Dog Day Dinosaur

Adam and I went to my parents’ house for dinner last night and I actually got all three dogs to sit still for a couple of photos. (Stanley is pre- and post-yawn in each photograph, but I can’t help laughing about the second photo where it just looks like he’s grinning like crazy.)

Yep. I’m one of those ridiculous new pet owners who buys too many dog toys, gives too many treats and dresses the dog up in outfits. I decided Oliver needed to be a dinosaur for his first Halloween and made the costume myself by hand. Surprisingly, he didn’t mind having to try it on endless times as I tailored it to fit him exactly and even didn’t seem to mind wearing it. And the costume gave him plenty of attention (which he can never get enough of).

 

Of Puppies and Poo

I’ve been really lazy about my cameras lately and decided it was finally time to download all the photos from the last couple of months. I realized I have a bunch of cute puppy photos to share!

This is Oliver. Or little dude. Or sometimes little shit.

He’s not easy to photograph because he’s so dark and moves fast so I’m satisfied if I just get a few that aren’t a blur.

He was so little back then! Since we’ve brought Oliver home 2.5 months ago he has more than doubled his weight and has learned to sit, shake and roll over. I joke with everyone that I can tell he’s getting bigger because his poops are increasing in diameter. He’s a little stubborn sometimes, but generally a good little dog. He has recently been racking my nerves about not walking in the grass when it’s wet out (which is every morning) so it’s been tough to make him pee and poo in the mornings. We’re working on that. Amazing that he doesn’t mind getting bathed or getting sprayed with the hose, huh? Just doesn’t like his feet getting wet.

 

Philippines Photojournal, Part 7

We left Angeles to stay our last few days with Angelita in a little apartment on the outskirts of Manila. While here we traveled into downtown Manila to see some historical buildings and also made a day trip to Taal Volcano.

A guy pedaling a bicycle taxi wouldn’t leave us alone about giving us a short tour around the city, so my mom finally hired him to point some things out and guide us around. He wasn’t accustomed to having to pedal around 3 fat Americans, though, and we even got a few laughs from his friends who referred to us as ‘caribou’. TJ and Mom decided they would help and pedal for a little while.

Lunch in the city.

When we got to Taal Lake we chartered a boat to take us to the volcano in the center.

We were pestered into hiring a guide with a horse to lead us along a very obvious path to the rim of the volcano. Mom rode for a little while and hiked the rest of the way. I guess most foreigners would rather pay the small amount for a horse so TJ and I were looked at like we were insane hiking the whole 1.5miles to the top.

Taal is an active volcano and the lake in the middle of the volcano is not swimmable, so we just looked at it from the rim.

This hike was less dusty than the hike to Pinatubo but we still managed to get really dirty feet.

This set of photos concludes the collection. So here they finally are, 5 months after the trip.

 

Philippines Photojournal, Part 6

On the way to Mt. Pinatubo we passed a long set of steps that lead to the top of a hill that my mom remembered visiting. You are supposed to climb to the top, pay your respects and leave a donation.

There is a tunnel cut into the hill which deadends in a small cave with another shrine.

Lola called her friend over to give us all manicures to help clean up our filthy nails.

Red Horse is a pretty strong beer that feels like a punch in the gut when it hits your stomach.

We all helped Richard wrap soap – his community volunteer project.

And John Paul showed me how to fix broken flip flops.

 

Philippines Photojournal, Part 4

Our last full day in Negros we spent hiking up another mountain to visit Lolo’s ‘girlfriend’ (a caribou getting a mud bath) and his ‘mansion’ (a 2-story bamboo house littered with coconut and corn husks).

They dug up some sweet potatoes and Lolo showed us the 200 coconut trees he planted for my mom.

We climbed a mango tree to relax in the shade for a bit, Lolo included.

Nuno brought out his rooster for a practice fight.

The girls curl their hair with twigs.

The whole family got together for some group photos on the last evening. We said our goodbyes, had a few beers and sang really terrible Karaoke (which they call Videoke) and took a bus back to the main port at 3am.

 

Philippines Photojournal, Part 3

We spent the rest of our week in Negros relaxing around a pool table, drinking coconut wine and fanning away the heat.

We found a little market in a town called Asia where you could buy fresh steamed buns and loads of fresh vegetables.

A woman was processing her harvest of mung beans by letting them bake in the sun and then stepping on the pods until seeds burst out. She let us help out a little.

We learned how to wrap coconut tree fronds into little pouches for steaming rice.

I wasn’t lying when I said fish and rice was a staple for breakfast.

 

Philippines Photojournal, Part 2

A bumpy and very dusty 7-hour jeep ride followed the ferry ride and we finally arrived at around 9pm. The family had prepared some barbequed fish and other small dishes with rice.

TJ meets his grandfather for the first time he can remember.

The family lives in a seaside village nestled within mountains and rice terraces. We took a hike up the mountain with fish to barbeque at a friend’s home for lunch.

We stopped for some refreshing coconut and native fruit along the way.

Lolo bought charchoal for the barbeque.

They referred to Lolo as the ‘commander’ and his uniform was this hat and a machete tied around his waist.

The hike ended with a heavy summer rain. We used banana leaves as umbrellas.

 

Photojournal of My Vacation to the Philippines

I know this post is long overdue, but my life has been pretty busy lately. I got engaged, I got a puppy, I moved to another city, and I’ve been training for a new position at work. All pretty lame excuses, right? Either way, I finally uploaded some photos from my trip to the Philippines in March and there are a lot of them, so I’ll spend the next few days posting them in sections.

Within a day of arriving in the Philippines we caught a ferry from Manila to Negros Occidental (a 26-hour ride) with my mom’s brothers and sisters and some of their children.

Most of the ferry had organized sets of bunks like this. There were no arranged sleeping assignments unless you paid for a cabin or chose to be indoors with the a/c or outdoors with the elements.

We bought some handmade jewelry from a nun.

I don’t know how often this happens, but we were invited to steer the ferry by the ship’s third mate. It was only by chance TJ and mom were smoking in this area of the ferry and maybe he had seen my camera and decided it would be fun to have his photograph taken.

Fish and rice was pretty much the staple breakfast through the whole vacation.

With each new port arrival, a group of porters would put on some music and dance for the visitors to welcome them.

And then they would grab and sling luggage in a frenzy that caused jams among the passengers exiting the boat.

You have to be careful about who picks up your bags to load them onto jeeps and taxis like these guys who we thought worked for the man driving the jeep. They hung onto the back telling us we owed them money for putting all of our gear on top of the jeep when we had never asked them to do it and actually almost had to fight them off so they wouldn’t take our bags.

 

Striations

I found some interesting new subjects to photograph, so here is just a taste of what you may be seeing in the next couple of months:

 

Irises and Bleeding Hearts

I’ve been trying to walk 5 miles in the mornings before going to work and yesterday I decided to take it easy and just carry my camera with me instead of focusing on the mileage. I have noticed some beautiful flowers during my walks and wanted to make sure I got some photographs before it was too late. The flowers in New England are really peculiar compared to Florida and seem to have a shorter bloom cycle. I also needed a good excuse to take out the 100mm f/2.8 macro I bought and have used….never. Here are my favorites.

I have no idea the name of this flower. I’ve tried using the internet to identify it, but that’s been no help. The flowers are really tiny, a little bigger than my thumb.

The next few are irises. They really smell like purple.

I’m not sure about this flower also. It grows on a vine and hangs in a cluster, sort of like Wisteria, but different flowers.

These are certainly the most interesting from this group. I’m told they are called Bleeding Hearts and that there are only pink and white varieties. They look less like hearts to me and more like hanging chickens. This is definitely the end of the season for these flowers so I wasn’t able to get any really great shots of them, but there’s always next year. They’re just hard to spot because the flowers are not very large.

If any of you can identify that first flower, I’d appreciate it. I’m getting excited as the weeks get closer to my canoe trip in New Hampshire because we’re trying to catch some alpine flowers in bloom. I also learned of a tucked-away field of hundreds of rare pink-and-white Lady’s Slippers.