Greetings from newbies! We are diving for the first time into Hive, head-first, thanks to the prodding of our dear friend 
We consider ourselves young at heart, and certainly in spirit, even as we course through our golden years and beyond! We are the eldest among five siblings, mother to one, aunt to nine nephews and nieces, grand aunties to six toddlers, and pet mommas to two cats!
One sister is an accountant semi-retired, a cancer-survivor in remission for five years (Thank you God!), a workaholic and a certified plantita. The other sister is a chemist, fully retired from the workforce, and is discovering new passions outside the laboratory, including, but not limited to gardening, travel, online trading, volunteering, photography and philanthropy.
We currently live in sunny Southern California, or SoCAL, in suburban Orange County, a few miles south of Los Angeles. Born and raised in the Philippines, we have called SoCAL home for the last two decades. We like this part of SoCAL because of its good weather -no harsh winters- low crime rate, and cleanliness. We are also neighbors to an interesting mix of cultures - and exotic cuisines - from various parts of Asia, the Middle East, Mexico, Europe and South America. It is also the home base of several professional sports teams including the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA (National Basketball Association). And of course, it is home to ”the happiest place on earth” – Disneyland!
Sun and Surf
We reside about seven miles from the beach in a city nicknamed as Surf City USA where one finds strong waves, good fine sand and beautiful sunsets. In the morning, although the water is cold, the ocean gets littered with surfers, young and old-all year round. We don’t surf at all, so we watch the surfers from the pier, as they wait for the right waves to ride. In summertime, the beach fills up with families and sunbathers basking in the sand. We like to go for lazy walks, occasional runs, but mostly for filling up our lungs with clean salty air and watching the lovely sunset on the horizon.
At the end of the pier, the structure with red roof is Ruby Tuesday. A restaurant, serving American food and a favorite among beach goers to go and grab breakfast, lunch or dinner. Sadly it is now permanently closed, one of the many businesses affected by the pandemic.
We love nature, plants and flowers galore!!. We take nature walks, visit botanical gardens and flower fields. SoCAL’s colorful flower fields come to life in springtime. Oh they are sooo expansive, some of them have to be toured on wheels if not on foot. When we go to visit, we prefer to walk the mile, immerse in the fleeting beauty of the flowers up close, really close. They last a very short time, only a few weeks at most.
At home, we love creating our own tiny gardens indoors and outdoors. We even grow vegetable gardens in summertime. We try to grow them from seed, cuttings and seedlings. Sometimes we’re successful, other times it's a disaster! For indoors, our favorites are peace lilies, snake plants, spider plants and others that absorb indoor pollutants and thus purify the air.
For the outdoors, we gravitate toward palms, plumerias, bougainvillea, roses, hibiscus, orchids and other tropical plants. They remind us of our childhood home from long ago and far far away.
We love to visit places around SoCal. On long weekends our family would drive and stay for a night or two and see the things what each city offers different from the next one.
