Plants at Mahogany Market

After three long years, I finally got to visit Mahogany Market again. It was a spur of the moment trip, so I didn't really plan to buy plants. I'm also overwhelmed with caring for what's left of my Moms plants and only got what I could commit to.

Mahogany Market looked the same. No major structure changes. It's better organized now I noticed. Fruits on the ground floor of the market structure. Veggies on the second floor and other items (like souvenirs and dry goods) in a separate building. I noticed though the plant stalls are less than what it used to be. Maybe some of them transferred to Silang? 

Anyway, with Miggy as my buddy, we went back to where I bought my gumamela plants 3 years ago. They're still alive save for one! I skipped buying a lot of herbs since they don't really survive long. It's better to plant from seed. That way they don't get heat shock when you bring them to Manila. 

I was able to "control" myself and just got some "essentials". Three marigolds, 4 gumamela plants, and mint/parsley and basil. Only 10. Haha. My garden space looks like a jungle now and I can't wait to transfer everything back to my Mom's garden. I'm still planning how that will go. It's many months away, so I'm not rushing. 

I enjoyed going to Mahogany Market. We will probably visit the Silang area one of these days. I don't need more plants at the moment and I seriously need to reduce since it's taking us longer to water the plants. You can just imagine how happy we are when it rains, haha. 

*Plant prices seem to have increased a bit. It was also one reason why I didn't buy that much. Next time I want to find out how much they sell fruit bearing trees. I don't have space for it anymore (haha), since I have 5 avocado trees and one mango tree growing. I want them to grow big! 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Bag of Beans (Tagaytay)

We were pleasantly surprised to visit a "relatively new" branch of Bag of Beans. We chose the one nearest to Twin Lakes in Tagaytay and found out the Antonio and Charito Bag of Beans branch was the Twin Lakes branch. They said they moved 2 years ago.

It's been 3 years since we visited Tagaytay and wanted to visit our favorite spots. We chose Bag of Beans for brunch and so we could enjoy the view of Taal Lake. It's a bit far than other restos, but with an active volcano it's always better to keep a safe distance. 

The boys ordered fish. Sweetie got tanigue. I regret not trying it, but it smelled to delectable.

Miggy got fish and chips and he was happy to find out it wasn't the usual Dory. I also regret not trying it...

I was too busy enjoying the country breakfast plate I got. I didn't feel like eating rice at that time and thought it was a good idea to get pancakes with bacon and sausage, haha. It gave me enough fuel to finish visiting Sonya's Garden and Mahogany Market.

And we all shared a plate of carbonara to fulfill the birthday noodles tradition!

You can also buy pasalubong at Bag of Beans. We just got a bread sampler since we planned to visit Sonya's Garden bakery. On hindsight, I should have bought some raisin bread at Bag of Beans. Well, it just means there should be a next time!

P.S. It was my friend, Juned, who introduced us to Bag of Beans way back. It was only the main branch at that time. 

Throwback Thursday: June Double Birthdays

I never expected that Sweetie and Miggy's birthday would happen back to back. We've been celebrating it as a family for almost two decades now. We do it usually with family, but it's just us the past ten years and sometimes with friends. 

The boys don't like huge parties, so the smaller the celebration the better. This year we went on a day trip. It's been 3 years since we went on any kind of trip. We just couldn't leave anytime because of our fur babies. 

June 2010

Whatever way we celebrate, it's been an annual tradition to eat noodles and give toys as gifts. That started 16 years ago and the boys enjoy opening their gifts. Sometimes it deviates when they want something useful, but toys usually work :)

If it's just the three of us celebrating, we dine out. We tried traveling after the pandemic, but that's how we all got COVID-19 for the first time. We were stuck with someone very sick in-flight. A week after we were all very sick. And that's another reason why we haven't been traveling. 

What's most important for us is to be together on this special day :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Road Trip!

I've wanted to go on a roadtrip for awhile now. There's been no good time for it since we're busy with other things. Last Saturday, I asked the boys if they wanted to go out of town. We were undecided since Typhoon Francisco was set to arrive.

We made the decision to proceed on Monday night since the weather forecast showed a low chance of rain. We left around 9 in the morning on Tuesday and took the short trip to Tagaytay. We headed first to eat brunch at Bag of Beans. The usual branch from Twin Lakes we used to visit moved to their own place. It's now called Charito and Antonio Bag of Beans which overlooks the Splendido area. 

After brunch, we headed to Sonya's Garden to buy some bread. We also love eating there, but since it's been 3 years since we last visited Tagaytay we split our time across what we wanted to see. Well, we spent more at Sonya's than for brunch since we got some pasalubong for our friends (haha). We agreed we won't wait long to go back, haha. 

And then we went to our other favorite place, Mahogany Market, to buy fruits, veggies and some plants. We got dragon fruit, banana, avocado and dalandan. I was happy to buy some dalandan so I can make my annual Spanish adobo. Sweetie got some veggies since my kitchen is open again (it's not so hot anymore to cook!). 

I managed to control myself and just got "a few" plants, haha. Just some marigold and Gumamela (hehe). I'll try to re-pot them in the next few days. We're starting to look like a jungle now. Mom would be pleased. 

Going on a road trip felt like a reset. We all needed it since we've been busy with home and health stuff. It's a never ending cycle, so it was a good break. We couldn't do overnight trips anymore since we have 8 fur kids who will get mad at us. A whole day trip to Tagaytay is a good idea. Maybe next month we could go to Binan again to buy some Chef RV goodies! 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Work-in-Progress: Yoda Coaster

I saw a cute cat coaster project while doomscrooling. I wanted to do it, but I thought I'd make a Yoda inspired one.

Yoda because my Grogu fabric will just get dirty if used as a coaster and I don't think my green fabric won't match it. 

Anyway, I found a Yoda keychain which I could use as a pattern. I adjusted the size because the arms I made were too big.

It's harder than I thought, so it's still a work in progress 😁 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Other Home Building Expenses

There are a gazillion other expenses when it comes to building a house. We had additional expenses too since an old house exists and we're within the airport zone.

Here's a list we had to pay aside from the construction building materials and professional fees:

Requirements for Building permit (our Architect included these in the construction cost)

- Barangay clearance fees

- Homeowners clearance fees

- Survey and CAAP requirements done by a geodetic engineer (we had to spend additional for the CAAP requirements)

Building permit (partly covered under construction fees, but...)

- liability policy 

- fire extinguisher 

- CAAP clearance 

- planning fees

- plumbing, roofing 

- contractor's tax

Homeowners fees (not included in construction cost)

- Demolition bond

- Construction bond

- More homeowners fees (this one is not reimbursable)

Monthly fees

- water utility 

- electricity

- PLDT (we set up CCTV so we could monitor the property)

- weekly food for the team

#BeKind #StaySafe

God Provides

I thought we'd just have a sprinkle of rain today. I went about at half past 5 to play with the cats and then water the plants.

I looked at one of my rainwater drums. It was almost empty. I set the hose to fill it up. I didn't turn the faucet on yet and proceeded to water some plants.

Then huge raindrops started falling. I ran to set the strainer cover for the drum and then I went to the garage for cover. Ahh, the rain we've been waiting for all week finally poured.

Woohoo! Thank you Lord for the rain. I hope it will help Mom's bougainvillea to propagate. 

Have a blessed Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe