I was down in Pololu Valley when I saw several of these dragonflies. I knew they were luring me in with their ‘Come on, we’re just hovering, you’ll get a great photo’ routine. Then they zip around evading every attempt to get them in the camera screen, let alone in focus. But I’m nothing, if not a sucker for that kind of temptation.
Shockingly, this was the second photo I took. Don’t tell the dragonflies. They’ll be very upset.
Hawaiian Crown Flowers (Calotropis gigantea) came from India originally, and became popular here because they were favored by Queen Liliuokalani, the last ruler of the Hawaiian monarchy. The purple flower was the one first introduced here, back in the 1880s, with this white variety arriving some 30 years later.
The plant gets its name from the shape of the flowers, which are used in making leis. As members of the milkweed family, they also host Hawaii’s Monarch Butterflies. The plant has a milky sap that is toxic, but that Monarchs, and their caterpillars, are immune to. The caterpillars are voracious eaters, decimating the Crown Flower leaves, but the plant will bounce back after the caterpillars pupate. The plant is drought tolerant and does well on the dry side of the island here.
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 195. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
This driveway leads to a house I’ve never seen out on the North Kohala coast. I don’t care what the house is like; I want to live there!
This church, like many others, has a sign board out front, though this is the only one around here that’s a rather garish neon affair. I have to confess that when I saw this message my first thought was, ‘So, can I borrow his lawnmower?’ I’m going straight down to the hot place, I know.
This house has a view of the ocean and a couple of palm trees nearby. What’s not to like? The view, however, does face northeast, which is where the trade winds blow from. If those winds carry driving rain, the view would likely be gone and the preferred side of the house would be the opposite one, which faces inland and into the trees.
Java Sparrows take a drink from a small pool of rainwater in the lava on the South Kona coast.
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 194. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Graham's Island 