Rainy Daze in Volcano Hawaii

 

Projects for a dry winter in Hawaii

Hawaii winter at 3500' elevation where we live, in the small community of Volcano, usually offers us lots of rain, but not this winter -- California got it all for over a month!  But, this dry spell offered a chance to tackle one of the final unfinished projects.

Mauna Loa Eruption

We moved from Eureka, California to the Big Island of Hawaii in 2012 and when the 2018 eruption happened and we lost our home to a fire, we ended up living in a small community called "Volcano" only a couple miles from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Visit the Park Website

Many blog followers were confused about this as it seemed we were moving closer rather than farther away from danger. With the advent of Mauna Loa's current eruption, some folks my be concerned about our safety, but by listening to the following news release, there is little to be concerned about for us.

In several blogs during 2020-2021 we reported that Kilauea is active but that the lava stays within a huge inner caldera. This blog explains Kilauea and us

One of our favorite drives is up Mauna Loa Road where we sometimes go for a hike or pack lunch. Even at a full hours drive up that road, we are not remotely close to the summit where this lava is slowly flowing over a sparce rather lunar like landscape. It does make for a dramatic night-time scene.

News Release about Mauna Loa

INTERESTING -- the dark blue line above reveals just how HUGE Mauna Loa is!

Our young friend, and professional photographer, Marcus Moylan, too this long-lens photo. Hawaii's official state bird is the Nene - these birds make the slopes of Mauna Kea their home. Attempts are all ready in progress to help protect these beautiful birds. Thank you Marcus!

It appears that the daytime photo below was taken on the opposite side from the Nene photo.

A New Deck In The Forest

 

2021 Merrie Monarch - Big Island of Hawaii

The 57th  Merrie Monarch Festival

Volcano's own Halau will be presenting this year1

The Merrie Monarch Festival is dedicated to the memory of King David La‘amea Kalākaua, known as the “Merrie Monarch” for his flamboyant and fun-loving ways. Kalākaua was elected king of the Hawaiian Nation in 1874, and reigned until his passing in 1891. He was a patron of the arts, especially music and dance. (Shared from MerrieMonarch.com)

The central purpose of the Festival is perpetuating the traditional culture of the Hawaiian people; Developing and augmenting a living knowledge of Hawaiian arts and crafts through workshops, demonstrations, exhibitions and performances of the highest quality and authenticity; and enriching the future lives of all of Hawaiʻi’s children.

Our local Volcano Halau (school) is associated with the winds (makani) of Mauna Loa, we include the following LINK to see them perform:  Volcano Halau and a few photos of Mauna Loa.

Six Weeks Post Knee Surgery

42 days later just look at this happy girl in her garden weeding.

"Blue Nitrile Warriors" 

St. Phil was there to "spot" Lunel going down the stairs, and managed to rustle up her garden bench, her walker, a bucket and her favorite tools and a big glass of iced tea for a sunny day.

Although it was due to hit today, once again, the Big Island of Hawaii was spared a direct hit from hurricane Douglas, thanks in part to our two 13,000+ volcanoes Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

Spending less than one hour, taking great care producing 1/2 bucket of weeds, she went in to rest, massage and ice the knees and is planning NOT to repeat the task tomorrow -- even though the bed was not completely weeded. (Good grief, is she finally learning something about moderation??)

Last week she received an inquiry from the Hilo Medical Center's Bone and Joint Clinic to provide copies of her "Blue Nitrile Warriors" collage. Phil got them printed on Friday and they'll be in the mail Monday. She dedicated this piece to the staff there who took such excellent care of her during her stay.

Meanwhile, we're remaining vigilant about Covid19 precautionary measures, limiting trips to Hilo and keeping friends and neighbors at appropriate distance. As so many slogans indicate, we may be alone (for now) but we ARE "together" -- just in a very different way.

Take care, be safe!

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.

Christmas Birds (Cheap Entertainment)

Our house in the forest - Mauna Loa in the background

It's been winter here in Volcano on the Big Island and at 3500 feet elevation 'this' Hawaii differs greatly from most peoples' impression of white sand beaches along the ocean. Here we are surrounded by a true "cloud forest;" it has been drizzling for a few days. But just as we were wishing for SUN we woke up to blue skies and fluffy clouds breezing by.

This time of year is good for bird watching - one form of "cheep" forest entertainment. We have a wider variety of birds at this time of year: beautifully bright red Cardinals, eye-popping Saffron finches, South American Cardinals wearing their tuxedos, tiny speckled seed-eating Manniqins. This time of year the trees are filled with the invisible song of the honey creepers - Apapane' whose lovely songs you can hear but are not easy to spot***. Year round we have hawks, but our favorite "locals" are the Kalij pheasants.

It seems it is mating season for most of them, so even the traditional female Cardinals have a bright look to their feathers as do the Saffron Finches, but it is the Kalij who are fun to watch. Here's a couple photos of Kalij in our front yard taken last winter.


Today, three males hopped over the driveway gate and tactfully followed a lone female inside the yard, while one other paced frustrated outside the gate the others had just flown over. He paced back and forth at the gate sticking his head underneath rather than flying over. During the yard-courtship he paced back and forth and 15 minutes later finally flew over to join the party, during which one of the largest males offered a wonderful display of feather fluffing and flapping of wings. She never "engaged" and finally wandered off, followed closely by by the four unsatisfied but patient males.

Here's a link to the calls they make (click on link) -- especially when there is a cat patrolling the bird feeders. Male Kalij calls --- and the sweet song of the Apapane:  Apapane' Song

Holoholo Mauna Kea - and Thanksgiving

Long and winding road -- these are KOA trees with light bark

View of Mauna Kea across the high desert (yes, Hawaii has deserts)

For Thanksgiving, this week we took a lovely drive (holoholo) up the slopes of Mauna Loa. Its mass (from seafloor to top) makes it the largest mountain in the world! The drive is long and winding, but offers an amazing views and a variety of vegetation because of the wide variety of elevations..

The Big Island averages only 85 miles across, but elevation from 0 to 13,800 the results in diverse and dynamic landscape. Hawaii Island has 10 of the 14 world's climate zones offering an outstanding variety of vegetation.

View from about 6500 - Volcano Village in backdrop

Smoke from the 2018 fire on the slopes of Mauna 

Leaving the highway turnoff that's just a few miles form our house, we ventured up to a wonderful outlook at about 6500 feet where we could look down on Kilauea crater and Volcano Village. And, we could estimate the approximate location of our house. (which would be over at the far-far left)

To learn more about this amazing active volcano check out this link: MAUNA LOA

Phil's painting

The year 2018 was full of mother nature's surprises -- East Rift Zone eruption of course, Hurrican Hector, and a huge fire on the slopes of Mauna Loa that destroyed about 2000 acres including large number  of koa and ohia trees and native plants.

"Poop" berries

While we remembered to take the camera and the binoculars, we forgot our plant identification books, but were able to identify several after returning.

One plant in particular was a special find because we found it in our yard after clearing huge pile of plant debris. It is called Kukakenene -- an interesting word. kukake (the gift) KOO-KA-KAY-NAY-NAY

Nene are the official state bird of Hawaii.  Here is a watercolor painting Phil did, with a drop-in photoshop border Lunel added.

Nenes are a beautiful goose that leave "droppings" that look just like the shiny, black berries from this low growing shrub that thrives in this higher elevation.

Nene are closely related to the Canadian goose.. Some scientists believe that the Nene may have evolved from Canada geese that took a wrong turn during migration about half a million years ago. 

Right now, we have purple Iris named "Mauna Loa" in our yard but will also be hoping to find an amazing hybrid called "Mauna Loa Fire" to add to our collection.

WE ARE SO THANKFUL FOR
SO MANY BLESSINGS.

Week-at-a-Glance

A few members of our local ukulele group

Super dad and super kid!

As we head into December, there are the tra-di-tions TRA-DI-TIONS! The first is Pahoa's Annual Christmas Parade featuring schools, bands, civic groups, veterans, local youth and local politicians.

Everyone was thankful that our week-long downpour (with over 12" of rain) wrapped it up just in time for the festivities. Here are a few pictures of the parade.

Lunel harvested bunches of mini white poinsettias to share

Another local tradition is getting together to make wreaths from materials gathered from the slopes of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.

This year's early dusting of snow (see previous blog entry) limited our gathering materials, so our wreaths were supplemented with materials gathered from our yards.

All us beautiful wahine with our wreaths

Later this week, we will go out hunting for our perfect Christmas tree that we can cut ourselves at a local tree farm just a few miles down the road.

Finally, we include a photo of the sweet little puppy girl -- one week old today.

Rack 'em Up!!

We are as ready as we can be, having had some experience now....so how about some MUSIC??

MUSIC!!  Play "Rack 'em Up" while you read!

Madeline is expected tomorrow followed by Hurricane Lester

We aren't very far into hurricane season here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but it looks like we have some serious weather headed our way.

Looking at this NOAA image that was in the Star Advertiser, all I could think of was "rack 'em up." and of course a great song by Jonny Lang.  We have had pretty good luck so far because our "storm cruncher" volcanoes Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea do tend to disrupt the arms of the storms as they approach the Big Island.  But, as always, the east side of the island, where we live, is pretty much where they all swing in to upon arrival. And, for better or worse, we have had some practice! We'll just make a bowl of pop-corn, light the candles, put on some good music, and dive into our favorite books....

"Oh NO, Mr. Bill...not the blender!!" 

All we could think of with this photo was SNL's -- Mr. Bill

Just for fun, we have included another very interesting image -- an artists view of the island that shows the shape of the islands below the water. We recommend you visit regularly or subscribe to dailygalaxy.com website!

30 Years at High Noon

Us -- then.

His ad in the personals column said he wanted a “woman who would inspire his creativity and he hers…and who was ready for the love of a lifetime." In her journal she wrote “this is a man I could spend the rest of my life with.”   That was 30 years ago!  On May 18^th we celebrated that auspicious first meeting in Santa Cruz. 

May 18^th was marked by another auspicious event here on the Big Island of Hawaii. Called “Lahina Noon,” this phenomenon is evident only in the tropics when the sun passes directly overhead and when no shadows are visible.  Because the islands are not exactly at the equator, this happens twice…once before and once after the summer solstice.  At our beautiful Imiloa Astronomy center in Hilo, the atrium window directly over this beautiful tile mosaic causes the pie shaped shadows to fall directly on the center of the design. Imiloa Astronomy Center

We celebrated with a lovely dinner on the lanai of a favorite local restaurant that featured views of BOTH Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa followed by a lively evening of live blues music by Sugar Ray & the Bluetones ***.  I decided to create an art piece for our anniversary using 15 of Phil’s hand carved koa fish that now hangs above the hot tub on our lanai.

Us - now.

So, 30 years later, we show the same wear and tear as everyone else in our age group.  We are thankful that Phil's suit coat is no longer required, and that Lunel's wedding dress featured an elastic waistband.  All in all, life is good and we feel truly blessed and grateful for 30 years we have spent together.

*** Locals!! If you don't know about Lazar Bear Productions -- check out this website!  Lazar Bear Productions

Colorful Hawaii Holiday Traditions

There's a whole generation of folks our age who remember when getting an orange in our Christmas stocking was a treat, along with a new box of color crayons, or a roll of Life Savers.  This morning (Christmas Eve Day) the dogs watched lazily while I went out to our little orchard to harvest a crop of fruit to make fresh juice.  We have been experimenting with using lemons, oranges, tangerines, limes, lilikoi and ginger. The lilikoi and ginger offer a real snap that needs just a touch of local lehua blossom honey.

Card Art by Thor - "Spambiance" 

So while thinking about old family traditions, I also remembered SPAM!!  Our working family made do; mom was very thrifty (although at the time I didn't fully appreciate that.)  I remember her slicing SPAM (spiced-ham) soooo thin one can fed our family of five.

According to the SPAM website, the island's love affair with Spam began in World War II, when GIs were served the salty luncheon meat because it didn't require refrigeration and had a long shelf life. The Hormel Corporation, which manufactures Spam, provided 15 million cans to Allied troops every week. Between 1941 and 1945, Hormel had shipped over 100 million pounds overseas.

Snow?  While snow may fall on Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa, at our elevation of 750 feet, we have to settle for our annual blooming "Snow Bush" which is covered with tiny little white flowers -- a member of the Poinsettia family.

Speaking of our local volcanoes, each year members of our tribe respectfully gather natural materials from the slopes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa for wreath making.  We all meet at someone's home, bring pupus and gather for munching and "talk-story" as we create our wreaths.  Finally, each season (Equinox and Solstice) we decorate our family altar with appropriate symbolic reminders of our connection to friends, family and our nearly 30 years together.

Happy Holidays EVERYONE!!