Plantita Saturdays: My Garden Turned Into a Desert

My garden badly needs a lot of TLC. All the grass died and the bamboo and shrubs all looked thinner. It was Miggy who pointed out that concrete was peeking out from the soil. I always wondered why the grass died despite the fact we watered it frequently. There wasn't enough soil apparently. Architect Wansi explained that the soil likely went into crevices. 

I held off gardening for a few months now because nothing was flourishing. We also need to install proper drains in the garden, plus have the base properly filled up. Work is about to start to fix our exteriors, so I got the help of the boys to gather up my plants. We have to organize them to make space for the work. 

Ornamental plants. They're gonna get a trim in the next few days.

The only thing that survived all the movement at home are the ornamental plants my Mom and Ate Rose gave me! There's probably something in the soil my Mom uses that's kept the plants resilient. I've just been adding some soil when needed and I spray neem oil once a week. They are very low maintenance. Sadly some of my ginger and tumeric dried out. I'll just plant new ones soon, but will check if any of the roots survived. 

It will take a couple of weeks to fix the drainage. Architect also advised to fence off the bamboo so they don't grow wayward. We'll also add soil since the soil has thinned out a lot. We're looking at using turf grass since that would be easier (and cheaper) to maintain. TBH I've browned my Mom's grass a couple of times already, so I definitely cannot be trusted with grass. Even the lemongrass turned to cogon grass under my care! Tsk tsk tsk. 

I'm not giving up and will continue to work on my garden! Praying for good air quality so I can stay outdoors :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

 

Plantita Saturdays: 5Ps Before I Start Planting Again

Proper planning prevents poor performance! That's what I learned from Ninang Janette and what I taught the students in one of the programs I managed. The past year has been a year of experiments. I had some success, but most of my veggie growing projects failed.  I was excited to have more space and I just kept planting. That's okay because I learned a lot. 

I spent an entire year trying to grow stuff. My biggest mistake was not understanding the sun, water, soil and nutrition needs of the plants. My Mom told me that my Mama Lola told  her that there's no such thing as a brown thumb. You can become better through practice and become a green thumb. 

My plan to is clear an area in our backyard where the morning sun hits. Our house is at an odd angle and doesn't get a lot of good sunlight for growing plants. So I observed to figure out the best spots for growing veggies. I have also identified an area for plants that don't like too  much sun. That's where I moved the ginger and tumeric and they seem to like the shade after 10 in the morning. 

So before I start planting anything again, I thought I'd plan things first. Here's what I picked up to consider before you plant or purchase plants/veggies:

• Know which plants would be good companions to each other
• Understand the sun, water, soil and nutrition requirements of the plant
• Know the best time of the year to grow the plant
• Understand insect invasion patterns (i.e. higad usually comes out after it rains)
• Know which plants tend to climb
• Research how best to sprout a seed

I've been reading and watching videos the past few months and have created a grid to help me. I will probably color code the plants also so I know what plants need for nutrition. I'll also probably mark watering schedules. I have a tendency to drown my plants (sorry!). 

Since outdoor work hasn't started yet, I have time to plan what to plant. I'll research more so that my efforts will bear fruit (hopefully). 

Happy gardening everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: Plants I've Accidentally Grown

I've been trying to grow veggies the past few months. The funny thing is I have other plants that grew by itself. The seed may have been in the soil or maybe dropped by birds or blown in by the wind. The seeds just grew and overpowered the plant I originally planted. Here's what grew so far --

Giant Moringa/Moringa Oleifera

I originally called this the "alien plant". It grew together with the mustasa seeds I planted. I transplanted the mustasa, but the alien plant kept growing. TBH I just let it grow since I had no idea what it was. I watered it sparingly. It's now about 3 feet tall. It was in a small grow plastic bag for 9 months. I finally transplanted it last month when I found out that it's probably moringa. I'll probably prune it often so it stays short. I read that I could use the leaves to make fertilizer for my green leafy veggies. 

Daisy? Or a Herb?

I planted a couple of fire tree seeds. I was happy when I saw it germinated. As it grew longer and longer I realized it wasn't fire tree, but something else. I let it grow longer, but results from Google Lens kept changing. It was about 18 inches already last week, but the typhoon uprooted it. Well, that means the pot is free again for something else. 

Typhonium blumei

A medicinal plant that's used often in Taiwan. This typhonium blumei just grew in the middle of the grass. It looked like a flowering plant that's why I transplanted it to a pot. It has several leaves now and hope it will flower soon. I'm really curious to see if it produce a maroon flower. Some sites though say it's poisonous, so I transferred it away from my veggies to be sure. 

Spurflower? Ivy? 

This nice looking plant grew with the caixin flowers I was trying to grow. I should have pulled it out as soon as it sprouted because it ate up all the nutrients of the soil. The caixin flowers soon died when it started to grow rapidly (argh!). I've been getting mixed results whenever I try to identify it. Since it's still alive I'll wait it out. 

I'm still not sure how I ended up with those plants. I treated the soil before I planted seeds, but nature has it's own way of surviving. I haven't been successful yet in my veggie project and just seeing plants grow make me happy. They have so far been low maintenance, so I'll let them grow.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Wellness Wednesdays: Plants Will Love You Back Always

I had a huge headache yesterday. I avoided taking meds by spending some time with my plants. I just rubbed some oil on my forehead and then spent some time in my mini-veggie garden. It was raining yesterday, so there was a cool breeze blowing in the garage. 

Growing sili from seed. Mama Lola would be proud of me!

I've been propagating veggies where my car used to be parked. Some of the seeds I germinated on a seed tray last month have grown. It's been a joy to see them grow from seed to mini-plants. I hope I'd be able to harvest some of them by Christmas. 

Cosmos plant. Hope it will flower soon.

There's just something about working on plants that grounds you. I feel at peace whenever I prepare the soil and scoop them into a pot or seed tray. Then I feel hopeful whenever I put in the seeds. I eagerly await the seeds to germinate after planting them. Seeing them sprout makes me smile. I will definitely be super happy when I eventually get to harvest something. 

The tumeric I propagated is now super bushy!

It's no wonder why so many people have become plantitos and plantitas during lockdown. I got into it again in May 2020 when everything was on a standstill. It was hard to get supplies though, but I managed and after a few months I was able to harvest some tomatoes and bell peppers. 

What I like best is I get to learn new things since each plant has it's own special needs. And when you're able to satisfy what they need, they love you back with flowers and fruits. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: A Rat Ruined My Germination Project!

Boohoo! It's been a few weeks since I planted some seeds. Not many sprouted since the typhoon hid the sun for over a week. I gave it a few more days before I planted some seeds again. Lo and behold, the day after I planted the seed tray was trashed by a huge rat!

Miggy alerted us about an "animal" that was lurking behind the trash bin in the garage. We normally tie-up our trash every evening and put it in a covered trash bin in the garage. We do this to avoid attracting rodents. It has so far worked well for us since stray cats haven't been able to open the bins. I did not expect the seed tray would attract a rat. 

The seed tray was sitting in the garage untouched for more than two weeks. I only used two-thirds of it and only completed it early this week when I decided to plant more seeds. The sunflower seeds I planted on the last column was probably what attracted the rat. I was inspecting the seed tray when I heard something in the backyard. That was when I saw a huge rat scrambling up the bamboo to get to the property next door. 

The next day our friendly pest control supplier dropped by to check the termite bait. We reported the rat and they advised to just monitor the activity first since it may just be one rat scouting our property. I was  worried though that they might multiply and immediately got some cayenne pepper and Racumin. 

I read that rats don't like it when  you move things around, so we moved the seed tray to a sunnier spot in the garage. Placed the bait under it and hoped the stray cats won't come near it (the cayenne pepper should help ward them off for now). 

Two pieces of the bait and two pieces of the paste were gone the next day. I read it takes 4 to 6 days before it affects the rodent. We haven't seen it since we placed the bait the other day. We're just hoping it went back to its nest. I'm not looking forward to its horrendous smell if it dies in my garden. Sorry bud, pests aren't welcome in our home. We've also gone through a lot already this year and just want to finally get our gardening projects going. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: Organized my Seeds

I finally got around to organizing the seeds I've accumulated over the last few years. After watching several videos about germinating seeds I realized I haven't been storing them properly. The seeds were packaged differently. I wanted to store it in a uniform manner so it would be easier for me to find . 

Ordered some coin envelopes and then went to work when it arrived. Segregated the veggies and decorative plant seeds. Wrote out the name of the seed on the envelope. Found an old set of card dividers. The envelopes fit the Serioso Chili Garlic banig box. I think it's the perfect box to store seeds in. 

I was really surprised with how much seeds I have! Found some that we got for free from Singapore's National Parks Authority (just sign up and they'll mail seeds to you) and from our local Bureau of Plant and Industry (a neighbor worked this out). I had a lot of veggie seeds and realized I need to do better at gardening. I think it will be good to live more sustainably. 

Free seeds!

I planted some seeds over a week ago. I think I did it at a bad time because there was a typhoon. I filled up 30 slots on the seed starter tray, so far only have 4 sprouts. That's a really bad turn out! Not sure if it was because of the lack of sun or maybe some of the seeds have gone bad. I'm also germinating on wet tissue paper and the result has been bad too. Of course, I'll try again until I succeed.

The good news is, my tomato plants are finally producing flowers. I helped pollinate a few today and hope it will form. I have to help it since I rarely see bees visit. It's also been raining, so most of them are hiding. I'm trying to grow sweet alyssum because I read that it will help attract bees. Flowering plants will also help divert the attention of creepy crawlies away from your veggies. Also hope the sili seeds I planted will grow. I just got those seeds from the free sili whenever we order inihaw, haha. 

I hope I'll have a better season of gardening!

#BeSafe #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: New Season of Gardening!

I'm declaring a new season of gardening! The past few months have been really challenging (higad infestation!) and I think we've finally turned the corner. I still get caterpillars in my garden, but I think the infestation is under control. The neighbor also did some garden keeping and I hope this would reduce the critters. 

Kitchen Scrap Project

I started the season by planting in soil the ginger and tumeric kitchen scraps I propagated. I propagated the scraps in water in late July and planted them in soil after 4 weeks. I was surprised to see them shoot up so fast after planting them in soil. The secret sauce was using rainwater. My plants love it so I have a drum that collects rainwater in the garage. I haven't watered my plants with Maynilad water since the rainy season started. 

Planted New Seeds

When the air quality this week got better, I took the opportunity to plant new seeds. I have collected quite a lot of seeds. I planted some early this year, but most did not survive the higad infestation. I learned though that if you fail the first time in gardening, just do it again until you succeed. I was able to buy some flower seeds and will try to plant them. I hope I'll be able to give my Mom some since she prefers flowering plants than veggies. I'm going to try planting lettuce again for the third time.

The Survivors

I was able to save my tomato plants and I'm eagerly awaiting for it to flower. I have to vigilant though since caterpillars seem to love eating it. The tomato plants went through a phase where it just kept going longer. I re-planted two stalks since the wind would sometimes accidentally nick it. So I have two separate plants now growing nicely in the garage. It's starting to produce flowers. I'l probably need to help it be pollinated. 

Saved the plants Mom gave me (aglaonema, petunia etc.) and they have grown back the leaves the caterpillars munched on. The plants Ate Rose gave me have all adjusted. I probably need to re-pot the kalanchoe since they've grown so fast. I also re-potted a lily that just grew in the middle of the garden. It's looking good now (see, no need to buy plants haha). 

Crossing my fingers that the next few months will be uneventful for the garden! :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: Getting into Succulents!

My track record with succulents is really bad. The culprit has always been overwatering. I just can't ignore my plants! My doctor told me to keep hydrated, so I feel my plants also need to be hydrated! You can't imagine the torture I felt when I was away on vacation. Anyway, together with the pothos my friend gave me were succulents. Her bilin was to re-pot them so they can grow properly. 

Kalanchoe pinnata also known as the mother of thousands/millions

I looked at the succulents and I honestly had no idea what they were called. I prioritized potting the pothos since I have experience taking care of pothos. I gave myself a few days before I sat down to re-pot the pots of succulents. First order of the day was to take their photo and use Google Lens to identify them. Then I did some research to understand what kind of soil they needed and how to take care of them.

Basically, the soil used for succulents is different from your regular plants. The soil has to drain well because succulent roots can rot easily if it's too wet. Rocks are usually put around the succulent to absorb more heat, prevent soil erosion and to stimulate root development. I didn't have these so I just ordered via Shopee. Good thing I ordered an extra set of small pots because I underestimated the number of kalanchoe pinnatas crammed in the pot. Here's how I re-potted them -

I must say the process of re-potting the succulents was both nerve-wracking and calming. The tiny plants looked so fragile and there were even tinier ones that the plant produced. I read that kalanchoe pinnatas are known also as the "mother of thousands". They grow babies at the edge of their leaves. These grow into new plants and they eventually fall and grow bigger. That's what I underestimated because there was a lot of babies on the soil when I removed it from the pot. 

I ended up using more than 10 pots. I read you should put it in indirect sunlight. I put half of them on the planter in the garage and the other half indoors. After a week I noticed that the pots in the garage seemed happier than the ones indoor. I moved the indoor plants nearer the front window where it's warmer. There was a number of babies I didn't want to cram in the pots so I just "threw" them in a pot with soil. They survived and are now growing nicely. I'll re-pot them properly when they're a bit bigger. 

Well, I hope they will survive because they will be good to give as gifts! I wasn't planning to buy plants for now, but I'm really happy Ate Rose gave me some plants to work on. Really hope I do better this time :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: Propagating Pothos from Cuttings

The pothos I brought home from Singapore didn't flourish. I had it in water since we got home and it slowly deteriorated. I suspect it's because of the water because I was using the same honey  I decided to plant it in a pot to save it. It's been two weeks and it so far looks happy. 

Ate Rose pinged me last weekend and said she was planning to give me some plants. I said I was happy to receive her overflow since a lot of my plants died from the higad infestation. I mentioned to her that I wanted some pothos if she had any extra. The next day she dropped off the plants and I was super surprised with the length of the pothos she cut for me. It was loooong!

Among the plants she gave me I prioritized the pothos since it was just a long vine. I thought it might dry out if I left it overnight so I immediately worked on it after lunch. I was surprised with how many cuttings I could make, so I decided to plant some in soil and put some in water. 

One week after planting in soil.

Out of the long vine I was able to plant two sets in soil. I used three jars for the cuttings with smaller leaves. I used rainwater for the jars. I was forced to bring the pots inside the house because several leaves were eaten by caterpillars. I put them on planters, but the critters still managed to reach them. Good thing pothos don't need too much sunlight so I put them indoors. They look quite happy. 

This leaf was still new when pests ate it.

It's really nice to have more greens inside the house. I hope the pothos in water will flourish the same way it did in Singapore. They'll have to survive though without a/c haha. I think they have adjusted well to the rainwater. Hope it rains again since my rainwater supply is pretty low now. 

I was happy tired after relocating the pothos cuttings. Fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow! I had to save for another day re-potting the other plants since I ran out of energy already. It's been a really good exercise for me to putter around the garden. Plants really become more beautiful when you spend enough time with them. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Plantita Saturdays: Saving My Garden!

The past few weeks have been challenging. We were surprised with the invasion of higad in our garden. I immediately sprayed neem oil, but belatedly realized that it takes time for it to take effect. By the time we found the best solution to get rid of the pests the damage was already done. All my citronella plants died and the new seedlings were all eaten. When the numbers finally dwindled new pests started to come in -- slugs and millipedes. 

The most important thing I learned when I dealt with the higad infestation is don't just use one solution. Research and try different solutions until you find the best one. The best one for us wasn't spraying neem oil everyday or squishing the critters (it became messy). We were wary about using fire, so Sweetie did the opposite -- a water bucket. I added a teaspoon of neem oil to it and they died in less than 10 seconds. Add hydrogen peroxide and that will take care of slugs and millipedes. Those two are sturdier than the higad so they need something stronger. 

Proud plant momma! I planted this from seed! :)

I try to use organic solutions only because there are a lot of birds in our area, so I'm sticking to neem oil and the tanglad+oregano concoction to spray the leaves. My efforts have paid off and my blue ternate which I planted from seed has been blooming more. The flowers are also bigger than what I normally see. I'm glad I actively battled the pests because I could see that the plants I managed to save are all fighting back also and recovering nicely.

The last living pothos from Singapore. Decided to plant them in soil because they were not growing.
They don't seem to like the water and honey mixture here.

Writing this post mainly to remind myself of what I should do when it happens again next year. Research is key. There is so much to learn from gardening. Each plant has it's own needs. There's no one size fits all solution, so I like the challenge. My goal is to have a mix of food producing plants, plants that would protect other plants and I hope I'll finally be successful in growing flowering plants (to make my Mom proud). 

To motivate me to do better at gardening, Saturdays will be plantita updates! I'll post more specific tips on our gardening blog.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Sweetie Renamed the Kids

We've been empty nesters now for almost two years, moreso in the past year since we haven't seen Miggy in person since early last year. We normally see him at least every other month. That's probably why we ended up becoming a plantito and plantita (pets aren't allowed in our apartment).

We enjoy gardening from seed. Like parents with a newborn baby we ooh and aah everytime we see progress. I don't know about Sweetie, but I talk to the plants. I even say good night to them haha. I'm sure some of you do that too. 

Sweetie being the creative person he is likes to play around with the names of the plants. Here's how I name my veggies --

And here's how he named his no-show plants -

I took a nap this afternoon and woke up to this -

Just another day in our household, hahaha. You can also follow our plantdemic adventures over at The Balcony Farmer.

CB///*Yr2/81 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/108 #StayHome #BeKind 

My Shiny New Skills from 2020

After doing another Dear 2020 letter I realized that not everything was bad. The biggest struggle for me was being far from Miggy and my Mom. What 2020 allowed me to do was learn new things and explore some things I always wanted to do. Here's some new skills I developed this year:

My Home Panaderia Project

I always wanted to learn how to bake bread. What kept me from doing it was the yeast stuff and time. Oh boy but it was hard to get all the ingredients (especially yeast!). I jumped into it when I finally got all the ingredients. I decided to focus on baking Filipino bread since it's quite expensive to buy it here in Singapore. It was really challenging especially since it required technical skills on rolling the dough properly. 

Some of my bread didn't look good, but at least they were edible. I haven't moved on to phase two of my Home Panaderia project. I want to perfect first my Filipino bread buns before I move to other kinds of bread. Check out my efforts on this playlist.

Becoming a Balcony Farmer

When we moved to our new place I thought it was a good idea to do some gardening. My attempts with gardening date back to 2010 when we moved to a duplex house that had a small garden. My efforts were only successfully with veggies so that's what I decided to work on. I planted mustasa, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper and jackfruit. Sweetie helped me by consistently watering the plants every morning.

We were pretty successful with our mustasa and tomatoes. The cucumber and bell pepper thrived for awhilte but never bore fruit. Unfortunately pests attacked the cucumber and it eventually spread out, killing the bell pepper and jackfruit. The tomatoes slowly dwindled away because of the rains and probably the pests too. It was a good first season and we're now preparing for a second season of planting. Check out our farming adventures on The Balcony Farmer.

Recipes for My Son

I learned a couple of new recipes this year, mostly easy to cook recipes of food that I miss from home. I also wanted to teach Miggy how to cook his favorite food since he's in Manila (that's why it's called Recipes for My Son). I think my most favorite new recipe is tapa ala Jollibee. My next step is to learn more seafood recipes now that my doctor has allowed me to eat Omega-3 rich food again. 

Making Happiness Projects

One of the things I did to cope during the lockdown was to create a happy photobook. I got the idea when I asked friends to share a happy memory with me. I thought it would be useful to preserve their comments with a photo. It took me a few weeks to complete the book and now I have something I can look at whenever I'm not having a good day. I have a few friends who followed suit! 

Being stuck at home isn't so bad after all. Aside from baking, gardening, cooking and making photobooks, I got to work on my quilting project too. It's an old skill, but I think I improved a lot this year and I got to use the sewing machine Sweetie bought for me. And I think this is one thing I'd like to remember 2020 by. 

What about you? Did you gain any new skills being stuck at home?

CB///265 #StuckAtHomeDay/295 #StayHome #BeKind

Second Tomato Harvest and Other Garden Updates

Thank God for bees! They have been visiting our balcony garden more often now. Sometimes they get too excited and even follow us inside! We have been able to usher them back outside. The bees have been taking care of pollinating the tomato flowers. The last time I hand pollinated them was late in August. 

The tomatoes aren't growing to full size, probably because the pots are too small. I'm not sure if that's the case or it lacks nutrients/water. They turn red while they're still small. We don't mind since they are sweet like cherry tomatoes. 

We harvested 13 ripe tomatoes yesterday and we're happy we have something to add to our salad -- fresh, organic, homegrown tomatoes! Yaaaas! 

It's a lot of hard work taking care of our tiny garden. We've had to battle leaf miners. They've already killed off my cucumber and have eaten half of my bell peppers (huhu). I use neem oil every few weeks to ward off the evil insects. My neighbor also suggested I try using Thieves household cleaner mixed with water to spray the leaves to get to the larvae of the leafminers. That has so far worked. I also read spraying the soil with baking powder mixed with water discourages insects from attacking a plant. It's so far worked and the tomatoes have been producing more fruit. 

My first mustasa plant is doing well. It started bolting a few weeks back. It's flowers attracted more bees to come visit our balcony and I think that's a good thing. The pods are starting to turn brown so that means I'm going to have free seeds soon! I have 2 more mustasa plants that are giving us fresh leaves for cooking. 

The bell peppers are struggling. No thanks to those evil insects! Boo! But it looks like some may survive. I'm still hoping I'd be successful in at least 2 plants. If not I'll probably start a new batch. 

What about you? How's your garden going? 

CB//186 #StuckAtHomeDay/216 #StayHome #BeKind

Plantdemic Update: There are Good Days and Bad Days

I haven't been able to tend to my garden for a few weeks now because I got sick at the end of August and it took awhile for me to recover. The doctor said not to do anything strenuous. Gardening to me is equivalent to a workout. So the last few weeks I've just been watching my plants through the glass door. I ended up getting a cute, new indoor plant because I missed my plants.

The good news is the tomato plants have been producing more fruits. The first few fruits were quite tiny so I added a bit of compost for it to get more nutrients. Our cleaner told us she picked one to taste the tomato. She said it was so sweet and would go well with a salad. We beamed with pride haha. I'm so lucky because Sweetie gets up early everyday just to water the plants. I take care of planting, adding nutrients, re-potting and making sure pests stay away from the plants.

The bad news is pesky insects invaded the cucumber plant. I think its leaf miners. I had 2 plants and I already pulled out one since it didn't look I could save it anymore. There's one more that's still fighting. I realized though that it would probably be better for me to just start from scratch because it hasn't produced anything in the last six months. The pests also jumped onto the tomato plants and I've had to actively prune it. The bell peppers were affected too and some have died.

Bad insects :'(

A few weeks ago there was a really bad infestation. One of my neighbors suggested to spray them with a mix of Thieves Household Cleaner with a few drops of Citrus Fresh in water. I did just that and sprayed the soil with baking powder mix. I think it helped and it also encouraged the tomato plants to bear more fruit. Unfortunately some of the tomato fruits shriveled up possibly because of the insects. The newer fruits though are looking good and growing big. 

I was supposed to re-pot last week, but I slipped in the bathroom. So I had to recover from that. Today I finally got to tend to my balcony garden. Pruned the tomato plants and re-potted some bell pepper plants. I discovered that one of the bell pepper plants is starting to bear fruit! I'm so glad my plants have stood the test of time and patiently waited for me to recover. Maybe Sweetie talked to them for me hehe.

How's your garden? 

CB//179 #StuckAtHomeDay/209 #StayHome #BeKind 

An Interesting Vending Machine

I went out today for a regular check-up and headed to the nearby mall to buy some groceries. I was buying a drink when I saw this very unusual vending machine. From afar I thought it was selling special cupcakes.

When I went near I was surprised to see it was a vending machine for succulents! You can select from many different types!

Signs of the times noh? Whoever thought of this is probably a plantito/plantita. Would you buy a plant from a vending machine?

CB//172 #StuckAtHomeDay/202 #StayHome #BeKind 

We Went to the Mall (First Time in 4 Months)

My original plan today was to bake and do some sewing. I was surprised when Sweetie asked me if I wanted to go with him to the laptop service center. He was scheduled to bring in his laptop because of its faulty hinge. Of course I said yes.

I was so excited because I haven't been to the mall since February. I normally make a list of things I need throughout the week and just buy when I meet the minimum for the delivery. Shopping that way is a bit frustrating especially if it's an ingredient I really need for cooking. I needed eggs and just a few things and thought we can swing by the supermarket to buy some essential stuff.

I wasn't prepared to see so many people. To be honest there seemed to be more people than shopping during Christmas. We immediately made our way to the service center. I didn't want to stay long in an enclosed area so told Sweetie I'd wait for him outside. I went around the bookstore beside the service center and just waited for him by the entrance. I was overwhelmed to see so many people. All the shops require you to check-in through a QR code that sends you to a check-in page.

We moved to another mall after Sweetie finished his business at the service center. It was a bigger mall and so had less people. We split up and I went to my favorite store -- Spotlight -- to buy some buttons. Then I went to Daiso to buy some items for my plants. I ordered some items online, but they're taking so long to arrive and my cucumbers have been unhappy the last few days. The line at Daiso was long, but the queue moved fast. I super miss the days when I could spend a long time inside stores.

We decided to take a break first before going to the supermarket. It felt a bit surreal to be eating out again. We originally did not want to eat out, but we got tired and needed to rest. We just had a snack and went to finish out errands. The supermarket was... heaven! We just had a short list of items, but ended up with 8 bags of items. LOL! I think I have everything I need for a month and the eggs are good until mid-August. 

Going out was quite overwhelming and I think today's mall adventure is enough to last me a few months. I'll stick to online shopping for now and I can just drop by a convenience store whenever I go for my PT sessions. I'm so glad Sweetie asked me to accompany him out today :)

CB//96 #StuckAtHomeDay/126 #StayHome #BeKind