waiting for the rain

ahhhhhh....



"i waited for the rain and i
prayed for conversation"
the judybats

pahoa and maku'u

good stuff in pahoa

malama market
nice place feel

jungle love
clothing/art/stuff/head shop
good prices!
(next to malama)

maku'u farmer's market
sundays near pahoa
(flea market, crafts, produce, massage, deliciousness, lots more)

the hawaiian sausage and char siu are very tasty here
(maku'u farmer's market)

happy shiny faces

another lovely visit to the ahalanui park pool today

friday stuff

another quiet day in keaau. here are some of my thoughts and doings.

there are six pineapple fruits in various stages of growth in the garden.
wondering how long it takes...

playing 'dark spire' on the DS with earnest now. i'm making old-fashioned versions of the dungeon maps because i keep getting lost. here's the 1st floor. sherry even took me to longs (oh, i do like longs!) so i could get colored pens for the map. i still need another color, so i'm steeping noni bark with gardenia flowers to try to get yellow (in the cup). it smells nice anyway!

you can also see bananas hanging here. we have been eating bananas like crazy.

the vog/haze has been pretty thick. click on this picture below (from yesterday) and compare to the one at beautiful day to see the difference.

it hasn't rained in 3 days, i hope it rains again soon.

shattered

the weekly naruto shippuden update: #111 shattered promise.
it exploded as jordan predicted. but guren has an interesting skill...

naruto faces off with the sanbi (with gamakichi and gamatatsu)

a new collaboration: toad flame bomb!

just one more episode in this 5-month long "filler-story-arc".
then, return of the akatsuki ?!!!

beautiful day

view from the lanai, looking east.
click on the photo to see the ocean

rhubarb-ginger gift

today with our lunch of left-overs (tofu green curry, shoyu chicken wings, the BEST cabbage salad), we added the lovely rhubarb-ginger chutney that firstofmany made and sent from PT!

mmm, rhubarb tart, gingery. looks like apple butter. delicious.

first, is there a spice in it? secret recipe?

bananas!

we picked bananas this morning!
we cut down the entire stem (on the ground to right of scrunch)
lots of bananas (pile of ripe ones + the bunch)

scrunch preps smaller bunches
( a pineapple top is rooting on the ledge,
noni fruit jar is in the shade in the corner in a bag)

while hacking up banana stems for the compost this little one popped out.
i think this is a coqui...

lunch

Lunch Menu:

Left-Over Club Sandwich
Dutch Gouda
Greek Feta
French Brie
Ripe Tomatoes from Keaau farmer's market
Garden Basil

Maple Stroopwafel with macadamia nut butter.

wordscraper

here's kim, playing on the scraper when i visited in san bruno.

betty and i have a long wait until we can scrape with her again (she's offline in ireland for two weeks! and then the week everyone's here).

luckily we have scrabble with firstofmany!

sunday part II

back up Hwy 137 to Kehena Beach (black sand)

a "happening" place. clothing optional.

a small pool at Kehena

steep climb in and out of Kehena

back to Ahalanui, a dip in the blessed pool and
some relaxation at the grassy park area.
this place is wonderful.

we ended the day with dinner at ken's pancake house (great double-decker BLT with fries, scrunch had the club sandwich)
dessert at hilo homemade ice cream. the coconut ice cream is delicious!

sunday part I

another incredible sunday!
drove to the end of Hwy 137 in Puna

view from MacKenzie State Park

another view from Mackenzie

scrunch

lava steam

lunch at kalapana village cafe
(end of the road)
tasty kalua loco moco...

Hilo Inter-Tribal PowWow

we went to the powwow today at wailoa river park!

the morning opened with what looked like a hawaiian ceremony, chanting and sprinkling liquid with a leaf while walking around the sacred circle. i loved this guy's tatoos.

here is a bit of dancing by the different tribes.



a short clip of the California Inter-Tribal Bird Singers
(they dance too! but not in this video...)

dream drooling of a banana breakfast

sherry cuts a blossom off a bunch of bananas

i hack at it awhile

the banana blossom

two bunches growing (above sherry cleaning the tool)

these will be ready to pick soon!

and what to do with all those delectable bananas? banana breakfast!

"mugsfull of banana mead...banana croissants and banana kreplach, and banana oatmeal and banana jam and banana bread, and bananas flamed in ancient brandy"

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon

backyard lizard and coconut

lizard on the banana tree

young coconut palm

Seaside Restaurant

Seaside Restaurant in Keaukaha for dinner tonight.

Pacific Island cuisine, fresh fish (they have a large fish farm adjacent for some)

after crusty bread and salad our entrees arrive. i had the moi chinese-style (steamed whole, with a shoyu+oil sauce, cilantro, ginger), sherry had macadamia nut crusted Mahi with wasabi cream and sweet chili sauce. both delicious.

warm delectable brownie with (we think) macadamia nut ice cream. and coffee.
again, very good.

the place is pricey (~$25 per entree, but includes bread, salad, steamed veg, rice or pasta). there was a 20+ minute wait for the moi, i think they had to catch it. now that's fresh. i hope sherry will post her thoughts soon. i would go again!

this is ken's pancake house as we passed (speeding by at the left-turn green arrow on the way back). bellies are full and it's getting dark; home to bed!

smoothie

one of the many and varied fresh tropical smoothies sherry makes every day.

you can see the lanai in the background.

forgiveness

shippuden #110, memory of sin (guilt).
*SPOILERS*
(not that anyone reading this is following!)

tsunade sends help to kurenai and the sanbi sealing team


katsuyu-sama, the slug queen!

it doesn't matter to me what else happens in the final episodes of this arc, this is the sweetness i'd been waiting for. guren repents and yuukimaru forgives. naruto once again successfully spreads his healing and influence...

new string look

here's my kamaka with the new aquila strings (right)

i initially screwed up the re-stringing (you will laugh dr. catfish, i confused the string order and had to move them around, you know "1st string" vs. low string?!). all's well that ends well.



the strings are still stretching but sound so much better to me. i like them.



so now my question to firstofmany is, should i re-string your kamaka too? we also bought some aquila for yours, but the string color is white, not black, a little different. let me know!

haircut

sherry gets a haircut in hilo

restring the kamaka - before

i'm going to restring my ukulele with aquila strings (purchased from hilo guitars and ukuleles). here's a little video of 'i saw stars' in the key of C on the old strings, for comparison later.



(this is the third, and worst, take. kept getting my camera settings wrong, file too big. at this point i feel bolder, a little less frightened of the process of recording, and just do it who cares about the mistakes. learning is good.)

Lava Tree State Park Extras

trees covered in what looks like houseplants. very large houseplants.

beautiful canopy above the driveway into the park

flowers on the path

a shaded resting place beckons over lava stairs

indeed
(inside the shaded resting place)