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Romancing the fireplace (1)

This is Part 1 of a three-part essay (one of my all-time favorites) I wrote for my “Pathless Travels” column, which was published in Northern Weekly Dispatch, 19 Sept 2004, Vol. 16 No. 37. It’s already dated in some spots, but mostly it speaks equally well of how I feel now about fireplaces, as how I felt about this inspiring topic in 2004. I hope you enjoy reading it!
fireplace
For many urbanites, the word evokes a lovely romantic evening or a Christmas family gathering. To me, it conjures a very different scene: that of a farm kitchen hearth, centered around what we in Northern Luzon call dallikan.

“Fireplace.” For many urbanites, the word evokes a lovely romantic evening or a Christmas family gathering. Preferably in a mountain resort or temperate clime, of course. For most Filipinos, any yearning for the idealized Western fireplace, complete with thick logs and cozy rugs, could only come true if they had money to rent a Baguio townhouse or to visit rich relatives in Canada.

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Mossy cloud forest, formerly

I wrote this light essay originally as a column piece for the November 17, 2003 issue of Northern Dispatch Weekly. It seems timely that I re-post it here with some minor edits, now that the issue of Baguio City’s rapid deforestation is heating up anew. A giant mall has been intending to cut 182 trees in Luneta Hill, on top of big real estate developers having already cleared up a bigger number of pure  pine stands in and around the city in past years.

 

In a column piece I wrote earlier this year, I confessed to the embarrassing fact that I was a frustrated peasant. A frustrated urban peasant, to be more specific. With emphasis on “frustrated.” At least that’s how I feel, more and more frequently these days.

My wife has more success with her orchids, ferns and peperomias — and to think that she merely used our outhouse-type toilet-bathroom as a rudimentary greenhouse. Without intending it, she turned it into an accidental orchidarium-terrarium, complete with ants, spiders, and lizards that spice up our every visit to the toilet. The only creature lacking is a fruit bat, gecko or baby constrictor crawling along the rough-hewn coconut lumber beams of the outhouse, to give our jungle alcove that extra oomph.

Gecko on house post
The only creature lacking is a fruit bat, gecko, or baby constrictor crawling along the rough-hewn coconut lumber beams of the outhouse to give our jungle alcove that extra oomph.

 

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