Ajisai (Hydrangea) Season

I grew up as a "Flores de Mayo baby".

Most probably, I learned how to sing the Flores de Mayo songs right before I even learned to sing any other songs. But, if there was one thing that you should never mess with me back then, aside from my off key belting out of Hiligaynon songs, was my afternoon halad (floral offering). We took the preparations of our halad to a different level of "floral geekiness", mind you. Right after lunchtime, we would go around our small garden to look for fully bloomed flowers, or we would even take the pains of walking around the neighborhood, under the sweltering heat of the May sun, to look for wildflowers or go ask to pick some from the untended gardens of our kind neighbors. And, when I had already branded the flower as "mine" no one should dare claim it, too, or that would have meant the start of a war I never would have backed out from.

However, here's the catch: of all the flowers that we were allowed to pick from our mother's and aunt's garden, there was one forbidden plant--- only to be admired from a specific distance. I even made it my personal rule to never touch it, lest I would be tempted to break the blooms from its stem. 😂 The blooms of those prized potted plants were never meant to be picked. They were just meant to bloom there snottily on their clay pots and to be shown off to neighbors and guests until the day all those tiny little pink and blue petals turn brown. As a 10 year old kid that time, with my 10 years' worth of childhood wisdom, there was only one thought that would cross my mind every time I was tempted to secretly pick the million flowers' bloom (Redundant, eh? I grew calling the whole plant "million flowers", that's why.) and would then dream of putting a tiny ribbonette around its delicate stem: WHAT A WASTE OF BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS! In my 10 year old mind, a flower in May, left to wither without being picked to be offered during the Flores de Mayo paghalad, was a waste of precious blooms.

So, imagine how awed I was when I found out that here in Nagasaki, the prized plants of my mother and aunt, are actually growing everywhere! And, I literally mean everywhere!

If truth be told, this was actually my 10-year old self's dream come true.

(Note: Hydrangeas are in full bloom around end of May to mid-June.)