"No Spring Skips its Turn."

Whenever the word "spring" is spoken, the first image in mind would be "flowers." We don't have spring here in the Philippines, but I notice that the very cold weather from November til February of the next year would make some trees and plants shed its leaves and come March, the leaves return and the flowers bloom... just like winter and spring.


With that in mind, I decided to just choose an image I took from this time of the year last year. One of the crops in season are Mung Beans, and this is a picture of the plant's flower I took while vacationing in my paternal hometown. I paid my aunt a visit and they planted quite a lot of mung beans, which I helped them harvest.

Winter can be compared to a person's cold and somewhat dark time; but just like each year... winter will end and spring will come. If you're in a dark moment, just hang on there - something great will happen sooner or later.

Rizal Park

Since I already had the November 2010 folder open, I decided to choose my photo for the three memes (Color Splash, Macro Mondays, and Today's Flowers) from the same folder as well.

This was a picture I took from Rizal Park November of 2010. This place was very memorable for K and I because when we first met in 2008, we also went here and since we were together again after two years (he lives in UK, that's why), we really made it a point to visit this place again, just so we could have something from the past that connects to the present.

I also decided to choose this picture because June is coming up, and that's the birth month of the country's national hero - Dr. Jose Rizal. This year is his 150th birth anniversary, and the government is now starting to plan big celebrations around the country on 19 June. I am going to attend the party in this same park come that day.

Editing this picture, I first made my usual process - select one part of the image then make an inverse selection and converted it to b&w, then I followed it with a vintage script, and I liked the outcome - it kinda looks like old photograph.

*** Jenn ***

ps - Thanks to Artistically Amy for choosing my image as one of the favorites from last week.

Baby's Breath

Last Saturday, I got invited to an exclusive Bloggers' Event organized by Nuffnang Philippines. I had the privilege of tagging one person, and (obviously) I tagged my dear sister. After the cooking demo by French chef Marc Chalopin and the tour of Enderun Colleges, we were treated to a very sumptuous lunch. While waiting for foods to be served, all of us at the event took our own time to photograph their dining area and for me, that included taking pictures of the baby's breath flowers on our table.

*** Jenn ***

A Bleeding Heart, Maybe?

My share this Monday is another flower picture, because yes, I do tie up the memes because there are just so many good memes happening at the same time. Anyway, I don't know what this flower is called, but it seems to look a lot like bleeding heart.

I took this picture in Baguio City last March... that city certainly has all sorts of flowers that everytime I go there, I can just roam around take pictures of flowers and be a happy photographer. I edited this on GIMP, this time using the path tool. I always make a selection using the scissors, but because the stem of the flower was quite small, using the scissors gave me a not so good selection. The path tool was a more stable tool to use, in my opinion, so I guess I am going to use it that often now.

Have a great week ahead, everyone!

*** Jenn ***

Paper Daisies

My photo share this week is an image of Paper Daisies, which is also known as Strawflower. Here in the Philippines, it is widely known as Everlasting because it pretty much looks the same even when it is already wilted, especially the deep orange ones. I took this picture from a garden shop in La Trinidad, Benguet... where most flowers and vegetables are cultivated.

I edited this picture by selecting the flower, yet my mind was thinking maybe I should have included the stem, too. What do you think?

*** Jenn ***

Macopa Flower

My share for today is something I took last week... We have this Macopa (Mountain Apple) tree in our front yard, which my late father planted (using the seed) more than two decades ago. It starts to flower in January, but most flowers bloom mid-March and it would go on the entire summer (summer months here are March - June). The past few years, we don't get to enjoy their fruits because it would rain during the summer months (boo...) and would ruin the fruits. Also, since the tree is getting bigger and bigger, it would be difficult for us to climb the tree just to get fruits, so we just let the fruits fall off.

Early this year, mom asked someone to trim the tree because we noticed some termites making a trail on the bark and mom feared that the branches touching our roof might find a way into our house. Currently, the tree has so many fruits and flowers, but it was way too high that none of us can really get to taste it.

Anyway, there are very few flowers blooming at a branch not too high, and while watering the plants one morning, I noticed one flower low enough for me to take a picture of. The flowers wilt easy, so as soon as I saw this, I quickly grabbed the camera to take a picture of. I might not be able to eat the fruits anymore, but at least I was able to take pictures of the flower. :)

*** Jenn ***