REKINDLING SPANISH PLUMS MEMORIES

Good day hivers! How's your day. It's me, Mac once again welcomes you to my new blog. I hope you're reading this post with good health and in a good mood. Today, new experiences will be shared. It's Monday, but not an ordinary day for me.

I woke up early to finish my routine on time. I washed my face, unleashed the puppies out of their room to roam around, feed the chickens, ducks, turtles and the rabbits.
Once everything was done, I cooked for breakfast (just a staple food and a fish) because the workers would arrive before 8:00. Afterwards, I took a bath and prepared for our journey.

Last week, my nephew and I planned to visit my parents' home in calambua, my birth place. Obviously, today is the scheduled date because it's his day off. He works in the ilihan public market as a butcher. The main reason for the quick visit is to harvest some ripe Spanish plums, locally known as "seriguela" or "senaguelas".

He's very excited and eager to go because it's his first time to go back there after a decade. After the schedule is set, we disclose it to his sister and younger brother just in case they also want to and it's a yes! They are even more excited than us🤣😂. The most exciting part is that, he brought his wife and daughter, and my niece also brought her daughter (they're my grandchildren anyway). So we're 7 in total riding in two motorcycles.

But we can't just go there with nothing in hand. A day before, I bought 2 kilos of chopped chicken for our lunch and brought additional 1 rooster just in case.

I have three siblings there and we surely will eat together with their families. It would take 20-25 minutes of motorcycle ride for us to reach the drop off point and needs more than 30 minutes walk in order to reach the destination.

Our first stop was at my elder sister's house. We left the chopped chicken and the rooster there because we asked her to cook for all of us. Afterwards, we went ahead to our final stop.

When we arrived, I found my nephew busy as he was lying upside down on the bamboo floor and realized that he was drawing something. I found it interesting and checked out his work. I was stunned for a moment when I saw his artwork. How I wish I had this kind of talent before😂🤣. This kind of talent should be nurtured, I said.

Flexing some of my nephew's piece of art.

After that, I also checked his performance in school since the notebook he used for drawing is his old activity notebook. I found out that he is doing well in school. The scores show only 1 or 2 mistakes out of 20. I said to him in a joke, "maypag sa imuha lang ko nangopya sauna dong. Dagko pud unta kog grado🤣😅" (I should have copied answers from you before and surely got good grades). Of course that was just my way of appreciation to make him more inspired to study.

While I was inside the house, my companions were already climbing up the Spanish plum tree and happily harvesting fruits like there's no tomorrow. We climbed 5 different trees at once.

They took everything they could reach, ate more than they could keep and enjoyed the moment while reminiscing the memories of the past. My niece said, she was a good climber before and she used to step on small branches in order to reach the ripe fruits at the top. But now, she doesn't know how she did it. She can still climb but is afraid because she doesn't know how to get back to the ground anymore🤣😂.

After picking up the fruits, we took a rest while chatting and eating at our old storage house (kamalig). It's nice to see my nephew and niece having a family and a child.

More topics were shared until we had eaten enough and felt tooth sensitivity. It was past 12:00 in the afternoon when we realized that the kids needed to eat their lunch. That time we decided to go back and have lunch at my elder sister's house.

Eat more bring less😝

_{These are the leftovers that we could bring home😂😝🤣}

As expected, lunch is ready. Afterwards, we're chatting about random topics with my elder sister. We've talked about their current situations, plans and progress. Actually, there's a lot of changes there after a decade. Some laughter and tears were shared when we talked about something in the past. After a while, my nephew and I decided to practice/play billiards.

No rules, just pool. We're having fun. It was my first time holding a cue and it's a pretty nice game. When we were done, my companions were demanding to go home because the kids were crying already. We actually wanted to stay longer but the situation is different now. Everyone has their own priority.

On our way home, I took pictures of the vacant field that used to be green. But due to excessive heat, they are brown now. As we can see, even the animals were eating dead grass just to survive 😢. Anyway, that's life.

We need to be contented with what's available and not look for something we cannot have.

As we head back to Ilihan, new memories were saved to our hearts.
I think that's all for today's blog. I hope I made your day through this journey. Thanks for reading until here. See you in my next Hive adventure! God bless and keep safe!