01 Jun, 2011
I was at the Centris Market (previously the market at the Lung Center) a couple of months ago, but never got around to doing a post on the market. It is wonderful. A bit crazed and crowded and parking can be an issue, but I liked the selection of goods and many…
08 May, 2011
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you moms out there!!! The restaurants, malls, parks, etc. will probably be a nightmare today (particularly after the Pacquiao fight) so we will stay home, turn on an airconditioner in the smallest room in the house, and vegetate all day long… I braved the crowds at the…
24 Apr, 2011
We left the beach just as the maddening crowds were arriving. A quiet Easter holiday in what appears to be deserted Manila (no traffic at all!) is much more appealing than one might think. On Saturday morning, I sent our in-house “florist” Leny, to Dimasalang with a short list and a fixed…
03 Apr, 2011
Otherwise known as “strawflowers” or technically of the family bracteata or bracteatum asteraceae, these vibrant, “papery” and somewhat intense blooms are often dried and the thing of childhood summer memories from trips to Baguio. I always thought of them as being a bit cheesy, a personal bias, but I spied these fresh bunches…
12 Feb, 2011
Sister arrived a few days ago so the house has been abuzz with dinners and meals and there are an abundance of flowers… We went to the flower market at Dimasalang yesterday morning and realized we were there at the height of the pre-Valentine’s madness that had rose prices shooting up some 300%…
24 Dec, 2010
I fell asleep last night intending to hit the Dimasalang Flower market in the wee hours of the morning for some blooms for our Christmas Eve and Day dinners. But age and exhaustion must be catching up with me, as I slept nearly 10 hours straight and woke up at 7am instead… possibly…
14 Nov, 2010
I have featured several sets of events on this blog where we used dozens and dozens of roses. This “ruby-themed” dinner for Mrs. MM’s birthday, for example. Or roses arranged a la Jeff Leatham, here and here. There have also been posts where roses were cut short, for a christmas topiary, for…
14 Nov, 2010
These days, we go several weeks without fresh flowers in our home… Perhaps a sign of more frugal times, relatively speaking. We might replace fresh flowers with blooming orchids that last several weeks — phalaenopsis or butterfly orchids if splurging, or more reasonably priced dendrobiums which cost just PHP90-120 a pot at the…