Cryptobiology - Remnant of a strange creature that once lived where sea and river meet

Cryptobiology 

 Remnant of a strange creature that once lived where sea and river meet

This figure of an aquatic creature apparently swimming, was discovered in an estuary. Old folks claim the creature once lived where sea and river meet, a unique habitat of many strange creatures, animals and plants as well. Mural background adds to the queer ambiance of the figure.

*Cryptobiology is the term used for the study of (i.e. search for evidence of the existence of) species that conventional biology does not generally accept the existence of, such as yeti, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, chupacabra, etc.

Goodbye, Leaning Firetree, Goodbye

Dr Abe V Rotor

Firetree (Delonix regia) in bloom leaning precariously 
45 degrees towards Regalado Ave., Fairview, QC 2010 

An arch and a crown you make
for all passersby
to greet and honor them; 
your trunk and limbs reach out 
in friendly handshake
and embrace; 

you send confetti year round,
green in monsoon,
fire red in summer; 

you comfort the tired and weary
under your shade;

you filter the air of gas and dust,
heat and sound;
mark the passing of seasons,
the turn of the clock;
you are home and inn of creatures:

birds and their young,
fern and moss clinging,
to bees and butterflies;
you stir imagination into the arts,
in song and poetry;
 

rise up and point to heaven
to enliven the spirit;
with arms outstretched for so long,
you have been calling, pleading,
for a passerby to stop and to look up. ~
NOTE: The last time I passed by the tree it was no longer there. On its stump cut by a chainsaw sat a road worker resting in the noon sun, his gaze expressionless and far.

Hidden Valley

Painting & Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

Let time stand still in these lovely huts
By the gentle streams and rivulets;
Let the breeze comb the green slopes,
And sing with the hills and rocky cliffs;

The birds fly over the meandering brook
And come to rest from across the bay;
Let the wild call the language of the free,
And signal the coming of night and day.

Here Beethoven composed a lovely song ,
And Schumann added a poetic flair;
Rustic would be Amorsolo’s version
Of this hidden valley fair.

Here by the pond Henry Thoreau
wrote a treatise, Man and Nature;
Here Schumacher praised the small,
Small, he said, is beautiful.

Here is respite, here is retreat,
Where the sky and hills ever meet;
Here’s life far, far from the busy lane,
A resort for tired souls and feet.

If life has not been lived well enough
And freedom like a genie chained;
Take it from Milton in his blindness,
He saw a Paradise regained.

And here as in our ancestor’s time
Lies an Eden, lofty yet sublime,
Where there is no need of calendar
To mark the passing of time.

Organic cooking: fish "tamalis"

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Organic cooking?  

• Use banana leaves instead of aluminum foil. 
• Don't fry, steam with banana leaves. 
• Do away with plastics and Styrofoam.  
• And don't use microwave oven.
• Use claypot lined with banana leaves.  
  
• Wood fuel imparts a natural taste.   
• Cook with low fire. Don't overcook.   
• Serve while hot, let your guest unwrap with gusto.      

 The photos below show how fresh fish such as dilis (anchovies), dalangang bukid, and tilapia) are cooked into tamalis.  Wash, add onion, ginger, tomato, and a dash of salt.  Wrap with wilted banana leaves. Arrange in the pot, cover, and cook slowly with firewood or charcoal.

Wrap individually, one serving size.

Wilt banana leaves over fire. Follow one-size rule.

Prepare ingredients, mix well. Frying pan can do, just line it with banana leaves, before putting the individually wrapped fish. Be sure to cover the pan while cooking. This is the principle of steaming.

NOTE: Keep banana plants in your backyard.  Banana has many uses, other than food, mushroom that grows at its base, and coolness it imparts in the surroundings. Leaves are used to polish the floor, as padding when ironing clothes, wrapper to keep vegetables fresh outside - or in the refrigerator. You can't make suman, bibingka, tupig without this biggest (and versatile) leaf in the world.  

A Folk Story: Myth of the White Carabao

A Folk Story: Myth of the White Carabao
Dr Abe V Rotor

Albino carabao (Bubalus bubalis), Zoobic, Subic Bay Freeport

This is a true story, and how Melecio angered his teacher on his first day in school.

“What is the color of the carabao?”

“White, Ma’am,” promptly came an answer at the back of the classroom.

There stood a small fellow, steely and kayumanggi, typical of a barrio lad. He was in full attention, anticipating a favorable reaction. But his classmates laughed instead. Others suppressed giggling.

“What?” exclaimed the bewildered teacher. “I repeat, what is the color of the carabao?” emphasizing the question, then stealthily eyed at the belligerent kid.

“White, Ma’am,” came a louder answer. The class went into an uproar, but Melecio was not at all daunted, unnerved.

“Go home and plant kamote. And don’t come back until you ‘produce’ your father.”

Can you imagine if you were Melecio?

Since that incident Melecio did not like to go back to school.

Days passed. Melecio would rather join the harvesters in the field, the farmhand that he had always been since he learned to use the rakem, a hand held harvesting knife. He would talk to his carabao, and even imitated his teacher.

“What is the color of the carabao?” This beast of burden simply continued chewing its cud, burping.

“Tama!” Melecio looked up. “Mabuti ka pa.”

When Melecio’s father learned that his son was not attending school, he confronted his son. You can imagine if you were in a situation between an angry father on one side and an angry teacher, on the other - and you are barely seven.

That evening Melecio told the whole story, and found comfort on his father’s broad shoulder and in the warmth of his mother’s embrace. Trinity smiled on them for the first time as far as he remembered.

Monday came. Father and son went to school to see Mrs. Paning Rosario, the teacher. Mrs. Rosario promptly accompanied them to the principal.

Apologetically the elder Melecio explained to the principal and the teacher about the white carabao - his son’s pet, an albino. It is all white, and the tips of its horns and hooves, are transparent like glass. The retina of the eyes which is supposed to be black is not. A gray spot on the head, gave the carabao’s name, Labang.

Scientists call animals that lack pigments albino, a genetic characteristic among animals like the carabao, rhino, and elephant. In fact this condition also affects human. I had a classmate in the elementary we nicknamed, White. He also had an albino sister, although both their parents are typical Filipinos. Albino humans are often mistaken to belong to the Caucasoid or white race, sometimes igniting debates on their parentage.

“Nature commits mistake, too.” That’s how my genetics professor Dr. Ruben Umaly puts it. The genes that govern dark skin pigment (melanin) are dominant.
Nature sees to it that they are regularly transcended in the gametes of the parents. But there are instances that these dominant genes fail to transcend from any of the parents so that it is the recessive albino gene that is expressed in the offspring, thus resulting to a pigmentless condition.

This renders the individual susceptible to the deleterious effects of heat and radiation. In fact, an albino has difficulty seeing under bright light because the retina also lacks pigment that serves as natural shade. Darwinian law of natural selection can explain the rarity of albinos in the animal world. Albinos have little chance to survive and reach maturity, which is nature’s way of correcting her own mistake.

It is only through man’s intervention that albinos are given a chance to survive, giving them a place in his beliefs and culture. In fact, albino elephants are revered in India and Thailand. In Greek mythology, King Minos was given a white bull by the gods, and for not following the gods’ wishes to have the beast sacrificed, he was punished by having a son half-man and half-bull, called the Minotaur.

A figure of speech was developed from the term, white elephant. For example, a grandiose infrastructure that has not been put to use as planned is metaphorically called white elephant. 

“Have you seen a white carabao, ma’am?” “Sir?”...... “Ma’am?” “Sir?”

There was complete silence.~

Photography: Highway Views to Morong, Bataan

 Tail of Summer, April 26 2014      

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Saplings of gmelina scorched by extreme dry and hot summer 

Patches of mahogany, mango and madre de cacao

 make a hillside green.

 Eucalyptus trees stressed by dry and hot air current 
stirred by passing vehicles.  

Bald hills, aftermath of cutting down of trees and swiden 

(kaingin) farming. River bed at left is practically dry. 

Row of native houses patterned after the nipa hut. 

The fields  wait for the coming of rain.

 

 A green valley - palagad rice crop with the aid of 
pump irrigation.  

 

 

 Two opposite views:  newly planted and harvested rice
 fields.  At the background is the Zambales mountain.  

New subdivision lends an urban ambiance to motorists 

driving towards Subic, a former US Naval Base.     

Through the Window of an Old House

Dr Abe V Rotor

Through the Window of an Old House. Vigan, Ilocos Sur

Time overtakes all,

structures crumble,

dreams dim;

acceptance its kindness;

forgetting its end.~

Front Seat Views to the Ilocos Region

Dr Abe V Rotor

Tobacco in bales to Manila.  The Ilocos Region is the principal producer of Virginia tobacco used in cigarette manufacture.

Partas is the biggest bus company plying Manila to Ilocos.  All sorts of vehicles use the highway causing delayed trip and accidents.  Note rosary and religious image of driver of the bus I was riding.  

Newly constructed bridge replaces pre-war bridge (left) in La Union.  The new bridge cuts through a mountain side and detours from the old highway.   

Sidewalk stalls line the highway selling pottery wares and decors.  San Juabn, La Union. 

Ironcraft from agricultural implements and postharvest equipment like threshers and hand tractor, are products by local artisans, to household tool like bolo and knives.   

A typical crossroad where farm-to-market road meets the highway.  Sudipen, La Union. 

A cause of trip delay - tricycle on the highway. In spite of strict campaign the tricycle is an institution sort of - it is people's car whether inthe city or on the countryside. . 

Decors daze the eye at midday.  It is customary to put up overhead decors and bantings to let people know of the town's most important event - town fiesta.  

Locally processed food from vinegar to kalamay to dried fish attract passerby to do some shopping for pasalubong. 

No helmet, no protective gear, motorcycle  riders play hide and seek with highway patrol. "It's just an errand away," is the common alibi. 

Crossroad: To Vigan at left, to Bangued Abra at right.  Opposite but same distance. Rosario, La Union  

Are trees human, too?

Are trees human, too?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Skull and eyes of a tree*,  Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Are trees human, too?

A question its answer is No,

'til you come face to face

familiar no other but you.

*Driftwood with features of a human skull