This is the time of year when agave attenuata blooms here. When they do, they’re a magnet for bees, which bustle and burrow through the maze of blooms.
Reef fish
Fish tend to have their territories, so that when I swim, I often see the same kind of fish in the same place. This stretch of water is a place where pyramid butterflyfish can usually be found.
Breadfruit
Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is generally considered to be a canoe plant, brought to Hawaii by Polynesian settlers, though it’s not entirely clear when the introduction occurred. However, it is clear that breadfruit, known as ‘ulu in Hawaii, was a major food source in days gone by and that the trees were possibly the most prevalent tree to be found on the islands.
An interesting paper about breadfruit can be found at https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu › oc › freepubs › pdf › breadfruit.pdf.
Snow on Mauna Kea
We had a weird weather system settle on the island recently, which provided a week of cloudy, wet weather. It also deposited a decent snowfall on the top of Mauna Kea, which stuck around for a fair while. Maybe it will be a white Christmas after all!
Abstracts: Wheel
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Metallic.’ See more responses here.
I’m not much of a car person. I like vehicles that are comfortable and reasonable to run. But mostly I look for reliability. But I know many people are really into cars.
Here on the island, we have lifted and lowered vehicles, cars with spoilers and go-faster stripes and other strange accessories. Tricked-out Honda Civics seem to be popular, but at the end of the day they’re still Civics, not Ferraris.
Wheels are popular spots for expression. I still think of hubcaps as round bits of shiny metal covering the wheel nuts, but those days are long gone. Hubcaps, or whatever they’re called these days, can be anything. The wheel in the photo had a jazzy, offset spiral thing going on. The irony is that many of these shiny, metallic pieces of auto art are not metal at all, but plastic wannabes.
Clouds around Pu’u Ahumoa
Clouds swirl around Pu’u Ahumoa on the slopes of Mauna Kea. This is an area where clouds often build up during the day and visibility can deteriorate rapidly when they do move in.
Metallic skink
A metallic skink blends in well as it crosses a rough section of an old road.
Crocodile needlefish
This crocodile needlefish swam up to check me out one day when I was snorkeling. These are large fish and sometimes, when I see them, I mistake them for great barracudas. A somewhat disturbing fact about crocodile needlefish is that, if they become alarmed, particularly at night, they can turn on whoever has frightened them and drive their beak into that person. The wounds inflicted can be very serious and deaths have been recorded. Mostly though, when I’m snorkeling, they just cruise by and take a non-threatening look.
Graham's Island 