Farewell to 2017

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!!!

Path of the Full Moon

 Last night was a beautiful clear full moon, so we ambled out the front door, down the steps and headed to the back of the property where we have our 10,000 gallon water tank and our little orchard.

However, on the way, Phil caught his toe on a piece of lava and nearly lost his balance and fell.  This is one of the day-to-day hazards we face here.  It is really easy to trip -- and you do NOT want to fall on lava.

So today, while Phil worked on filling holes in the wood trim in the ohana, Lunel's worked on digging out treacherous chunks of lava - and filling those holes with  red cinder so we would have a better path to not only observe the night sky in the dark, but to get to our back yard.

Farther back you can almost make out a sand chair, a couple of citrus trees and one of the banana trees.  The big tall trees are ohia, and they border our property on all four sides.

We have just finished using all of the enormous load of red cinder that was delivered to us at the beginning of the year, and this week we are taking delivery of another full truck load so we can continue with our projects -- including clearing a space for a greenhouse. (more about that later -- with pictures of course.)