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Asian Festival at Salinas Chinatown: Celebrating Chinese, Japanese, Filipino...
What warms this lola’s (grandmother’s) heart? Seeing the next generation Filipino-Americans continue to learn and dance the “tinikling” at the Philippine Community Center — one of the venues for...
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Yellow Starthistle: Invasive plants and the Earth-Friendly Chroniclers’...
Sometimes, it is hard to know what plants are native to the area. If you see it everywhere, for as long as you can remember, it must be native, right? Field of yellow starthistle – Photo via...
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From waves to a single California poppy for the WPC: Forces of Nature
My entry for this week’s Weekly WordPress Photo Challenge theme, Forces of Nature… I took this photograph after learning about “scale” in an earlier challenge. I think including the silhouette of the...
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Head above the clouds
Despite the drought, and our meager rainfall so far this year in California, we actually did have storms earlier this year, significant enough to produce some scary looking clouds here in the Monterey...
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The Iceplant Invasion: Post for the Earth-Friendly Chroniclers’ #9
Iceplants (Carpobrotus edulis) are also called “sea fig” or “hottentot fig” and the second plant I’m learning about, and featuring for the Earth-Friendly Chroniclers’ Challenge #9. The focus for...
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The Australian Shepherd and his Baba Bear
Our Australian shepherd is the smartest (and craziest) dog we have ever had. A funny thing about him is his love of toys. We started to call his stuffed toys “baba bear”, so if you say to him, “Go...
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The Iceberg in Monterey County’s field of greens
Head of Iceberg lettuce growing in the field A few months after immigrating to the U.S. with my mother and younger sister, I had my first job — and it included cutting into plenty of iceberg lettuce...
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Broken little hearts at Dennis the Menace Playground
There is a popular playground in Monterey’s El Estero Park called Dennis the Menace Playground — named after the comic strip character. The creator of Dennis the Menace, cartoonist Hank Ketchum was a...
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Broken down barracks of Fort Ord in the Monterey Bay
Starting in 1917 and up to the 1990’s, almost 1,500,000 military troops trained at Fort Ord. It was a major army post here in the Monterey Bay, in California’s central coast. Although the post closed...
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Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is everywhere – post for Earth-friendly...
It is easy mistake the poison hemlock plant (Conium maculatum) with another plant called “Queen Anne’s lace” (Daucus carota – and also called wild carrot). Poison hemlock and Queen Anne’s lace belong...
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Pistachios and the Manny Pacquiao ad
Almost 100% of the pistachios grown in the U.S. are grown in California, mostly in counties in the Central Valley area. Pistachios are a high value crop, and rank #5 in California’s agricultural...
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The Los Angeles Spread
Whenever I had to do work in Los Angeles in my prior job, I often elected to drive (from Northern California) instead of booking a flight and flying into LAX. My rationale was by the time I drove to...
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Holding hands on the way to a nature park
I love this picture of my first-born grandson, Jun, holding the hands of my sisters. It is very sweet, and I can’t believe how tiny he was, and how big he is now. We were on the way to a nature park…...
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Earthquake memories and living on the San Andreas Fault
If you live in California — or even if you don’t — you probably think about earthquakes every now and then, and most likely have heard of the San Andreas Fault. The San Andreas Fault – Image via NASA...
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Purple flowers for Cee’s Photo Challenge — and they are invasive in this part...
I’ve seen this plant with beautiful, spiky purple flowers growing around Monterey Bay for many years. I took photos a few months ago when they were in full bloom. The flower photo above is from a...
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New Americans: Top 5 country of birth for new U.S. citizens
As an immigrant to the U.S., I am always interested in immigration topics, especially as it relates to Filipinos. If you have ever wondered about the country of birth of new American citizens, the...
View ArticleSan Francisco Giants team at the White House today
Today, our beloved San Francisco Giants baseball team was honored at the White House by President Obama, for their 2014 World Series win. Video of the event below… Your browser does not support...
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Banig mat patterns plus a vivid parrot
The theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge is vivid. The bright colors and striking patterns of Philippine banig (traditional sleeping mats) came to mind. Natural plant fibers are used for...
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Visiting Monterey, California Off-Season
Though tourist visit Monterey throughout the year, there is a distinct tourist season, and visiting off-season (between November and April) has its rewards. If you like to visit historic buildings and...
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Weird blue oniony thingy… or Vellela Vellelas Part 2
My blog’s search engine terms usually have the same types of queries. Everyday, there is something about tilapia origins, on the Magic Sarap ban (a popular seasoning mix in the Philippines) or about...
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