A bee forages on ’Ulei flowers. ’Ulei, also known as Hawaiian Hawthorn, is an indigenous shrub that grows in a variety of habitats. I saw this one hiking on the Kau Desert Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
’Ulei flowers
Category Archives: Parks
Trouble boiling?
I was in Hilo yesterday, and I visited a few places I hadn’t been to in a while. One was Boiling Pots, part of Hilo’s Wailuku River State Park. It’s a beautiful spot, but the river can be dangerous when it’s roaring, so it’s plastered with warning signs.
As you can see, the signs don’t impress everyone. In truth, this group was probably perfectly safe. The river was as low as I’ve seen it. It’s been dry all over the island and the forecast for the day was more of the same. But it’s not the rain in Hilo that causes the river to run, it’s what’s happening on the slopes of Mauna Kea. And while the forecast was good, forecasts can be wrong, as I think we’ve all experienced. But people will be people.
Frankly, the signs at Boiling Pots are something of an eyesore, but the county has to try and cover itself. If those folks did get swept away, their next of kin would likely lawyer up and hold responsible anyone and everyone, except for those who should have known better.
Timber
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Trees.’ See more responses here.
New boat hoist, or is it?
This is the boat launch hoist at Mahukona. I’ve posted about this before, being buried by high surf (here), when it was in bad shape (here), after it was removed (here), and the dramatic signs on the new boat hoist (here).
I was going to post this photo, taken on March 10, 2024, to show the new hoist, but thought I’d wait to get a photo of a boat actually being launched. A blessing ceremony was held on April 4, 2024, which was front page news in the local monthly newspaper. But in the ensuing year and a half I’ve not seen any boat launched. For some time now the only difference in the scene is that the wire and hook have been removed. Not going to be launching boats without that.
I don’t know what’s happened, not being on social media and the like, but I’ve heard that the Army Corps of Engineers nixed the operation. A clue as to why that might be can be seen in the photo. The parking lot is a patchwork of patches over patches, where water regularly fountains up through the cracks.
I’ve no idea what will happen next with this, but it’s Hawaii, so it won’t happen soon.
The Numbers Game #85
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 207. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Life’s a beach, or is it?
This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme is ‘Tan, beige, and/or peachy shades.’ See more responses here. Captions on the photos.
The Numbers Game #83
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 205. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Simply Red. See more responses here.
Flags at Lapakahi
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Flags.’ See more responses here.
In Hawaii, there are usually two flags flown. The top one here is the well-known national flag. The other is Hawaii’s state flag, the only state flag to contain the flag of another country. But how did the Union Jack get there?
This comes down to interactions, in the early days of western contact with Hawaii, between the British Royal Navy and King Kamehameha, who at that time ruled only the Island of Hawaii, not the whole island chain. Kamehameha already had already taken into his inner circle, and thought highly of, a pair of British sailors who acted as military advisors. Then, in 1794, Captain George Vancouver signed a pact with Kamehameha, which he thought ceded the island to Great Britain. That wasn’t how the Hawaiians interpreted it. They thought it established the island as a protectorate. However, one aspect of this exchange was that a British flag was given to the king and was used as a symbol for the kingdom after Kamehameha went on to unite all the Hawaiian islands.
There’s a story that, when the American war of independence with Britain broke out in 1812, Kamehameha did not want to offend either side and so he designed a flag that incorporated elements of both nations’ flags. However the new design came into being, it became the flag of the Hawaiian nation, though the number of stripes, the colors, and the size of the Union Jack often varied.
It wasn’t until 1845 that the current version became official, with the eight stripes representing the eight main islands of Hawaii.
Graham's Island 