Let It Snow...Let It Snow!

From our house at 3500 feet

Yes SNOW in Hawaii along with palm trees and beaches. Here's a photo we took from our driveway looking up at Mauna Kea. At 13,800 elevation it is about one million years old and remains a deeply sacred cultural site in the hearts of the Hawaiian people.

(snow only on 2 mountain tops -- other white is clouds)

With its high elevation, dry environment, and stable airflow, Mauna Kea's summit is one of the best sites in the world for astronomical observation. 


Since the creation of an access road in 1964, thirteen telescopes funded by eleven countries have been constructed at the summit. Their construction on a landscape considered sacred by Native Hawaiians continues to be a topic of debate to this day.

Most of the volcano is underwater (as shown in this photo) and when measured from its underwater base, Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world, measuring over  33,000 ft in height. The artistic depiction above illustrates so much of this mountain is below sea level.

And, here's an aerial photo showing sporadic cloud cover, snow on the peaks on Mauna Kea (upper mountain) and Mauna Loa. The map show the location of Volcano Village. No matter what direction our driving takes us, views of both are visible. Sun light, moon light, light clouds or stormy vistas -- even softly enshrouded in grey fleece, they are a magnificent presence. 

Finally, in contrast, here's a sweet rose growing across the street from our house -- now, we're on the hunt for roses for zone 11 so we can have some too.

Whether the Weather

Phil built a lovely bookcase for the lanai

Whether the weather is sunny or rainy, we are enjoying our new locale in Volcano on the Big Island. When there is a break in the weather, we can be outside continuing our terraforming landscape projects and when it's raining we can be in our lovely art studio being creative.

Speaking of rain, so far January seems to have broken records -- over 30 inches in 15 days, but of course the forest loves it as do some of the things we planted a few months ago.

Here's a few of our respective projects.

Phil has a new gallery up the coast in Honaka'a, a charming little village that has the look and feel of a few decades ago, nice boutiques, good restaurants, theatre, museums and historic sites.


Here's some of Phil's new pieces. He's thrilled to have found a new source for his wood -- right here in Volcano.

Lunel has finished her fourth personal journal which has been one the her main ways of dealing with PTSD, the medications she needs to take and how these impact her physically and emotionally.

However she's also moving out of the smaller, more personal journals to explore different styles of collage, but always falling back on her own artistic sensitivities. So, some are quirky, some more serious, and others simply pieces of experimentation.

"click" on any image for bigger view

"Houston, We're Breaking Up"

"Tiny Dancer"

20-20 Vision for 2020

In 2011, when we first discussed retiring in Hawaii on the Big Island, we knew it would be a life changing event - we just didn't know in what ways. We knew about lava, knew the islands were created by lava, knew about the stories, mythology and the geological history of lava and its destructive and creative power.

Close-up of olivine

We even interview many locals about their experiences and thoughts about potential eruptions in the Puna District; the most consistent comment was "not in my lifetime." Our decisions were further fortified by events from previous lava eruptions when elected officials, real estate agents and insurance agents claimed that "lava loss would fall under the category of "fire" and therefore covered by insurance." Live and learn, right?!

As we have shared before, while in a coma and prior to the fire that destroyed our home (before it was covered by lava) Lunel had two vision/dreams the hospital. In each she found diamonds at the leading edges of lava flows. In some way that subtle message from her unconscious awareness continued to help us focus on the "gems" we have found through this past two years. This blog is about GEMS!!

Lunel's birthstone is PERIDOT pictured above. What we didn't realize until the eruption was that lava contains OLIVINE (a lower grade of peridot) which is brought to the surface in lava! and is also found in metorites!

Beautiful lava formations we uncovered (previous home)

Lava with olivine

One of the many things we enjoyed about our previous home in Leilani Estates was the beautiful lava formations, many of them we uncovered from overgrown jungle and invasive vines and plants. Moving into our new home in Volcano, no such formations were visible -- that is until Lunel began to excavate and remove soil!

Lava that Lunel uncovered as a 'feature' in our yard

Under several inches of top-soil, she found and meticulously uncovered lava forms of pahoehoe. Of course, since the whole island was formed from lava, it is not surprising, but we wanted to re-connect with that power. Here's a photo of one of the large areas she resurrected and turned into a lovely fire-pit gathering area in our yard.

Wheelbarrows of dirt removed to uncover lava

Lava "blister" (with olivine) we found

During the work, we found some formations we had not seen before filled with olivine, and a "blister" also pictured.

Neither of us are "Polyanas" but we both know that how we look at life is a strong determiner of how we experience life. For this coming new year of 2020 -- we want our "vision" to be 20-20 as we continue to focus on the "gems" that life has blessed us with.