'Dream home' archive

Turtle-dragons and hairy grass

After discovering that the house helpers had been replacing some of my herbs with ornamental plants that I don’t know where they get from, and after telling them never to do that ever again (okay, I was fuming mad), I decided to inspect the garden from end to end. I might as well. I was [...]

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Beware of wood-boring beetles

I’m not really into decorating. Okay, let me rephrase that. I like playing with space, colors and textures, which is why I had the living and dining areas repainted and wallpapered, but when it comes to anything purely ornamental, I pass. That’s why you won’t find curio cabinets in my house nor knick knacks. I’m [...]

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The environmentalist and the obstinate mango tree

Remember our mango tree? The one that was filled with flowers at the beginning of summer? Well, very few of the flowers turned to fruits and what few fruits there were were much too high to reach. The winds took pity, shook the tree and down came the fruits, some of them hitting the concrete slabs and cracking because they were still very green and hard and not really ready for anyone’s digestion.

It was frustrating. We were dreaming of free mangoes all throughout the summer but the insects were always there ahead of us, pissing off the flowers until most of them just gave up and decided not to become fruits.

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Speedy’s new toolbox

One of the secrets to keeping a well-organized home is to have everything in its proper place, right? No stray object and no accumulated junk. I’m not much of a housekeeper but I know enough to realize that the slow accumulation of junk is the fastest way to put your house in a topsy-turvy situation. [...]

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The wall that’s begging to be decorated

A few nights ago, Speedy was poring at old photos and, chuckling, pointed out how much thinner we used to be. A day later, I was in the supermarket and I saw this lovely picture frame with visible wood grains — so lovely that I had to touch it. But the moment I did, I was immediately disappointed. Plastic. The wood grains were painted. But that got me thinking. Plain wood picture frames with no finishing are quite inexpensive. And my mind wandered to the bare walls…

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The suikinkutsu project

Of the five elements — and note that the Five Elements in Chinese and Japanese philosophies differ — it is water that I associate with the feeling of relaxation. Wind is exhilarating, fire is exciting, earth is nurturing, Ku is… I don’t associate it with anything because I don’t know exactly what it is. Of [...]

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Finally, tablecloths!

It weirds me out when people lay the tablecloth on the dining table then cover it with a glass top. It’s like a policy in redundancy and a misunderstanding about the function of a tablecloth. It weirds me out even more why a dining table has to be topped with glass. When we bought our [...]

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Round spiky red flowers called Fireball

We were at Balay Indang during the Pacquiao-Hatton weekend and, on the way home, because the way home is through Tagaytay City, we passed by Mahogany Market as has been our habit whenever we’re in the area. Like I mentioned in an earlier entry, at the back of the Mahogany Market, you’ll now find a [...]

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Jasmine hedge outside my bedroom window

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Me, dreaming

Sam and I were having brunch earlier. Part of the conversation went like this.
Me: “I want to build a bigger house.”
Sam: “Where will you build it?”
Me: “In that huge empty lot with the old tree.”
Sam: “Go build it.”
Me (in complete dream mode and ignoring Sam’s last comment): “The design of this house is okay, we [...]

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