Category Archives: Series

Signs: Graffiti

A few years back, a joint project by the county and kids from local schools, sought to address erosion along the coastline below Upolu Airport. The county laid straw barriers (that looked like long sausages) to control water runoff. The kids put in plants that would help stabilize areas of bare dirt and put up signs identifying these plants. At either end of the area where this project took place, two large signs were erected, with a bit of information about the project and some colorful artwork by the kids.

Within a year, one of the large signs fell down, a victim of high winds and one of the posts breaking. The plant identification signs followed, one by one, for various reasons. Some of the plants began to take hold and the sausages did their bit in reducing runoff, but the project seemed to have lost its impetus.

Last year, it sputtered to life again with a few more signs and some tape asking people not to drive in certain areas. Most of these were gone within weeks.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was walking in the area, I noticed that the remaining large sign had been graffitied (top photo). It seemed like an unfortunate, but somehow fitting epitaph for the project.

A few days later, approaching the graffitied sign from the other direction, I was surprised to notice the kids’ original artwork. It was upside down on the back of the sign (bottom photo). Whoever had graffitied the sign had taken the trouble to unscrew the board, turn it around, and refasten it. This took some thought and planning since the board was held in place by Torx or star screws (photo at right).

The sign is still graffitied and the project still on life support or dead, but this concern for the artwork on the board somehow made me feel that, perhaps not all hope is gone.

Signs: No parking

I was going to title this, ‘Unclear on the concept,’ but decided not to comment in that way. It’s possible the two drivers didn’t see the sign, or saw it and didn’t care. Either way, they have a reasonable chance of getting away with it. This isn’t a heavily policed area, and even if a cop goes by, there’s a fair chance they’d simply ignore the transgression. The most likely case for something happening is if one of the people who lives in the vicinity complains.

The sign is at the top of a busy trail down to the Captain Cook Monument. A redesign of the road junction nearby created new parking opportunities and this has resulted in a surge in people using the trail. With more use, word gets out and soon the trail will be overused, the shoreline around the monument littered with trash, and the waters and coral in the bay damaged and degraded.

Not that this is the fault of these two drivers, but since they’re clearly breaking the law, let’s blame them for everything anyway.

Abstracts: Breaking wave

I have a quest to get photos of breaking waves without getting myself smushed on the rocks. I like this one for the forms that the wave’s foam has taken – loops, tendrils and little blobs.

Better Days: Half a trumpetfish

I was swimming one day when I came across this. At first I thought it was a bit of wood, but then I saw the distinctive mouth of the trumpetfish, then the eye. It looked like it was once a good-sized trumpetfish until it encountered something that reduced it to its current state.

I swam around it taking a few photos, until I noticed a large barracuda swimming along with me. I thought, perhaps, it wasn’t a good idea to be near part of a dead fish with an apex predator in the vicinity, so I swam off, leaving the barracuda to make what it wanted of the remains.

Abstracts: State Capitol in Honolulu

This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Design.’ (See more responses here.) For this, I’m posting photos of the Hawaii State Capitol building in Honolulu. Opened in 1969, it’s a relatively recent structure. Some of the design features of the building are striking because they represent elements of the state.

In the middle photo, the reflecting pool, surrounding the building, represents the Pacific Ocean. The columns resemble royal palm trees, and the conical structure, the base of one of the legislative chambers, is the shape of the volcanoes that formed the island chain.

The bottom photo shows how the building is open to the elements, and reflects life in Hawaii where many activities happen outside. On the right is one of four kukui nut trees, the state tree, which represent the four main counties.

The top photo is a view of a segment of the open roof and the walkway that encircles the upper level of the building. I like the strong lines and colors of this view.