Why Retire in the Philippines/Marinduque Vacations: Getting Ready for Our Christmas Dinner

Planning to Retire Soon!

If you are planning to retire in the Philippines soon, I suggest you visit several excellent websites on pro's and cons of retiring in the Philippines. However if you want to retire in the provinces, where life is simple, standard of living cheaper, less traffic congestion and pollution, availability of fresh seafood and vegetables compared to the big cities, my island province is the place for you! If this is your first time in my site, welcome. Some of the photos and videos on this site, I do not own. However, I have no intention on the infringement of your copyrights. The photo above is the front yard of Chateau Du Mer- Our Retirement Home in Boac, Marinduque, Philippines

Friday, December 23, 2016

Getting Ready for Our Christmas Dinner

Our Entrance Hall Ready to Welcome Guests

This year our family reunion Christmas Dinner is scheduled for Christmas Eve tomorrow at around 3PM. Normally we have this celebration on Christmas Day. However, to accommodate Macrine's niece scheduled party for Christmas day we exchanged days.

Tomorrow Macrine will be using her Fine China and Sterling silver sets. Macrine has two sets of silver. One expensive set is manufactured by Towle Sterling. Our pattern is El Grande and we purchased the 40 pc set in 1964. Our other set is stainless by Oneida very much cheaper than the Towle set. The design is almost identical to the El Grande. It is not easy to differentiate the two sets by just looking. However, the Sterling set is twice as heavy and of course marked.

Macrine also planned to use her Bone and Fine Chinas. We have two sets. One set of 60 is Bone China made in Narumi, Mikasa, Japan and marked Hunter 112. The other set is Fine China by Royal Gallery, Jessica Japan, 9005G.

As we started to polish the silver, I notice Macrine has other fine crystals and china. One of them is a tea pot, a Blue Imari shown in the photo below. The Blue Imari trademark can be seen at the bottom of the tea pot.

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Fruit Trees in the Gardens of Chateau Du Mer

The Mango Tree-I have three varieties in my Garden-The Indian, Guimaras and Carabao Mangoes My caretaker/gardener informed me last month that due to the El Nino drought in Marinduque, two of my Durian trees died in spite of his vigilant watering. One of the tree was attacked by insects that looks like a big fly but yellowish in color that sucks the sap of the seedling. The roots of the other tree was attacked by ants residing in the soil. However, my other fruit trees, the rambutans( 2), the lanzones(2) and the jack fruits ( 2) trees are doing well. The above eight fruit trees were given to me by Retired General Recaredo Sarmiento of Boac and Lucena., about three years ago. General Sarmiento is the “atid” of my wife. “Atid” is the colloquial term for brother. Evidently, Macrine's father, the late Bernardo Jambalos was the Godfather of General Sarmiento during his baptism and comfirmation. Gen Sarmiento's hobby is orchard planting, reforestation and farming. The other fruit trees in my garden are guayabanos, cashew, avocados, starapples, duhats, ates, guavas, mangoes( 3 varieties) and papayas as well as several varieties of bananas . Of the above fruit trees, my favorite is the guayabanos, also known as soursop tree known for its anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties . The following are photos of the fruit trees. The Durian photo is from the web. Note that it almost look like a jack fruit tree, except that the leaves are bigger and shiny. My desire is to have a passion fruit tree in the near future. You are welcome to visit my orchard and flower gardens any time, if perchance you are in the vicinity of The Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort and Conference Center.

The Rambutan Tree and Fruits

The Lanzone Tree and Fruits

The Jack Fruit Tree

The Durian Fruit Tree