Market Manila

Travel is a luxury. Period. But it is the one luxury that I would work my rear end off again and again in order to afford. While it is nice to ride up front in the plane, where the oxygen levels and personal space make for a far more comfortable trip, if the opportunity to hit Paris and Venice comes up because you find a darned good fare for a perfectly decent seat, we (MM, Mrs. MM and the Teen) are so there. Such was the case on this recent trip to Europe and our first stop was Paris. Springtime in Paris is often characterized by showers and grey drizzle; but in our case, we were fortunate to have four days of clear blue skies and cool to warm weather. I was pleased to see some rose bushes and other flowers in parks and balconies of homes, but most Parisian parks are rather anal retentive and planted with greens rather than bursting with blooms. But that’s okay, since cut flowers were everywhere. On an early walk down a quaint street we ran across this shop which had placed tin buckets filled with roses out on the sidewalk. It was simple and beautiful. And yes, we were thrilled to be in Paris.

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The day after the “big birthday dinner,” we had three guests over for some hearty salads and a roast beef hash (recipe of that coming up in the days ahead). It was a far more casual gathering, with tables stripped of linens. But as the dinner discussion turned markedly adult-boring, the Teen was getting fidgety and asked if she could doodle with my camera, a Canon G-10, at the table. She wanted to take photos of the flowers and the setting. These are just a small selection of her photos… and I must say, they are FAR BETTER than any photos I took of the same subject matter. My shots were intended to give a broader picture, sometimes instructional and step-by-step in nature, while The Teen’s are far more artistic, with a really cool perspective. I have only fixed shadows in one of these photos, the others are exactly as she took them. Not bad, huh? :) All photographs in this post are the property of the Teen.

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No, I have never taken a course. I think you just learn by doing. You take notice of what others do. And you learn over time what things might work better than others. For the dinner table, I like to have very intense small arrangements that are nearly all flowers, no fillers/leaves. Or alternatively, all leaves and no flowers. And try and stick with colors that seem to make sense together. And since we have always done all of our arrangements at home, we have never really had to resort to a florist or shop which generally charge significantly more than the actual cost of the flowers…

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The occasion was a friend’s surprise 60th birthday party. We were asked if we would host a dozen guests for a sit-down dinner in our home and of course we agreed. This had to a be a super special dinner and the table had to be dressed appropriately for the event. First up, an easy idea for those of you that want something fresh on the dinner table, but don’t want to hassle of “arranging” flowers….

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Here are some not so difficult “do-it -yourself” Mother’s Day flowers that won’t break the bank. Up top some potted amaryllis (in this case happily planted in terra cotta pots) purchased for some PHP110-120 per pot at garden centers, plant shows or weekend markets. Just add some dampened moss to the base, replace the tacky straw with more natural raffia and present one or three or more pots. Total cost PHP150 and up.

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My mom was an avid amateur grower of orchids. She had a lot of vandas (her favorite), phalaenopsis (butterfly or moth orchids) and denrobiums (so easy to keep happy), cattleyas (a multiple bloom from one of her cattleyas was cause for major celebration) as well as lots and lots of other more “native” species. Occasionally, she would come across a slipper orchid and I seem to recall her drilling it into my head that they were indigenous to the Philippines, Luzon in particular, and worthy of temporary awe. I wasn’t fond of orchids then, but somehow the data was retained in one of the rusty recesses of my brain. So when my suki plant dealer at the FTI Saturday market showed me this wonderful blooming Haynaldianum or slipper orchid, and quoted me a rather reasonable sounding PHP250, I bought it and took it home in order to drill into the Teen’s memory banks exactly what my mom had told me…

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Just a quick post for a few of the readers who have emailed me asking about the arrangement featured earlier, here, for the Teen’s graduation day… So many folks seem intimidated by doing a floral arrangement themselves, when it is often very EASY to do, and you save some 60-80% of the cost of ordering it from a fancy shmancy florist. In this case, I wanted a huge, almost lobby like arrangement to place on top of a narra table.

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Yup, it seems like just a few blinks of the eye since the “princess” popped out of her mother nearly 14 years ago. I recall the tense early morning wait in the hospital by myself, and checking her out as soon as I could, to see if all ten fingers and toes were in place (Mrs. MM’s request). It has been a simply stupendous 14 years since, and if there is one thing I will never regret, it is choosing to retire from a very hectic career and do less work to make sure that I got to see as much of her early years as possible. She graduates in a couple of hours and we just sent her off to school to do whatever they do before the big event. Milestones such as these always mean flowers in our home. So for the Teen’s graduation day, we made this large but extremely simple arrangement of white lilies… The card is from Mom, Dad & Dog. :)

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