Surprises Everyday!

Six years ago we lived in Humboldt County -- our house (built in 1860's) was paid off, our 22-year old gallery was doing well with a staff of 4-5 who helped to cover seven days a week - 12 hours a day.  We were busy and had actually given very little thought to what retirement might mean or look like. It took only one visit to the Big Island to conceive of a whole new adventure -- retirement in Hawaii!

Now, this many years later, we continue the learning curve that living in rural Puna means, and we are continually surprised at all we are discovering and learning. Sometimes it's the simplest things that offer the most surprise, and any day holds the potential discovery of something new and unexpected.



Such was the case today which began with a drive around the 'hood, following a few 'garage sale' signs. But even before we left the driveway, we were delighted to find that the bright orange Jade Vine we planted only a few months ago was loaded with bright (BRIGHT) orange blooms. But, stepping over an ohia log to get a closer look, we found another bloom -- the "Devil's Trumpet" -- the  plant itself is less than 12" high but has two open blooms and three more pending.

Off for our neighborhood drive, we circled around the block to visit one of the newest neighbors who had offered to give us some scraps of heavy concrete fence materials for use in the garden and then to an estate sale where we found yet another treasure -- a hippopotamus -- that has a water spout in his mouth -- and which we think will be a great feature to our (slowly) developing lava pond.