Children’s Poster Making Contest, January 28, 2024 - San Vicente Ferrer Parish

Children’s Poster Making Contest

January 28, 2024 - Theme

 God’s Word: Breath of New Life

A joint project of San Vicente Parish church and Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, in celebration of  National Bible Month 2024. (Scene of last year's similar affair under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia.).)

Guide to the interpretation of theme

God’s Word – Biblical, experiential, practical application

through love and care, respect and reverence, peace and unity

Breath – through teaching, communication and media, family and home, reading and internet

New Life – healthy and happy living, clean and unspoiled environment, peace and order, values and discipline

          Visualization and Imagery

World peace – Stop war in Gaza, Ukraine, other war-torn areas, support UN appeal, heed the white dove message

Good must prevail – Conflict does not solve differences, good builds on goodness, never on evil, love and justice as denominator of human dignity and character

Clean Environment – pollution-free air, land and water,

Man is friend of nature, guardian and protector, concept of Mother Earth and Child (young generation)

         Youth is the Hope of Motherland and Mother Earth

Hundreds of ways to make life and everyday living better

through the initiative, idealism and persistence of children and youth

Save our Planet Earth – Stop its destruction, we are in one ship, SOS is the battle cry.  The youth are at its helm, they comprise the new generation of the "captain and his crew."

Make symbols functional, practical, humanitarian – Forest is a cathedral, park is a place of worship, house is sacred if there is peace and unity, beauty symbolizes highest plane of human achievement (never an eroded landscape or shanty community)

         Attire and Tools

Pastel colors (set of at least 10 colors)

Illustration Board (1/2) or whole cartolina (white side)

Pencil, eraser, rug (optional)

Comfortable casual clothes, spare clothes.

Towel and toiletries, other things as needed

Venue, Instructor and Facilitators

Living with Nature Center, Poblacion, c/o Rotor Family

Dr Abe V Rotor

Church organizations leaders

Volunteers

          Talents and Intelligences – Chart guide

          

"If we want to know the Glory of God, if we want to experience the beauty of God, and if we want to be used by the hand of God, then we must LIVE in the WORD of God." - David Platt

My Waterhole

                                                           My Waterhole   

Dr. Abe V. Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Alug or Waterhole in acrylic by AVRotor, 2000

Memories come easy on this foot bridge

Many years ago I built across a stream,

Stream in monsoon and pond in summer,

Alug, as the old folk call it - a waterhole.

It was my waterhole; I saw the world in its water -

Images of airplanes cruising, birds migrating,

Clouds in many patterns, many faces and hues;

The arena of wit and skill, fishing for hours.

And fishing not for fish but dreams,

Dreams about far places, of beautiful things,

Dreams almost real, even as they fade away

In ripples and into the dusk.

One day I woke up to find my waterhole

Swallowed up by floodwater from the hills,

Washing away the air castles I built,

And down its path it took summer away forever.

I walked the bridge to its far end and beyond,

And down the river to the sea I cast my pole.

It was a fight I fought, it was no longer game,

And it was neither fish nor dream I caught.~

Sunshine on Raindrops, AVRotor Megabooks, 2000 ~

Saksakulap, the Spirit Bird

Saksakulap, the Spirit Bird

Cadaclan Mountain, San Fernando, La Union

                                                Dr Abe V Rotor

The saksakulap bird or Philippine frogmouth bird (Batrachostomus septimus), mimics a tree stump and remains completely motionless even as it senses danger. Matthew Marlo, son of the author examines the bird's nest and egg. Photos by the author.

Old folks believe that the bird is either the spirit of a beautiful maid or a fairy guarding the forest of Cadaclan. When the bird felt threatened, it attempted to divert the attention of its enemy from finding its nest and egg by silently falling from her nest and surreptitiously dashing away underneath the bushes, then made a bluffing noisy take-off. Photos by the author with telephoto lens (left), and ordinary lens (right) c.1999?

"There she is Papa," my boy whispered.

A telephoto away, a drama on stage,

Lianas and foliage reigned instead,

And a shadow hid the message.

Calm in summer spread on the open.

An arena of camouflage and deceit.

The unseen to be seen. At the end,

We knew little of this game of wit.

Bruised we tread on cautioning our feet,

To find a hidden vantage view.

There sat in a Darwinian outfit,

Motionless she posed yet knew.

One click, and another, a view to freeze,

But like cotton she dived, crept then flew,

A ploy to save her brood and species,

Leaving us in wonder and awe.

"She is a spirit bird," the folks said.

"She was once a shy pretty maid,

To the kindhearted she's not afraid."

Sighed we who made the raid. ~

------------------

Rarely seen bird gets limelight in forest plan

JUNE 5, 2013 BY ARIES MUNANDI

THE FOREST of Mangatarem, Pangasinan, is home to the Philippine frogmouth or “saksakulap.” Pangasinan—It looks like an owl but its beak is as wide as a frog’s mouth. It is a bird that is often heard, and rarely seen, because of its loud sound “Kaawww” or its staccato “Wak wak wak.”

Head profile of saksakulap

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAWB-DENR ILOCOS MANGATAREM,

That’s the “saksakulap,” the very elusive Philippine frogmouth (Batrachostomus septimus), which has become the poster creature of government programs to protect the critical Mangatarem forest, the largest forest in Pangasinan with an area of 6,500 hectares. It is a part of the 139,679-ha Zambales mountain range, which straddles Pangasinan, Tarlac and Zambales.

The Mangatarem forest is now in the five-year New Conservation Areas in the Philippines Project (NewCAPP) of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB).

NewCAPP is being implemented with the local government and Haribon Foundation and with funds from the United Nations Development Program-Global Environment Facility. Protecting the Pangasinan-Zambales rainforest would mean protecting the saksakulap, said Leduina Co, provincial environment and natural resources officer. The saksakulap and other Mangatarem forest inhabitants also serve as tourist attractions at Manleluag Spring Protected Landscape System, part of the Mangatarem forest.

While not a threatened species yet, the saksakulap, which has white bands on the breast, is seldom seen even by residents.

The saksakulap is nocturnal and is a “shy bird,” according to Cora Marie Pugal, an expert from the PAWB Ilocos regional office. It is small with a length of 230 millimeters and wingspan of 138 mm. It hides during the day, perching on branches and is often mistaken for a broken branch because its gray-brown feathers render it indistinguishable from tree bark.

At night, it forages for insects, its main food. Aside from the saksakulap, the forest is also home to other species.

Birds comprise most of the life that thrive in Mangatarem which hosts 96 bird species like the Philippine parakeet, the horn bill, coleto and malkoha; eight species of mammals like the cloud rat, wild boar and Philippine deer, and reptiles like the water monitor lizard. Four threatened species are living in the Mangatarem forest: the Philippine duck (Anas luzonica), the flame-breasted fruit dove (Ptilinopus marchei), the ashy ground thrush (Zoothera cinerea) and the Philippine warty pig (Sus Philippensis).

According to a NewCAPP report, the biodiversity of the Mangatarem forest is threatened by hunting, unregulated gathering of forest products, charcoal making and illegal logging.

NewCAPP said the forest is also threatened by the invasion of exotic species, “kaingin” (slash-and-burn farming) expansion into forest lands, unregulated mining and quarrying.

Source:newsinfo.inquirer.net ~
Author's Note: Acknowledgement, Aries Munandi et al. Based on this report, this rare bird appears to have a wide habitat range. I personally encountered the bird at the La Union Botanical Garden on Cadaclan mountain sometime in the late nineties. ~

*Acknowledgement: Internet
Reference: Sunshine on Raindrops, AV Rotor
Copyright Abercio V Rotor & Megabooks Company 2000

Lost Forest

               Lost Forest
                       Dr Abe V Rotor

Table model of a "Lost Forest" from termite nest, by the author

A staccato of chirping meets the breeze and sunrise,
Rushes the stream where fish play with the sunbeam,

Waking the butterflies, unveiled by the rising mist;
And the rainforest becomes a stage one can't miss.

     John Milton wrote his masterpiece of Paradise,

     Ludwig Beethoven composed minuet at sunrise;

     Jean Fabre and Edwin Teale with lens to see,

     Discovered an inner world Jules Verne did agree, 

     And Aldo Leopold's world in unity and harmony.

That was long time ago, now it's a race for progress,

Taking the streets, marching uphill up to the forest - 

There giant machines roar, ugly men at the helm;

Folly, ignorance and greed are one and same.

Reference:  Sunshine on Raindrops 

Copyright 2000 Abercio V Rotor and Megabooks Company

A Philippine Indigenous Orchid (Cymbidium Finlaysonianum),

A Philippine Indigenous Orchid

(Cymbidium Finlaysonianum) 

                                                Dr Abe V Rotor

Inflorescence of C Finlaysonianum; closeup of flower

Growth habit of the indigenous epiphytic orchid, and pods

It is a native orchid. I found it clinging on a fallen branch of a big tree in Mt. Makiling forest. Being an epiphyte I tied it on the trunk of a talisay (Terminalia catappa) at home in Quezon City. It was not difficult for the new transplant to find a new home - in our home. It is because just across the wall at the back of our house is the sprawling La Mesa Watershed. It must be the "forest climate" that approximates that of Mt. Makiling in Laguna, that this native orchid got acclimatized easily.

Among the five Cymbidium species, C. Finlaysonianum is the most widely distributed throughout the Malaysian area, It was collected by Finlayson in Chin-China in the nineteth century. It was dedicated to him by Lindley, who originally described the plant in 1832. There is also a close relative, Cymbidium atropurpureum, its name taken from its dark purple flowers. Because of its closeness to C. Finlaysonianum in all morphological aspects, botanists consider it to be a variety of the latter.

The leaves of this species are leathery and coarse, 35 to 40 inches long and 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide. The raceme is pendulous, about two to four feet long and many-flowered. The flowers are two inches in diameter, sepals and petals rather narrow, long, and colored dull tawny yellow with a reddish-brown median line. The labellum is three-lobed, the center lobe being whitish with a yellow disk and purple-crimson apical spot.

Unlike most domesticated and hybrid orchids that bloom any time and for long periods, I observedthat this wild orchid is sensitive to photoperiodism. It blooms usually in summer - in March and April - and the flowers last about two weeks. I like the characteristic mild fragrance specially in early morning.

Orchids are among the easiest plants to propagate, vegetatively that is, either by tillers (shoots), or by tissue culture, a specialized laboratory procedure. This compensates for the extreme difficulty in propagation by seeds. The seeds of orchids are the most difficult to germinate. Even if they do, survival rate is very nil. It is because the viability of orchid seeds is very short and difficult to monitor.

I have yet to succeed in germinating the seeds of C Finlaysonianum. Even if I fail, I am delighted to have a wild orchid luxuriantly growing in my home - its home. ~~

References: Philippine Orchids by Reg S Davis and Mona Lisa Steiner[

Living with Nature in Our Times
Copyright 2007 Abercio V Rotor and University of Santo Tomas

The Art of Loafing

The Art of Loafing

                                               Dr Abe V Rotor

                                Living with Nature School on Blog

UST Graduate students in ecology under the author on 

a field trip, Peñablanca, Pampanga, 2010

Be like Thoreau and Darwin,

world's greatest loafers,

toying ideas that shock the world

by Civil Disobedience,

and Survival of the Fittest.

For the mind soars to the sky

by imagination more than reason,

and time is kindest

when the body stops working

and the spirit calm,

To nurture the hidden genius,

in sparks and spurts,

otherwise spilled to waste

in worries and cares,

and undue haste.

Churchill by the Thames,

painted peace,

when the sky was burning,

and thunder and bomb

were but one sound.

Audubon's birds were real

like living specimens,

with time at his command;

and Solomon halted his army

to let the ants pass in band.

Loafing, the habit and the art,

robs and rewards:

he by the hearth falls asleep

in spring; and who fishes ideas 

with a fishing pole. ~

Your first work is a masterpiece

Your first work is a masterpiece

                                                Dr Abe V Rotor

Old photograph of one of my earliest paintings. I never saw

this painting again. (oil on plywood, 10" x 12") circa 1965

Don't throw away your early work

if not in favor of your judgment

or of others; you are not the critic

nor they, but time and art,

for it could be your masterpiece,

the window of your soul,

its expression at the break of dawn,

when light is fresh and pure.

and through the years to old age,

your work unfolds to the world,

the stirrings of your youth

seeking perfection in dream.

And imperfection is all it shows,

a felled tree half buried lives on

in a hill of flowering weeds,

eternal and beautiful.~