Balangay Replica sailing in Manila Bay

(AFP PHOTO / NOEL CELIS / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)

The balangay was the first wooden watercraft excavated in Southeast Asia and is evidence of early Filipino craftsmanship and their seamanship skills during the pre-colonial times. The oldest known balangay was carbon dated to 320 AD by the Gakushuin University of Tokyo, Japan.

The Balangay is a plank boat constructed on a keel and joined together by carved-out planks edge to edge, using pins or dowels. It was first mentioned in the 16^th century in the Chronicles of Antonio Pigafetta, the official chronicler of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition and is known as the oldest watercraft found in the Philippines.

The planks which were made from a hardwood called doongon in the Philippines (Heritiera littoralis) were joined together every 12 centimeters (1 centimeter=.39 inch) by hardwood pins measuring some 19 centimeters long which were driven…

I chose Rosalinda R Morgan as the Featured Blogger of the Week, March 22, 2019. You can visit her blog at https://rosalindarmorgan.com/.

You can also visit her AmazonAuthor page at https://www.amazon.com/Rosalinda-Morgan/e/B00C03KL72 (not an affiliate link).

Her GoodReads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7026949.Rosalinda_Rosales_Morgan

A collection of some of the books she owns (she has about 3,000 and I didn’t count all the books in this link): https://rosalindarmorgan.com/my-home-library/.

I enjoyed her blog post, https://subliblog.wordpress.com/2019/02/17/languages-of-the-philippines/, as I have a few Facebook friends as well as some former co-workers and high school friends who either live in the Philippines or whose family roots are from there.

This was my raised bed a few summers ago. 

The unit next to my townhouse was sold a few months ago and the new owner decided to extend their fenced yard which is allowed by the HOA. They have two dogs and they want more room for their dogs to run around.

Last Friday evening around 7:30 pm, I heard a knock at my front door and it was my new neighbor. He and his carpenter friend, Bill, were digging holes for the posts for his new fence.

“Do you have internet connection?” he asked.

“I hope so,” I told him. “I’m just working at my computer. Why?”

“I accidentally cut a cable outside,” he said.

“Oh no! I don’t think it’s mine.”

“Let me show you the cable.”

I was about to follow him inside his house and decided instead to go through mine. “I’ll meet you in back.”

I’m sorry this weekend’s blog is postponed until next Sunday. Last week was a bit crazy at home with my brother coming for a visit on his way down to Florida and then on his way back up to New Jersey. Then my son went to Florida for a week. With all these comings and goings, my husband (he has chronic kidney disease) felt exhausted and remained in bed for a few days. Taking care of my son’s dog, bringing my husband’s meal upstairs and all these other things, I’m totally wiped out. On top of that, I lost my internet connection on Friday. I’ll blog on that in a day or so. Comcast promised to fix it by Monday (today) which they did late this afternoon. I’m still trying to catch up on my emails. Thanks for your patience.

Barangay originated from the word “balangay”, a kind of sailboat that originally brought settlers of Malay stock from Borneo to the Philippines. It is known as the oldest watercraft found in the Philippines, carbon dated to 320 AD.

The balangay replica docked at CCP Harbor, Manila after its South East Asian expedition.

In the early Filipino settlements, the real social unit in the Philippine society is the barangay. It is a kinship group which evolved out of the manner the archipelago was colonized by early people.

The individual boatloads that settled in the Philippines consisted of a kinship group, a large family group whose head, the master of the boat, retained power as leader of the village established by his family. He was called datu who ruled them and led them in war and who they obeyed and respected.

Barangay villages sometimes grew to include some 30 to 100 families…

Islam was referred to as mohammedanism when I was growing up in the Philippines. There were several religious sects in the country and one of them was mohammedanism, not Islam. Mohammedans (Muslims) practiced mohammedanism. Most of the muslims lived in Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago. Spaniards called them moros because of their perceived resemblance to the Moors of North Africa.

The first Arab merchants to reach the Philippines were non-Muslims, but it’s believed that foreign Muslims had established a trading settlement on Jolo before 1300. Muslim missionaries had come from Arabia to Southeast Asia during the 13^th century and were then aided by converted traders and adventurers.

Unlike the Chinese settlers who exercised substantial commercial power but little political influence, the traders that came from the south 200 years later introduced Islam, an influence that swept through the Sulu Archipelago.

By the mid-14^th century, Islam had spread from Sumatra…

Knollwood with Garden Facade

“Knollwood”, one of architects ‘Hiss & Weekes’ most beautiful country-house commissions, was owned by a number of interesting personalities. It was built between 1906 and 1910 for Charles I. Hudson, a New York City stockbroker of the Gilded Age, at Muttontown on Long Island’s North Shore. The 60-room mansion had elements of Greek Revival, Italian Renaissance and Spanish styling with towering Ionic front columns with terraced garden and a dairy farm to satisfy his passion for raising Jersey cattle.

The house was palatially scaled and elegantly faced with smooth-dressed Indiana limestone, with design details borrowed from a variety of sources, including palaces and country estates by Palladio and Vignola built for Italian princes, and royal residences erected in France during the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

Inside, the house contained 30 rooms with paneling imported from England and marble fireplaces brought from Italy, as well…