Lunar Leo

Born in mid-August, I fall into the astrological sign of Leo, but my true affinity has always been for the moon; no surprise with a name like LUNEL.

Facing East - Sun through the trees

Turning West - Full moon setting

Each month for the full moon, I head down to "da pond" - Ahalanui where, at high tide, waves crash over the lava wall protecting our favorite local swimming spot.

During most of the year, I can make it down for an evening swim. Watching the sun fade and the sky turn pale lavendar, pink and blue, the moon will rise large over the ocean. During the winter, a moon light swim at night sometimes presents more of a challenge as it is darker earlier.

Last Monday, for the full moon, I rose at 6am for a drive down to swim. Going out the door to the car, I had to stop dead in my tracks as the sunrise coming through the trees on the east side of the property was so glorious. I took a photo, and then, turning to the west, I found another stunning view -- the moon setting in the west. Not a bad way to start the day!

Hawaiian Frigate Birds

Knowing that a huge storm was blowing into the islands, I decided to head out early yesterday morning for a swim. The weather reports had warnings of high tides which meant Ahalanui  pond right along the ocean would be clean, cool and frothy. I ran into a friend, and had a great swim, but also got a rare treat -- witnessing the arrival of three huge Frigate birds -- blown toward the Big Island by the storm.

Male with extended display chest

With its extraordinarily long wings and deeply forked tail, the magnificent Frigate bird is unmistakable when seen in flight  The massive wingspan enables the magnificent Frigate bird to soar effortlessly, and make graceful aerial manoeuvres, which so captivated Charles Darwin that he dubbed this species “the condor of the ocean” . Frigate birds are the only seabird family that have obvious, significant differences in plumage between the sexes. The male has entirely black plumage, glossed green on the head and purple on the upperwings and back..

These birds live on Frigate Shoals -- a large crescent shaped atoll in the island chain just above the Hawaiian islands.

GREAT MAP! -- Click on it to see interesting DETAILS

'Iwa / Frigate Bird  - A large, wide-winged sea bird of the tropical seas (wing span up to 6 feet), the 'iwa soars for hours on updrafts and may stay at sea all night or for days. 

These birds sometimes travel great distances, though generally are non-migratory and stay within 50 miles of their home islands. As they are incapable of taking off from the surface of the water, they swoop down and pick fish just below the surface or leaping above the water (see mahimahi); or they may attack other birds in flight and steal the fish that their victims disgorge or drop. The 'iwa nests in remote areas or islands on bushes or vegetation. 

NASA image of Frigate Shales

OK; hard to see - click to make image bigger

More about the unique habitat of this area follow this link:  Frigate Shoals.

UPDATE another friend who teaches school near where I was swimming yesterday forwarded a photo of the sky FULL of Frigate birds. 

Info from: Wikipedia, www.arkive.org, and Polynesian Voyaging Society, NASA

Malama o ka 'Aina

Pohoiki is 4 miles (as crows fly) - but the meander through mango trees, papaya fields and organic farms takes 15 min

Life on the 'wild side' on the Big Island -- no high rise condos, no fancy hotels or 4-lane highways. In fact getting down to the ocean is part one-way because no one will be cutting down an old mango tree! We think we are the luckiest folks.

We are fortunate also for great activities in our local association facilities and that a lovely local educator offers weekly classes in Hawaiian language and culture here in our small subdivision called Leilani Estates.

We have long been interested in indigenous cultures and traditions, and it was important to us that we learn about the values of traditional Hawaiians. A few words specifically address some of the depth of the Hawaiian language..

kuleana - responsibility and commitment
malama - caring for 
'aina - the land (not as "land ownership" 
but in relationship with all aspects of the environment

Some of our nearby friends and neighbors have lived here for 25-30 years and we feel very lucky to have found them and be included in our Leilani Ohana (extended family.) Phil joins other volunteers with weed whacker and rakes to join a group of local citizens who care for our local park and swimming area. By doing regular weed whacking along the park, they are helping to eliminate the use of pesticides along our local shoreline.

Even an I write this blog entry on 6/27 we had two small earthquakes last night just off the coast in this area -- once again a reminder that our adventure here is at the grace of mighty forces -- it is a vital, living land like no other we have ever encountered.

Please enjoy watching  this very short video. The first section is of of the area where the volunteers work, and near the end (about a 1/2 mile) is of our favorite swimming spots. Both are only a few minutes from our house. -- 
Video of Pohoiki Bay

Moonlight (Malamalama o ka mahina)

While waiting for the moon to rise -- here's my view (while floating)

Phil and I are attending a weekly Hawaiian language class for beginners. The purpose is not to learn to speak fluent Hawaiian, a rich complex language that is very much alive and taught early to children attending local schools. Our goal is to learn what we can, so we may more fully appreciate the highly conceptual nature of this language, where for example, the word aloha means about 15 different things!

Moonlight on the water

Malamalama o ka mahina means moonlight in Hawaiian. Malamalama is also the name for a local school because this word also means light of knowledge. Lama means torch, lamp or light.  Each month for the full moon we make a trek down to the ocean to watch to moon rise over the water. The drive down at night is dark -- there are no street lights as we head due east from our house. Nor is the area where we swim lighted, so flashlights are essential. This last full moon we arrived about 45 minutes early, so it was very dark and the stars were brilliant.

It is absolutely delightful to walk down the well-worn lava steps and slide into the warm dark water at Ahalanui Park. Since I swim there several times a week, I know where all the edges of the large pool are and how to navigate in the dark. Just floating in the water under the stars is beyond magical.  This photo is exactly what I saw this visit. Then, as the moon rises, the eastern sky begins to lighten with moonlight playing tricks with the clouds. Moonlight also plays across the waves as they pile up and crash over the sea wall of the pool.

The ancient Polynesians navigators made their way to many isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean by celestial navigation -- using star "lines."  Currently the Polynesian Navigational Society is conducting a three-year voyage round the world using star charts like the one we have included here.

Two hand built voyaging canoes Hokule'a and Hikianalia, are traveling over 60,000 nautical miles around the world.  We encourage you to learn more about this amazing voyage by clicking on this link: Polynesian Voyaging Society .
 

Blue Moon?

July 31, 2015 at Ahalanui - for moonlight swim

A Blue Moon, oddly enough, usually isn't really even blue, although it can be.  Blue Moons happen about every 2.9 years.  There was one in 2009, one for my birthday in 2012, and another just yesterday!!

Usually, however, the "blue moons" are not blue!  They are a glowing pale orange.  There are a couple of reasons that a moon will appear blue; one is related to volcanic activity.

WHAT?  Volcanic activity?!?  Maybe...because we live on Hawaii's Big Island, with active volcanoes, (one of which nearly divided our Pahoa Village in half!) we may get to see a TRULY  TRUE BLUE MOON in 2018 -- when there will be two in the same year!  Forest fires can also produce a refractive condition that can also cause the moon to appear blue.



One of our favorite places to enjoy the full moon is just a few miles away; a short drive down Mango Road, a turn onto the famous and beloved Red Road, to Ahalanui State Park -- a great place for a romantic night swim!  All three of these photos show were taken there -- some have been artfully adapted.  (Of course our other favorite spot for viewing the full moon is from our hot tub on the lanai.  :-)
 
A personal note about my infatuation with the moon follows:  My attraction began years before I discovered that the real name on my real birth certificate was spelled LUNEL!!  Just before I discovered this, however, I had made a series of five consecutive paintings, each symbolically illustrating my own waxing and waning during a difficult period of my life.  Shortly after that, I was invited to participated in my first one-woman exhibit that was entitled "I Sing the Moon." 

(There is a QUOTE that goes here....about the moon that I am looking for....and will insert it when I find it.  LUNEL)

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.

"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."

Valentine Ohia-Lehua

Happy Valentines Day! 

We remember last year's February too, when all the Lehua blossoms on the Ohia trees around our property were in full bloom. 

The rain showers today covered every blossom and leaf with jewelry, so outside I went with the waterproof camera to try and catch a little of the magic.

Phil knew the perfect approach to celebrate with gifts of a coconut scented orchid (yes, it does smell like coconut) a tomato plant for the garden, and a art tour and lunch in Hilo. 

In other RED news, a couple days ago I caught this shot from our kitchen window.  The flowering plant, a gift from a friend.  The bird was one we found newly dead on the ground when we first moved in.  I have preserved birds for many years, and decided to enjoy the beauty of this honey creeper for a little longer.

There's a FULL MOON tonight and we have planned a trip down to the warm ponds at Ahalanui Park for a moon-lit swim as the concluding step in a lovely Valentines Day.   ALOHA!!!

Winter Solstice

Words are inadequate to describe this image or, there are so many I drown in them. 

I am floating in warm olivine waters under the full moon at Ahalanui staring deep into star studded skies limned by back lit clouds. A few feet away waves crash over the sea wall and with my eyes closed I feel the power of the wave sweep under and lift me and my body merges with all that surrounds me.  I stare at the moon so long that even when I close my eyes the curved image remains illuminated on the cave wall of my eyelids.  As the boundaries of my body dissolve I wonder, fleetingly, just how does one artistically express the shear enormity and intimacy of this moment as the photons of moonlight invite my DNA to dance.

Winter Solstice 2013

Blue Heaven On The Skin

Yesterday I took myself down Pahoa-Pohoiki Road (better known by locals as Mango Road) to Ahalanui Park for a late afternoon  swim at the warm pond there on the edge of the ocean. 

The full moon was awesome last night, the water...ahh, just the temperature of my skin.  For this child-of-water, the experience is indescribable.  "Floating between" sky and earth, I cannot tell where my body ends and the water begins.  I am suspended and surrounded in a bliss of well-beingness.


At one time I might have said, "I have waited all my life to be here."  But the truth is that every single step along the way has brought me to this place of nurture, warmth and magic.  As curved waves break over the edge of the lava and pour into the pond, I am swept by unseen currents and my body rises and falls rhythmically.

I see tourists coming down with their cameras to take a picture of it, but they do not get in, and "click" they are gone.  This is "to experience."  Those who have had the privilege know; those who have not -- well, how can you even explain it.  So, after a year of satisfying "labor" (on house, ohana, yard, and garden) my muses are again calling to me to ??  somehow express and articulate (with my own artist's voice) the wonder I feel.

While it is certainly womb-like, all movement is completely unrestricted.  I feel both strongly connected to the earth, but suspended under the blue sky, I also feel my connection to the heavens and beyond.  At dusk, I float, arms extended, my right hand holds the sun, and the moon is cradled in my left hand.  I am an orb.  My dear Priestess of Poetry, Sherri Rose-Walker, once read me a new poem that contained the phrase "blue heaven on the skin" -- and I stopped breathing!  How aptly those five words captured how it feels to be in the living water.  While a photo or painting might capture the "image" I cannot stop there; I am driven to express how this experience FEELS.