2 Months and ...

... counting.

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I'm keeping up with all the news in my soon-to-be new home in small town British Columbia through a newsfeed from the local on-line town news site. Apparently on Friday morning 2 ducklings were rescued after falling into a storm drain and were returned to their mother. I'm not making this up. This is news.

Meanwhile back in Manila, the thought of leaving just gets weirder and weirder. I did make a list of things I had to do to prepare and while I have done a few things on it like call movers to get estimates, I have also found a great way to get around a to do list. Don't do it. I peered at a few things I had on the list, paused, and asked "Do I REALLY need to do this?" "No?" Cross that off. What a sense of accomplishment, getting through the list by not doing it. The best thing that happened was my shredder broke and I don't want to buy another one here (220 volt). So instead of torturing myself by going through files and papers and stuff, I'm not. Good intentions good riddance. I don't seem to be working very hard at this moving stuff, at least it doesn't feel that way. I go to pilates, go to the gym, go to lunch and play mah jong. But I have stopped buying toilet paper in bulk.

However, there are moments of almost sadness when I realize that something I'm doing or some place I'm going to is for the last time. I look with something like envy at some of the newly arrived people at mah jong, knowing that they will have so much to see and will likely change so much.

So here's my next list (Appreciation for the first 6) of 2 more things I appreciate about my life in Asia:

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Flowering Trees. It's summer in Manila and that means that all the flowering trees are out in all their glory. I'm soaking it all in as we drive through the gated villages with their big houses and fabulous gardens. Huge flame trees with yes, flaming, red flowers, frangipani with white, pink or coral flowers, some kind of tree with massive yellow flower dripping off the branches and many others I have no names for. The bougainvillea, always amazing, is in bloom this season, with shades of pink through purple, bushes intertwined. Sometimes you see one that is so old and so robust that it has climbed way up another tall tree, so the masses of color are high above. When I'm home I have a bird's eye view of the neighborhood, so I can see all these bursts of color among the greenery. Gorgeous.

Cheat. These bougainvillea are actually in Thailand in the garden of a former king's summer palace.

 Orchids. A few years ago I found a big garden center in Manila, a place where there were many outdoor shops and nurseries in one huge compound. Included were at least a dozen orchid sellers. I can buy blooming pots of orchids for $3-5 apiece. And I do. A dozen or so at a time. My house can be completely filled with orchids, so inexpensively that I was treating them as cut flowers. When they stopped blooming I'd give them to a friend who lived in a house with a garden to put in the back forty until they rebloomed, because after all, orchids can be kind of boring when not in bloom. (I'll be smacked by an orchid grower for that remark. I used to be one).

Anyway, one time when we were off traveling for a few weeks, Rebecca the Maid started putting the pots after blooming out on the balcony and began to take care of them. Good care of them, as they are thriving and reblooming. Every day she is out there watering, fertilizing, probably talking to them and they love it. She also took over care of the kaffir lime plant that I bought to use the leaves in Vietnamese cooking and was mostly ignoring, and since she took over it's now growing little limes on it. Green thumb.

Each of these potted blooming orchids will cost between $30-45 back in Canada. So, massing them all over the house will be one indulgence I will have to bid adieu to. I'm enjoying them while I can.

Next week we are off to Taiwan. This will likely be my last trip. No doubt when we get back we'll be down to counting the weeks.

This is definitely weird.