These photos were taken at Lapakahi State Historical Park. This year, North Kohala was awash with Painted Lady Butterflies and the park was no exception. The butterflies were all over the Ma’o flowers and pretty much anything else that came into bloom.
At Upolu Airport, there’s a mock orange hedge and through it grows a passion vine. The hedge used to be trimmed once in a while, but the flowers attracted to all kinds of insects and was teeming with life. Passion Vine Butterflies laid eggs there and their caterpillars ran amok munching on leaves.
These days the hedge is kept trimmed and is the poorer for it. It’s basically lifeless. I see the odd butterfly, an occasional caterpillar and that’s it. So Passion Vine Butterflies, which I used to see all the time, have thinned out considerably in that area. However, I did spot this one feeding on Blue Heliotrope flowers not too far away.
I saw this praying mantis on a window reflecting the nearby hillside. That and the strong shadow of the mantis is what I like about this image.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Plant Life.’ See more responses here.
Here are a few plants seen on my last visit to Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden. For more information about Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden, go to htbg.com.
I saw this mud dauber wasp trussing up a looper caterpillar on a bright red fire bucket. The wasp doesn’t kill the caterpillar, but immobilizes it. It will then be stashed in the wasp’s nest and have the wasp’s eggs laid on it. What happens then is the stuff horror movies are made of!
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Furred and Feathered Friends.’ See more responses here. Since I don’t have a pet, I was readying a selection of bird photos, when I observed this little scene where I work.
We have six cats there and twice a day we put food out in several bowls. There’s enough for each cat to have a bowl to themselves. But these two, Moon, on the left, and Grayson, invariably ‘share’ a bowl. When I say ‘share,’ I mean they push and shove each other rather than taking turns. Moon will often insert her whole body between Grayson and his food. Grayson has been known to raise a paw. But they never seem to fight, just needle each other, over and over and over….
Heading down for my walk at Upolu, I saw this cow on the loose. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence, but the main road is a mile up the hill and the escapees rarely get that far.
This one gave me a suspicious look as she passed. Perhaps she was trying to get rid of the ever-present cluster of flies on her back!
Yesterday was the birthday of King Kamehameha I, the first king to unite all the Hawaiian islands under one leader. He was born in North Kohala, and every year the community celebrates his birthday with ceremonies at his statue in Kapaau and with a parade.
The parade features Pa’u riders representing all the main Hawaiian islands. Each island has an official color and flower. Maui’s flower is the Lokelani rose and its color is pink.
Hawaiian men and women started riding horses, soon after their introduction to the islands in the early 1800s. Sidesaddle riding was common for women in those days, but it was never introduced here. Women learned to ride the same way as men. They wore a Pa’u skirt, 12 yards of colored cloth wrapped in such a way as to preserve their modesty and dignity while riding astride their horse.
The ceremonies include draping leis over the arms of the statue. These leis are made as a mark of respect, by groups and organizations. It can be a tricky business getting the leis into place, especially when there’s a good breeze blowing as there was yesterday.
Posted for this week’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme of ‘Pink.’ See more responses here.
