Chairman Meow

A ragdoll cat in a garden — On high alert on a trellis with Chilean Glory Vine (*Eccremocarpus scaber*)

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Love Your Pet.’ See more responses here. We don’t have pets currently, so here are some archive photos of Chairman Meow, our cat from our old home in Washington State.

He was a Ragdoll, a breed noted for its mellow temperament. Happily, he was not a hunter, though he would stare intently at birds, except for hummingbirds, which left him with a bewildered expression! He also shed boatloads of fine, soft hair. A thorough combing would produce a wad of hair, but when he walked away, more would fly off him.

In the mornings, he’d climb up on the bed and sit on us until he was let out. One house had a screen door and it was common to hear a thud against it in the morning, a sign he wanted to come in again. When I opened the door, looking down for him, he was nowhere to be seen. But when I looked up there he was, hanging halfway up, his claws gripping the screen. The old lady who lived across the street said it gave her a great deal of amusement to witness this daily ritual!

We were going to bring him with us to Hawaii, but he used to end up frothing at the mouth on the two mile car ride to the vet! So he stayed behind in a good situation until he passed away a few years back.

Wainaku Street Bridge

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A view of the Wainaku Street Bridge in Hilo with the Wailuku River flowing beneath it.

Hitchhikers

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A Green Turtle with three Remoras on its shell in the waters off Hawaii

I saw this little turtle on consecutive days last weekend. Both times, it had three remoras on its shell. Two are definitely Slender Remoras, and the third is probably the same, though less easily identified in the photos I took. The remoras don’t harm the turtle, except for possibly slowing it down a bit, though this turtle looked pretty speedy regardless.

Peekaboo view

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A view of the coast, through tropical foliage, on the east side of the island.

Cockspur Coral Tree

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The flowers of a Cockspur Coral Tree always catch the eye. Posted for Terri’s Flower Hour. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #112

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A juvenile black-crowned night heron in flight. — A Black-crowned Night Heron flies over the water.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 234. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Riding in a bus in Hawaii — A bee burrows into a Mamane flower

Red-masked parakeets at Kohanaiki Beach Park. — Red-masked parakeets.

Sticky Buns

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Recently, one of our local bakeries shut its doors taking with it our source of sticky buns. They were a favorite treat of ours, so my wife looked into making our own. She’s had good luck with recipes at onceuponachef.com and found a promising option there. Yesterday, I got to try it out. Actually, I started on Saturday as the dough needs a while to rise, but can be refrigerated overnight.

We immediately made a change to the recipe, subbing macadamia nuts for pecans. It is Hawaii after all. But the whole process went fairly well. I only had an 8-inch square Pyrex pan rather than the 9-inch square cake pan called for, and I think that’s why the buns were climbing the pan’s side when I removed it from the oven!

I was also not prepared for the enthusiasm with which the buns shot from the pan when I inverted it onto a parchment covered tray. It got a bit messy, but the crucial question is, were they any good?

They were indeed. Soft and chewy, but crunchy with nuts. A sticky bun crisis has been averted and all is well, at least in this little corner of the world.

Posted for this week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme, which is ‘Sweet.’ See more responses here. You can find the recipe here.

Tourists