LAVA IS FLOWING IN HAWAII

Follow this link to see the Live shot from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park   LAVA FOUNTAINS

Kilauea Lava New Year Update

If you want words and explanations about this image -- check the previous blog. This lava lake seen here is about 2300' below ground level with the Halema'uma'u inner crater. That black "island" in the middle IS an island of lava (lighter consistency) afloat on magma. Powerful art-inducing image!.

Remembering With Gratitude

May 2, 2018 is a day we'll long remember. The day Lunel ended up in an unexplained coma and was rushed to the emergency room. During the next 36 hours, lava began to flow in our subdivision, Civil Defense was going door to door with emergency evacuation orders, and Phil was watching his world dissolve around him.

Yes, Ganesh is seated on a large chunk of pahoehoe lava

In that same period, a fire broke out in the forest near our home and it was burned to the ground. Shortly thereafter lava broke out at Fissure 8 and initially began to flow to the east, away from our house. The rest is history as lava built up and eventually covered not only our home but 700 others on it's speedy way to the ocean.
May also happens to be our anniversary month when we celebrate our meeting on May 18, 1986...and our wedding three years later on May 25, 1989. AND, it is TUDOR'S third birthday.

To commemorate this auspicious month, Lunel decorated a cement statue of Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god most widely known for his ability to overcome obstacles. The most immediate connection to that philosophical principle would be a 200 foot high mountain of lava that covered our home, but there is another, less widely known concept that Lunel adopted for herself many years ago.

Elephants are assumed to be terrified of mice. Ganesh, however, decided to overcome his fear -- by  'making friends' with his fear, adopting the mouse as his side kick. In many images of Ganesh you will find him accompanied by his mouse/friend/teacher. Lunel had an image of Ganesh-with-mouse tattooed on her arm for her 70th birthday.

May 2018 brought a package of unbelievable fear, loss, anger and depression for both of us and a two-year journey of ups and downs. We chose to adopt the philosophy that would allow us to look at those emotions squarely and recognize the profound teachings they might offer. We were graced with an outpouring of gifts, support and aloha during that time. Today, on this significant anniversary, we pause to give thanks for each and every blessing.

Aloha and Mahalo

Spring Into Spring

Today, standing near where our home was

This week celestial events gave us the drama of a SUPER MOON and the first day of SPRING. Also this week we were invited to do a TV interview about the devastating experience of losing our home last year, the trauma of evacuation, the anxiety of dealing with the insurance claim, the stress of living in four places in less than nine months, and our focus on recovery and starting over -- from scratch.

Given this conjunction of events, we decided to mark our "spring" as a personal "new beginning" by visiting Fissure #8, now a prominent and permanent 200 foot landmark in Leilani Estates.. Of the many lessons we have learned throughout this past year perhaps the most important is to look fear directly in the face, or as Pema Chodron reminds us -- to invite in what scares us.

Lunel placing our offering

Art by Jessica Taruni
Originally created for The Volcano Inn 1999

Standing at the base of the cone, we offered ho'okupu (offering) with a flower lei Lunel had made with orchids from our home. She sang an oli (chant) of gratitude for all we have learned and received. It was our first time visiting the place where our home stood, but we both felt ready.

After the loss of our home, many people asked whether we were going to leave Hawaii -- but honestly that thought never occurred to us as we both feel deeply connected to the 'aina - a Hawaiian word that means not only "the land" itself, but a relationship with the whole island-environment, itself a symbol of destruction and creation. Recently we even bought a beautiful, large stained glass window to place in our new home.

Please listen to this talk by Auntie Pua. It is short but packed with power -- about the changing of seasons, a celebration of the SUN, and our place in this world of reciprocal cycles.

 Auntie Pua --

 The Intense Breath of  the Sun

Practicing Normality

Our healing view of ocean from yesterday's outting

In the midst of the obvious chaos of our lives, the last couple of days we have tried to focus on "practicing normality." Attending to the business of medical tests, making doctors appointments for Lunel's health and well being, getting insurance forms completed, working with inspectors, adjusters and -- buying underwear and a toaster oven...life has been a bit crazy.

Our new Hawaiian host family have been unbelievable gracious in letting us share their kitchen for group meals and we have been taking turns with prep and clean up. Phil bought a dog pooper-scooper and walks the 3/4 acre property doing doggy-duty -- for a total of seven furry family members. They have nearly completed an additional 300 sf of screened in space that allows us to have some fresh air in our tiny room -- so we six (us and corgyn) are not all so tightly packed.

Yesterday, our Exercise In Normality was to drive down to the ocean -- NOT an area where lava is involved and set up chairs and just b-r-e-a-t-h-e in the fresh sea breeze. The dogs are used to a full one acre area to romp in, but here, we are taking them out every couple hours for a walk around the grounds which include a small hydroponic garden, small orchard and surprising sprays of orchids.

Lunel in bottom left -- surrounded by all her girlfriends

If you are visiting our BLOG for the first time -- the latest images of the corner of Leilani and Luana (where our house was - scroll down a few entries...) is now a 20 foot deep lake of lava. (we are not putting those on this blog entry again) In the last few days 200' foot high fountains of molten lava have been shooting up right at what was our corner of Luana and Leilani. Lava continues to follow its own course covering acres and homes on the way to the ocean.
Link #1 to our corner of Luana and Leilani 
Link.  #2 what was our corner Luana & Leilani.

FOR NOW: Although we are homeless, living out of a few bags and boxes, we have been the recipients of amazing generosity -- clothes, gift cards to Home Depot and Amazon and the Go-Fund-Me account that was set up for us by Astra (present owner of Many Hands in Eureka.) Lunel was gifted with a small box of jewelry which she wore on Tuesday night to her "Girlie Girl" night -- a tremendous support network for her.

Living Land

From "The Atlantic" - Lava crosses the land

Aloha from Phil and Lunel -- While we are safe if not completely "sound" we are still in shock as are many of our homeless friends and neighbors.

Remains of house after it burned.

Pictured here is an early photo of what was left of our home and property after it burned. days before lava covered it. Today we filed our insurance claim. Our four corgi dogs are with us sharing a home filled with aloha (7 dogs and 7 people) and everyone is doing the best they can.

We are stunned and grateful for the outpouring of donations we have received: on the Go-Fund-Me account that Astra (current owner of Many Hands Gallery in Eureka) set up for us, as well as gift cards for Amazon and Home Depot. Good News:  Phil has already lined up a list of tools to replace with these generous donations and even received a gift of koa wood  (and some small tools) from the folks he usually buys from. There have been a couple of local wood workers who have offered space for him to work that will be of comfort to him on many levels.

CLICK to see bigger image

For those of you who knew about Lunel's emergency trip to ICU in a coma just 12 hours before our evacuation -- Good News:  her MRI came out perfectly normal. She has a prescription for Valium and is checking in regularly with her doctor. Her grief runs deep as she was so connected to her art studio, her best assemblage pieces, and particularly her art journals. But, in her unstoppable style, she has begun a new journal filled with pages of quirky drawings, poems, and collage - sample here too.

For personal friends to reach us the best way is through EMAIL:  haysmer@sonic.net.  We have a one-fuinction cell phone we are saving for insurance and medical related things. Frankly, a lot of personal phone calls right now, with our emotions so fragile is hard for us to manage on top of this huge loss.

As dear friends have reminded us: 'chi va piano, va sano e va lontano" -- who goes slowly, goes safely and goes far.

For you who want to see some very current photos of what is happening right now, here's a link to look:  Lava Photo from The Atlantic 

Magma Chamber

For those of you visiting, and maybe wondering what is going on with the Haysmers -- no, we have not fallen into the magma chamber that opened only a few days ago spewing lava and cinder. You have probably already seen images on your favorite viewing devices. As we described in previous blogs, we are being treated with true aloha-spirit, housed comfortably with our four corgi dogs a few miles away from what once was our home in Leilani Estates on the Big Island.

What you may not have seen is the beautiful piece that Phil created for the state-wide, juried June exhibit at the Wailoa Center in Hilo. We received notice of his acceptance just a few days after our sudden evacuation, and had to notify the coordinators that, sadly, Pele had already claimed possession.

We received a surprisingly kind response from HIAA (Hawai'i Island Art Alliance) Board that they wanted (with Phil's permission) to enter his piece anyway -- offering to print and frame the piece on his behalf. With tears in our eyes, we said "yes." We thought those of you visiting our blog would enjoy seeing what the actual piece looked like before it became Pele's offering. As for "offerings" we thank all of the many that are coming our way -- each one precious -- each one gratefully received. As we can, we will be sending out more individual "thank yous" to each of you.

Phil was also recently interviewed by our previous Eureka home publications Times-Standard and the Northcoast Journal. He was also amazed that the Lansing State Journal in Michigan where he spent many years also called for an interview. It was there that he received his Master of Fine Arts Degree from Michigan State University and taught sculpture at Lansing Community College for a short time.

If you would like to, there are links below to those articles.

Times-Standard (Eureka CA)
Lansing State Journal (Michigan)
Northcoast Journal (Humboldt County)

Lava Hike

Lunel - nose into the trade winds, ready for hike

Shortly after Hurricane Iselle hit us, in the summer of 2014, lava from nearby Pu'u O'o vent began to flow directly toward our subdivision just south of Pahoa Village. At that time our focus was survival and safety and everyone was hugely relieved when, just a few yards before dividing Pahoa in half, the flow stopped, and began to flow toward the ocean again, to the south of Kalapana. Whew! (click any photo for bigger view)

Huge section of lava shelf fell off in December, and continues to crumble

Here is the newly revised four-mile trail out to view

After Lunel's knee injury in 2015, surgery and following recovery, we were not much interested in a dangerous hike out to where lava was flowing into the ocean. We heard wonderful stories about it from friends and neighbors. Finally, this week, at the invitation of a friend, and because shuttles are available for part of the trek, it seemed the right time.

Photo by Leigh Hilbert -- looking up the pali -- toward the Pu'u O'o vent -- flowing from Kilauea Volcano

Since the flow path returned to the ocean, several large lava "shelves" have broken off and fallen into the ocean, creating danger for hikers resulting in re-routing for site seers. It is a job the park services and county take very seriously. While bikes are available, it seemed smart to take a shuttle out to the drop off point where the hike began. From there it was over four miles out (one-way) to see the flow.
Most people had already been out during the day and now were returning -- wearing headlamps or riding well lit bicycles. Very few people were going out, maybe because it was dark, but we wanted to take full advantage of the dusk-to-dark ambiance for full impact.

Once there, we had the option of turning right to follow the glowing river up the pali (cliffs) or left toward the ocean. We joined small groups of people clustered around, quietly humbled at the raw power as we watched streams of lava pour into the sea. Knowing we faced the return four-mile hike, we did not linger long and were surprised by a gentle rain shower as we began the trek back. We have to give a shout out to Kalapana Cultural Tours who provide a variety of safe, informative services. Mahalo especially to Dwayne!

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!!)

Big Island Lava!

Thanks to "Hawaiian Sailing Adventures" - Mahalo!!

Lunel's "Lava Moon"

Everyone here in Puna is pretty excited about the lava flow on the Big Island right now -- especially because it is NOT headed our way (this time) but flowing into the ocean. The national news has pick up some of the images. There are so many we are just posting our favorite (for this week.)

Our thanks to those people who are able to get up close and personal -- by taking the 4 mile hike....and trekking over some pretty treacherous terrain. *** Some are also taking lava tour boats for some amazing photos like the one shown here.

Helicopter tours are also available. Another image that got national attention this week was when "Tropical Visions Video" (Paradise Helicopters) flew over the Pu'u O'o crater and found....what?!  A "Smiley Face!"  If you click on this link you will have your own personal 5-minute tour of what can be seen from an aerial perspective --  Pu'u O'o "Smiley Face"

The power and energy of this is awe inspiring, and Lunel wanted to create her own interpretation with this image from her new "Moku Moe'uhane" Island Dreams collection.  (Available as a 18x24" stretched canvas print for $150, or in boxed note cards (8 for $22 variety includes images from July29th post.)

*** Visitors and locals can easily get injured on these treks -- "skim" lava that looks solid can still break through to molten hot spots below.  Use caution.