Scenes From Around the Yard.

Kitty getting back at the doggie.

The beginnings of the new rose garden.

The beginnings of a citrus orchard.


Red and Pink Hibiscus


Coffee

Pink Angel Trumpet.

Kona The Other Side Of The Big Island.

Kona the other side of the big island, where all the fancy tourist go to spend their vacations trapped behind the walls of the resort looking at artificial landscapes, and surrounded by acres and acres of ancient lava flows, that look more like a black desert, or even better the parking lot at the new Dallas Cowboy's stadium without cars. The other terrible thing about Kona, is the Vog, which is a Sulfur Dioxide cloud that resembles Fog, being shot out of the Volcano. This Vog creates an L.A type of atmosphere, where its hard on the respiratory system, the throat, and the eyes, But there are some upsides to Kona, no rain and plenty of sun. Since the greener and more visually attractive Hilo side receives all the rain. So with that said I spend the day in Kona on Wednesday, walking around the mini downtown strip that featured an ABC store on every corner, and some sort of Hawaii ocean loving store right next to the ABC stores. Just another way of peddling useless trinkets to the affluent tourist of the Kona brand. For anyone who doesn't know what the Kona bran is here you go. The Kona brand is very similar to that of the Southern California brand, over the top and lacking character, full of people willing to spend money on anything and everything.


The Kona brewery was completely packed, but I did manage to do some beer tasting. There beer is alright, nothing special, just alright. I think I am spoiled for having such good breweries in the Northern California region to enjoy.

I spend the morning portion of my day walking around looking for a good beach to sit down and read, and by this picture you can see there aren't many choices to choose from. Nine out of ten shore access points were lava rock beach just like this one, but I did manage to find one area of white sand where I was able to read and enjoy the wonderful sounds of the ocean and the sunshine. Kona, once you get away from all the cruise tourist and the bustling downtown strip, its not a bad place to stop off and read a book on the beach.

Just Another Day In The Garden.

This Lizard was fantastic, it was sitting on the fence soaking up the sunshine, then every now and again it would do a series of push ups, then puff out its skin flap and repeat. What a beautiful green color.

Here is another lizard but brown.

Papayas are a wonderful and plentiful fruit. One tree can produce over thirty papayas, and better yet they take only nine months to bear fruit. Simply amazing.

Here is another look at our happy pineapple, it is about three weeks into its journey, and its starting to produce a purple flower at the base of the fruit. Exciting.
Here we have a blossom from a Navel Orange tree, and it is simply one of the most fragrant of all the fruit tress. I almost want to grow one orange tree just so I can harvest the flower and not the fruit.
Here we have Hummus, with lots of Basil inside. This was my first taste of the wonderful dip, and now I think I am hooked.

Here we have the Hilo Bay front, with its wonderful lagoon and bridges.
And finally we have the great King Kamehameha I. He conquered the Hawaiian Islands and formally established the kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. By developing alliances with the major Pacific colonial powers, Kamehameha preserved Hawaiʻi's independence under his rule. This statue enjoys a kings view of the Hilo Bay.

Two weeks of Germination.

The past two weeks have been a mini lesson in planting vegetables from seeds, with the germination process being a slow but easy task to understand. We ended up planting all sorts of vegetables and flowers, some of which are pictured below. There are cucumbers, eggplants, multiple tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, lettuce, squash, marigolds and violas.

The picture above are the seedlings of an Heirloom tomato variety called the Brandywine Tomato.

These little guys are a variety of Roma tomatoes.

More tomatoes.



Here is a wonderful Kitty named Mochi. He likes to follow you everywhere you go in the garden. Whether it's weed whacking in the long grass or watering the nursery, Mochi is always around playing with whatever he can't find. Once the cat is around, then the dog comes too.

Roses are one of my favorite flowers in a garden. They are elegant, beautiful, chic, and very lovely. The ones above and below are going to be part of ten roses that will make up one spectacular rose garden, full of all different shapes, sizes, colors, and fragrances. I am very excited to start working on it.

The final leg of our journey, the Banana tree. It takes a Banana tree nine months before it can send out a flower that will eventually turn into a fruit, but when the fruit is complete the tree must come down and make way for the next one. This particular banana tree is ready to come down, the tree has died and is starting to fall over. I have harvested the bounty of bananas and violently hacked the banana stalk down to the ground, in an effort to fertilize and make room for the younger baby tree. At the end of every life cycle there is a birth of a new.

It is finally raining. This is the first measurable rain in three weeks! In Hilo, Hawaii it usually rains about two hundred inches a year. Happy super sunday, Go Saints.

The Week in Review Jan 31

What an exciting week. It all started out Sunday with an all day football watching event, and that means both American and Italian. Inter Milan won, the Colts won, and the Saints won, you can't get any better results than that. This particular photo sums up the day completely. Chips and beer, the only way to watch football. This wonderful beer is from the Maui brewing company.
The rest of the week is a little more of the same, planting, ripping out weeds, tearing down a fence, watching pets play, and sitting on the beach watching whales. It's whale season in Hawaii you know. The closest tree in the photograph is a Macadamia tree, the next tree in the row is a Lycee, and then a cluster of Papayas.

Two years later and the Pineapples are starting to bloom. So excited.
Doggie and Kitty playing together. They seem to always be playing, watch your lip doggie.

This stuff is toxic, at around 155. That is stronger then Bacardi 151. Half a shot is all I can handle.

Braddah Kimbos 155 rum will power your car.
That has been my week. Hope you enjoyed, Go Saints.