Remembrance Of Youth

There's a forest near our home. Actually, "forest"   is too generous a term. It's just a piece of land with a few trees and overtaken by decaying fallen leaves and weeds. Sharkteeth was complaining that we have stopped going to the fields, and when I asked her to go to the forest with me during the Chinese New Year break, she was of course excited. So off we went -- moi, TheHusband, Sharkteeth, and TheDog. TheDog, with this usual bravado, charged ahead of us. I saw a foot path leading to a cacao tree. There are a number of fallen cacao fruits, but most were worm-infested and I didn't dare open them further. There are others that were sliced open and with pods spirited away, perhaps by the noisy kids who visit the forest every so often, collecting dry wood and fruits from the trees. There's also a breadfruit tree, but I didn't go anywhere near it. There are lots of decaying leaves around it. In short, takot ako sa ahas. Sharkteeth was agitated because she didn't expect the place to be so littered with dry leaves. And she shares my fear of snakes. So we didn't stay long. Just long enough to take pictures. I was calling out for TheDog, but he was nowhere to be found. After we left the forest and crossed the field, I saw TheDog, waiting for us outside the field. Loyalty-schloyalty. Hmmmppp...

I thoroughly enjoyed going to the forest however short it was. It reminded me of the simple and careless days of my childhood when I would go to the forest near our home, picking up guavas, cashews, duhat...then sitting on a low-lying branch of the old mango tree, munching on my finds. I can still remember when that old mango tree fell. It was a humid summer night, and it made a big, loud boom when it fell. Apparently, the huge trunk of the mango tree was already hollow and gave, and inside, there were numerous bee and wasp colonies. We collected honey and a number of orchid-like plants with flowers. Come to think of it, my childhood was so privileged. I mean, how many can say that they rode a paragos or planted corn and peanuts or got chased by a hot-tempered carabao known to have impaled someone. Well, okay, the last one isn't really a privilege. But let me say this, it has got to be the fastest run I've ever done or ever will. [I'm so sorry, Auntie P, but when that carabao was stolen and butchered, I chuckled a little.]  

Needless to say, I'll be back. Besides,  I'm waiting for a cacao pod to ripen. :) Hopefully, it would still be there when I come back.

Munchies

Lantanas?

I think this is a lantana flower. I think lang ha?

Beauty everywhere, even in decay

I'd like to imagine this as the portal to the forest

Canopy of the palm "portal"

Tree canopy

Orb weaver spider

Cacao tree with fruit

Bread fruit
Click this one to enlarge the picture. It's a beautiful tree.

My faithful steed. Weh? Di nga?