I posted (here) about how one of the concrete barriers at Mahukona Beach Park ended up in the water after some high swells. I took this photo from the edge of the parking area. It got my usual editing, but no added effects. This is just how it looked.
These slippahs, or slippers, were at Spencer Beach Park and had been left on the beach by people out in canoes. But it is customary in Hawaii to remove your footwear when entering someone’s home. This is an import from Asian traditions. Here, most people go barefoot but some, including us, switch to house slippahs, which are only used indoors. I like this because I have no wish to step on a centipede with a bare foot!
Hawaii Island Retreat sits on a steep cliff on the windswept North Kohala coast. There are a couple of public access trails leading down to the coast there. One passes in front of the main building and this is where this swing can be found.
I think I could be happy rocking back and forth there for an hour or two or three, and disembark a more balanced and contented individual!
For more information about Hawaii Island Retreat, go to hawaiiislandretreat.com.
A view of Pu’u O’o vent, when it was erupting, from the Napau Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 132.
A flying clown. That’s all the world needs!A grasshopper keeping watch.Two Banana Stalk Flies doing, well, you know what.A well balanced rock on the North Kohala coast.Couldn’t resist taking this one at my local post office. I can run this several times!
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 131.
I was driving home yesterday when I noticed some haze blowing out to sea. I thought it was rain at first, but quickly realized that this was smoke, likely another brush fire, and my heart sank. I was halfway home. Up ahead was Lapakahi and beyond that, Mahukona, two places I spend a lot of time at.
As I got closer I saw that the fire was burning at Lapakahi. Traffic was still passing on the highway though the land beside it was black and smoking. But strong trade winds had blown the fire, which apparently started near the park entrance, down towards the ocean.
My guess is the fire had been going less than an hour when I got there, though a considerable area had already burned. Fires were burning along the north edge of the area, not far from the road, but the most smoke and bigger flames could be seen closer to the ocean. It looked like the small visitor center had escaped, surrounded as it is by the looping access road. But other structures might not have been so lucky, and the native plants, birds and insects probably did not fare well.
I was walking the beach at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay (often known as A Bay, for obvious reasons) when I noticed this bird walking in the same direction as me. I was idly wondering what kind of gull it was, when I suddenly realized, ‘it’s a gull.’
Unlike most places, a gull sighting in Hawaii is a rarity. I know people who’ve never seen one here. Gulls prefer shallow tidal areas and tropical islands don’t have those, so they’re not gull-friendly. But a few get blown in every year and some arrive as stowaways on ships
This one is a Ring-billed Gull, and it’s the second I’ve seen in my time here. The first, I saw catching a fish (here). I rather liked how this one was strutting its stuff on the beach.
Also posted for Bird of the Week LII. See more responses here.