Monday, October 21, 2019

Give Me COLOR!!



VIREYA (lots of colors)
Hawaiian Rhododendron
Ohia trees surrounded by ferns
"Give me color," she said!

Anyone who know Lunel, knows she is a color-queen!  And, now that our multiple building/construction projects are 90% completed the landscaping is moving ahead. We love our front lot which is full of beautiful ohia trees, so that landscaping area will mostly be ferns and trees.
Yes, we can grow iris!
Royal Poinciana 

However we are developing the lot our home is on which is about 1/3 -- much smaller than the fully landscape one acre we had previously in Leilani Estates B.L. (before lava)

Here are a few images of what we have in mind. All of the images are things we have planted or are in pots waiting. (Of course the photos are of fully grown trees.)

For Lunel's birthday, she asked for cuttings from friends, so many things have been in pots rooting for a few months. We thought being at 3500 feet elevation would limit what we can grow -- NOT SO!  We're amazed at how colorful our new garden will be.

These are just a few!! As the garden develops, we will include more photos! Excited to be seeing the building projects completed -- and best news of all -- escrow closing on our new home in a couple weeks.  MAHALO NUI

Angel Trumpet
Blue Ginger

of course bromeliads!




















Sunday, October 6, 2019

To Everything There Is A Season

One of the spacious carports -- beginning rock walls
...even for catching up our blog followers with the latest month of news. (Can't believe it's been over a month since our last blog update.)

From Ecclesiastics come the the words:
To everything there is a season...and
a time to every purpose under heaven..
a time to cast away stones, and
a time to gather stones together.

For over a year we've been "casting away stones"... from the lava/stones that changed our lives too suddenly and dramatically last year.

Now, both figuratively and literally, we are gathering stones together.

Things are moving quickly on the building projects and beginning landscaping. As our regular blog followers know, the art studio was completed many weeks ago; we are both spending happy times there.

Next came the carports: Completing both of the new carports meant also providing large spaces to work even if it is raining.

New table -- without the 3 leaves
Sheetrock done
The purchase of this house included all the furniture -- except a large dining room table. We've known what we wanted -- something solidly classic in wood, with leaves to expand space for dinner parties. We began what we expected would be a long search, but found the perfect table on our second stop!!

Work on the lanai (just off the back porch) began in earnest in September: framing in the space, exterior walls first, then windows, drywall inside, texture and painting. We have beautiful tiles for the floor and assembly has even begun on our new cedar hot tub.



Carving first on Monkeypod wood
Lanai walls textured and painted -
 Phil inspects the extra deep tub
Phil has been continuing his new art direction -- carving and painting -- similar to those we shared on our July 1st blog entry. The one pictured here is of the 'Apapane bird - an endemic Hawaiian honeycreeper who drinks the nectar from the lehua blossoms of our ohia tree forest that surrounds our home. They live in packs and their lovely songs echo in the forest. Their crimson feathers were once used to adorn capes, helmets and leis of the Hawaiian nobility.
Adding color
A time to gather stones together!!

Lunel still works on pages in her journals, but is spending more and more time in the yard; it's a whole new big canvas for her, but her approach this time will be tempered by wiser maintenance choices -- more trees and flowering shrubs -- less weeding.

One of her projects is utilizing the beautiful chunks of lava our excavator dug up for electricity and water to the art studio as well as clearing spaces for the two new carports.

During September we also sold and bought a different truck -- one day! Our contractor needed a new work truck and friends in Leilani just happened to be selling theirs. Even though we planned to eventually replace the older work truck -- we were pleasantly surprised when it all came together so easily.

Although cooler seasonal fall weather is slowing coming, we still have many bright sunny days with temperatures between 70-80 and we both are enjoying it. Nice that the lanai and hot tub will be done before winter season!
(yes, we DO have 'winter' here in Volcano, Hawaii -- at 3500 elevation)