This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Monthly Color Challenge: Jade.’ See more responses here. I think these photos are in the ballpark.
At the top is a selection of colorful kayaks available for rent on the beach at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay. The one on the left looks jade to me, maybe a couple of others, too.
The middle photo is a sign at a business in Hawi.
Finally, this building in Kapaau, housing L&L Hawaiian Barbecue and other businesses, has some jade as well as a multitude of other colors.
For whatever reason, I don’t usually see much activity on bougainvillea flowers and I don’t see a lot of monarch butterflies. On this occasion though, this monarch was one of several insects feeding on a group of bougainvilleas.
A couple of surfers ride a small wave off the South Kohala coast. The west coast of the Big Island isn’t the best place for surfing, but this winter the northwest swells have had more of a westerly component than usual, so we have had one high surf warning after another. I suspect absenteeism has been high at many businesses!
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Meaningful Memories.’ See more responses here.
This seemed like an opportune time to revisit my first visit to Hawaii, back in 2010. My wife and I stayed in a vacation rental near Captain Cook, overlooking Kealakekua Bay. The sky was hazy with vog from Kilauea Volcano, but the place was awash with colorful flowers. Just down the road was the Painted Church and at the foot of the hill, Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park celebrates Hawaiian culture and history with its wooden ki’i and towering palms.
We traveled the whole island from the black sand beach at Pololu (even if we had to pass the carcass of a dead whale twice) to the black sand beach at Punalu’u, dotted with resting green turtles, and rocky surrounds. There were waterfalls big and small, and roads lined with tropical foliage leading to the active lava flow at that time.
There, signs warned that flowing lava is dangerous (who knew?), but we were still able to get within 10 feet of oozing tongues of red, and saw small fires still burning in nearby brush.
There was even a house for sale: ‘Buy now before it burns!’ We didn’t, though that house still stands while others, much farther from that scene, have since been consumed by subsequent flows.
It was this visit that prompted us to return permanently two years later. Hawaii isn’t paradise – it has its pros and cons like any place – but we haven’t regretted the move and are looking forward to the next 10 years.
Graham's Island 