Foot and Fire

Dear Handyman By Gerlie M. Uy Dear Handyman: I see you in this season's blinking lights: The last time, you wanted me to decorate your room, and instead of a pine tree, I churned out Mt. Kanlaon. You said it's my call so it's fine. I hear you in the carols: The last time, you bought all season's Cds in the music store because you would play them everyday. I taste you in the matured coco vinegar: The last ones, you placed in all glass bottles to mature. I can feel you in times of aloneness: The last time, you were in the white-walled room sipping the aloe juice as your last taste of luxury. I think of you in the frozen yogurt you were delightful about because it tastes like ice cream. I will always see you in the miracle plant once planted in a black bag we last bought at the store together. I will remember you in the pails of water, (You gathered them then from every drop from our faucet) in every nail an...

I love my hometown. Small-bodied she may be, but the Mangkasanons (A native of La Carlota named after folk hero Mangkas or Mantas) live in her crown a million varied lives from OFWs to public servants to tillers of the land to sugarcane mill laborers to fruit-and-vegetable peddlers and more. From valleys to mountains, their last names may vary but their faces are almost always familiar regardless which part they come from: “Mangkasanon indi bugalon” (A Mangkasanon is not a snob). I love that her small body is landlocked (probably the reason why she has the Bureau of Plant Industry in her bosom) so unlike all other cities of Negros Occidental that stretch beside the seas. I love that her arteries are sugarcane fields plus the fields that produce the staples from rice to cassava to corn and sweet potatoes. For her seafoods – fish, oyster and seaweed – she has the nearby towns of Hinigaran and Valladolid. For her vegetables – cucumber, carrot, and cabbage – she ha...

My parents had a blast watching the breathtaking view of the Marapara and Kanlaon mountains and greeneries while sitting in the coffee area of La Vista Highlands in San Carlos City. *** The view of the mountains first enticed the owner Architect Albert Garbanzos  to buy and develop the property as he likened what he saw to Mt. Fuji of Japan.  According to the story, the original owner of the land  sold the 24 hectare property to him because of his good purpose of developing it into a resort and of preserving at least 10 percent of the land by planting trees. However, that is only half of the story because the original owners felt good about him and  it was as if the "diwata" or a mountain fairy has already told them whom to sell the land to.   (Continue below) *** This is what we came for. Although the sun is up at nine o'clock in the morning,  the breeze coming from the mountains was cool and refreshing. *** To fin...

                                                Canlaon City, Negros Oriental is having their market day every Sunday. Supermarket vegetables are found here from carrots to cabbages, cucumber and cauliflower. Bring sacks and buy in bulk inorder to get big discount. All veges are freshly picked. In the midtown, the city market is slow and laidback but in the upland, everybody is busy packing and repacking vegetables of all kinds. There are gingers and peppers too. We didn't have much time so I think I have to get back to this city and explore its other spots. According to the locals, there is a high place called Juesca (not sure spelling) where there is Vermi-culture (growing of worms) and roses are grown, a kilometer away from the city.  The Kanlaon Mountain Park is quite away but it could be one good nature trek experience next time when I get back....