Lovers At The Farmhouse Café
Creating A Bit Of Drama With Water Lilies In Sepia
Last Saturday, at T. Ana’s invitation, we visited a quaint bazaar held at the garden of Frogglerocks, a.k.a. the Gutierrez residence located at the far end of Beverly Hills subdivision. Among the great bargains we discovered were …
… malunggay pesto sauce from Herb’s Best (the bottle’s nearly empty after only a couple of days, what with pesto-freak Raja heaping it by the spoonfuls on anything passing for carbo) …
… these intricate golden wire earrings fashioned by T. Emma …
… and a long necklace of beads and stones crafted by T. Jeanne.
Amid the shopping, I strolled around Frogglerocks and took pictures of (among other sights) a small pond with water lilies.
Back home, I started going over and editing the photos. At one point, something about the whiteness of the lilies on the pond’s textured plane gave me an idea. What if I convert the pictures to sepia?
Now’s a good time to look up the meaning of the word before we continue. Pronounced SEE-pee-uh or see-PEE-uh, it’s defined by The Free Online Dictionary as:
n.
1.
a. A dark brown ink or pigment originally prepared from the secretion of the cuttlefish.
b. A drawing or picture done in this pigment.
c. A photograph in a brown tint.
2. A dark grayish yellow brown to dark or moderate olive brown.
adj.
1. Of the color sepia.
2. Done or made in sepia.
A toning technique commonly used to impart a timeless effect on portraits, sepia simulates the patina of age. The same technique can also be applied – as I happily found out – to lend a sense of dramatic flair to the white lilies in opaque pond water.
Let’s start off with the original pictures in full color:
After experimenting with removing most of the color, trying out varying intensities of sepia tones and doing some sharpening here and there, we have these:
Sepia makes quite a striking change, doesn’t it? 
P.S. Let’s play a game! How many shapes of Pac-Man (the classic arcade game character, not boxing champion Manny) lurking in the water can you see?
Posted in: Better Earth, A HEdCen Oldie's POV, Photo Gallery | Comments(2) | December 2009
Ever Had a Free Breakfast at Vieux Chalet?
Living in the same neighborhood where Susan Hassig’s Vieux Chalet (pronunciation: vyoō shalā) is located has its perks. Susan has graciously hosted a couple of breakfast meetings of the Taktak Road homeowners, including the one we had this morning.
I was among the first to arrive. Susan had prepared a long table setting for 14-16 persons and a smaller table laid out for 6 pax.
Most of those expected to attend arrived shortly and breakfast started at 8:30 a.m. We had coffee, basil tea, and mango shakes (sweetened with and darkened by muscovado) to go with a buffet of pancakes, sausages, ham, bacon, eggs (scrambled and sunny side up), bread and butter, and fresh fruits. Here’s T. Jeanne leading off for the ladies.
As we enjoyed the fare, the group talked about updates on community projects initiated by the homeowners and discussed proposals for new ventures.
One of the first establishments to open in this part of Antipolo (now teeming with resorts), Vieux Chalet has kept pace with the competition commercially, and one-ups them in the social responsibility department. It regularly sponsors child-feeding programs, and Susan (below listening to Fr. Manny) is also a member of the foundation that provides livelihood assistance and day-care services in Purok Sampaguita.
If you’ve been to Vieux Chalet more than once before, you’ve probably noticed that Susan - a part-time artist - loves playing around with the interior decor. The current set-up showcases a mother-and-child by Willam Yu on the window near the entrance …
… and, across the restaurant at the opposite window, a Sayman painting of two fishermen hauling in their catch…
… while atop the piano rests this intriguing mask-on-a-hand-pedestal piece amid loose music sheets …
Oh, just in case you’d like to check out today’s specials on the menu, here they are:
So, if you’re interested in going to Vieux Chalet for the first time or visiting it anew as T. Connie often does, contact the Swiss resto at 697-0396 and ask for Rico the maître d’.
Congratulations to Susan and the Hassig family for maintaining this gem of a place all these years!
Posted in: Props, A HEdCen Oldie's POV, Photo Gallery | Comments(0) | February 2009