April 2019

In my grandparents’ farm in Bgy. Sugod there was a huge laurel tree that grew right outside Tya Lita’s kitchen. Tya Lita was my grandparents’ tenant and as luck would have it, Peter happens to be one of her nephews.Laurel – or bay leaves – are my favorite spice. And the discovery that my grandparents …

When the Spaniards first landed on its shores, Bulusan must have looked like tropical paradise itself – with the prerequisite volcano as backdrop. It must have seemed so exquisite that even “Morros” who were notorious pirates in the 1700s and early 1800s just had to raid the población over and over again. In fact, in …

Five years ago, in a fit of decisiveness my mother ordered the concreting of half our backyard, fed up with my pussy-footing. When we moved to this village 18 years ago there was a flurry of landscaping, but all that had to stop when we realized it was a maintenance thing. That like human beauty …