15 Languages

One of the reasons we love Hawaii is because of the diversity of cultures here.  Recently, on one of our recurring stops at Home Depot, we found this sign that illustrates the point graphically, and introduces the staff there who can assist customers in 15 different languages.

Morning Rituals

This is the view looking out the office area window.

Like most people we have our rituals, those quiet intimate, patterns you fall into comfortably after some 27 years together.  In the morning when we get up, Phil always makes coffee and I take my cup over to the mini-office area facing at huge double window overlooking our south-facing yard.

It's kind of a multi-tasking ritual.  Phil, coffee and remote in hand, flips through the news channels (politely muting the commercials.)  And I, while half listening to the news, scan the emails with one eye while my other is watching the ever changing and amazing view of my own front yard.

Like some opening prayer, I slide the window open full to drink in the fresh rain scented air and listen to a virtual choir of many different kinds of birds.  Crickets may still be chirping along with a few lingering coqui frogs.  Throughout the year, different things are blooming -- this month it is the Nun's Cap wild orchids that I've planted in a large bed around the Ohia trees -- that are also in bloom.

There is a sacred awareness of the earth and all who inhabit here, and each day brings new discoveries.  Today's delight was an enormous absolutely perfect spiderweb backlit by the low sun angle at 8am.  So of course I trade coffee and computer for camera as I traipse out to get the best angle I can -- not easy to do in wet, waist-high stag fern.

After getting it into photo shop for a better look, I realized how much it reminds me of the broken automobile glass I am using for my current art series entitled "Journey."

Rainbow Memories

When Phil was a little boy, he often spent time at his grandma's house (Mabel Scott) where he would take his afternoon naps on her big bed. As he fell asleep, he remembers watching rainbows dancing around the room. A number of years ago, Phil's mom graciously gifted us with the very same lamp that Phil remembers and a leaded cut glass window from the same old family home in Charlotte, Michigan.


For many years this beautiful old lamp (now wired for electricity) hung in our library in Eureka, California, where an east facing window reproduced the same results.

This lamp was one of the many treasures we carefully packed for our relocation to Hawaii.  It has taken a while to determine just where it should go in our Hawaiian hale, but its time has come.  We have asked our contractor to install electrical wiring in our beautiful stairwell -- where much of our art will be displayed.

On January 11th I posted a blog about how the light moves through our house, passing from one corner to another at different times of the year.  At THIS time of year, as we approach the Spring Equinox, the sun is coming directly through the east windows where it hits prisms hanging in the window -- splashing rainbows through the whole open floor plan of our house.

Wickedly Wonderful Wild Wise Women!

When ever you move from a place you have lived for many years, the hardest part is leaving your friends behind.  And, while emails, phone calls and letters are always welcomed, there is just no substitute for a REAL hug from your girl friend.

Recently I have been adopted by a group of women who have been gathering for many years every week.  As I have gotten to know them and they me, somehow it feels as though we have been friends for a long time.  Why is that?

I think it is because no matter your age, women have a kinship -- a bond of experience that serves to unite them and helps them build rich, lasting relationships.  Helena brought a card with her for all of us to sign for her mom, Anita, who is having brain surgery very soon.  Although several people left, a few of the remaining women bunched together to take a photo to send to her with our love and prayers.

When we started talking about our moms, mothers-in-law, grandmothers and sisters, it was as though our women-web spread out wider and wider.  So, we are sending out love to all of our KUPUNA.  And that includes MY mother-in-law, Margaret spending a chilly winter in Charlotte, Michigan!   ALOHA!

Tiny Mushrooms

Overnight, very
whitely, discreetly,
very quietly
our toes, our noses
take hold on the loam
acquire the air....

(Excerpt from Sylvia Plath's
poem "Mushrooms)

Last week our ohana guests noticed a batch of very tiny white mushrooms on a tree trunk along the driveway near the forest side of our property.  They took a photo of them growing along the east side of the tree trunk.

A couple days later, they all appeared to migrate over to the opposite side of the same tree trunk, but the new batch was a silver grey color.  None of them measured even 1/2 inch, and most were much smaller.

  

T-Shirt Quilt

Leaving Humboldt County and relocating to Hawaii meant a drastic change in wardrobes for both of us.  Like many people, I have a rather embarrassingly large pile of T-shirts.... some dating back 35 years now.

As we sorted out and divested ourselves of so many things, somehow the idea of disposing of  all these treasured reminders of by-gone years proved to be too difficult.  So, I packed them all up and they moved with us...with the idea that I would cut up the oldest ones to make myself a quilt.  Now my stack of T-shirts only numbers 6-7 -- and is more in keeping with the climate here.

Today, I began to sort through them all, cutting out squares (many not shown) and using iron-on fusing to prepare them for embellishment for the quilt squares.  My life in T-shirts and many remarkable memories!

Valentine Ohia-Lehua

Happy Valentines Day! 

We remember last year's February too, when all the Lehua blossoms on the Ohia trees around our property were in full bloom. 

The rain showers today covered every blossom and leaf with jewelry, so outside I went with the waterproof camera to try and catch a little of the magic.

Phil knew the perfect approach to celebrate with gifts of a coconut scented orchid (yes, it does smell like coconut) a tomato plant for the garden, and a art tour and lunch in Hilo. 

In other RED news, a couple days ago I caught this shot from our kitchen window.  The flowering plant, a gift from a friend.  The bird was one we found newly dead on the ground when we first moved in.  I have preserved birds for many years, and decided to enjoy the beauty of this honey creeper for a little longer.

There's a FULL MOON tonight and we have planned a trip down to the warm ponds at Ahalanui Park for a moon-lit swim as the concluding step in a lovely Valentines Day.   ALOHA!!!

Down On the Farm

Here's what we do to our guests at Luana Ohana -- makem hana! so, dai dig da holes in da lava ya! 

Visiting guests (now good friends) Zane and Cat from Indiana.  One day they said, "If there's some project you need done, just let us know -- we'd love to help."

We got out the o'o bar, pick axe, shovel, load of compost to plant the latest addition -- a lovely fan leafed "Peach Palm"-

Native to Amazonia, the peach palm fruit was scattered widely by Amerindians throughout the region, where it served as a source of wood for construction and as material for bows, arrows and spears. The peach palm fruit also provided indigenous peoples of the region with flour, palm heart, and cooked fruit flesh rich in vitamins A and C. Paleo-botanical records indicate that the peach palm fruit was being cultivated in Costa Rica as early as 2300 B.C., and when Spanish explorers arrived in Costa Rica in the early 1500s, the peach palm fruit was essential for the sustenance of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean region. (Nature Landings Magazine)
 Photo by jhalasey

Phil on Philippine Rattan!

"Oh, Dexter.....Where's REBA?"

Now is this just too cool!

A couple months ago we ran across on odd little shop across from the fabric store in Hilo where we saw two really cute sets of rattan.  One was white and had 3 pieces, but the other was natural and had 6 pieces (2 already upstairs.)

We finally bit the bullet because the price was about 70% OFF -- and it makes the ohana really cute.  We dumped the old teal loveseat that was our three corgis favorite spot for 10 years -- it really was time; no matter how many times we did upholstery cleaning on it -- it was still "doggie."

Wicker vs. Rattan. Wicker and rattan are not the same, though the terms are often confused.  Wicker is made from a variety of materials, including rattan. Raw rattan is a vine-like species of palm native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Australia that is processed into a number of products including furniture. The plant’s skin is peeled away for use as weaving material, and the solid core is used to make different types of furniture, including rattan wicker furniture.

Back to Art

I am so excited to be in our spacious, light, airy art studio!  The land has been a wonderful and exhausting pallet, but it has been a year since I have dedicated large chunks of time to exploring my own art.

For months now, I have been working on several designs, believing that they would translate into the shattered glass technique I was successfully exploring before our relocation from Humboldt County to the district of Puna on the Big Island.

These are close-ups from two of the series that will give you a taste of the dynamic colors and shapes.

I have also included a page from my art journal so you can see the general shape and direction of this series that, for now I am calling the "Journey" series.  That's what they seem to feel like to me.

(At this time I am working with only the six on the left side.)

There are three pairs.  In my mind I have working titles, but they may simply be numbered Journey #1-6
so viewers are left to their own creativity and curiosity.

....ship to shore
....womb to world
....cell to star gate


(Admittedly, these are my long-loved conceptual favorites -- not always easy to translate into metaphoric image, but always a fun challenge.)