As a leading province during the Spanish Colonial Era, the province of Iloilo is widely known for its beautiful old-world Spanish architecture similar to that of Latin American Countries. Spanish colonial churches are amongst the well-known tourist sites in the province. The presence of many old churches underscores the high regard the Spanish colonizers had for Iloilo Province as a religious center for the region.

The Miag-ao Church is one of the finest Baroque Churches in the Philippines. It is the most impressive among Iloilo’s formidable array of centuries-old churches. UNESCO declared it as a World Heritage and Conservation Site primarily because it best exemplifies the tropical baroque style of architecture. It is the centerpiece of Iloilo’s architectural tradition. Built in 1786, the Aztec-Baroque-inspired church with Filipino botanicals carved on the façade is known for its intricate facade and pyramidal bell towers. This massive structure…

Syns. R. banksiana, Banksian rose, Banks’ Rose, Lady Banks’ Rose Species.

Cultivated since 1796

If you are in Charleston, SC area, this rose is blooming its head off right now. It’s the best time of the year to see it. It is part of the Charleston landscape at this time of the year!

Rosa banksiae is one of the best shrubs for a wall and will reach the top of most houses in a few years. It produces an abundance of pretty small roses with the sweetest fragrance you can imagine. The flowers are borne on last year’s wood, so it is well-advised not to prune in the spring. Only dead or useless branches have to be trimmed. The introduction date is unknown, but the double white form was first described in the Botanical Magazine for 1818 as Lady Banks’ Rose and one of the sweetest of roses. It has…

Islam predated the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines by at least a century and a half. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, Muslim missionaries from Islamic countries of Malaysia and Indonesia brought Islam to the southern Philippines, even reaching Palawan, Mindoro, and Luzon’s east coast, notably Maynila (the present-day Manila). With Islamicized communities spread strategically through the archipelago from Luzon in the north, Sulu and Maguindanao in the south, and Palawan in the west, the archipelago would have evolved into an Islamic nation were it not for the Spaniards’ colonization.

In 1517, thirty-nine-year-old Portuguese navigator, Ferdinand Magellan, out of favor with the Portuguese King Manuel, crossed the border into Spain and convinced its young, adventurous seventeen-year-old Hapsburg monarch, Charles, to finance an ambitious undertaking: Magellan would discover a new route to the fabled Spice Islands by sailing west across the Atlantic, to South America, from where he could…

The Wentworth Legacy

A Long Island Novel

To read Chapter 1, click here.

Kirkus Review:

Morgan (The Iron Butterfly, 2015, etc.) offers a historical novel about a wealthy young man struggling to choose between marrying the woman he loves and maintaining his family’s legacy.

In 1927, 25-year-old Spencer Wentworth receives a telegram calling him home to New York City from his travels in London. When he returns to his family’s estate on the North Shore of Long Island, known as the “Gold Coast,” he’s devastated to learn that his grandfather has died. Worse, the old man has bequeathed all his personal holdings to Spencer. Daunted by his new obligations regarding the family banking business and the Wentworth Hall estate, he decides to work as a teller in order to learn his business from the ground up. Meanwhile, he grows emotionally attached to his sister’s friend, Lorna Beckett, a middle-class…

Iloilo City, the capital of Iloilo province, is on the southeast coast of Panay, the Ilonggos or Hiligaynons’ homeland. Iloilo City is on the Iloilo River’s wide mouth, which juts out into the Guimaras Strait. The offshore Guimaras Island shelters it.

Iloilo is one of the country’s loveliest Spanish colonial settlements. Iloilo City is a charming place known for its 16-century churches, ancestral mansions, beautiful gardens, unspoiled beaches, and bustling markets in addition to jusi (raw silk) and piña (pineapple fiber) fabrics.

Iloilo is also the cultural, religious, educational, commercial, manufacturing, and transportation center of the Western Visayas. It has retained some of the period’s genteel charm while remaining the most important port in the region since international shipping opened in 1855. Fortunes were made in sugar during the late 19^th century, and some fine old mansions still stand. Life is more relaxed here than in Manila or Cebu…

H/T Western Journal.

Frozen wind turbines can not produce electricity neither can snow covered solar panels.

In the name of environmentalism, many on the left have proposed switching the nation’s energy from reliable fossil fuels to new green energy sources that rely on the good fortune of clear skies and proper wind velocity to power America.

As if that weren’t enough cause to hesitate to indulge in such wishful thinking, another vulnerability has become painfully apparent as a third of the contiguous U.S. was plunged into subzero temperatures Monday due to a polar vortex weather pattern, according to CNN.

Not only have freezing temperatures created an excessive draw on the power grid as residents struggle to keep warm, but generating electricity has also become a major issue for areas that rely on sources such as solar and wind power.

In Texas, freezing temperatures and winter precipitation have caused some…

Kirkus Review:

Morgan (The Iron Butterfly, 2015, etc.) offers a historical novel about a wealthy young man struggling to choose between marrying the woman he loves and maintaining his family’s legacy.

In 1927, 25-year-old Spencer Wentworth receives a telegram calling him home to New York City from his travels in London. When he returns to his family’s estate on the North Shore of Long Island, known as the “Gold Coast,” he’s devastated to learn that his grandfather has died. Worse, the old man has bequeathed all his personal holdings to Spencer. Daunted by his new obligations regarding the family banking business and the Wentworth Hall estate, he decides to work as a teller in order to learn his business from the ground up. Meanwhile, he grows emotionally attached to his sister’s friend, Lorna Beckett, a middle-class girl of striking beauty. At the bank, Spencer learns quickly, but his success is…