What's New?

"What's new?" OK, besides the obvious misalignment of the planets in the conjunction we call democracy....

In trying to recover from shock, we are digging, mowing, pruning, sawing, sanding and HARVESTING.

Top three photos are of our very FIRST bananas, our third harvest of limes, and the lovely blossom and fruit and flower of the Lilikoi vine (passion fruit.) We juice all our many citrus and Lilikoi to freeze in juice-cubes, keeping them in the freezer so we have our own juice nearly all year long. Look closely and you will see two pollinating bees which we treasure.

In Hawaiian culture. this is the season of LONO, beginning in October and lasting about four months. Lono is the god of agriculture and rain. Legends tell that Lono is responsible for bringing cultivated plants to Hawai'i. He is also associated with the makahiki -- a time to celebrate the hard work of farming and to enjoy the fruits of our labor -- a time of peace and recreation. (It obviously coincides with Thanksgiving, Solstice, Christmas, and New Year.)

We thought we would share a few other things that are popping up in our yard right now -- some typical but always a few unexpected surprises.

First is one of our family of house gecko's on the front porch. Off and on we have seen 3-4 of these nocturnal efficient bug catchers. Gecko's in Hawai'i are very special because they are all related to the mythic character, the Mo'o.

Here is a LINK to some information about the Hawaiian Mo'o. Mo'o INFO. We have plans and drawings for a Mo'o sculpture Lunel wants to create to add to our landscaping.  The Mo'o will be placed where a huge outcropping of lava flowed across what is now our driveway. She plans to make it about 6-8' long.

Whatever they are called (dragons, lizards, or geckos, the Mo'o rank among Hawaii's most mysterious creatures, feature in the oldest stories and are a key to a deep and sacred magic. Locals are respectful of the variety of geckos.

The last "What's New" are some surprise mushrooms in the yard.

Put da lime in the coconut

When we first began to talk with some folks about our relocation to Hawaii, we found that many had a pretty stereotypical image....white sands, coconut palms, etc.  However, Hawaii has almost all of the 13 world's climatic sub-zones...or as some info sites say, 4 of the major 5 climate zones.  No matter how you count them, the thing to remember about the islands of Hawaii is zone DIVERSITY!  It is not all white sand and palm trees.
 
When we first moved on to our wooded one acre in the Puna district of the big island (BI) we told everyone that we didn't even have one coconut palm tree on the property...which WAS true until today!

Oooops!  Today, while we began to clear out yet another small area of the yard, we found......ta DAH -- not one, but TWO small coconut palms....one of which was just sitting on the ground under a pile of brush.  And, since we DO have a lime tree, that means all we need now is some high class rum.  

The picture below is what our property looks like and features Lunel in  the wonderful tub that will go into our new ohana addition.  We are surrounded by amazing beautiful trees, wild rhododendron, ferns, vines and orchids.