Greetings to all my friends 😊😊

You know when you see something really nice and you just have to take tons of photos? That’s me every single time we go to my Auntie’s house in Lanao del Norte. We come here once every four months to get our share of rice from the harvest but the first thing i do when we pull up to the place is grab my phone and start snapping away. This spot is just so, so nice i can’t help it!

The drive to get here is always fun too. We leave early in the morning when it’s still cool and we pass through lots of small towns and villages along the way. The roads are lined with coconut trees that seem to go on forever and there are always people seling stuff by the roadside fresh mangoes that are super sweet ripe bananas and those yummy sticky rice cakes wrapped in leaves..

My mom always stops to buy some because she says they taste way better than the ones in the city. When we finally turn onto the dirt road that leads to the rice fields everything change it gets quiet and you can hear birds chirping instead of cars honking. The air smells so good too like wet dirt and new plants growing and it’s never as hot here as where we live.

One of my favorite photos shows rows and rows of bright green rice plants. They are all neat and straight and when the wind blows they move together like they are doing a dance. There’s dry brown grass growing along the edges of the fields and an old concrete water path that runs right through the front part. It’s not fancy at all some parts have cracks and little weeds growing on it.

But Auntie says it’s been there for years and it’s what brings water to all the plants so they can grow big and strong. I love how it looks next to all that green rice. I took another picture when some parts of the fiields still had water on them that’s how they grow rice you know? You have to keep the ground wet for a while first.

The water is so calm and clear it looks like a big mirror lyinng on the ground. You can see the whole blue sky in it plus the big mountains that are far away at the end of the fields. Those mountains are huge they look like giant green walls standing there to protect the place. Sometimes white clouds sit on top of them like soft hats..

And when the sun hits them just right they look golden. There’s tall grass and little wild plants growing near the water’s edge too they don’t look neat or anything but that’s what makes the whole place feel real and alive. The third photo i took looks out over the fields toward where my Aunties lives along with other farming families.

The rice here is even brighter green than in the other pic and there are little puddles all over the ground that catch the sunlight they look like tiny pieces of shiny metal scattered everywhere. You can see their houses with more coconut trees around them and some of their kids are playing near the fence.. There are a few clouds floating above the mountains like they are stopping to look.

Every time i look at this picture i remember that these people don’t just grow rice to make money this land has been in their families for ages. They take care of it like it’s their own baby. Everyone here is so friendly and warm they greet us with big smiles and gives us cold coconut juice. They let me pick papayas from their garden too. When we load our rice i feel so happy i can’t wait to come back! Lanao del Norte’s rice fields are just so cool!

Till next blog.. Thank you all 😊