Breakfast at the "Mango Table"

The east-facing window on lanai 

"MANGO TABLE" --highly recommended stop in Puna on the Big Island" -- Not only do you have a beautiful view, service is excellent and fare is yummy and includes fresh fruit, vegies and juices from the estate, mini cranberry scones with pecans, fresh coffee just to mention a few. Be sure to schedule a leisurely visit to the "Mango Table" at the Haysmer Estate just south of Pahoa. 

As we were enjoying breakfast the other morning out on the lanai, we were remembering what this view looked like when we moved in. So, it was fun to scrounge through the old photos from February 2012 when we first saw the property.

Whirling galaxies collide in the dense mango burl

First of all the lanai was something we decided to build onto the existing house and is complete with wicker furniture, lots of plants and art, and of course, our cedar hot tub at the other end.

The mango table, however, has its own interesting story: After Hurricane Iselle a few years ago, a dear friend had a fund raiser to help her repair her badly damaged roof. This five foot slab of mango was one left over from another friend (on our street) who had just finished building her new home. We bid on it -- and after taking it home, Phil worked his magic on it to bring out all the glorious details of the mango burl.

Pictured below with three composite photos are views of our east side property 2012 and now.

No grass, no landscaping, no lava beds -- just dry red cinder and a bucket for compost: What potential!!

This photo is exactly what we see out the window, taken four years later, after a lot of hard work.

**** - Just to clarify (for blog visitors who may not know) the "Mango Table" is a private residence, not open to the public, but generally a great meeting place for any and all of our friends and ohana.

Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

Beauty, as they say, is in the eyes of the beholders. Phil is continuing his exploration into creating winged beings, and having had good success with his butterfly (from a few posts ago - 3/2) he has just completed a moth that was inspired by one of our local moths. The wings are made from a beautifully patterned piece of koa that he carefully sliced in half to get the mirrored wing pattern; the body is from redwood, one of the few remaining pieces we brought with us from Humboldt County.

"Black Witch Moth"
(Ascalapho Odocata)
"CLICK" to enlarge

Here in Puna, on the Big Island, of course Phil has many different woods to chose from. And, while Phil's completed work is obviously beautiful -- one of the projects Lunel has recently chosen is full of beautiful potential.

One acre is 43,560 square feet, and of those square feet, approximately 85% of it has been "beautified" over the course of the last 4.5 years. That includes about 1,000 feet of boundary around the acre, and it is those edges that have been the most challenging because of the dense under-story of the forest, most of which is infested with various junk shrubs and invasive vines. But, since deconstruction is one of Lunel's favorite art passions, the tools for this "art project" include chain saw, machete, pick ax and the indispensable o'o bar.. and that is not where we go "pau hana"** - it a heavy, thick iron bar over 6' long used to break up lava. .

Before work began -- What's in there?

Ugly but full of potential beauty (Lunel says)

So....a couple weeks ago she attempted a initial excavation, without knowing what was under and/or behind an area about  12 x 10' along the south perimeter. The first photo shows the area before work began.The additional photos are anything but "beautiful" except to Lunel who seems to have no limit to her ability to both envision as well as manifest beauty using a wide range of materials.


Plans are to use this natural basin area to create either a fountain, or perhaps a waterfall. Nearby, about 30 plants, many from our ohana neighbors and friends** are waiting in pots for replanting around the water feature. (Mahalo Barbara, Geoff, Bett, Karin, Sam...and others)

OK, so maybe you can't see a fountain or a pond... (YET)

Many kinds of ti, anthuriums & ferns

Sort of like this, but only time and more creativity will tell.

We are including one photo that shows some of the potential we see, but of course the final version will be different.)  Stay tuned -- more news at 11.)

(** First, there IS a real Bar named "The O'O Bar" -- it's a Hawaiian thing. And, "pau hana" means the end-of-work, or -- a time when you might go TO a bar. (??lost in translation i think...??) 

If You Rest You Rust

Rainfall where we live - 140+

Rust is! When we lived near the coast in Eureka, California, the dampness, rain and fog were a given; and for 20 years or so we made garden art from all our rusty tools. Emily, the woman who bought our charming Victorian home, got a kick out of all the rusty shovels, rakes and trowels adorning the weathered fence. For many years I loved using rusty items in many of my quirky assemblage pieces.

While there are places on the Big Island of Hawaii that get only a few inches of rain annually, the district of Puna is not one of them. As you can see from the rain map, we get a lot of rain. (see note below **)Fortunately, our elevation and distance from the ocean places us where our rain falls mostly at night. But that rain, coupled with the terra-forming projects we have done in the past 4 1/2 years have been hard on all our tools.

Our 1st rusty wheelbarrow
now holds iris

Still working (sort of) after many
reinforcements and repairs 

We inherited a rusty push-power mower that we ran until it fell apart, but have since bought a second and a third mower (the last has power-wheels.) This last week we realized we have gone through FOUR wheelbarrows and THREE mowers. Just last week Phil purchased weed eater number THREE. Since we had great discount coupons at ACE Hardware, we also purchased shovel number FOUR as well. (All in just four years.)

Ready to work in La-VA LAND!!

This news may raise an eyebrow or two back on the Continent, but for most people living in the Puna District on the Big Island, this would be par for the course here in LA-VA LAND!!

And speaking of LAVA, below is a link to a short video taken TODAY (3/6) of the lava flow.  And a reminder to our friends "over there" -- this lava, only a few miles away, has been flowing non-stop for 30 years.  (Mahalo to Big Island News, Tropical Visions Video and to Paradise Helicopters.)
Click link: VIDEO OF TODAY's LAVA FLOW

** SO, we must be in some kind of DENIAL to wrote we "get lots of rain" - or wishful thinking as we are in a drought -- right here, right now. In fact the weather report stated the last time the first quarter of the year was this dry was -- 1948!!!  (the year i was born...oh shit!!)

Flutter By Butterfly

PULELEHUA (Butterfly in Hawaiian)

Sometimes Phil is having so much fun down in his tool-packed wood-work-shop I don't see him for hours...and then, I'll be walking by with a load of lava, or cinder, or green waste and he'll call out for me to "come see."  This is the second butterfly he has made, and is now working on a moth! Look's like he's found yet another creative use for his stacks of local wood...and, he's still got a few treasured pieces of redwood from Humboldt County.  The wings of this butterfly are redwood with the body in koa.

The other colorful picture is of the wild raspberries Phil picks for breakfast on his morning walk. Today we drove by to scope out the location and plan to go back with our shovels to transplant some in our yard in the shady location they seem to like.

Yesterday's task was weeding the pineapple patch of nearly 40 plants  More than half of them have baby pineapples growing already with lots of our famous white pineapple. Our lime tree is loaded, in fact all but one citrus have blossoms and we have bananas maturing too.  Breakfast anyone?