...:)

 

Berna's husband is Scottish. Dillon and Chloe looks more "Filipinish?."....:)

photos from Susie B..

Some photos from Susie's

Philippine trip...

a 2oth Century Kalapaw...

Yep, they don't build them in the old way. Modernized shall we say...

 

A long shot of the "house in the meadow"..

 

The old Nipa Huts do not have this kind of kitchen!

 

Who would not want to live in a house like this?

 

A family portrait...Everybody's happy!

 

Yesss..the tourists are happy to be back home..:)

 

No cheating, okay?

 

A winsome lovesome..

 

Jollibee..maybe?