Wholly, Holey, Holy!

Items for Craig's List?   "Free to good home....7 left-hand gloves (in good condition)"   This has been a week of LAVA! What with converting the boring driveway "slope" to more attractive terraced beds and the further development of two stunning "lava features" recently excavated from layers of vine, invasive species and debris, I have managed to destroy 6-7 right hand gloves.

Landscaping projects are about as close to "church" as I get -- it is a true communion with nature and I consider it truly holy work.  But, as we wrapped up 5 days of further terra-forming I found myself scrounging for any single right hand glove that had no holes.  Alas, they are now wholly holey!!

Switching gears from working on the "slope" our young friend, neighbor, poet, philosopher and musician, Sam, Phil and I have been uncovering two beautiful lava features on the property.  Most of our blog followers have been aware of last year's "lava event" which stopped just short of dividing the Village of Pahoa in half -- for which we are very thankful.  However, the district of Puna on the Big Island is some of the newest land on the planet!!  The map here shows the various flows -- some of which went through our small subdivision in 1955 and before that in 1850's. So when we discovered a couple of lava outcroppings on the west side of our property, we were excited to see how we could feature them.

View from SW at top of lava outcropping -- view to NE

One flow came from the southwest, and flowed northeast -- and forms the small rise across our property.  When the property was first developed, the earth moving equipment had to cut through part of that flow.  This left a tall 15' escarpment on the right side of our driveway.  (This is not easy to explain and even the photographs don't help much.)  The photo on the right is taken from the TOP of the lava outcropping with our house shown "down" the slope.

We are now clearing away debris so that this beautiful formation can be featured.  Phil has already planted two redwood trees, Sam is helping to dig out invasive shrubs, trees and vines, and I am using broken lava to create curved beds around the lava hillside.  This same hill wraps around a few yards to the right, and then forms a beautiful concave amphitheater. (More photos to come.)