Angora Fluffy

Dr Abe V Rotor

She is Fluffy for her cottony fur,
Silk to the touch, easy to comb;
She's always around, never gets far,
Even when you're not at home.

Hanging Bridge Across Chao Phraya River, Bangkok

Abe V Rotor



Let me pluck your chords to hear the world sing
of man's triumph over water and vale,
the strain your bear, the pitch of every string,
the tinkling of glasses of wine and ale.
and I would hear the waves below hissing,
endless roar of cars and big ships on sail;
your towers dwarf the old temples shining,
and remind me of the Twin Towers' tale.


Living with Nature 3, AVR

Collective terms for living things. Say "pride of lions," "skein of geese"

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Abe V Rotor

Just say, fisherfolk

We are fond of numbers and we use different terms to denote animals, plants and our own species. These terms given to groups of animals give us distinct and more vivid imagery about their natural gregarious character.

• Lions – pride
• Goat – trip
• Cows – flink
• Sheep – flock
• Birds – flock
• Fishes – school
• Ants - colony
• Flies – swarm
• Cattle – herd
• Bacteria – colony
• Geese – gaggle (on the ground); skein (in the air)

Grouping of plants is unique. Botanists and agriculturists use terms like tillers, as in rice; suckers in banana, runners and stolons in gabi and Bermuda grass, slips in pineapple. All these refer to the asexual progeny of a mother plant, duplicating itself many times in its lifetime. These are agronomic terms: a paddy of rice, an orchard, a grove of coconut, a plot or patch of vegetables.

Among us humans we use many terms such as a battery of lawyers, a battalion or platoon of soldiers, class in schools, team in games. a choir, a batch of graduates, or simply throng for a huge crowd. In an organization we group people into departments, divisions, sections, etc, specifying work and responsibility. Then we have such terms as congregation, fraternity, gang, and the like. But first let’s start with the human species branching into races.

Add on to this list. And keep it handy in class, when reciting or writing.

Living with Nature 3, AVR

Talipapa - People's Mall

Abe V Rotor

Fruits and veggies vendor

Ukay-ukay

Talipapa

Religious items, Quiapo

Souvenir items

Old helping hand

Rolling fishball cart

Window vending

Baskets full of harvest from many a season's toil;
Manna for everyone best grown on our fertile soil;
And goods fashioned by hand by the midnight oil;
To market, to market, I hear the people bid and call;
And hands - young and old come, rough and small;
Of vendors all over, here in this people's mall. ~

Selected from the works of my students in Communications, Faculty of Arts and Letters, UST. Thanks to Marie Laurice Lupoy, Avery Isaac Salaya, Ngu M.V., Marco Marcelo, Kimberly Chua, and K.F Nepomoceno.

Practical Agro-ecology and Agribusiness Models

Abe V Rotor

School on Blog for agro-ecology and agribusiness. List down the application of each of these models, and specific projects that are based on them. If you are familiar with other systems, kindly add them through the Comments in this blog.









Living with Nature 3, AVR

The Mystery Child

Abe V Rotor

In a workshop for adult leaders, the instructor asked the participants to draw on the blackboard a beautiful house, a dream house ideal to live in and raise a family. It was of course, an exercise, which in the minds of the participants was as easy as copying a model from experience and memory. Besides it is a universal dream to own such a house, and its concept allows free interplay of both reason and imagination.

The participants formed a queue to allow everyone to contribute his own idea on the blackboard The first person in the queue drew the posts of the house, on which the succeeding members made the roof and floor. The rest proceeded in making the walls and windows.

On the second round the participants added garage, porch, veranda, staircase, gate, fence, swimming pool, TV antennae, and other amenities. Finally their dream house was completed and they returned to their seats.

A lively “sharing session” followed and everyone was happy with the outcome of the exercise, including the teacher.

Just then a child happened to be passing by and saw the drawing of the house on the blackboard. He stopped and entered the classroom. He stood there for a long time looking at the drawing and the teacher approached him and asked what he thought about the drawing. The child said in a mild and soft way,

“But there are no neighbors!”

In the same village there was a similar workshop exercise, but this time the participants were to draw a community. The participants made a queue on the blackboard and after an hour of working together, came up with a beautiful drawing of a community.

There were houses and at the community center were a chapel, school, market, village hall, plaza. Roads and bridges make a network in the village showing people doing their chores. Everything that makes a typical village is in the drawing.
The participants discussed, “What constitute a community,” and everyone was so delighted.

Just then a child was passing by, and when he saw the drawing on the backboard, stopped and entered the classroom. The teacher approached him and asked what he thought about the drawing. The child said in a mild and soft way,

“But there are no trees, no birds;
there are no mountains, fields, river!”

Some days passed since the two workshops. No one seriously bothered to find out who the child was or where he lived. Then the whole village began to search for the child, but they never found him – not in the village, not in the town, not in the capital, and not in any known place.

Who was the child? Everyone who saw him never forgot his kind, beautiful and innocent face. The workshop participants and the whole village pondered on his words which remained a puzzle to them for a long time.

They pondered on the words of this mystery child which became the greatest lessons in ecology:

But there are no neighbors.
But there are no trees, no birds; there are no mountains, no fields, no river.”

Home, Sweet Home with Nature, AVR

Living Chain

Forest Primeval in acrylic, AVR 2002

How wonderful is creation
when we realize in a miniscule
the universality of the simple
linked to the complex,
where every living thing is part
of life’s interrelationship;
like a chain, its strength
is shared by all its links
in place cooperating.

Home, Sweet Home, AVR

Job

Abe V Rotor

On-the-spot painting, Sacred Heart Novitiate QC, AVR 2000

Make haste while the essence
of Job is fresh memory trove;
we live with an urgent sense
of compassion from above -
in suffering, sweeter is love.

Living Veil

Abe V Rotor


Filter the dust, the sun, and the rain;
The images of clouds passing by;
The thoughts that come to my brain,
The pain that makes people cry.

Veil of foliage of fire tree (Delonix regia).
UST Botanical Garden

Tabon Abandoned

Abe V Rotor

Tabon Cave, Palawan

Stars grow old and die without trace,
Leaving but imprints in the mind
That illumine hope and praise;
And Tabon was then left behind
By man's stirring to conquer space.

Home, Sweet Home with Nature, AVR

Valley of Life

Abe V Rotor

Wall Mural AVR 2000 , St Paul University QC

If a child asks, "What makes a valley?"
Forget what you may have read -
valley of death or valley of sorrow;
valley is the life of the mountain,
more so, that of the river below.
It is a watershed, it is a trough,
where clouds gather and fall as rain
where trees and flowers grow.

Home, Sweet Home with Nature, AVR

Rice cake: Suman et al
Abe V Rotor

Suman

Tupig

Patupat

Gift of Ceres to our land
in paddies golden in the sun;
manna at par with any kind,
for the young and folks around -
in celebration or just for fun -
life's without the suman.

All ingredients are local farm products: coconut, red sugar, and wrappings of banana leaves. Patupat basket is made of coconut leaves, suman sa ibo is wrapped with buri leaves. Even the bila-o is made of woven bamboo and rattan. It is associated with farm life. such as milling of sugar cane, harvesting rice, and on such social occasions like harana (serenade), fiesta, or just a simple celebration. The quaintness that goes with these delicacies creates a festive atmosphere that is part of our cultural heritage.

The Versatile Burnay

Abe V Rotor

Burnay is made from a special kind of clay mined on Mira Hills, Vigan (Ilocos Sur). It is fired to attain the desired glaze. The traditional pottery has remained virtually unchanged for around two thousand years, believed to have originated in China.

Jars are being prepard for making basi, the traditional
wine of the Ilocanos made from upland sugarcane.

Multipurpose earthen jar (Burnaby) for storing water,
grains, and seeds. A modified burnay, one with a hole
at the bottom, is used in sprouting mungbeans ( togue').

Traditional method of making Sukang Iloko (sugarcane
vinegar) on the farm. Laoag, Ilocos Norte

Part 2: Allergy-Free Stress Busters

Part 2: Allergy-Free Stress Busters

Dr Abe V Rotor

After a hard day's work comes a spent feeling creeping in. Then in the following morning we find ourselves in discomfort with running nose, headache, body ache, elevated blood pressure, or any other symptom we can't describe.

It is because stress and tension drain us not only of energy. They also reduce our natural resistance to allergy. Those prone to allergy are the victims of the daily grind. Even those who are unaware of it begin to suspect there's something wrong with their health. True. Allergy resistance may soon give in to a particular cause. Like other assets, body resistance is lost when we don't use it well. Misuse and overuse lead to abuse, and by not using it (unuse) leads to lethargy.

The key to allergy control is avoidance of the cause (cause-and-effect method). This time we deal with allergy with resistance building by modifying our lifestyle, and elevating our consciousness on a plane of enjoyment and fulfillment with a sense of meaning in our lives. Allergy-control can be achieved through our hobbies and social commitments, personality development, and the like. These may be among the less popular medical approaches. But for many doctors today, here are their recommendations.

• Social Involvement (clubs, parties)
• The Humanities (drawing, singing, drama)
• Meditation (prayer, communion with nature)
• Humor Therapy (healthy laugh)
• Proper grooming.
• Guided Visualization (imagination)
• Biofeedback (internal memo)
• Cognitive Reframing (handling an experience)
• Hypnosis (hypnotherapy)
• Journaling (diary, autobiography, literary)
• Massage, sauna
• Yoga, Tai-chi
• Walk in the park.

When you feel down remember your favorite things. Your hobbies. Personal collections. Have you forgotten them? Birthdays, anniversaries, homecoming, fiestas - they buoy that sagging spirit. Come on, get out of bed or that lounging chair.

Take a break. Spend the weekend well, take a rest - a vacation. Follow Nature's trail, camp with the family away from the city, from your workplace. Make a kite and fly it too. Cast your fishing rod. Even with a small catch, you shall have caught the biggest fish - good heath, happy family, bright outlook in life.

Part 3: Ensure your family with allergy-free foods

Dr Abe V Rotor

Are you sure your favorite foods have no allergic effect to you and your family? When going to market and cooking, review your list of allergy-free diet. Always keep an eye on allergy symptoms.

1. Remove allergy-provoking items from the food cabinet.
2. Carry a list of allergy-provoking items when shopping or eating outside.
3. Remember the most allergenic of all food items is milk, so with its many products like cheese.
   
4. The most allergenic food plant is peanut. Peanut may also carry aflatoxin produced by a fungus that grows on damaged and poorly dried peanut.
5. Avoid foods loaded with preservatives (salitre in tocino, benzoic acid, glacial acetic acid)
6. There are seafoods some members of your family may be sensitive, among them are tahong (green mussels), crustaceans, tulingan and tanggigi fish.
7. Decaffeinated coffee, magic sugar (aspartame), fatless fat (Olestra) are known to trigger allergy and asthma. Bromate in wheat flour and sulfite in white sugar are also culprits.
   
8. Limit intake of fatty acids, saturated fats, and the like.
9. Reduce if not avoid alcoholic drinks. Limit your coffee, tea and chocolate. beverages.
10. Poultry meat and eggs may trigger allergy in some people, so with other meat.
11. Raw honey carries pollen. It's the pollen that triggers allergy and asthma. Too much sugar should also be avoided.
12. These are generally allergy-fighting foods: fruits and vegetables, Magnesium-rich foods (spinach, cashew, beans), Zinc-rich food (oysters, lentils, legumes, yoghurt)
13. Use vegetable oil instead of animal fat. Coconut oil is one of the safest vegetable oils.
14. Avoid commercial food seasoning. It's better to use natural spices like ginger, onions, garlic, black pepper and the like.
15. Foods from algae (Spirulina, Chlorella, Porphyra) are generally safe, but not foods from fungi (mushroom, Ganoderma, tainga ng daga or Auricularia)

Your lifestyle influences allergy and asthma. For example dehydration triggers allergy and asthma. So with extreme hunger. Sudden exposure to heat and cold is bad. Don't stay under the sun too long. Talk with your family doctor about allergy and asthma. Have a regular medical checkup.