Pond Reflections

Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Straight Out Of Camera

Dry Season Farm Strategies

I visited a friend's farm a few weeks ago. He was so ecstatic in inviting us because this is the first time he did a farm like this. There is a pond and above it are mango trees. He has been trying to incorporate his hobby researches in these undertakings. Despite the long travel of 5 hours from the city, i went there. I also slept for the night to give the driver some rest in between, and also to maximize our conversations. 

The pond is stocked with fish during the dry season, he intends to also put in shrimps during the rainy months. Water level is low now that is not suitable for the shrimps. But it is the shrimps that i love better. So i have to be back next time.

 These buoys helps the person in balancing himself during the feedings. It also serves as floaters for the aerators. Below at the background shows the aerator with the above buoy. Aerators disturbs the water to mix in oxygen. Otherwise, the pond residents will compete with oxygen that they might die of suffocation if the water is not mixed like these.

 This is another type of aerator while in full operation. It paddles water in circular fashion to mix in air in the water. Have you heard of fishes that died of drowning? It seems funny at first, but it happens in overly populated ponds. During extreme heat of environment, fishes compete for air and they drown when not properly helped to breath.

  The aerator equipment at rest.

 The sunset shot on the pond, with a shaggy chick appreciating the sunset too.

The mango trees are also laden with fruits, my friend was able to induce off-season fruiting with his concoction of strategies, organically, without use of chemicals. I was given a basketfull of the harvest to bring home. And that is on top of unusually lengthy conversations that binges on any topic under the sun! 

Our World Tuesday

Nature Notes

Outdoor Wednesday

A Poem by Christopher Marlowe

I mentioned some words from this poem in my last post, and said i forgot already the poem. I mentioned it as a caption to my silhouette photo of a hippeastrum bud reaching for the sunset. I realized it inspired an English writer-photographer of this generation to post the poem in her blogsite. She thanked me in her last post for making her recall this. Thank you also for your visit, as i can now see you wonderful photographs. I am now following you.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 

By Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me and be my love, and we will all the pleasures prove 

That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, woods or steepy mountain yields. 

And we will sit upon the rocks, seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, 
By shallow rivers to whose falls, melodious birds sing madrigals. 

And I will make thee beds of roses and a thousand fragrant posies, 
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle embroidered all with leaves of myrtle; 

A gown made of the finest wool, which from our pretty lambs we pull; 
Fair lined slippers for the cold, with buckles of th purest gold; 

A belt of straw and ivy buds, with coral clasps and amber studs: 
And if these pleasures may thee move, come live with me and be my love. 

The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing for thy delight each May morning: 
If these delights thy mind may move, then live with me and be my love.

....etc, etc, etc.

Sunsets and Window Pets

You are already very familiar with my 5th Floor Window sunsets, something that gives meanings to my afternoons. You also very well know that no two sunsets are alike and they are just like our finger prints or at more modern parlance, they are just like our DNA, each one is unique!

From the clear dry season skies, they now start to be dramatic again, when the clouds start to move and rains begin to come. I love rainy days more than the hot dry season. That is not just because of the environment but also because of the quality they make of my sunsets.

The sun occupies a different foreground throughout the year, from the left to the right of my horizon. I love the earth for moving constantly to give me a different perspective of the sun.

I only have three main prominent structures at my horizon, but they can give me very wide variation of canvass. I can choose many frames on that expanse. Can you see the very small crescent moon on that blue space? I love my view, i assure you that!

My pet hippeastrum is just starting to bloom, as if it is whispering to the sun! Wait for me my love, and we will do the pleasures all. I already forgot the lines of the famous poem. 

And i can also superimpose my pets to be captured for posterity. My hippeastrum flowers are just saying goodbye, as if it is going with the day, to meet the night for rest. A good life is spent, loved and treasured. 

Skywatch Friday

Our Beloved Shore

Being in an archipelagic country gives its citizens the right to choose what kind of beach they want to go during the dry season. An island can provide different kinds of shores and beaches. In those 4 months we can choose a sandy beach-white or black, coral sands, small rockies, big rockies or boulders, or steep walls without any shoreline. Our town is historically under the sea, although it is not written how many centuries ago! Being a peninsula we are almost surrounded by water, and our seas are endowed with corals and marinelife that give us wonderful scuba diving privileges. It almost follows that i should be good in scuba diving, but i don't! I can't even explore waters up to my neck, and if you are curious about the reasons, that might be explained by deep water and height phobias. I am one of them, so am deprived of our underwater views. But i am happy i can be easily pacified with terrestrial landscapes. 

Saluyan Beach

 We are just about more than 2km upland from the sea, and that is only 15 min by motorbikes or tricycles. So one hot Saturday afternoon we went to this part of the shore, just for fun. It was the 84th birthday of my mother, so we brought some food and drinks and a lot of laughter.

 My nephew and I explored the rock crevices. I remember that in the past we can walk around that rock during low tides, however now we cannot reach the other side as the water is high there! Is the water level really rising? We content ourselves in this stretch of rocky shore. I am happy we have this shore quality, as it is here where more marine animals can be seen, unlike beaches with very fine sand.

 To the other side of this bay is the Batangas International Port, and where big refineries like Caltex and Shell are located. We can easily see their building structures even with a low magnification binoculars. Big boats ply this route because this is the sea highway to Mindoro and Romblon islands.

 Seen above is the Isla Verde Island, one of the bigger islands seen on the way to Mindoro. But there are more small islands behind it and to the right approaching Mindoro, not to mention the islands at the rightmost portion not seen here.

 Those two knolls in the horizon are what gives more beauty to my sunrise views. The sun peeps in between those knolls, and they provide the structure in an otherwise vast pinky red mornings.

The big island at the right side is of another town Tingloy. It is only about 40 minutes from our shore to that island, and until now I am still surprised why i haven't been there. Never mind, maybe before i leave earth i will still be able to go there, at least to say i reached every island i see on our shore. The above cute, mini boats are used for fishing near the shore when the waves are still. I confess at this very minute, I cannot ride those mini boats. But sometimes i even see small children riding them using just small paddles!  I am not envious, that i can fully give them the privilege of doing. I am not even enticed to try, that is final!

Our World Tuesday

Nature Notes

Outdoor Wednesday