The traditional tools for playing on the beach are a bucket and spade. On my recent walk down at Kiholo, I saw this person going several steps better. Name me one kid who wouldn’t love to have a backhoe at the beach.
The reason for this particular piece of equipment is made evident in the bottom photo. Beach sand, from winter storms, had piled up against the edge of the property here. The backhoe was clearing it from the edge of the property and creating a berm in the optimistic hope of preventing the problem happening again.
Termites are plentiful in Hawaii and, if left alone they can literally eat you out of house and home. But they don’t draw the line at residential dwellings. Anything made out of wood is fair game. So every few years, buildings get tented and the termites get gassed.
Tenting a house is a something of a production, but bigger buildings are a major undertaking. These photos show the local Catholic church being tented. The crane is needed to haul the heavy tarps into place and also to lift workers up and down.
The tarps generally stay on for around 24 hours, before the whole process is reversed and the tarps removed. Once the building has aired out, it’s good to go for another few years. This is the second time, since I moved here, that I’ve seen this church tented. I do wonder about certain theological aspects of this process. I mean, aren’t termites God’s creatures, too?
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fallen.’ (See more responses here.) Usually I respond to these challenges with a single subject, but this month I’m taking a different approach, so here are some ‘fallen’ images.
The top photo, taken earlier this week, is of a bus shelter that had fallen off its base. It got that way thanks to some strong westerly winds that blew here for a couple of days.
The second photo also owes its origins to those winds. The mango tree in the yard has another batch of fruit and the wind dislodged a fair number. Pigs and chickens got some of the fallen fruit, but I was still able to gather a considerable number in good condition. However, as the photo shows, there are still more on the tree.
The third photo shows fallen coconuts at Kiholo. While a lot of coconuts are harvested, there are also many that simply fall off the tree and either rot, or sprout to start another palm. Coconuts were brought to Hawaii by the ancient Polynesians, but they might also have arrived naturally as they’re capable of drifting large distances across the ocean, and then sprouting on making landfall.
When I was down at Kiholo recently, I saw this wandering tattler at the shoreline, hunting around for a bite to eat. I followed it for a while, from a distance.
It snagged a katydid at one point (second photo), but I didn’t see it catch anything else. It spent a fair amount of time around one particular rock (third photo), which caused a good deal of consternation for the a’ama crab that was there. I think the crab was a bit too big to fall into the category of prey for this particular bird.
Astelia Menziesiana is an endemic plant that can grow as an epiphyte, as in this photo, or in the ground. It does best in cool temperatures, which is where these plants were found at around 6,000 feet in the area between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, but can also grow in warmer temperatures. Plants are either male or female and both have flowers, but only the female produce berries.
A couple of weeks ago, in her Squares challenge, Becky posted about a set of semi-circular steps here. That same day, I went for a walk down at Kiholo and took these photos of a similar set of steps there. These steps, though, don’t go anywhere, at least not right now.
The steps used to connect to the house, which was built by (or more accurately, for) country singer, Loretta Lynn. But the house hasn’t been used in many years. In 1999, a landowner in the area bought it, and he subsequently traded it to the state for some land behind his property, where he wanted to build a caretaker’s house. He didn’t get as much land as he wanted because the state considered the house, not just worthless, but also a liability, because it had no water, electricity, or sewer connections. Since then, the house has sat empty.
More recently, Hui Aloha Kīholo, a non-profit organization with the goal of protecting and perpetuating the natural and cultural resources at Kīholo Bay, has reached agreement with the state to take over the house for use as its headquarters. The group hoped to raise the funds to start work on restoring the house in 2020, but we all know what happened to everyone’s plans last year. Perhaps, in the none too distant future, those steps will be reunited with the house, and it will come to life again. It’s certainly a wonderful location.
When I moved to Hawaii, this building looked pretty much like this. The only difference was that Sonny’s Place, a restaurant, was a going concern. Not that I ever saw anyone going in or out. Indeed, I never saw any activity there at all except for the occasional sighting of a cat in the window.
It’s not a going concern today, though I honestly don’t know when that change took place. One thing’s for certain, the transition made no difference to the appearance of the place.
There are dairy cows and beef cattle here. Some are bigger than others.
I often see sheep or cows on the road. These were trotting past the wind farm.
A sleepy orange butterfly on the flower of a native Jacquemontia sandwicensis vine.
A pair of nenes walk along the road outside the airport fence.
The newest addition to the landscape is this alien-looking sugar cane harvester.
Horse riders on the road along the coast.
Upolu is a good place to watch the sunset.
The view from Mo’okini Heiau towards a cloud-covered Maui.
A view of Maui from the top of the road to Upolu Airport.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Your Favorite Landscape.’ See more responses here.
When I think of the landscape at Upolu, it includes both the ocean that borders it and the skies above. They are, in my mind, integral to the place. But here, I’ve focussed on the land, a relatively small area of a few square miles where I walk most days. It’s rural, agricultural, and coastal. It’s historic and modern. It’s also a place I never return from feeling disappointed. There’s always something of note that I see or that happens when I’m there.
Also posted in response to Becky’s January Squares challenge theme of ‘Up.’ See more responses here.
Graham's Island 