Quimontod memories

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During my pre-school years, we were living in the sub-urb  called (Sitio) Quimontod. Some called it Quimontod Saday. Don’t know where Quimontod Daku is. It is more or less half hectar land. At the center of the land is hill where our house was located. Two grand mothers were with us. My mother’s mother, May Paui and my mother’s Auntie, Nay Tinay who was an old maid. She was very industrious, and religous. She built an altar herself from boulders around the area. She also makes wine from balig-ang fruits.

Quimontod has a lot of fruit bearing trees and ornamental plants. There were balig-ang-which is delicious to shake with sugar (linu-go), makopa (with beautiful pink flowers), tambis, hagis -with a mouth-watering colors when riped, kayumito (star apple),tapayas (papaya), gumihan, pili nuts, biriran (balimbing) and of course lots of lumbod (buko). One makopa tree was cut down for I had fallen from it. I’ve over-heard my brothers talking about salag and piso (nest and birdlings) of palago. Out of their sight, i climbed the makopa to see the birdlings they were talking about. I did saw it, but when I was going down, I stepped on a dead branch that caused me to land on a rock head first. Luckily I survived. But the memories are clear even I was 6 years old at that time.

Pathways were lined up with different ornamental plants. Our house was standing at the highest part of the land. On the eastern part, lies our small rice paddies. Very small compared to neighboring paddies but until now, it is still an additional source of living for my brother who tills the land.

There was a portion near the rice paddies planted with palawan. A root crop that grows in mudland. But since it is frequently being harvested by intruders, we stopped replanting it until it’s gone. Me and brother J-are made a pond on it. But same thing, tilapia was being fished out by some intruders. But I liked it being a pond ’cause I enjoy seeing the things that grows in it. Like the kurakding (mushrooms) that grows on a log (check the photos). And the pink color eggs of golden kuhol that are attached to the stems of gabi. On the eastern part of the paddies, there is a small creek. We used to fish on that deep portion of the creek we called Libtong. We catch dalag and puyo. On rainy days, my brothers used to make a raft out of banana trunk.

Copra is also a major product of that small parcel of land. But it’s a long hard work before you convert it into cash. Starts from picking the fruits (niyog) by climbing or by kalawit, bringing it to the work area near the agunan (cooking flatform), removing the husk, removing the juice (bat-ak), layering (kamada), cooking (agon), removing the shell (tingkal), compressing it to sack, and finally bringing it to comprada to sell.

These are my memories of Quimontod. Below are the photos randomly taken in april 2010.

Sagpan

We also have a small pond where the water never runs dry. This used to be planted with palawan in my younger years.

Kurakding-an edible mushroom

Another kind of mushroom on the log. Not sure if it is edible.

Lubi-lubi-dilicious for ginataan with tinapa or sardines.

Copra after removing the coconut shell.

My two brothers Bildo and J-are doing “tingkal” (romoving the cocomeat from its shell.)

Our small paddies

A snail and a mushroom

He was busy eating grass when i disturbed him (or her) for a shot.

A palawan leaf