June signifies the end of summer here in the Philippines (it's now officially rainy season), but it's still quite hot, sunny, and humid most days this week, very weird to be having sunshine during rainy season and having rains during summer. Anyway, my sister and I had our last hurrah to summer when we took part the "Akyat Pinatubo: bloggers' climb for a cause." Our bodies are still aching, but yes, we really had a great time being with blogger friends.
On to my Scavenger Hunt pictures.
01 - Hot, Hot, Hot
01 - Hot, Hot, Hot
What I love about sunny, hot afternoons is that I am always treated to a wonder festive sunset come dusk. This picture was taken from the National Shrine of Capas in Tarlac yesterday after a trek to Mt. Pinatubo.
Our trip to Mt. Pinatubo was supposed to take place 28 May, but because of rains, it was postponed and moved to 04 June. Trekking a 10KM (more or less) path to the crater of the volcano sure was a test of strength, endurance, and faith, but once there, its majestic beauty will surely erase all the hardships you went through.
Anyway, while at the crater of the volcano, we took time to take a dip in the lake, and when one of the tour guides piled up some stones and asked his two Korean guests to pose for pictures, I came to take a picture of the rock formation as well. The Korean lady was actually asking her boyfriend to stay out of view because their presence might ruin my shot, but I told them no need as I was actually aiming to have them in the frame for some drama. :)
By the way, I just found out that Mt. Pinatubo started erupting 03 June 1991 (the strongest one happened 07 June), and since this trek of ours happened 04 June, it made our trek more memorable as we were part of its 20th year since its major eruption. If you must know, this volcano blew so much ash (there are recorded ash falls as far as Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam) that it actually cooled the world.
03 - Front Page of the News
There are only two days in the week when we have newspaper delivered - Tuesdays (because of its Picture Perfect supplement) and Sundays (because of its travel articles). I took a picture of my sister reading the paper, but she wasn't really in the mood for some pictures, maybe because of our body aches, so I just decided to take this prompt differently. Instead of taking a picture of the newspaper, what I did was to take two different shots (the sunset and the inset photo description) and merged them together.
Actually, now that the Mt. Pinatubo trek is done, my sister and I are already in the early planning stages of our Ilocos Norte trip (happening late October - early November), and will cover the Bangui Windmills. Seeing this sunset picture made us move the time of the visit to late afternoon, so we can also take pictures of its "electric sunset."
04 - Chore
Watering my little tomato and bell pepper seedlings at least once a day is my favorite chore!
05 - Beads
05 - Beads
This was a bead necklace I bought while traveling in Bohol with K November 2008. I gave it to mom as my gift, and I am so thankful that even if the necklace was just made of beads, mom actually kept the necklace and put it alongside her many necklaces made of different materials (some were made of wood, others made from jade and crystals).
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!
*** Jenn ***
*** Jenn ***