Verdant Sonya's Garden

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in...

~ W. Shakespeare from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

The most enchanting garden one will ever lay their eyes upon in the Philippines is Sonya's Garden located in Tagaytay, which is roughly a 2-hour drive heading south from Manila. I had heard about this place that will transport you to a Shakespearean soliloquy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in years past but have only been graced with time and good company to visit it 3 days ago. It's a very well kept secret garden, truly verdant with blooming flowers and shrubbery all year round. The garden is also fecund with vegetables, herbs and fruit-bearing trees which are served at their organic restaurant and just the thought of that is quite exultant. Kudos to the owner, all gardeners, caretakers and horticulturists because the wonder they have achieved here is worthy to dwell in the annals of the history of Philippine gardens.

 

 

The cabanas decorated with lace, flower-patterned sheets and embroidery of sorts found all around the garden property are romantic and I will say, this whole reservation is capable of surpassing the botanical gardens I've been to in some cities outside the Philippines.  

Planting and landscaping began in 1998 at Sonya's Garden and as one may expect, all shrubberies, trees and flowering plants have taken root making the organic flow and growth of all manner of flora a marvelous sight to imbibe.

Herewith is a photo of their house salad served at their conservatory restaurant area:

Varieties of Morning Glorys, Hibisuses, Impatiences, Hydrangeas, Butterfly Peas, Geranium flower varieties, Mums and many, many others hang or lay about everywhere. 

Aside from the luscious garden itself, the property houses a bakery with their artisanal boulangerie items; an apothecary where lotions, spices, oils, candles are sold, a gift shop, the restaurant I mentioned earlier and a bed and breakfast.

Visit the place if you are able, it will be an experience.

Audrey and Loafers

not my photo, obviously.

Well, there's that Audrey with her headscarf and loafers. How about that Fred Astaire at the background? This must be in Funny Face-land. Love me some old school monochromes.

How About Them Tube Hotels?

*not my photo

Getting to be the rage as you read this, the advent of hotels made from concrete drains is fascinating. Oversized drain pipes are laying everywhere on the streets all over the world right? Well, these round cement objects used as pipes to prevent clogs and floods on the streets can be reused as stations of comfort and the photos here show it doesn't take much to convert them into something homey and swanky!

Recycled, eco-deco’d and ingenious in their design, these humongous drains which are turned into comfortable tiny rooms with a bed are utilitarian for the traveler on a budget. 

photo of Langkawi Hotel in Malaysia (not mine)

Pioneered by architect Andreas Strauss, the first such hotel was built in Austria with Das Park Hotel and has so far propagated to Malaysia with the Langkawi Hotel , Mexico with TuboHotel and the Prahhan Hotel in Australia. The ones in Mexico, Malaysia and in Austria are situated in Eco Parks while the one in Australia (Prahhan Hotel) appears in an urban setting. It is only a matter of time when these materials will also be used for single-family housing, like the container vans we now see of late. 

The view on this one. (not my photo)
 

I personally want a concrete drain or two now to convert them into small rooms for visiting guests and family members who want to come and visit. Just point one end on a nature scene, get a really comfy mattress, sheets with cotton count of 300 and above, feather pillows, accentuate, decorate, et voilá! A dreamy guest room for years to be talked about.

Van Gogh and I:

When did I become fascinated with Van Gogh? Well, it was the time when my sister Grace imparted to me the subject of the song “Vincent” by Don McLean. In my 12-year old mind I felt a pang of sympathetic sadness for the artist when he was yet alive and as years passed on I would make it a point to recognize that when people said “Van Gogh” with paintings, it would be about this painter. It wasn't long after that that Newsweek reported one of Van Gogh's paintings named “Irises” fetched $53.9 million at Sotheby's in New York, in 1987, it was the one with the white vase and was labeled as the most expensive painting ever to be sold at the time. “A painting of oil on canvass done by a man who was penniless and mad trounces the world of the arts and culture.” Said I back then.

So it goes that in an immense sense, Van Gogh became my doorway into studying paintings; his style which was “post impressionism” in my view is the most genius and innovative of all the movements in paintings. Even after having delved into other forms like the Rococo, impressionism, German expressionism and the vast morphologies of abstract and surrealism, I am still most captivated by the originality of Van Gogh's strokes and vibrancy. So intimate did I become with Van Gogh's work that I even began to pronounce the “Gogh” as “gokh” like the Dutch, instead of the usual “gow.” In connection with this, I did dabble on paintings and sketches because of the man's ability to evoke artistry even to the ones who aren't so inclined.“Starry Night,” “The Sower,” “Sunflowers,” his still life(s), along with paintings of Van Gogh's peers like Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne moved me.

As I grew older and as life continued to present reality to me - in flagrante delicto, such idealistic and dreamy times of my personal belle epoch was set aside. However, when I finally came face to face with one of the painter's “Irises” and one of his self portraits with the straw hat at The Met, I literally thanked the Lord God in Heaven for taking me to that place. Yes, we all have our own Holy Grails. 

Most recently, I ran into a video-documentary about Van Gogh based on the correspondence he had with his brother Theo. The film was called: Van Gogh: "Painted in Words"; it was very well presented and stars the luminescent Benedict Cumberbatch as the painter. The subject was about Van Gogh's emotional journey paralleled with the evolution of his craft. As it happens, there are more stories to be told about him besides the madness, and self-mutilation. There was his admiration for the working class, his desire to be a clergyman and his innocent belief in love. What was revealed in his letters was a tender-hearted man behind the bold and decisive genius of the art. 

His work was far ahead of his time but hardly any recognized him when he was yet living, however, as if to make up for it, forms of today's pop culture from the "Starry Night” pastiche in Woody Allen's “Midnight in Paris” to Don McLean's song “Vincent” to Dr. Who's episode of “Vincent and the Doctor” pay homage and even seek to rectify the inequity of Van Gogh's living days. But oh dear, not even a Time Lord's time machine, nor a high-grossing Woody Allen film could undo it all for Vincent van Gogh. His art lives yes, but as for the man, McLean's elegy echoes centuries of truth about the artist, “This world was never meant for one as beautiful as him.”  
~~~

Naomi, Cannes 2015

In my humble opinion, Naomi is winning this year at Cannes. Oui?

(photo taken somewhere in the Net)

Spring-ing is it?

photo from tumbler

Berries and peonies...

This is perhaps my first spring away from the US in about 20 years, yes, I won't miss the pollen and oak allergies, but I will miss the berries, blooms, colors, the new bustle of life from the dead of winter.  However, I make the most of what I have so, check this link out (S'il vous plait?): LINK

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

This is my initiation to Mitch Albom's works and may I say, it is enthralling. Finished the book by the 2nd time I opened it. The Time Keeper is a transporting fiction that borrows from the ancient Babylonian times wherein the main character “Dor” becomes the first human to count and or keep time. As a boy, Dor was gentle-hearted, the kind that wondered about the things around him and asked innocent questions. Whereas, his brother “Nim” was the overachiever, visionary-type that built "that" tower intended to skyscrape toward Heaven. At this point I wonder if the names of the the brothers “Nim" and “Dor” (backwards for “Rod”), put together completing “Nimrod,” (the delusional dude in the Bible that built the Tower of Babel) was intentional. But I digress. 

Going back to the book, Dor falls in love with childhood mate Alli, during their time as husband and wife, Alli falls ill and upon nearing her death, Dor has a meltdown and decides he will stop his wife’s suffering by scaling upward the tower to talk to the “gods.” As he did so, the people building said tower follows his ascend, the tower and the people then begin to fall, language confusion starts and the only one that reaches the outer dimension is Dor who enters a sort of purgatorial place and at this point becomes - the father of time.

While in limbo, Dor’s tears becomes a pool of psychedelic blue (or something) and through it he begins to hear human beings’ plead for “time” for eons. Among the voices heard through this portal pool of sound, two stand out, that of a cancer-striken billionaire pleading for more time and that of an insecure teenager who cannot wait for time when asked out on a date by the most popular jock in school who turns out to be a jerk.  Subsequently, Dor, a.k.a. Father Time is given a chance to redeem his transgression by being sent here to earth to intervene with the bad impending heartaches of these two and thereby completing his own journey as well.

This book is very imaginative, descriptive and a bit mystical which perhaps is a common thread with Mitch Albom (ex. Five Peeps You Meet in Heaven) right? To be honest I did not get anything religious here, just a fascinating story told that transcended elements and yet maintained the frailty of humans which in itself is a fascinating matter and the book is page-turner because of these traits. It is good light reading and has made me curious about Albom’s other books. If you are the dreamy, romantic and the interested kind, give this one a tumble, it won’t be a waste of time, pun intended.
~~~