Mango (Jam) Road

Local Punatics refer to the road from Pahoa to Pohoiki as "Mango Road;" it's lined with giant old mango trees most of the way down to the boat ramp and ocean-swimming at Issac Hale Park.  Another couple minutes down the Red Road is volcanically heated  Ahalanui Warm Pond.

Last year I swam in the afternoons (as a reward for hard work in the garden), and for physical therapy to recover from knee surgery.  This year, I have a new habit -- swimming early -- 7-8 am when the ocean tides have swept out the pond and it is deep and clear.  Driving there the last few days, I have noticed the road is covered with hundreds and hundreds of mangoes -- dropping as they do annually from the giant mango trees that line the one-lane road to the ocean.


They are small in size, but sweet and succulent, and although many crack open, get eaten by mongoose, lots just get turned into Mango Jam by the cars passing on this enchanting one-lane road.  The pits turn the road into a washboard and the fermented fruit smell reminds me of the years I made gallons of blackberry wine.


Today, I pulled over to gather a bunch of mangoes right off the ground to take home.  Other folks had the same idea as I saw 8-10 people with long poles gathering them to make pickled mango and mango jam.  Sorry, I am not that ambitious and am completely satisfied just peeling them and slurping my way down to the pit.  Yum!

PS.  Just a few days after writing this, I was headed down for an early swim when, to my surprise, I had to pull over and watch a bonafied "street sweeper/washer" moving slowly down the one lane road washing the gooey jam and pits over to the side.   It was SO odd to see a piece of city maintenance equipment doing such an unusual job in the middle of Puna.

Lava Lake Nearly Full!

Friends who have visited us on the Big Island, also visited Kilauea volcano, but they did NOT get this view!  The lava in the small inner crater has been rising this week -- and now, you can actually see the lava from the Jagger Overlook.

The top photo was from 4/23, thanks to the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.  Two days ago the lava lake, within Halemaʻumaʻu Crater at Kīlauea's summit, reached the highest point yet measured for the current summit eruption-- only 66 feet below the Overlook crater rim.


Just yesterday, the level rise to just 46 feet below the Overlook crater rim.  At this rate, lava will soon reach the top and overflow into the larger crater of Kilauea.  The second photograph (also USGS) was taken from the rim of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater, in an area closed to the public due to volcanic hazards.

Down here in Pahoa, we are not affected by this directly.  But, remember, that Kilauea remains the source for the lava still coming out of Pu'u O'o Crater; lava that was threatening Pahoa Village, appears to have stalled only yards from the town and highway.  Interestingly however, it appears that the same volume of lava is still coming out -- just much higher up the slopes.


From our house at 800 ft. elevation, it takes about 45 minutes to get up to Kilauea's elevation of just over 4,000 ft.  It has been the site of 61 separate eruptions since 1823, easily making it one of the most active volcanoes on Earth.  This map will give you some perspective as to the size of both craters.  The inner crater is about 1/2 mile wide and last overflowed April 1982, so this is a pretty spectacular occasion.

PS - Sunday 4/26 the lava is now 20 ft from top!

PPS -- Monday 4/27 "Burnin' Lake of Fire"

For more photos and details please check this link below:  http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov

Heavens Over Hawaii

Amazing Photography by Rogelio Bernal Andrea (visit www.deepskycolors.com)

Down in the Puna District on the Big Island of Hawaii, we are having a spectacular night-time opportunity during April to view FIVE planets.  As you might imagine, the air quality here is amazing – and one of the reasons there are a number of international telescopes atop Mauna Kea.  Here’s a list of the planets we are able to see right now:  

"Star Trails Over Mauna Kea"  (Astrom. Soc. of the Pacific)

• Brilliant Venus in west dusk until mid-evening
• Fading Mars sets soon behind the sun
• Bright Jupiter from dusk until late night
• Saturn rises at mid-to-late evening
• Mercury at dusk in second half of April

"Namesake" photo by Lunel

I got lucky the other night with my own photo.

Hope you take a moment to visit the links below to see more amazing night sky photography.    Mahalo to Rogelio who gave permission to introduce people to his inspiring photography!

http://www.deepskycolors.com/

Photos of Hawai’i night sky by 

Rogelio Bernal Andrea -- AMAZING

Sneak Peek inside Rogelio's new book HAWAII NIGHTS 

Garden News

Our Mini-Orchard

Walking down the steps of our back porch

(click on any photo to get an enlarged view)

After working for two years to establish areas for food-related gardening, we are experiencing a degree of success.  Of course, there is a significant learning curve when it comes to vegetables especially, given the fact that we live in a rain forest.  What does that mean?  Living in the Puna District on the Big Island, we average 120-140 inches a year -- and just in the last 24 hours, we were blessed with 4.5 INCHES!!!  That can be really hard on delicate vegies like lettuces.  These more delicate things are grown in our shade house that reduces the intense sunlight and often hard rains.  Here we grow a variety of lettuce, two kinds of beans, bok choy and eggplant!

Shade house for some vegies

Walking out the back door off the screened lanai, we are blessed with a small orchard with limes, tangelos, valcencia oranges, papaya, tangerines and pineapples (we now have 12, out of 24 plants nearing harvest!)

Further out near the edges we have (but not pictured) five banana trees (waiting for another year to fruit) 5 avocado trees (not quite ready to produce yet) 2 fig trees (with small harvest this year.)

Crown flower - for Monarch Butterflies

 In another section we have raised beds offering tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, two kinds of potatoes.

We are also excited to see our crown flower in bloom because just this week we have been seeing Monarch butterflies who use the crown flowers for their prime living quarters -- loving the flowers, the mature butterflies lay eggs on the plant.  The hatching caterpillars devour much of the leaves and spin their temporary capsule before emerging as a beautiful Monarch.

Beauty surrounds us!

"Cloudy With a Chance of Pastels"

A couple evenings ago my friend, Lucina, and I headed off to Ahalanui Warm Ponds down on the Red Road, just north of Pohoiki, all well-loved Puna places on the Big Island.  The sun was going down as we left, and the clouds were moving in with a promise of rain.

After a good time of vigorous swimming, we both became entranced with the light show we were observing -- lots of greys, lots of lavender, pinks and peach.

As we kept discovering new colors and cloud shapes, I commented about the colors.

 "These are all pastel colors, and greys I rarely used in my art palette."   I drove home with my eyes closed (not really) but concentrating on the colors I had seen, determined to create something that would graphically illustrate their beauty.


Laying out the colors, I came across barely-used colored pencils with names like "Rosy Beige," "Clay Rose," and "Peche Deco."  Then came the challenge of drawing the scene with my own vocabulary of shapes, and, I'm really pleased with the end result as I think this sketch can translate into "something more."

Mango Table and Rainbow View

Big smile for a BIG six-foot mango slab

Well, of course there is a story about our new mango table.  And, it's a really good one to illustrate the aloha spirit as well.  During a recent storm (which was actually 1/2 a hurricane) a friend and neighbor had trees fall on her charming au-naturale tree house overlooking two acres of jungle garden.  The repairs to the structure were significant, so several friends decided to host a fund raising party for her with guests donating lovely things for an auction. 



A good friend who just completed her new hale on Luana (just a few doors away) had a remaining mango slab which she donated, and when Phil and I saw it, we knew right where it belonged -- as a bar-height table in our new lanai!  So of course we agreed to outbid anyone else, and were delighted to bring it home. 

A whole universe of swirling galaxies collide majestically on our mango table top!

Under Phil's artistry, the true beauty of the wood slowly emerged after sanding, filling holes, and killing the remaining termites (to be expected.)  He used several layers of spar varnish; the top layer was a matte finish.  We found charming wood bar stools on line that are a perfect match, and now we have yet another exceptional place to enjoy our coffee -- overlooking the northeast view of our yard.

A real photo from our yard of a real rainbow!

Historic Note:  The window behind Phil is one that used to be in his grandma's house and cast rainbows on his bed where he took a nap.

Oh!  And, the rest of the story?  The "roof raising" gala event managed to provide our friend with enough money to cover the cost of materials AND labor!   Mahalo to Karin for an opportunity to have a great party, and to Helena who donated the slab...and to Phil for his consummate skills.

For Easter: Laughing With the Thrush (But Not the Toad)

LINK Chinese Melodious Laughing Thrush Song

(click on the above link to hear this bird's song!)

Easter morning here in Leilani Estates in Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii began with a composition of many different bird calls -- tiny peeps from the little Nutmeg Mannequins and olive green Japanese White Eye, distinctive brrrrrrr's from the Cardinals and of course the coo-cooing sounds from several varieties of doves.  However, nothing compares to the complicated, long songs of the Melodious Laughing Thrush.

To "find" these illusive birds, you never look for the birds themselves; they are all but invisible.  Their red/brown colors act as a natural camouflage -- unless they happen to be sitting on a stock of bananas. Instead, watch for the bobbing strands of bamboo orchids, the bounce of low shrub branches, or the waving motion of ferns.  Then, if you are lucky, you may see them hunting for bugs, but these reclusive birds will shy away at the slightest sound or movement.

Today, just for fun, I turned the speakers at the window by the computer to the outside where we could hear 2-3 of the Thrush calling to each other.  I played the U-Tube recording (ABOVE), pausing between phrases, to see how the Thrush in our yard would respond. It was an unexpected pleasure to hear them answer the recording, but it was a rare treat to see them come out of the bushes and into the orchids close to my window to check out the sounds.  It will be interesting to see what will happen if we play it a little each morning.


As I conclude this blog entry (Puna Midnight = 9pm) Phil is out with the toad stabber (I kid you not) hunting for the wayward cane toad.  We just don't want them around; They are highly poisonous and, unlike the thrush, their song being really obnoxious** Cane Toad Song LINK)  In Australia, cane toads are a devastating epidemic - their population estimated over 100 MILLION. They are infesting Queensland, New South Wales and Northern Territories and they are now moving into Western Australia.