Eating from the garden

When I was small, I remember taho vendors didn't use plastic cups.
They used Nescafe or Blend 45 glasses for the taho. Children
would then sip or eat from the glasses and after their done,
the vendor simply submerged them in water inside his pails
to be used by the children of the next community he would sell to.
Of course, today this is horrible. Nobody even share glasses
anymore for fear of infection, but people then
were not really that bothered. I guess
viruses and germs had not been invented then.

My wife and I had just finished walking and was having our cool-down exercises when she told me I was in charge of cooking today. I was about to protest when she looked at me and told me that it's Wednesday, laundry day.  No use protesting because laundry day is laundry day. 

Our meals are strictly budgeted. Though how I very much like it to be, I cannot just say, "Oh, I feel like eating pasta today; I'll cook spaghetti. Or, let's go to Jollibee. I don't feel like cooking today." Of course, we do that too but not on a whim, and most of the times, when that happens, it is really a premeditated whim.

They are not as big as pechays you can buy in the
market that's because I didn't use any fertilizers on them.

What to cook? That is the question. We saw a taho vendor and we each had cup for breakfast. He was selling tofu too. Tofu (or tokwa) is gelled taho. We bought one block.  What to cook it with?

I have done a little urban gardening of my own. I planted pechay and eggplants in plastic pots. It was for fun. But also, vegetables are really good ornamental plants. Pechay leaves are as beautiful as decorative little anahaws you can find in any gardens. Eggplant's flowers and fruits attract as much attention as orchids do, more if i may so because most people don't expect to find vegetables together with ornamental plants in home gardens.

Eggplants flowers and fruits are at par with orchids or roses.

It's fun eating your own plant.

Most people I know do not like eating
vegetables with caterpillar bites. But
they should know that it is the best
proof that what they are eating is
non-toxic.

Tofu in soy and vinegar sauce
with pechays. I eat with gynura (or asitaba) on
the side. The gynura lowers blood pressure
while the tofu and bits of pork raises blood pressure,
so I hope they break even.

Developing Bougainvillea Materials

I collected this bougainvillea materials last December 2013. 









This batch was collected on January 14, 2013.

Below are from the December 2013 Batch. They are already established and already flowering. Five to eight hours of summer sun is the ideal condition for bougainvilleas to bloom. Maybe a year or two before fully developing into a credible bonsai.

Below are from the January Batch. A few more months and I will start the wiring and the training.

A Voltes V Fan Contemplating on the possibility of seeking remuneration for human rights violation

"I say this to my dear beloved Filipinos. Voltes V is a
communist propaganda that threatens our very freedom and
democracy that we now enjoy.  It is now my duty,
as the president of this nation, using my mandate
as provided for by the constitution that gives me
extramarital powers , and in times where our nation's
 security and survival are being threatened,
I am hereby announcing presidential decree 1231-2r32-
213-2343-ygxs-3d421f-213ddf-ewe23-an addendum to
proclamation 1081, otherwise known as the
Anti-Voltes V decree, that unconditionally stops
the airing of Voltes V and other related Japanese anime
for national security reasons. Be it known that violators
will be subject to the penalties of anti-heinous crime
provisions of the still un-revised penal code."

Imagine watching a super robot cartoon on TV. You have already viewed a couple of episodes and was mesmerized and hooked, and you're imagination was in a state of excitement that you even had realistic dreams about it. Then of all a sudden, without prior notice or reasons given, the series was pulled off the air. Your whole being was already into it...and then puff.

This was martial law and there's not a thing we could do about it, an era of curfew, desaparecidos, NPA-MNLF uprisings, energy crisis, and bell bottoms etc. I mean...

This was what happened in the late 70's. I was in grade 1 and cartoons especially robots were something new and very exciting for me and I guess the entire country. It should be understood that Voltes V also included the adults among its audience. 

To understand where I'm coming from it is better to have a little understanding of what TV was like during those years, as far as I could remember (opinions may vary). TV during martial law was pure un-adulturated crap. 

Voltes V: The robot that scared the hell out of a dictator.

This may sound far off today but during martial there were no programs in the afternoons; TV signs off only to re-air after the children had their afternoon naps! 

Most programs were Sampaguita, LVN, etc movies, children shows, Students Canteen, and censored news. Lifestyle programs were banned because it might (I supposed) motivate Filipinos to ask about their deplorable poverty stricken condition.

Read news paper from that era and you get an idea of what I'm talking about.

The most horrible thing was Marcos' omnipresent face on TV. If the president of the Philippines wanted to say something he made sure that he was heard: all TV and radio station would simultaneously broadcast his pronouncements, no exceptions. Orwell's Big Brother in the flesh.  

Where was I...Hmmm back to the phenomenology of Voltes V

The technology, the ships, the bolting together of five ships to form one super robot, the drama, and the battles scenes,  these left deep impressions on me. I realized there's a whole new universe out there, fantasies, a new dimension where my imagination could run wild. There could be infinite numbers of life and civilizations out there, in space. There could be intergalactic interplanetary wars happening there. Earth could someday be threatened ... 

My notebooks were filled with spaceships and robot drawings... and it... hmmm... Voltes V was my first sci-fi experience and it started my fascination with the genre. 

Daimos: This one is memorable for its love story between
Erica of the Brahmins and Richard of Earth.

Of course, today's sci-fi are more concerned with science than fiction which makes it quite difficult to read. I still go with the classics. I remember an anecdote about how Stan Lee thought of exposing Bruce Banner with gamma rays which resulted to him becoming The Hulk. "...gamma rays sounds good. But I don't know a thing about gamma rays or science at all, but it sounds good." An accurate science is good but the details discourages the non-science educated readers.

Anyway, back to Voltes V...

And like any normal children, I imitated the battles scenes and engaged role playing games with other kids based on Voltes V story line as we saw and interpreted it that time.

Mazinger Z: memorable for the parody of its theme song:
Koji kabuto kili-kili baho, ayaw maligo binato ng tabo...etc.
And also Sayaka's, his partner lady robot's,
thermonuclear missile boobs.

Though the opening theme was in Japanese, the martial tune hooked me and up to now, next to Lupang Hinirang, it was the most memorable marching tune I ever heard. Well, to tell the truth, the only reason that prevented me from putting Voltes V theme ahead of the National Anthem was the fact that Lupang Hinirang was hammered into my consciousness from my kinder year and has been continuously being so daily since then.

When the government heard the English Voltes V theme being aired on Philippine TV, Marcos and his propagandists realized something: Subversive! 

It was like what happened to Rizal's novels during the Spanish era. When the Spaniards read it, they understood the allusions and, the novel's theme and  identified the who's who and a very little literary critical skills was needed to understand what it's all about. They had Rizal executed and his books banned. 

But this was different but might not be that different at all.  It did not have to do with allusion but with illusions and delusions: Marcos was paranoid. Though according to Bongbong Marcos, the reason his father banned Voltes V was because of its violence. But we all knew this was not the truth, violence happened everyday in the most inhuman way and blatant manner in the country that time. The real reason: Marcos was threatened by the animes. 

Grendizer. Watched a few episodes but left no mark
me.

Here's the English lyric:

Someday the sons of light shall fill the earth
The morning of Justice shall have come to its birth
So,we'll all wave our banners high 
and free through the air
For the love and glory we then all shall share...


Marcos, maybe, felt that this song might become the next "Bayan Ko". Hmmm...

Anyway...

The cancellation disappointed me and I guess many of my generation as well.

Balatak

I felt hmmm...deprived, violated..of course it was more disappointment but as I grew older, the cancellation became topics of talks and hypotheses and theories were given. 

Mekanda Robot

But there was the hope that Steve, Big Bert, Mark, Jamie and Little John would come back...me and my contemporaries longed of the day when Voltes  V would come back from among the clouds to come back for his fans and to claim his TV airtime. It did happen in the late 80's and early 90's, but once again freedom was threatened by a dimwit politician who wanted Voltes V bolted out of TV, again. But, freedom has been won and the Filipino nation did not allow the travesty of interplanetary-interreality freedom to be strangeled again. The politician was trapped in the Phantom Zone of political inanity.

I was fourteen when Marcos fell from power. Too young to care about politics but old enough to understand that something has changed. 

OOhhhhhhh...I forgot, I am thinking about the possibility of seeking damages for depraving me and my generation of a part of our childhood...RA 7610 maybe...well I have to look if the law is retroactive...hmmmmm. 

Gotta consult a human rights lawyer first.

I'm hungry and its already lunch...running out of juice...

                                                                                                                                                                 

Needlephobia and alternate Earth story

Needles are also notorious because
they are used by mangkukulams
to inflict pain on their victims.

Sewing needles used to scare the hell out of me.

There's a story to it.

When I was still in pre-school, my mother hand sewed a lot of stuff. She patched holes on shirts, pants; repaired tears on pillow cases, curtains; nip the edges of our short pants to make it shorter, etc. She did a lot of hand sewing,  like, I guess, most housewives did.

I was the last of of the siblings then (Dadai was still on the way), so I was the one left with my mother at home. She was busy and so was I. She sewed, I sewed too. And of course, sharp objects and little children did not sit well and it usually resulted in pricks, blood and tears.

My mother told me that I should not play or even touch needles or pins. "Needles kills," she told me. Well, not as blunt as that but basically that was what she meant.

The thought of  needles
travelling through my body
unnoticed, scared me.

"Look at these sharp needles, feel the sharpness. Once you are pricked by it, and it entered your skin, it will travel through your veins carried by your blood stream up to your heart. Once it reached your heart, it will prick your heart and burst it killing you in the end." I mean, this scared me big time. My imagination was already running wild. I had this vision of a spear running through my veins seeking out my heart to stab and rip it apart, and the excruciating pain that goes with it...   

This fear was reinforced by the fact that many adults, like my lola Moning, had the same thing to say about needles. "Be careful with needles. You might seat on one and without noticing it, it might already be in your bloodstream going to your heart." So, from that moment on, I had this child's illogical (well, my mother's explanation and authority then made it logical for me) fear of needles. Of course,   the fear was gone when I'm already in grade school. 

I guess adult minds work that way. I mean, I do that now too. I scare children with traditional and sometimes made up stories instead of explaining things scientifically to them which they may not understand or learn from. Or they may understand but it may not affect their emotions the way stories do. Children's imaginations are more powerful than their intellects. Hold their imagination and you have a hold on them.

Stories (or myths) are not lies for they are not meant to deceive but they are also not truths the way scientific laws and logical truths are either true or false. Stories are responses to situations that invites a particular response from the hearer. 

Multiverse or alternate universe is a hypothesis
that there exist an infinite number of alternate
universes.There is also an infinite number of earths
 which is similar to ours but with slight
variations or could be so different from ours
that the laws of physics may be opposite of ours.
There are earths where there is no life because
 the evolutionary process did not grant it
the condition to spawn life.
 It is Darwin's evolution
on a cosmological scale.

How about an alternate story? (In a slightly different alternate Earth (Earth 2) where my mother was a doctor of medicine and I was a pre-school tot)

My mother(2): " George, don't play with needles. They are not sterilized. They may have the bacterium Clostridium Tetani. Once the bacterium entered your bloodstream, they will multiply and attack your central nervous system. The process may take a few days but the symptoms are mild spasms in the jaw muscles—also known as lockjaw or trismus. The spasms can also affect the chest, neck, back, abdominal muscles, and buttocks. Back muscle spasms often cause arching, called opisthotonos. Sometimes the spasms affect muscles that help with breathing, which can lead to breathing problems...*"

Me(2): (Playing with needles and pins)"Who cares...I can't understand a word you're saying mother. Tell me the story about needles that George's mother from Earth 1 told him. Please..."

Me(2): Oouuucchhhh...what the Fraggernestein!

  * (wikipedia)

Jeepneys and jeepney stuffs about jeepneys

The backbone of our transport industry. I cannot imagine
our roads without a jeepney. But I could imagine it without
jeepney drivers.

For sometime now, I have not traveled on a jeepney. Having a motorcycle made it unnecessary. So, when our motorcycle had a mechanical problem, I had no choice but to to take a jeepney from Cainta to Taytay. 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say. And seated on a jeepney, feeling the breeze touching my face while listening to the stereo,  I realized that I do miss riding on it, but at the same time I was also ruing about the physical discomforts and the pains of the trip. Some things have not changed like suspensions and driving skills (or the lack of it) and  the drivers ignorance of Newton's law of inertia (you don't hit the brakes abruptly! full tank you, driver!).

The refitted WWII vehicle changed very little mainly its seating capacity and the fitting of more powerful engines. 

Personally, I prefer that the jeepney's external appearance not to change for cultural and sentimental reasons despite the fact that it is aerodynamically blunt and violates almost every articles and provisions of the automotive engineering's laws and constitutions. 

Willy's GPW or General Purpose Wheeler which was
shortened to "Jeep." This our jeepneys ancestor.
According to history Pinoys converted this
WWII vehicles left by the Americans
to passenger vehicles by retro-fitting it with seats
 and roofs. Sarao pioneered the mass production
of jeepneys based on the GPW.

It has a deeply ingrained identity. The boxlike body and the front grill with  two headlights and front grills, human-face-like if you ask me, retains its Willy's jeep ancestry. The multi-leveled bumpers that could turn Mad Max green with envy is a remnant of WWII battle tank philosophy that was designed for resistance and ramming, the very opposite of the impact absorbing bodies of modern vehicles .  There are accessories that are excessive like multiple side mirrors and tire flaps, signal lights, fog lights, and other auxiliary lightnings and powerful sound systems that could either induce heart attack because of the thumping bass woofers or seizures due to the the high frequency tweeters--I have not ridden a jeepney that has a balanced sound system--, but these defines the jeepney. 

Aside from these superfluities, there are now jeepneys equipped with DVD- karaoke system and airconditiong and it sometimes makes me wonder if they have their own portable nuclear power plants to feed these gadgets electricity. 

Its body paintings and other works of art are also another thing that should not change. The jeepney is considered a travelling canvass of Filipino artists. These designs say a lot about the drivers and the operators.

The INC's tricolors. This can be seen everywhere: on session
guitarists guitar on TV, Taho and puto vendors pails,
windows and doors, tricycles, bicycles, t-shirts etc.

Religious affiliations for one: a red-white-green sticker or a Romans 16:16 verse or an Ibong Mandaragit words printed on the mudguards says that the driver or the operator is a member of the INC. 

Rosary and the Lord's Prayer booklet hanging on the rear view mirror, statuette of the Virgin Mary:, a Roman catholic, 

Evangelical verses like John 3:16 etc, could mean an Evangelical affiliation. etc. Observe the logos and colors, there are meanings,(overt or covert), and order in the chaos of colors and designs.

Where the money for the jeepney came from: An anchor or a ship's helm obviously says that the owner is a seaman. "Katas ng Saudi" this is getting fewer and more and more I am seeing "Katas ng Barko", "Katas ng Uling", Katas ng Saging", "Katas ng Gulay" and other "Katas ng ___"

Family oriented: Portraits of family members, the bunso, acronyms of names like Jomajenroblinron (for Johnny, Maring, Jenny, Roberto, Linda, Ronaldo) etc.

What else? Humorous sayings like "God knows Judas not Pay" Hmmm...naughty stuffs like "bulbuhok", ...nevermind.

Horns...I don't know where jeepney drivers get these horns. Cow moos, gunfire, laughter that could make your hair stand on its ends. I was riding our motorcycle when a jeepney stopped in front of me, then I heard chimes and an elevator voice over message:"thank you for riding". Where do they get these things? 

I had a horrible experience with smoke belchers.
I was riding at the front with the driver who
abruptly cut another jeepney to pick up
a passenger. This is stealing among jeepney
drivers. So, the other driver ran after us,
cursed our driver and then aimed his exhaust
pipe adjacentto the driver's seat and pumped
black, acrid,dirty, poisonous smoke on the driver,
me,and the rest of the passengers.  

I cannot imagine our streets without jeepneys and its mechanical idiosyncrasies. But it does not mean that the iconic Filipino mass transport vehicle should not change. 

Engines for one, they are still using junked engines from Japan, Korea and other industrialized countries. The poisonous exhaust is horrible. Needs no explaining.

There are moves for alternative fuels like gas or battery but the jeepney's body are made of cast iron that only steam and diesel can power it. Body works and the materials used should change too.

Suspension. I don't know if these vehicles are still using the Christie-Battle-Tank suspension.system but it's obvious that it was designed for cargoes and not for human beings. 

The jarring and the throwing from the seats, head bumps, because of the vehicle's stiff suspension, may cause cramps down there, below;  cramps basketball players experience when they play without their supporters. I often experienced this when I was still studying in Morong, Rizal. Ask anyone who is travelling to south of Rizal province and they will tell you what the word "fast" and "blender" means.

Seats. For heaven's sake there are things that discomfort and injure passengers like protruding welding joints especially in the seats, the sharp objects that is used to hoist the tarps against the rain, extra signal lights placed on the headroom, the protruding cabin lights that bumps the head, slippery floor, low headroom, etc.

Windows. I mean, why are they still using tarps?

Driving skills. I have respects for jeepney drivers. They have outstanding skills for maneuvering, evading, slipping through tiny openings, it's as if they were riding a bicycle. But their skills are for military applications; they will make excellent battle tank drivers.

Anyway...I have run out of energy. I have an asthma attack,. It's hot, for heaven's sake, I gotta do something to take my mind off the ailment...blah, blah,blah, blah,..Good bye.

Marijuana Experiment and why I never got hooked with the stuff

Marijuana grew wild in the Valley Golf areas. A grade
school classmate brought dried leaves between his
notebooks which he said he picked up near Bulao River.
We were amazed.  We sniffed the leaf thinking it would get
us high, but it did not. The most potent variety I puffed
was the "lagkitan" variety. It was sticky and damp and
it literally pops when smoked.

Public perception about Marijuana is now changing. Some countries like the Netherlands and Uruguay and US states Colorado and Washington have decriminalized possession and use of cannabis while other countries have eased their restrictions against it by lessening the penalties for possession and use or by relaxing the implementations of prohibitions against it.

Its medicinal as well as recreational benefits are now being re-studied and there are medical findings about cannabis' painkilling properties sans the organ damaging effects of synthetic painkillers. It is also reported to stop and control epileptic seizures. But it cannot be denied that if abused, marijuana can also cause medical, neurological, as well as social problems.

There are a lot of arguments for and against marijuana but I will not be talking about them. I have read enough to know that just like any other stuffs like alcohol, cough syrups, hamburger and french fries (honestly, I believe that these two caused more physical, psychological, social problems and deaths than marijuana), roof sealant, chocolates, candies, adobo, balut, etc. things taken in excess and abusively will eventually lead to addiction, neurosis, psychosis and eventually death (in no particular order). 

We used to smoke it everywhere.
One trick to avoid detection was
to use a disposable tumbler
to catch the smoke.

Personally, I have had my share of puffing this stuff.I was introduced to marijuana during my first semester in college. It was 1992 and I was studying engineering technology at the then Rizal Technological and Polytechnic Institute now the University of Rizal System. I became friends with two freshmen from Binangonan. They were already users and knew where to get the stuff. (I forgot their names and lost contact with them. The other one died after a few months I left school. I heard he drowned in a swimming accident.) 

Then the smoke was released outside
the window. We did these when we
 were in the gym. It was normal
 to see boys doing these.

I had known marijuana users from our neighborhood and they were bad asses. They fought, they gambled, they stole to support their vices. But it was different with my classmates. They were like me, "normal" students. I have eaten in their homes, met their parents and noticed nothing unusual or dysfunctional with their families.

My experience with marijuana was not a bad one. It was not as bad as it was reported to be during those years. Literature, pulpits, TV ads etc. raged about the evil (worse than bad) effects of using weed. I guess most of these propagandist either have had no experience with weed or have had bad experience with it.

Music and puffing

Pinoy rock is mosty Black Sabbath, Jimmy Hendrix, Led Zep
The Who, and the Beatles all rolled into one.

Music and weed goes well. I was into Pinoy Rock then. It was the early 90's; the beginning of Pinoy Rock renaissance (thanks to DM 95.5, NU 107, and DZRJ 100.3). But I was not into the neo-Pinoy Rock, I was into the classics and one of my favorite bands was Sampaguita. 

A puff or two plus Sampaguita songs, those Gary Perez guitar leads and existentialist cum hare krishna  lyrics plus Sampaguita's husky-sandpaper like voice would sink in deep, too deep may I say.

I was seated there asking the same question Sampaguita was asking and thinking about the mysteries of life, suffering and purpose not noticing that I had been in that sitting position for almost the time the side A of the  pinoy rock album was playing, about 30 minutes. CD was still an expensive novelty then.

  

Aside from Sampaguita, there were Maria Cafra, Asin, Juan Dela Cruz, Judas, Labuyo, Anakbayan and others. Just listening to their music, one can smell the sweet aroma of marijuana. Good or bad, who cares, but many of the people who grew up with their music are now the parents and the decision makers of the nation.

Of course slow and folk rock was a must: Deep Purple, Scorpions, Rainbow, Alice Cooper, Neil Young, CSNY, Cat Stevens etc. Weed did something to my ear when I listened to music. Made me more sensitive to the lyrics, interpretative with guitar solos and there's this psychedelic union of mind and music. Whatever...

(Photo not mine) Our favorite spot  in Calumpang, Binangonan
was the fretil. We would sit there and listen to music
while puffing.

But it could go to extreme, though I did not experienced it, being stoned listening to music for hours was one of them. 

Even when using weed, I still had this little voices in my head telling me not to go too far or else...

It is no wonder that musicians love the weed because it enhances sensitivity and creativity. Though judging from the music of the Rastafarian Bob Marley, it impaired his English grammar. (But who cares? We're not native speakers!)

The Beatles used it, so was Hendrix, The Who, Jim Morrison, Clapton the list does no end. Some of them died but most  survived and became decent human beings.

Food trip

This was weird. When a stick of marijuana is puffed, it does something to the sinuses and taste buds, it stimulates appetite but it numbs the taste-senses. I had experienced this. We were puffing all of a sudden we became so hungry, we ate rice without any viand or dish to go with it; and because we cannot taste a thing, we were driven to eat more.  

I had never felt such hunger before.

Thirst was also another thing. Because it was unfiltered smoke, I could feel the heat going through my throat up my nostril and it dried my throat and mouth. So, to relieve the sensation and discomfort, I had to drink a lot of water.

Laugh Trip

Its not as if I inhaled laughing gas and went into uncontrollable laughter. No, it was that it produces good mood and made me more susceptible to laughter at even the un-funniest and corniest joke and most mundane occurrences like someone walking and tripping. I guess that's why they call it "trip", no reason or rhyme.

Marijuana cocktails

My classmates had more experience with weed. They told of combinations like marinating the leaves in cough syrup to make it more potent, or brownies, or taking it with downers or uppers etc. but I had never tried them, I was afraid of synthetic drugs. .

Many ways we drank gin: gin-pomelo,
gin-pineapple, gin-orange gin-7-up,
gin-calamansi, gin-dayap, gin-apdo,
gin-aratiles, gin-grapes etc. but the
most toxic and potent  was the 3 is to 1 formula
Three bottle of beers mixed with one
bottle of gin.The stuff, especially when cold, was
smooth to drink that I sometimes drank
beyond what I could handle. Made me vomit
green slime, many times it did.

But I had seen my classmates use weed with prescription drugs. One took twenty tablets of Akineton and then puffed a stick or two. After a few minutes, I couldn't help laughing at him because he moved so slow. I asked him what Akineton was, and he told me it was used by mental patients. Heee  wwaaaasss sssooooo sssllloooowwww! When he tripped he fell in slow motion.

Another puffed weed and then drank a 120 ml of cough syrup; it was also hilarious. Suddenly, he became talkative. He talked to people but he had foam forming at the edges of his lips. It was like he was eating soap. 

The whole thing was hilarious and so insane that I quit school, stopped studying and settled to being a  bum (tambay) and to drinking gin bulag.

To tell the truth, I was underwhelmed and a bit disappointed. I was expecting hallucinations, mind altering experiences but all I experienced were drowsiness, music induced trance,which is quite good; food trip, laugh trip and sleep.

None of the hype. I think its much demonized negative effects has to do with state of mind. If one used it with hatred and rage in his/her heart, or had lust and cravings, the stuff could amplify these negative feelings,  loosen the user's inhibitions and make him/her do bad stuff, but if the user is in good spirit it could induce euphoria and stimulate creativity. Also, most problem arises when it is used in combination with alcohol or other drugs. This is based on my personal experiences and not to be taken as conclusive, authoritative and normative: an impression. It was also a short affair with Mary Jane, so, caveat.

Of course, this was twenty years ago. And good or bad, science or religion, stay away from the stuff. You may become addicted to it.

(How the time passes by and this post has become too long...)

How to water your plants effeciently, plants make matter out of energy while human beings consume much matter to make less matter while producing much waste matter! etc...

I was watering our plants when I noticed that some of
them were still wilting. A little investigation showed

 that despite the amount of water I sprayed on them, 

it was not reaching the roots.The water

 was deflected by the leaves and because it was sprayed,
the water was just wetting the soil's surface.
To solve the problem, I attached a PVC pipe
 to the hose so that the water could be directed to
where it could best reach the roots, the base of
the plants.

Watering plants is a very relaxing activity, a good stressbuster. It is refreshing to see the spray water hitting the leaves; the branches bowing and swaying with it. It's  as if the plants are dancing to show their gratitude. Of course, I am just imagining it; plants don't have emotions. 

Plants are amazing.One day, I noticed that one of my plants had grown too big for its pot. It had exposed its main roots, raising it out of the pot, while the hair like secondary roots have clogged the pot's drain hole, and were already clawing its way to the earth. As if it was reaching for its mother or godparents or something.

As the photo shows, the PVC pipe made it easy for me
to target the root of the tree especially those that are
located at the back of other plants and other difficult to
reach areas. Also, the water is directly fed to the roots
 instead of just spraying which is wasteful.

I noticed that though the plant had grown much larger, the amount of soil in the pot had not changed significantly. It did not lose the amount of soil equivalent to the matter present in the grown plant. A little sense of the common sense told me that plant should have consumed  the equivalent or proportional matter necessary for its present size. It should have consumed the soil, the pot and the gardener! But it did not. It grew without consuming matter, at least visible matter!!! (!!!!!!!)

Guess that's  why they call them producers.

So this meant that the plant manufactured matter out of the energy it absorbed from the nutrients of the soil. It also used energy of the sun to process these nutrients i.e. photosynthesis. There's nothing mysterious about this and any grade school children could explain the process easily.

But as I was watering, I kept thinking about it. Energy, that is, chemical energy and solar energy and other stuffs were transformed into matter.

This is where I noticed the problem. I sprayed water
on thisarea thinking that the more I sprayed the better.
But I noticed that some of the leaves were wilting.
I took a closer and I found out that the water
was not reaching the base of the plant; and with
 this summer heat, the water on the leaves and
on the soil evaporated quickly leaving the inner
under part of the foliage dry.Here, I looked for the  base
of the plant and "injected" the water directly  into the
 roots.

Let me put it this way, animals, or people grow because they consume matter; they eat.

Let us  consider people.

Imagine the amount of milk a baby has to consume before it reaches its first year. Simple rough mathematics would show us that it has to drink ten times a bathtubful of liquid matter called milk before it grows big enough  to consume semi-solid food. This takes about a few months to a year depending on the genetic make up of the infant.

Another advantage is that I can now water my mother's
orchids without watering a neighbor or two who are
passing by or are sitting on benches below our
perimeter wall. Before, when I spray water,
 I sometimes would hear little voices shouting   "Hey, there's
people here!" 

Now, after the baby's first year, it now developed the necessary biological equipments (called teeth) for it to be able to consume solid food.

Again, simple mathematical calculations tell us that by the time it reached it's teen years, it has already consumed about 30 tons of Gerber Baby Food, 80 tons of rice and other staple foods like potato, veggies, peanut butter, soil, booger, etc. Add to about 50 tons of junk foods.

So, a rough estimate of the ratio is that it would take about 180 tons of assorted matter from vegetables, meat, milk and booger, for the baby that weighs about 9oz at birth to reach its average teen weight of around 80 lbs.

Aside from the consumption of matter for growth, humans also produce wastes. Of course it's only natural since this is part of ecology. Our waste products like urine, shit, fart, etc. are used by the plants, all part of the oxygen-carbon-foodweb system.

It is time to refresh the
leaves by spraying water on them.

But with capitalism and materialism and consumerism, humans are now producing wastes that are toxic and are not part of the ecological system. Where do they go?

Anyway, a person must have consumed about a million times of his bodymass from birth to death and about half of this are waste matter excreted by the body. So, that  still leaves about half a million times his/her body weight...

But plants are different, they literally make matter out of energy. So. of all of God's creations, plants are very special. They produce stuffs and we live off their leaves, flowers, fruits, barks, etc, and we also consume their farts as  well (FYI, oxygen are their waste products).

I mean, Noah even used them to build the ark that would save humanity and some animals for regeneration after the great flood. Plants did not have to go to the ark; they became doormant. After 40 days of flood, and the sun shone on them, they sprang back to life. (How else could it be when God did not tell Noah to bring seeds and stem cuttings into the ark?)

Wonderful eh!