Happy House Guests

 Happy House Guests

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente Ilocos Sur 

Dr Abe V Rotor

"The sweetest words in the English language are: 

 'Welcome. Make yourself at home.'" — Author Unknown

Tourism coordinators and team leaders pay a joyous visit to the Center.  

  Basi wine tasting session, a sip or two, 

   takes us back to the origin of this brew,

distinctly in the region of the Ilocano,

       and no other place, unless you know. - avr

At the boundary of mural art and garden

A happy company at the end of the day,

how we all wish for more time to stay.

"Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest." 

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

Conversation with the endangered deer*

We understand your message 

as you hang lonely on the wall;

to meet your kins in the wild

and save them from the Fall.

* Visayan spotted deer and the Calamian deer in the Philippines

.

  

 Home library and archive; basi wine cellar

Memorabilia alive, a drop of tear;

reminiscence conquers our fear. 

"Without archives, many stories would be lost, and the voices 

of the past would be silenced forever." – Sara Sheridan

 

Art gallery, Apo Resurrecion icon

Art - talent and faith,

skill and piety,

joy and reverence,

sublime humility.

Welcome to our ancestral home

Happiness is one commodity;

divide, it will multiply;

share, it grows far and wide

timeless and free. 

"To invite a person to your house is to take charge of his happiness 

as long as he be beneath your roof." — Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

 

 

Archives and exhibits

Sling shot, fishing rod, bird trap;

that was a long time ago, we say,

many habagat and amihan since;

 boyhood never dies, we pray.

 

"Archives are the records of everyday life. They are the stories of us." – Unknown

   

House guests take a break

Children and grownups wish to be 

under the breezy shade of a tree, 

paint on-the-spot nature's scenery,

in silence, peace and harmony. 

"Relax, recharge and reflect. Sometimes it’s okay to do nothing." — Unknown

Artworks from Driftwood and Rocks (Scientific Specimens, Decoration and Teaching Aids)

Artworks from Driftwood and Rocks

(Scientific Specimens, Decoration and Teaching Aids)

On display at the Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” ~Albert Einstein

 

Driftwood, tree skeleton short of fossilization, 

 nature pleading for help from human destruction. 

 

  

Christmas tree version in deep philosophy,

touches man's concept of faith and liberty.  

 

Dodo*, the extinct duck long time ago

lives in driftwood for us to know.

*The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic 

to Mauritius, an island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

 

Dragons represent today's living species,

descendants or proofs of their existence.

 

 

 

Wood, shells and rocks blend

into artwork of an amateur;

reminds us all of a message -

a trophy of dying nature.   

 

 

Metamorphism - let me count the ways:

graphite to diamond, limestone to marble, 

sandstone to quartzite, basalt to Greenschist,

shale to schist or gneiss, resin to amber.

  

Rock crumbles ultimately into soil,

 a geologic and biologic process,

 nature's perpetual cycle in action,

non-living to living and back, 

ad infinitum 

 

Apparition of Mother Nature in our times. 

"Art speaks where words are unable to explain."- Lori McNee ~

Teaching through Virtual Art of Painting

Teaching through Virtual Art of Painting

Dr Abe V Rotor

"The naturalist in me explained the story,

  through art in a simple way." - avr 

Silkworm colony*, relief painting on wood, AVRotor 2026

What makes a colony in times of plenty,

and at times of famine, too,

calls the artist and teacher in me to study,

this phenomenon, fine and raw.

So, at home, armed with pen and brush,

easel, some colors and canvas,

I took to where a mulberry tree grows,

silkworms immersed in their task.

Children followed me, marched in tune

with sunrise on a clear day;

the naturalist in me explained the story,

  through art in a simple way. 

  

Silkworm colony* details, relief painting on wood, AVRotor 2026

* Colony of silkworms, caterpillars of Bombyx mori, feeding on mulberry leaves 

(Morus alba), that produce natural silk fibers for the sericulture industry. 

Cryptobiology - SOS call of Planet Earth, our only ship in space.

                           Cryptobiology

SOS call of Planet Earth, our only ship in space.

Driftwood resembling a beast with "living and pleading eye". 

Collection of the Living with Nature 

The eye, the eye!

Hauntingly it stares

at whoever cut this tree

to repent and cry. - avr

 

Kissing trees - counterpart of the mythical kissing rocks.

Old tree lying on its own tombstone.

"Kiss in a lifetime seals love even in the afterlife." - avr

 "A happy life is never senile.  Trees grow old with grace." - avr

 

Tree figures resembling human passion.  Trees also have feelings.

"When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

      I all alone beweep my outcast state,

 And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

      And look upon myself and curse my fate."

        

       - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29 

  

 

Trees may be weird looking, but actually tame and kind.

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"* 

Trees have stories to tell.  

They also sing, laugh and cry,

  and often leave us a spell. - avr

*1933 Disney cartoon "Three Little Pigs". The pigs sing the song to taunt the wolf, suggesting they are not scared of him. However, the wolf is still a threat as he tries to enter their houses, highlighting the fear the pigs initially feel. The song's popularity during the Great Depression is also notable, as it became a symbol of defiance against hard times, Wikipedia.

 

Evolution and extinction - periodicity beyond our senses.

"Darwinian and Lamarckian:

evolution through adaptation,

it's counterpart, law of disuse,

taking place at the same time

         beyond, in sweet chime." - avr 

  

 

 

These trees resemble appendages or limbs reminiscent of transience, 

unity, and agility of living things as key to their survival and well-being. 

"Limbs are tools for peace, security, 

access and mobility, 

limbs of the law, limbs of the sea*, 

   and limbs of the tree."- avr

*  Limbs of the sea refer to rivers and bays.

  

Endangered Rhinoceros; extinct Dodo bird*

"Extinct, in past and future tenses,

fossils, artefacts, archives,

the dead and the living, the latter

facing doom altogether." - avr

* The Dodo is a lesson about extinction. Found by Dutch soldiers around 1600 on an island in the Indian Ocean, the Dodo became extinct less than 80 years later because of deforestation, hunting, and destruction of their nests by animals brought to the island by the Dutch. 
Cryptobiology - Cryptids are creatures whose existence is debated or unproven, often found in folklore and popular culture. They are the subject of fascination and speculation, and quotes about them often reflect themes of mystery, the unknown, and the allure of the unexplained.  AI Overview

Acknowledgement with gratitude to various sources - Facebook, Living with Nature Center, Internet.