Category: Hawai’i
 Gratitude and a Look Back
Well, as of the evening of December 22 (I think) I’ve been living on Hawaii Island for one full year. All in all it has been a wonderful experience and I very much look forward to as many more as the island gives me. Tomorrow evening I’m getting together with friends to celebrate the fact that I made it through the first year mostly unscathed. The initiation was far less of an ordeal than many go through. Still, there have been a number of things that the island has put right up in my face. It has a tendency to do that. Even with those things though, I wake up each morning, make coffee and go outside onto the deck to give thanks for this incredible opportunityEach evening I do the same thing – typically with a glass of wine – and give thanks for the wonderful day. Doesn’t matter how the day went or what the weather or whatever, I’m always grateful.
Winter Solstice, Eclipse and those Wonderful Maya
I don’t know if any of you (perhaps the 2 readers I have left after my looooong absense) followed the eclipse that happened on the winter solstice this year, but in many ways it was quite remarkable and there are those that believe that errors in interpreting the Mayan calendar might mean that 2010 was the 2012 that has been so talked about. Astrologically, looking out at winter solstice in 2012 was virtually a yawner. 2010 though had a lot of significance astrologically. I won’t even bother to try and explain any of it since I know little of astrology, but there are numerous articles on the web.
Warmest Holiday Wishes
To the last two readers I have (probably including myself) I wish you all the Happiest of Holidays filled with love and blessings and may you all have a wonderful new year.
BTW, the photo is a sunset I took while down at the Keauhou Beach Resort one evening having dinner with friends.
 Photograph by Vadim Kurland I’ve been getting patient, but persistent messages that I need to go up and spend some time at Mauna Kea. Something to the effect, “you need to come up and see me.” To the Hawaiian’s, all the peaks on Hawai’i island are sacred, but Mauna Kea is the most sacred. I feel quite honored that she want me to come up and see her.
I got an email from a friend who will be here on the island and invited me to go… guess where? Mauna Kea. The spirits are very resourceful. My friend needed someone to accompany her, and the mountain wanted to see me. So, this weekend, we will be spending time up there with the giant. I’ll take my pocket digital camera and take some shots while there and post again soon about the trip.
I’ve been putting a trip up there off trying to get some web designs out the door, and I also need to make a trip back to Wyoming to finish “editing” that chapter of my life within the next month. I guess Mauna Kea has different plans, and I just got the memo.
 I had planned on getting a “meatier” post up this week, but I’ve been busy with other stuff. I hope to have something more substantive up in a few days.
How many of you have ever seen coffee “on the hoof?” This image is from right outside the house I’m living in on a sustainable, organic coffee farm. The owners are quite happy since the trees are heavy with coffee cherries this year. At the elevation, and in the area I’m living, June and July are the wet months, and although the first few months I was living here were very, very dry, June and July have turned out quite wet—at least wet as far as this ex-Wyoming boy is concerned. We’ve been getting at least an inch or two of rain each week, and this last couple weeks has seen an inch or more each day. I’ve got yard work to do (weeding and such) but haven’t been able to get out to do it. I might just have to put on my board shorts, a tee shirt and flip-flops and do it in the rain.
 The first couple months here, the front area of the house was virtually just bare ground except for a few tropical plants that were somehow managing to survive the drought. Where as before I could look up the hill in front of the house and see the car parked up there, now all I can see is lush tropical plants (and of course the inevitable weeds). Weeds are good though. This island is a rock and dirt and topsoil are scarce actually on most of the island, so you have to create your own soil, and those weeds, which can grow 4 or 6 inches in just a couple days, become soil once composted. The soils here are quite loose, so pulling most weeds is very easy. There is probably a couple days work to be done in trimming stuff and pulling weeds, but the weather report for the next several days or so calls for at least 30% chance of rain, and here in this area and at this elevation, 30% is more like 100% this time of year.
I still have to pinch myself every so often to make sure that living here isn’t a dream. I’m thankful for every day, and each morning and evening, I express my gratitude to the spirits of this incredibe island.
A while ago, we took a trip over to the Waipio Valley on the east shore of Kohala. The Waipio Valley is a very sacred place to the Hawaiian people and was the home to many Hawaiian rulers. When you visit the valley, you need to first ask permission to enter and if you get that permission, you want to enter with respect for the land and the spirits that live there, and also for the people who live there. Daily, they have to endure hundreds of people walking and driving around the dirt roads and trails, and for the most part, they are quite tolerant.
According to the locals we talked with, this was the first day in quite some time that they valley had not been overcast and rainy. The photo above was from the lookout at the top of the road going down into the valley late morning. The valley is a mile wide and six miles deep with 2000 foot cliffs on each side, and the road at 25% grade requires a four wheel drive if you want to drive down into the valley. With an annual rainfall in excess of 200 inches per year, it is as lush and beautiful as anyone can imagine.
 Due to the generous rainfall, the walls of the valley have hundreds of cascading waterfalls and toward the inland end of the valley are two that I definitely want to visit one of these days. The Waipi’o river, fed by these falls, runs through the valley floor and consists of multiple channels, and since there are no roads, your only choice is on foot or horseback. The channels can be quite deep at times ranging from one to four feet deep – or more – depending on how rainy it has been. As with so much in life, timing is everything.
 We had a good chance to get a feel for the valley, but a trip back when I have more time is definitely in order, and next time I’ll have all the necessary gear and camera equipment with me. By late afternoon, the clouds had started to move in so we bid goodbye to the valley, expressed our gratitude and headed back up the steep road.
Click to see additional photos from Waipio
Did you ever have one of those days when you didn’t know why, nor did you really think to ask why, and you found yourself getting ready to do something or go somewhere that you had not consciously planned on?
That happened to me a couple days ago. I got up and did my web work, did a few things around the house, made a trip to the grocery store and filled the car with gas. In the mid afternoon, I found myself shaving and getting ready to “go somewhere.” It all of a sudden dawned on me I wasn’t sure exactly where I was going although there was anticipation that it was going to be good.
Then all of a sudden I heard a voice in my head say, “Verandah Lounge,” and I thought, ahhhh, OK.
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