Bok Choy Boy Busted!

As you might guess, growing some vegetables in a rain forest can be a challenge; it is definitely NOT like growing things on the main land.  We are learning about gardening in Puna, where our average yearly rainfall is 120-140 inches per year

We have numerous books and are experimenting with what we can grow out in the sun/rain, and inside in our shade house.  Recently we discovered that some of our bok choy had been chomped off at the stems!  There are bugs and slugs that will do this overnight.

Imagine our surprise, however, when we found out that Dexter Dinkums Wigglesworth III was the culprit!  As many of our friends (and ohana guests) have discovered, Dexter is an omnivore.  He enjoys tidbits of papaya and banana even, pieces of apple as well as ends of the green beans, carrots, and especially the bottom white stem part of leafy greens.

Bok Choy Boy BUSTED!

What we didn't realize is that Dexter can sneak in under the flap of the shade house and have a little afternoon snack.  BUSTED!

(Guess you could say that short stubby dogs like short stubby vegetables.)
  

Quilt Done!

Yes, the quilt is done (check!) and what fun I had with the whole project.  Getting help from Phil and Dexter on the final layout proved to be very helpful.

Next, a trip to Hilo's AMAZING "Fabric Warehouse" on Wednesday (our regular weekly "Hilo Day") where the staff asked to please bring in the completed quilt so they could put it on their website....(who me!?)   But of course I will -- what LEO would pass up an opportunity like that.

I did have someone offer to help me, but I decided to just stick with my own admittedly limited skill-set on this project since I don't plan to make another quilt (but admire so much more all the quilters that I know!)   I spent two full days sewing all the pieces together and pressing it.  Then another two days went into sewing the front to the back and doing the machine-quilting.  Completing the sewing today made it a very focused week, but it is now hanging up and looks fantastic. 










In addition to the T-shirt squares, the quilt also contains six of my own images done in colored pencil, and four of those images have accompanying poems which were featured in a self-published calendar a few years ago.

The "sign" on the back says, "35 Years In T-Shirts - Spring 2014 - LUNEL"

If I get it posted on the website for Hilo's Fabric Warehouse, I will include a link.

Would a Wood Chuck Chuckle?

Phil continues to spend hours in his workshop making wonderful new pieces.  This "character" piece is entitled  -- "A Tear for the Love of the Aina."

There are many kinds of wood here on the Big Island -- the clock is made from Kamani wood.

And, he has already sold a clock and one of his "characters" and is meeting other artists while he does his gallery sitting on Wednesday at One Gallery in downtown Hilo.

42 Squares Later

This is just the LAYOUT of where the squares will go -- NOT THE COMPLETED QUILT!

 42 has always been one of my favorite numbers...don't know why really.  However, this quilt turned out to have 42 squares and each one has been embellished to the max -- just look at them!  Some are from T-shirts that are 35 years old, and some are from original colored pencil designs I did about 15 years ago (including four little poems.)  Now, the next step is to find the fabric that will served as the background.  Phil's good eye helped me arranged them -- and I love the important dark ones being in the middle.

Pineapples!

When we bought our property we found a few pineapples the owner had planted.  However, we relocated them to a better place in our mini-orchard where they have full sun. Over the year, we have saved many pineapple "tops" adding them to the pineapple patch.  We have had fun going out to pick our own several times this year.  Right now we have five that we will harvest soon.

We have about 18 plants growing at various stages of development.  To grow pineapples here, we simply save the top off the pineapple.  It can be immediately put into the ground, but we have found that our local mongoose will dig them up for munching.  So, we get them started in a one-gallon pot first in the shade house, and after a couple weeks, transplant the newly rooted plant into a new spot in the garden.

Lunel's Historic Quilt

Working in our spacious dedicated art studio.

In January I pulled out almost 30 T-shirts that moved with us to Hawaii.  The T-shirts range from 1980 - 2011 so it really represents a 30-year history of my life. Since our average temperature is 75, it's really too hot to wear them, so I decided to cut (most of*) them up into squares and make a quilt for myself.  (No, I have never made a quilt -- but it is so like me to just jump in and figure it all out as I go.)

Back on February17th, I posted the beginning of the project, but since then I have painted, sewed, embroidered, drawn on, and bejeweled and embellished 36 squares and still have about 8 to complete.

Well of COURSE there would have to be a MOON!

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Above is a picture of me that Walt and Jenny took during their visit last week.  Most of the squares are 8x8" but some I have cut into quarters to create some 4x4" squares.  Photo here shows twelve completed squares (most details you can't see well) -- and one of my favorites enlarged so you can see the detail.  Each one is a miniature work of art and I've had great fun doing all of them.  With the border added, I think it will be about 5x7 feet.

* I only have five T-shirts now, which are nice to wear on chilly mornings and evenings -- "chilly" in Hawaiian means about 65.

Bloomin' in Puna

We pick up all kinds of unusual plants at the local farmers' market.  A couple weeks ago, we saw these linear shaped bromeliad plants.  However, we no idea they would produce such interesting blooms -- and only a couple weeks after planting them. The flower comes up inside a pair of bright red pedals, then explodes into little flowers with yellow, pink, green and blue. 

Life in Puna --- Ahhhhh!

We've been having a grand time showing Walt and Jenny around our "country."  These Eureka CA friends are about the 13th visitors.  Some of our guests stayed for one or two nights and others stayed for a few weeks. Until you have been here, you can't really believe how really beautiful it is, (even though we don't have white sand beaches) or that is really does rain mostly at night, or that we really do live in a rain forest. 



Since reading Sam Low's book Hawaiiki Rising, and hearing Sam and Nainoa Thompson speak last year, we have been attending the "Wayfinding Talks" presented at the Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo.  Tomorrow we will attend the program presented by Pwo Navigator Kalepa Baybayan who will share how the ancient traditions of the Polynesian navigators are being practiced by the Polynesian Voyaging Society on their current worldwide voyage.

Kalepa has been sailing with all the major voyages of the Hokule'a and Honuakai and he is currently serving as Navigator in Residence at Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii.  In 2007, Baybayan and four other Hawaiian men were initiated into the order of Pwo, a 2,000 year old society of traditional deep-sea navigators.  For more information on this outstanding cultural adventure, visit the link below.

 http://www.samlow.com/HawaiikiRising.htm

Congratulations Phil!

We posted a couple of photographs of Phil's new wood art in January.  Since then, he has been down in his spacious wood shop almost every day working.

Today he is taking ten pieces down to One Gallery, located on the bay front in Old Town Hilo.  One Gallery just moved from their location on Kilauea Street into a wonderful new space on Kamehameha Avenue near great shopping, museums and dining.  

We visited One Gallery on our trips in 2011 and 2012 and felt it would be a good place to show art.  Phil will also be doing gallery duty four hours a week, which he will thoroughly enjoy (without having to think about paying the bills, meeting payroll, or all the other duties associated with being a gallery owner.)

Pictured here are two directions he has been developing -- one a series of characters using wood scraps, and the other he is calling his "Volcano Moon" series.

In addition to these art pieces, he is also making clocks and weather stations using koa and other Hawaiian hardwoods.

 www.onegalleryhawaii.com


 

Waiting for Reba

"Dexter - Waiting for Ms. Reba"

Reba with belly of puppies

As you may have heard, we are adopting a little sister for Dexter.  Her name is REBA and she is 5 years old.  She has had several puppy litters and is ready to retire.  Her puppies are about four weeks old right now, so they need their mama for a few more weeks.  We are expecting to bring REBA home around the first of April.

Here are some pictures of  Ms. Reba.  You will notice her belly is full of puppies, taken before her latest delivery of five perfect pups.  You will also notice that she has a TAIL!!  That's because these breeders do not dock the tails.  She is a very sweet and pretty girl.