Monday, April 20, 2020... Summerish weather is here!

It feels SOOOO good!  Skies of blue, sun-warmed skin, ahhhh.  I know, I know, I going bachi...I said it out loud, and probably going rain, but so it goes...between seasons weathers are invariably suddenly changeable, nevertheless I am Extremely Grateful for the sun.

So.  Writing yesterday was fraught.  I saw icons instead of pictures on previous posts and didnʻt know why.  I imagined that the ethereal internetty gremlins at Kukuiʻohiwai decided to sojourn at Kawaiʻapapane, and my mood darkened.  But with the rising sun this morning, I thought:  OH!  Call arh!  Heʻll know.  And sure enough, problem was solved in short order.  It had to do with my inattentiveness to where/how/when/on what photos were acquired and transmitted.  I can pay attention outside, but...electronica??? What a challenge!  So.  If you observed icons, GoLook again...with my apologies...

The Title yesterday:  "Life is but a dream" popped into my head:  Row, row, row your boat... And during the self-inflicted drama-filled writing, I forgot...

These times seem to have a dream-like quality.  As if weʻre living in the 50s or 60s:  no traffic, no tourists, people talking about and planting gardens, cooking, spending time with family, etc.  Lives are slower.  And the weekend past brought us an extravaganza of song on TV stations.  Among the artists, Mick Jaggar and The Stones:

You canʻt always get what you want

But if you try sometimes you just might find

You get what you need

And too, Sunday night on 60 Minutes, at the end, John Dickerson talked about qualities of people and their lives post-Depression, in the 1940s:  Thrift, Resilience, Deferred Gratification.  Then we forgot...

JD: 60 Minutes, 041920    BAM!!!  Thatʻs what it was like growing up in 1950ʻs Honokaʻa and many many other places.  So very unlike today.  I wonʻt go into it, because it can be a downer, and because though I REALLY hope that our society will catch the hint, get it together, and become way better, PessimisticBob thinks weʻll eventually get back to how was.  

If that happens, going back to how was, the Hulihia weʻre collectively experiencing will be for naught.  Long-time readers may recall that word from 2 years ago, referring to the incremental billion-cubic-yard collapse at Kaluapele, and the billion cubic yards of pele erupted in Keahialaka.

huli.hia

Pas/imp. of huli 1, 2; overturned; a complete change, overthrow; turned upside down. Chants about Pele with verses beginning with the word “hulihia” are referred to as hulihia. See prayer, kualakai 2. Hulihia ka mauna, wela i ke ahi (PH 204, 225), mountain overturned, hot with fire. Hulihia Kī-lau-ea, pō i ka uahi (PH 197), Kī-lau-ea [Volcano] is overturned, darkened by smoke. Kaua hulihia, revolutionary war. (PNP fulisia.)

Like that.  A complete, catastrophic change.  Pele can do that, but now as weʻre experiencing, so can mere mortals.

Go plant a garden, or tend to one overgrown.  Save your money.  Ask:  Need?  Want?  Be Kind.

Letʻs do a waihoʻoluʻu maʻo hau hele finale:

Kinda both kāpulu (untidy or messy) and cool at the same time.  Yellow = boiled pua maʻo hau hele.  To get the greygreen, add wood ash.  Now Iʻm pretty sure I have enough pua in the freezer, thanks to generous ld, I want to dye a kīhei (a garment worn over one shoulder and tied there in a knot) as above.  And a big goal is to procure pua Hibiscus brackenridgei subsp. molokaiana to get that vibrant dark bluegreen.  Someday...

Someday soon I hope to get back to The Mauna and visit our endemic

ʻāhinahina, the silversword.  This photo shared by tkt.  ʻĀhinahina is closely related to kūpaoa, that tiny-flowered fragrant gem I shared a blog or two ago.

And another by tkt, this one was a bigbigbig WOW!!!  Itʻs impossible to be redder I think:

Liko lehua, the young red leaves are favored by some when fashioning lei wili.  Fastening them to a base of...dried banana stem sheath, or lāʻī (ti leaves), or braided fern, by winding a string of ʻili hau (hau fiber) or other fiber...

And last, the fading glory of our lehua ʻalani.  I took this today while on my golf course walk.

The photo posted previously of the full bloom was taken on April 12. This one is full of fallen stamens, but the fatter redder pistils still stand...

OK then.  Stay tuned.  Iʻll move on from plants, to topics to be determined.  Suggestions are welcome.  And to make life a bit easier, if you, family, or friends want to receive an email when I post a new blog, simply "Follow by Email"  as on the following screenshot:

Type in your email address and click Submit...

As always, with aloha and gratitude,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com