Tangerines

Tangerines on a tree in Hawaii

The truth is, I get to cheat on Bushboy’s Last on the Card photo challenge (more responses here). I generally see his post in the late afternoon here since he’s in Australia and many hours ahead of me in Hawaii. That was the case today and when I looked, I found that, for various reasons, I hadn’t taken any photos in more than a week.

So I poked my head outside and immediately thought of the tangerine trees in the yard. One is so heavily laden with fruit that a couple of branches are scraping the ground. Despite the trees looking to be in terrible condition, they fruit prolifically. An interesting fact is that the only flower I’ve ever seen on these trees was an orchid growing at the base of one of the branches. What’s that about?

Kohala clouds

A band of cloud above North Kohala

Driving home from work I saw this scene in front of me on the hill leading towards Hawi. It was such a striking example of the weather around here that I was moved to pull over and take a couple of photos.

The top photo shows the blue skies and scattered white clouds I’d been working under all day, and was standing under to take the photo. The gray band is wind-driven, low cloud being blown from east to west along the northern coast of the island, and blotting out the sun in this area. Under this band it was raining and visibility was poor. The cloud is channeled in this way by the northern shoulder of Kohala Mountain. As the band moved out over the ocean it became less pronounced as it dissipated.

Turning to my right, I took the bottom photo, a rainbow formed by the sun at my back and moisture tumbling over the mountain’s shoulder.

A rainbow above North Kohala

Setting a bad example

A cow and calf next to a road in North Kohala

I passed this mother and calf on the road one day. The mother was enjoying the green grass by the roadside while the calf, only a day or two old, looked bemused by everything around it. At least it looked like it wouldn’t go hungry anytime soon.

‘Ilima

An Ilima shrub and flower
An Ilima shrub flower
An Ilima groundcover flower

‘Ilima (Sida fallax) is an indigenous plant that has different forms. It can be a groundcover or a shrub and it can have different colored flowers. The top two photo show the shrub form, while the bottom two are of the groundcover.

I often see this groundcover in the same areas as the Jacquemontia sandwicensis vine.

For more information, go to http://nativeplants.hawaii.edu/plant/view/Sida_fallax.

An Ilima groundcover plant

Pallid ghost crab

A Pallid ghost crab on a beach in Hawaii
A Pallid ghost crab on a beach in Hawaii

I saw this crab on the beach south of Kohanaiki Park. Pallid ghost crabs are small, with a carapace only an inch or so wide. They’re also speed demons, zipping across the sand, usually to disappear into their holes. That’s how I saw this one, on the move. But instead of diving for cover, it remained above ground.

I took some photos from distance before edging closer to try and capture more detail. The crab didn’t move. My biggest challenge was finding it in the camera’s viewfinder. Even though I knew where it was, half the time I wasn’t sure whether I had it in shot or not, they blend in so well.

The top photo shows the best of the close-ups. The second one gives an idea of the crab’s perfect coloration for its environment.

Who needs coffee?

A mural of an owl in Hawi, Hawaii

There are quite a few murals around Hawi and this is one of them. I quite like this one and when I look at it I imagine it painted on the ceiling over my bed. I imagine waking up in the early morning and opening my eyes and …