A Pinay in Claude Monet's garden

This Pinay, inspired by the kerchief-covered heads of Anita Magsaysay Ho's farming and fisher folk, I painted in 2012 as a present for my balikbayan bro Junic who came home with his family (wife Amy and kids Sara and Christian) after an absence of over 10 years.

This was given in the spirit of "What can I give you, 'poor' as I am, if I were a carpenter, I'd give you animal shelter, if I were a wood cutter I'd gather fallen branches and not cut wood anymore, and if I were to pick just one European destination in my short bucket list, it would be Monet's garden in Giverny, France."

But since poems and short essays are not exactly tangibles that can be held as homecoming gifts, I painted this work. Bro got around to framing the work himself after it stayed rolled up somewhere in his house for some time. Today he grabbed a ready-made frame from IKEA. He'll send me more pics in the next days of my other works hanging in his Calgary digs. Photo by Junic Lolarga

Dangerous beauties

Brother Junic, who's out there in Calgary, Canada, poking around the neighborhood with his camera 'round his neck, sent us, his siblings, this image earlier today.

It reminded me of the time I took a different path during a morning walk in Baguio with Curly Kai and I ended up rushing home with a necklace of rashes.

Junic wrote about these harmless-looking flora:

"They look beautiful but good thing I didn't proceed to hike in this area. There was so much hogweed. If I had gone near, I would have ended up with rashes."

Send more hogweed, bro, but only images of these dangerous beauties, not the real deal. Scratch that itch!

Hogweed--do not touch or don't let one of these babies touch you. Photo by Junic Lolarga

Just a stray?

Stray cat being admired by a homeowner who may be allergic to it. Photo by Junic Lolarga

how can you be stray

when you've walked this old planet

ahead of this girl?

- Babeth Lolarga
July 19, 2015

Deerest

Deer that wandered onto my brother's garden in Calgary, Canada, on a June morning and had flowers for brekkie Photo by Junic Lolarga



return for seconds

the pansies won't mind at all

lining your belly

- Babeth Lolarga
July 17, 2015

Haiku Thursday

Calgary landscape Photo by Junic Lolarga




and even as we

move, we keep the stillness in

us this windless day

- Babeth Lolarga
July 16, 2016