Hula??? I Hardly Knew Ya!!

When Carolina, Celly and Layla were here we got to go to a luau! Carolina gave the adventure as a gift to Celly for her birthday and John and I decided to tag along. We went to the Royal Kona Luau and it was a beautiful night... we got there early so sat at the very front, there was the typical luau fare, mild but free flowing mai tais and plenty of entertainers demonstrating the dance and clothing of the different Pacific Islanders. Please notice in the video the little keiki wahini dancing at the front of the tables.. and forgive a Nana for saying so, is no other than the amazing Layla performing! A great way to spend a Friday night!



Waiting to go into the luau

Kayaks' Virgin Voyage

Last weekend when Carolina, Layla and Celly were still here visiting we took the kayaks on their virgin voyage. We went to Miloli'i, about 11 miles from the farm and put our kayaks in at the little cove by the boat ramp. John and Carolina went out first, then I switched with her and went out and then Carolina and Celly went out and Layla rode with Carolina! It really was a lot of fun but not a long trip, next time will be longer for sure! Hope you can all watch this little video of our first trip out.

I'm working on a movie of the luau we went to, hope to share it soon! Aloha!

Road Kill Jelly, Cheesecake and Ketchup (Oops, I Mean Catching Up)!

Family on Easter w/o Us

Bunny Parachutes

It's been a long time since a post and I'm not sure where the time went! First it was Easter and I can't believe how much I missed having the whole family over with egg hunts and brunch and baskets. I was surprised to see parachuting bunnies at the Long's here so I bought a pair and we did the traditional launch but not the same by ourselves. I did get this great picture from the family (meant to make me feel better, I'm sure)!

New dining new wall covering

We've also been working on hanging art work and the dining room wall. The dining room had this old, dark, separating wall paper on it and so I tore that all off and John put up this great woven bamboo we found...along with our artwork it looks so good in this room with all the light. I just love it. We also found great locations to hang the fused glass wall hangings John made and I could like them more...what do you think?



John's art on the walls

Road Kill Jelly

John and I have been trying for an adventure a week to get out of the house. weekend before last we went across the island to get malasadas (translation, yummy Portuguese donuts) and check out a farmer's market and a vanilla farm. As we were driving up the mountain to the vanilla farm we started passing all these wild guava trees with the fruit just falling on the ground going to waste!!! There is such an abunance of fruit here we see this alot!! John and I stopped and picked up tons of it and when we got home I turned it into what we are now calling "Road Kill Jelly". It is so freakin' good. Can't wait to see what else I find to cook up!

Lei welcome for Carolina and Layla

Beach play and picnic

This week Carolina and Layla came on Monday to bring our little Kailua kitty and then Celly came on Wednesday to bring Josie. We met them at the airport and it was so nice to see some family. When we got back to the house on Monday we packed a lunch and went to the beach for a quick lunch and then the same thing on Wednesday with Celly but a different beach. This may become our welcome to the Island tradition...so easy and fun. This final picture is from John and he says it "Beach Cheesecake"! Too funny! Not sure about the cheesecake but we had a lot of fun!



I'll try to get back to frequent posts... the time passes really quickly and Ijust don't realize it between work and the new house... sunday we are planning to finally kayak so I hope for some good video to share with you all ~ Aloha for now!

Beach Cheesecake

Remembering Dad and Communing With Nature...



My father's mailbox pics!

My dad died 7 years ago this month, which also happens to have been his birthday month. After he died I found a disposable camera in his glove compartment and when I developed it I found pictures of mailboxes! As I was going through them I was so surprised that in one of the pictures he was caught in the rear view mirror of his car as he snapped the picture. Apparently every time he saw a funny mailbox he pulled out the camera and took a picture. I created this scapbook page about my surprise at finding these. Well, following that I started taking pictures of mailboxes that caught my eye and I have become that "driver by shooter". Here are some I've found here on the Big Island in memory of my Dad!

John was working outside the other day and I heard him call my name, when I looked out I was very surprised to see him holding a bird in his hand so I grabbed the camera and ran outside. This female cardinal had flown in to his garage and couldn't get out and kept banging in to the window. It let him pcik it up and sat stunned in his hand for several minutes before flying away....so cool!

John and I got kayaks today, I guess it's like a 20th anniversary present! You can be sure you'll be seeing some kayak adventures on this blog in the future! Aloha!

Catching Up....Turkeys and A Craigslist Adventure

Clearing the coffee

It was a busy week with lots of work so let me catch up. John has been working on clearing out the coffe. I think I mentioned it was pretty overgrown since the prior owner didn't bother with it. He's been going up there most every day and has made a lot of progress this week as you can see here. Well, John was taking me up there in the Gator (translation 'farm vehicle') and all of a sudden we saw a turkey followed by a bunch of chicks! You can hear my reaction in this video.... remember I've had garden trouble with these turkeys.... my friend Leigh befriends every creature and has been worried about them, look Leigh, more turkeys than ever but I want you to know people keep telling us we are SET for Thanksgiving!!



OK, so I've starting thinking about our daughter, Carolina's, family who are moving here, too, and arriving in June and that we will have a visit from John's 2nd cousin, JP, and how we don't even have livingroom furniture yet... though our kind friends Bob and Cynthia have loaned us a couch. I started searching Craigslist and found a nice tropical style set over in Hilo and I loved that it had so much ORANGE in it!! I love living with color and my favorite is orange. We arranged to buy it and yesterday drove the 95 miles to Hilo to pick it up. On the way back we stopped for lunch at the Volcano Golf Course and then decided that as we drove past, we would stop by the Punalu'u Beach Park and see if there were any turtles basking in the sun. Let me say I've always had the luck of seeing at least one there. It was a gorgeous day and I guess the turtles thought so too, we lucked out and saw 7 in one little spot...check 'em out (if you click on the collage it will open larger)!!

Turtles at Punalu'u Beach

By the way, I love the furniture and so does Mailie, as you can see here!
PS: My garden fortress is working beautifully and the garden is starting to thrive!!

PPS: I mentioned that "the Gator" is a farm vehicle because my sister said she was afraid to watch an earlier video because it had "Gator" in the title and she was afraid of what she would see... could it be worse than me singing in the rain??!!!