Orange for May

I am smiling as my title definitely will mislead you! That is the nuisance or maybe beauty of the English language. Being non-English speakers we also have running jokes about English words with the same spelling, but have very different meanings and pronunciation. I guess i am trying to explain my title, and how i was able to misled you. Orange is not just a fruit but also a color. And I have time and again been telling you that we have a lot of orange colors, it is the most predominant color in our climate, of course aside from green. You will not blame me for saying that it bores me sometimes.

 My Hippeastrum puniceum that flowered slightly even prior to the heavy rains.

 an almost spent hippeastrum bloom

 Caesalpinia pulcherrima has 4 colors here in our climate, the red, the pink, the orange and the yellow! it is so alive against the clear blue sky. Butterflies love them too, and our goat kids love eating their leaves.

Their very long filaments supporting the anthers with pollens are seemingly extravagant. I wonder what they signify for the plant to perpetuate the species. Or they might be a disadvantage as the pollens might not attach to the bees sipping nectar. I just don't know!

Orange You Glad It's Friday

Today's Flowers

Skies of our Colder Days

December to February are the coldest months in our hot tropical climate. We now experience 18C in the mornings before sunrise while we are still in bed, thanks God, as this is already cold for us. Then the temperature rose to about 28C at mid day, just lovely for our hot-bloodied bodies. We are not familiar with temperatures like these, but we love it. In my case, i am hoping that these temperatures lengthen for a few more weeks after February. But that might not be possible, as March is already the start of our dry season with high temperatures and high humidity, unease and  discomfort among us. While we are at this comfortable conditions, we might as well maximize doing many things, be efficient outdoors or else we might relegate those jobs for next year.

These colder temperatures are just spill-over effects from our temperate neighbors in the north like Siberia and Northern China. They are in deep winter so the cold winds reach us still colder, despite the distance!  This time also our skies are the most dramatic. In the afternoon clouds are low in the horizon making our sunsets lovelier than during the dry season. And I will show you some of them here, again taken from my 5th Floor Window!

 The top photos are taken in the same day.

 The above three photos are the progression of the sky also in one day.

This one photo seldom happens, but i took it as a comparison that sometimes our sun is not very bright too, as seen from here. Maybe the conditions at the horizon did not cooperate to give our usual red sunset, however the clouds are still making the horizon with dramatic landscape. But this scene actually is still early, it gets a bit brighter and redder a few minutes after!

Do you agree?

Skywatch Friday

Orange You Glad It's Friday 

Orange Invaders

The plants i am featuring here are very common plants with wide range of temperature tolerance. They are normally seen in parks and gardens for a very long time that we don't even think that they are not natives. I chose them here either as easily grown and/or invasive. But even if they are invasive, they are still grown for their beauty and their role with the insect population specially butterflies.

Ixora originated from India and Sri Lanka, now popular in tropical America like Florida and Texas and other tropical countries of the world. My orange Ixora is gathered by my mother from relatives and neighbors, now already a permanent resident in our garden, as it is planted on the ground as hedges.

 Lantana came from the tropical regions of America and Africa, later introduced to almost all places in the world. My orange lantana above is from a far province in the Visayas, which is Bohol, an island just recently hit by 7.2 magnitude earthquake. This is loved by our butterflies.

 Four o'clock, Mirabilis jalapa is also called Marvel of Peru because it came from South America, maybe one of which is Peru. It got the name because if opens in the afternoon and remains open till early morning the next day. It produces lots of seeds and also a root that also remains alive even during droughts. These characteristics make it an invasive species.

My niece and the daughter of my cousin, when they met after several years. My cousin's daughter is an OFW and come home only once-in-a while. They explore places, so i consider them invasives...hahaha!

NF-Blo-Ma

Orange You Glad It's Friday

Today's Flowers

One of the New 7 Wonders of Nature

Our long planned trip to El Nido, Palawan was aborted due to low registrants for that group tour. The plane ticket in going there is via Puerto Princesa, and land trip to El Nido from there. We already had plane tickets so we decided to use them at least only to Puerto Princesa instead of continuing to El Nido. One month before the designated date we registered online for the Underground River, because access to this UNESCO Heritage Site is now limited to 900 persons per day unlike the 1,500 before. I have actually visited it more than 10 years ago, many years before it was voted as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. It is high time that i refresh the memories, or maybe compare the differences accruing from the so-called "development".

There are 12 persons in our van plus a tour guide. It took about 1.5 hours from Puerto Princesa City to Sabang town, where a boat takes the tourists for 30 min to the front of the Underground River. A boat rides only 4-6 persons including the boatman. Then a short walk brings us to the other side of the Cave's entrance. Here, another boat takes us directly inside the cave, this is manually paddled by a boatman who at the same time acts as the tourist guide. He sits at the back of the boat and while paddling tells us information about the Cave and the Underground River. We are very fortunate for having someone who delivers his messages with amusing, sometimes really hilarious punchlines that make all of us laughing all the way!

Part I. Way to the Underground River

The Van that took us from Puerto Princesa City to Sabang town, jump-off point to the Underground River. The man on the left is our tourist guide. There are 4 mini groups in our van. 

This is the makeshift pier in Sabang town, where tourists board on the boats. That mountain is a tropical virgin forest where no patch of agricultural activity can be viewed from the plane or from the way we were.

The above view of the mountains and the sea might already entice you to stay in this area to explore for more happenings and experiences. There is a zipline here, a mangrove exploration tour, a monkey trail hike, among others.

 The view at our right side from the boat. Our guide said the range looks like a reclining giant.

 Another peak on that range, these mountains are limestone in character, that eventually resulted in having the Underground River and cave. It is not yet very well explored but many caves are in those mountains.

 The shoreline cliffs viewed from the boat. The occlusions or deep contours at the rock facade shows the level of sea water long ago. It was now way up the present sea level because the rocks are pushed up due to the tectonic plates merging in these parts, making big movements.

Boulders fall now and then due to constant movement of the crust and constant weathering

This big boulder originally has an arch but now blown away

 This long rock wall lines the way to the shore where the boats dock going to the UR

 Another view of the rock wall

Big old trees of >1 meter diameter can be seen on the area to the UR. Monkeys also roam around like that one above right. We saw five of them on the ground and some tourists even pose with them for photos. Another group with monkey kids are on top of the concrete structure that serves as the toilet and comfort room. They seem to be gentle and are used to be with a lot of people. 

Part II follows tomorrow.

Orange You Glad it's Friday

Orange Photographers

They are photographers, they both have long cameras. I wonder why they seem to love donning orange shirts! 

 Serendipitous, because the boat is painted orange as well. This is in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, Philippines.

Gumasa Beach, Saranggani Province, Philippines

Dry Season Ending

It is December, our most wonderful temperatures throughout the year is now here. As most of my readers and followers know, we only have two seasons, the dry and the wet. Officially, December is still in the dry season, but in reality rains seem to be transported somewhere else. If not because of the colder temperatures, courtesy of colder winds coming from Northern Asia, we seem to be already in our dry season. Our thermometers averaged above 25°C in Metro Manila but higher in our province. Our smaller plants get stunted, and our gardens show their stresses. Most especially in our property in the province, which is bombarded by winds from the sea, our garden plants age earlier than usual. Butterflies are also not as plenty as last year, effect of the long El Niño phenomenon. Below are the Metro Manila conditions today, 29 November 2012.

Passing clouds. Warm.

Location:	Manila
Temperature:	25 °C
Comfort Level:	26 °C
Dew point:	19 °C
Pressure:	1013 millibars
Humidity:	69%
Visibility:	10 km
Wind:	2 km/h from 20° North-northeast
Last update:	Thu 05:00 PHT

The long nights favor the blooming of chrysanthemums. The flowers are still starting to open, while the gaillardia seed head is already developing,  had already shed the petals.

At the height of the marigold blooming days, the insects are so plenty, including the butterflies. Look at the legs of this big wasp, full of pollen!

 Only a few blooms are left now with our marigolds, most flowers already dehisced and formed the seeds. In a few days they are all dried and ready for the next generation of planting. High temperatures hasten this early maturation.

Some petals are still attached, but eventually will be totally gone.

Gaillardia already stopped blooming, i hope those seed heads are bearing seeds for the next season.

I am amazed at our little creatures, they are also orange. I am sorry i am not familiar with its ID.

I would love to try linking this to the Thursday Two Questions Meme. This is my first time to link there. Here are my two questions:

            1. Should i for the first time get the seeds from these marigolds to plant next year?

            2. I have not stored ornamental seeds yet, but plants keep coming when season comes, will the  

                 seeds remain viable with our tropical dry conditions?