What's Blooming?

There's ALWAYS something blooming at our new house in Puna.  Here's a photo of the Firecracker tree blossom that I promised to post earlier this month.

Other blooms that appear at this time of year on our property are the ubiquitous Nun's Cap orchids. 

When we first moved in, I relocated about a dozen of them from the inaccessible wooded areas and created a whole bed of white blooming plants and shrubs around the Ohia trees just outside the front door.


Additionally, there is another kind of "BLOOMING" taking place and I have finally returned to the studio to continue an exploration of a variety of abstract shapes that have been haunting me for months. 

During this past year, property management issues took priority, whether that was clearing the land, building the apartment/ohana, completing the art studio, garden preparation, etc.  While doing all this physical work, several bright, graphic geometric images kept coming up in my brain -- and now that all the major projects are completed, it is exciting to return to them -- and see where they may lead me.

Wood Chuck Could Chuck Wood

Now that most of the 2013 projects are completed, and we have built a big roomy wood shop, Phil has returned in earnest to his passion for wood, exploring the many kinds of wood here on the Big Island.

The first one is visually self-explanatory, but the second one has a story associated with star navigation techniques used by the ancient Polynesian people on their ocean voyages, by canoe, that led them to discover many islands in the Pacific. The bird is the elegant white-tailed Tropic Bird.

Au i ke kai me he manu ala
(cross the sea as a bird)

 

Journals (and more journals)

27 journals covering nearly 50 years

Even when I packed them all up (all 27 of them) I must admit my ambivalence.  In our relocation to Hawaii, they represented only two boxes, and almost 50 years of journal-keeping.  Lots of people keep journals; mine date back to 1977 and they have been a great tool to work through things both old and icky as well as new and exciting.

But, why keep them?  My dear long time friend Yani smiled when I told her I was bringing them and told me that she too had moved all her journals when she retired to south Kona.  She confessed, though, that the rats finally got into the boxes and made nests -- probably a good metaphor, actually.  Yet, I couldn't bring myself to dispose of them, just yet.

And, so after a year of being in a sealed cardboard box, here in Puna, OF COURSE they were beginning to mold.  It was not a big expenditure of energy to wipe them all down with mold killer, and leave them out to air out before packing them all up again.  So, it is an interesting lesson in our attachment to our own stories -- or at least MY attachment.  I am clearly not ready to toss them out, nor am I willing to let the mold or the rats have them.  For now, I can just observe my obsession, chuckle a little, and withhold judgment for another day.

Sun Path

When we bought our house in the Puna District and moved to the Big Island of Hawaii, we expected more sunshine.  And of course, when we bought our house in Leilani Estates, we had our compass in hand so we could see how the sun would arc across the property. (Here's a photo I took at Winter Solstice.)

What we have discovered after a full year, is a rather interesting phenomena; during the winter and summer solstice, the sun rise actually aligns with the physical corners of our property.  At the back of our land, there are two trees that have been marked by the surveyor.  During the summer solstice, the sun rises directly behind one tree, and on the winter solstice, it rises behind the tree  at the opposite corner.

This observation is undeniable!  Why?  Because as the sun rises, it comes directly through the house -- and shines in our windows -- crossing over our respective pillows.  That means in the winter, you can actually SEE the sun coming in one side of the house, and in summer, coming in from the other side.  It is like the sun's path makes a big X right through our house!  To a LEO, these things matter!

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

(mahalo to annalobello for her tarot image at deviantart.com)

Poppin' PINK!

One of the first trees we planted is commonly called a "firecracker tree" and even after asking around, we have yet to find it's botanical name. (do YOU know?)


 It usually blooms just in time for New Years and here are the baby PINK buds, just waiting to burst.  I'll include another photo after the explosion.

Next are some PINK orchids that we found hidden under piles of overgrown vines and ferns.  Last year we divided them, and it looks like they too like to bloom in January.  We placed a few at the feet of our Frank Lloyd Wright statue -- our front door greeter.





Finally, is our Double-D size passion fruit, now sporting a PINK make-shift support bra.  The fruit is now over 9" long, and if it fell off the vine at this point, it might just splatter and we'd never see it ripen.

Aren't we just Pretty N Pink!!

Best Christmas Gift EVER!

Some of our friends and relations may recall a tearful December in 2012 when the moving company arrived to load up all our personal belongings for shipping to Hawaii.

The lovely woman who bought our house was to take possession the following morning at 8am, and it was midnight when the movers informed us , "sorry, we can't take it all." After being assured for months that we had nothing to worry about in terms of space, we were in shock, and ended up leaving several boxes, which at that point we didn't even know what they contained.

This month, having completed all the projects for our retirement house in Puna on the Big Island, we began to sort through art supplies only to find, alas, that many treasures were missing.   Included were a set of colored pencils (about 100 or more) a set of 50-60 colored pens, good metal rulers, color wheels, watercolors, etc.  All totaled the replacement cost would be well over $200.

We took a chance, and with a prayer, emailed the new owner of our sweet Eureka house and inquired -- "did you happen to find a box -- a year ago, filled with art supplies."  Of course, we had no way of knowing whether they were MIA (as many thing in the moving process were), or whether it may have been a box we were forced to leave behind.  Ridiculous, right?  Well, have a little faith!

Imagine our surprise when Emily's prompt email not only informed us that YES, they still had them, but that she would be happy to ship them off to us priority mail.  TODAY, over a year later, we are celebrating the Best Christmas gift EVER....and grateful for the simple reminder that asking for what you want and need can yield amazing results.  MAHALO & ALOHA EMILY!!

RAMBUTAN

Blue Fenton bowl for Christmas!

Well they are not hairy alien sheep balls!

But what ARE they?
RAMBUTANS

At the market on Sundays we are always on the lookout for one of Phil's favorite treats! Simply split the skin and pop out the succulent little ball.  To us they taste like a grape, but more hmmm... "tropical."

Rambutans are a fruit from South East Asia.  They have been cultivated by local people for many years.  In fact there are still jungle tribes who cultivate them at their settlements.

 

Brrrrrr! Hu'ihu'i

Much of the mainland is experiencing REALLY cold weather, but in Puna, on the Big Island, we are cold (Hu'ihu'i)  too.  Yesterday we found ourselves rummaging around for jeans and sweatshirts -- and glad that we did save a few.

All those baby seeds I planted two days ago in 80 degrees need sun!  OK, we are not going to whine about the weather!  However, it is day to cook up a pot of potato leek soup with real butter and milk, and just to completely clog up the arteries, crumbled bacon as a garnish!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!  HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

A New Year!

Since Phil graduated from Michigan State, and the Spartans got to the 100th Rose Bowl to face down Stanford's football team, of COURSE we spent part of the day watching the game -- ending with a WIN for the Spartan Nation 24 to 20!

 Phil's mom in Michigan was watching it too.
 (Hi mom!  Wasn't that a great game!)

The new year began bright and beautiful and today, I planted more seeds in the shade house.  Green onions, beets, several basil plants.  The lettuce varieties are already up and the bok choy is looking great too.  Spinach is on it's way and a new batch of green beans and radishes are popping up too.

All in all -- a great start for a new year!

PASSION in 2014

In Feburary 2013, we wanted to include passion fruit in our mini orchard. There are many varieties of passion fruit from all around the world, and in Hawaii, the common name used for them is Lilikoi.  The most common variety produces a small yellow fruit 2" in diameter filled with seeds and juice.  These vines are ubiquitous, grow like crazy and the flavor is intensely tart and sweet. 

We thought it would be fun to have a second variety, so we bought another one someone told us was a purple passion fruit (passiflora edulis).  Well, when it began to flower, and we looked it up, it was NOT the purple passion variety at all.  In November it began to fruit and is now the size of a eggplant!  Supposedly it will take another month to ripen.

Now that we have correctly identified it Phil has the final questions:  Just how many Lilikoi cream cheese cakes will this make?