That Long Warm Weekend

UNEARTHING SOUVENIRS FROM TRAVELS, organizing prints in need of framing, cooking, eating, barbecuing! Last weekend was warm but wonderfully spent at home.

Long weekends are just never quite long enough.

Various prints from Singapore, Hong Kong and Paris. Photos by Lady San Pedro.

That Good Egg, That Bad Egg

AND THIS BITTER EGG. I had always been a big loser at egg hunts as a child. It's not something I attribute to my having been tiny or athletically challenged but to my having been consistently outnumbered by hordes of yayas or nannies who accompanied other little brats that joined the hunts.

And I'm not talking about one nanny per kid. Some would have up to five or six scouring the grounds for one child who would, naturally, have a greater chance at getting the golden egg.

It was never really fair. But in the true essence of Easter, today I shall let it go. Forgive the Veruca Salts of the world and forget those feelings of having been cheated, mistreated. Whether or not they took place at an egg hunt.

In many points in our lives, there will always be a time when we are made to feel small. But reminding ourselves to keep a good heart, and remembering to be loving and true to those who matter, reaps the best prize of all.

Happy Easter!

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 1971. Directed by Mel Stuart. Starring Gene Wilder.

That Lotus Love

SAID IN INDIAN LEGEND TO HAVE BLOOMED along the footsteps of Gautama Buddha and famed in Greek literature as the wonderful apathy-inducing food of the lotophagi, the fresh and graceful Lotus finds itself to be my new favorite flower.

I've never actually seen Lotus flowers before, at least not still unpicked. So it would have been my first encounter of the much romanticized aquatic perennial at the Nacianceno farm last weekend.

Representing "purity of body, speech and mind, as if floating above muddy waters of attachment and desire", the Lotus represents divinity in various Asian traditions.

I sure could use a bit of that.

Thanks Gino for a leisurely day at the farm! Photos by Lady San Pedro.

That 60s Spirit

MORE THAN THE MODELS, MORE THAN THE CLOTHES, F.C. Gundlach's photography is known for perfectly capturing the spirit of the times. Proper ladies of the 50's, carefree gals of the 60's, and then of other decades that followed.

Taking inspiration from op art in the 60's, he produced some of his most famous images. All day Long at the Beach featured round, swim-capped heads against the pyramids, a clever juxtaposition between circles and triangles.

Avoiding the beach mob migration on this hot long weekend.

Sorry Gundlach, I am not capturing the spirit of the times.

Photographs by F.C. Gundlach, www.fcgundlach.de

That Bunny Heaven

AFTER A WELL-LIVED FIVE AND A HALF YEARS, Smokey bid us farewell as the fattest, feistiest and longest-surviving pet rabbit our family has ever owned.

Blasé in every way, she didn't seem to mind me moving out, leaving her to my dad's adoptive care. But she was fairly passionate about some things; ransacking the kitchen for veggies, unlocking her own cage, gobbling up Daddy's garden and chasing away stray cats that may have found themselves within the property.

When you make it to bunny heaven, please don't take the other rabbits' food.

Goodbye Smokey! We will always remember you.

Seasons of the Bunny by Kozyndan, www.kozyndan.com

This Fan Time

CAN'T MOVE. So hot again in Manila.

Can someone please finally explain to me why jeans, boots and other climate-inappropriate garments are not officially banned in this country?

Ceremonial fans from LACMA African Art collection, www.lacma.org

Those Darling Details

REFINED AND RAISED VERY WELL, the Raoul woman owes its finesse to its parents: husband-and-wife design tandem Douglas and Odile Benjamin.

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin, please adopt me.

Raoul S/S 2011 Capsule Collection at Shopbop, www.shopbop.com

Those Colores y Sabores

NARANJA, ROSA, VERDE, AMARILLO. Consider it a buffet of appetizing color and flavor from the capital of Catalonia.

The best thing about travel, indeed, is being always on foot. So you easily burn everything you consume to make space for more, more, more!

And wandering around really is the best way to come upon the most charming little knickknacks. Ladybug pinwheels anyone?

Various snapshots from Barcelona. Photos by Lady San Pedro.