The house next door has been empty now for several months and is falling into disrepair. But this white hibiscus, at the front of the house, is flourishing with neglect. It’s loaded with blooms, with new ones unfurling in profusion. It almost makes me overlook how bad the rest of the house is looking. Almost.
There are always people fishing from this little jetty in Kawaihae Harbor, when I go by there in the early morning. I don’t know how the fishing is, but they must catch something, or perhaps they just enjoy the peaceful scene as much as I do.
This Wandering Tattler struck an obliging pose on a rock on one of my early morning walks near Kawaihae.
These silhouetted trees made a nice foreground for a bold sunset.
At Upolu Airport, there’s a mock orange hedge and through it grows a passion vine. The hedge used to be trimmed once in a while, but the flowers attracted to all kinds of insects and was teeming with life. Passion Vine Butterflies laid eggs there and their caterpillars ran amok munching on leaves.
These days the hedge is kept trimmed and is the poorer for it. It’s basically lifeless. I see the odd butterfly, an occasional caterpillar and that’s it. So Passion Vine Butterflies, which I used to see all the time, have thinned out considerably in that area. However, I did spot this one feeding on Blue Heliotrope flowers not too far away.
Looking like a giant eyeball, I saw this ball valve on some equipment in Kawaihae Harbor.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Historical.’ See more responses here.
Here are a few more photos from this year’s celebrations commemorating the birthday of King Kamehameha I, the king who united the Hawaiian islands. The ceremony began with a welcome blown on conch shells.
The procession was led by the four Royal Societies in Hawaii. They are descendants of Hawaiian Ali’i including King Kamehameha I himself. Ali’i were the ruling class who were seen as the link between the people and the gods.
Hula dances were performed honoring the king. Hula was created by early Hawaiian settlers. It is often accompanied by chants and the movements are a visual representation of those chants. The subject matter can be anything from light entertainment to a sacred honoring of a god or goddess. Western missionaries disapproved of hula and encouraged Hawaiian rulers to ban it, but while there were some restrictions it was never driven completely underground as happened with some other traditional Hawaiian activities.
See more photos from the Kamehameha Day celebrations here.
On my last swim, I saw this Wedgetail Triggerfish slip into this crevice in the rocks. I thought it might have disappeared, but there it was, wedged in, side on. It might have been protecting eggs laid in there or just waiting for me to move on!
This fish is also known as the Picasso Triggerfish. In Hawaiian, it’s called humuhumu-nukunuku-ā-pua-a and it’s the official state fish.
Posted for Bushboy’s Last on the Card photo challenge. See more responses here.
Graham's Island 