This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Lights.’ See more responses here.
I ventured out into the chill Hawaiian night to see what kind of displays the area had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, despite the difficult circumstances, many people had hauled their lights out and illuminated their properties.
In the end though, I was taken by the window display at the Old Hawaiian Trading Company in Kapaau. I mean, who doesn’t like lights that flash on and off in different colors? People susceptible to seizures perhaps, but let’s not dwell on that. They worked for me. I’m a sucker for shiny things and blinking lights.
I saw these two horses in Waimea, near the Parker Ranch headquarters. Nothing remarkable about them, but I’m pretty sure that brown lump in the grass is a third horse. I mention this because one of the early things I learned about horses is that they sleep standing up. They can do this because they have something called the stay apparatus, which locks the knees so they don’t fall over. The benefit of sleeping while standing is that they can respond quicker to a predator attack from that position.
While I learned this bit about horses, it didn’t register in the same way that horses will also lie down to sleep. As a result, every single time I see a horse lying stretched out in the grass the way they do, I think it’s dead or dying. Despite knowing better, this response seems to so ingrained in me that I doubt it will ever go away.
Looking down from the Kohala Mountain Road, the lush, green pastureland of the hillside contrasts with the dry, brown landscape of the South Kohala coast.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Winter Wonderland.’ See more responses here.
We do get snow here on the Big Island, on the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, but there’s none up there right now. However, for those knee deep in snow, shrouded in freezing fog, or sliding on icy sidewalks, I thought these photos might seem like something of a winter wonderland.
Hapuna beach (officially Hapuna Beach State Recreation Area) regularly features on lists of the world’s best beaches. It’s a long stretch of golden sand across the head of a wide bay with fairly protected waters. Swimming is good, but when waves do roll in, surfers take over.
The top two photos show the view from the south end of the beach. In the second photo, the line of greenery jutting into the beach represents the edge of the State Recreation Area. North of there is Hapuna Resort, which is private, but the beach is still open to the public. The bottom photo shows the view from the north, looking south. The tracks in the sand are from vehicles used in beach maintenance or by the lifeguards who patrol the beach.
When I visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in the summer I hiked the Kilauea Iki Trail again. On that occasion, I descended into the crater on the western end and came back up on the eastern end. Shortly after I got up to the crater rim I took the top photo.
The trail continues around the northern rim of the crater and I continued walking. Three minutes after I took the first photo, I came to another overlook into the crater and the bottom photo shows the view I got there, an illustration of how quickly the weather can change in this area.
For more information about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, go to nps.gov/havo/.
At various places along the North Kona and South Kohala coast there are pools just inland from the coast. Many of these pools are connected to the ocean and serve as breeding grounds for fish. In the larger pools those fish can be quite large. And where there’s a large pool of water with fish in it, herons won’t be far away.
The bird in the top photo was actively hunting, while the other was merely monitoring the situation. These adult birds have the black crowns that juveniles lack and also sport a long, white head plume, that I think is rather elegant.
Black-crowned night herons are considered indigenous because they weren’t introduced to Hawaii, but arrived on their own hundreds of years ago. Thus far, they haven’t changed from their mainland counterparts.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘City Sidewalks.’ See more responses here. The Big Island is a bit short on cities, but we do have a few sidewalks, even up here in North Kohala.
For many years, Hawi had a Saturday farmers’ market, which was held on a green space, under the banyan trees, near the heart of the community. The Covid virus shut that down and after a while, it was announced that the market wouldn’t return. Instead, once restrictions were eased, a Saturday morning market appeared on the sidewalks downtown. This wasn’t a problem since pretty much all the businesses were closed.
Yesterday’s market was quite busy, with the added boost of the approaching Christmas season. In the top photo, the Kohala Coffee Mill was open for business but still had room for a couple of vendors out front. In the second photo, the space in front of the Bamboo Restaurant is fully occupied. The restaurant has been closed since March, and while limited seating and take out is allowed now, the restaurant has not reopened. A lot of their trade was from tourists so I suspect they’re waiting to see how that develops. They do, however, appear to be planning on reopening.
The third photo, taken farther down the street, was taken a few days earlier and reflects how things are without an event like the market. This building, at street level, was occupied by a gallery and a popular restaurant. Both have not only closed, but aren’t going to reopen. The spaces appear to be in the process of gaining new tenants, though I doubt they’ll open soon since there are still relatively few tourists visiting the island, at least compared to previous years.
The bottom photo shows a covered sidewalk, which complements the street sidewalk. There are several active businesses in this building, but it’s still much quieter than it used to be. I suspect that this year might have reminded old timers of how this part of the island used to be in the days before the tourist boom happened.
The bottom photo is also posted in response to Bushboy’s Last on the Card photo challenge for November. See more responses here.
Graham's Island 