Hard to beat seeing a big Manta Ray coming straight towards me.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme, guest hosted by Cathy at Between the Lines is ‘Your Favorite Places.’ See more responses here.
The ocean is one of my favorite places. I love snorkeling and every swim is different, the conditions and the things I see. Here’s a sample. Captions on the photos.
A cute little Scarface Blenny.It’s Christmas year-round for this Christmas Wrasse.It’s the lady who wears the pearls on a Pearl Wrasse.This Collector Urchin looks happy, so don’t step on it.A Mauve Stinger Jellyfish is lovely to look at but best not to touch.Eels can bite, but this Peppered Moray Eel was just passing by.A shoal of tiny Hawaiian Silversides.A variety of reef fish often shoal together.It’s always nice to bump into a Hawaiian Green Turtle, sometimes almost literally.And it’s a special treat when Spinner Dolphins whistle by.
Sunrise over the saddle between Kohala Mountain and Mauna Kea.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme, guest hosted by Susanne at Cats and Trails and Garden Tales, is ‘Early.’ See more responses here. I’ve gone with early mornings. Captions on the photos.
The breakwater at Kawaihae around sunrise.Early morning wavelets at Pelekane Bay, Kawaihae.Morning light on pu’us in the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge, guest hosted by Susanne at Cats and Trails and Garden Tales, is ‘Jade Green.’ See more responses here. Just the two this week, in part because of inclement weather and power outages.
Top is an underwater view at Two Step, a popular snorkeling spot in South Kona. Second is some dappled light in the greenery at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme, guest hosted by Cathy at Between the Lines, is ‘Seascapes.’ See more responses here. Captions on the photos.
…and paddlers up the coast at Kawaihae……but watch out if the surf builds……sometimes scarily high……though for some, that’s good news.In the water, the surface has some cool looks……and the view is just as good looking above……or below!
On high alert on a trellis with Chilean Glory Vine (Eccremocarpus scaber)
All that alertness makes a cat tired.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Love Your Pet.’ See more responses here. We don’t have pets currently, so here are some archive photos of Chairman Meow, our cat from our old home in Washington State.
He was a Ragdoll, a breed noted for its mellow temperament. Happily, he was not a hunter, though he would stare intently at birds, except for hummingbirds, which left him with a bewildered expression! He also shed boatloads of fine, soft hair. A thorough combing would produce a wad of hair, but when he walked away, more would fly off him.
In the mornings, he’d climb up on the bed and sit on us until he was let out. One house had a screen door and it was common to hear a thud against it in the morning, a sign he wanted to come in again. When I opened the door, looking down for him, he was nowhere to be seen. But when I looked up there he was, hanging halfway up, his claws gripping the screen. The old lady who lived across the street said it gave her a great deal of amusement to witness this daily ritual!
Time for a rest with two paws out.
We were going to bring him with us to Hawaii, but he used to end up frothing at the mouth on the two mile car ride to the vet! So he stayed behind in a good situation until he passed away a few years back.
Recently, one of our local bakeries shut its doors taking with it our source of sticky buns. They were a favorite treat of ours, so my wife looked into making our own. She’s had good luck with recipes at onceuponachef.com and found a promising option there. Yesterday, I got to try it out. Actually, I started on Saturday as the dough needs a while to rise, but can be refrigerated overnight.
We immediately made a change to the recipe, subbing macadamia nuts for pecans. It is Hawaii after all. But the whole process went fairly well. I only had an 8-inch square Pyrex pan rather than the 9-inch square cake pan called for, and I think that’s why the buns were climbing the pan’s side when I removed it from the oven!
Before going in the oven and after.
I was also not prepared for the enthusiasm with which the buns shot from the pan when I inverted it onto a parchment covered tray. It got a bit messy, but the crucial question is, were they any good?
Ready to pull apart.Ready to eat.One of our sticky buns is missing!
They were indeed. Soft and chewy, but crunchy with nuts. A sticky bun crisis has been averted and all is well, at least in this little corner of the world.
Posted for this week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme, which is ‘Sweet.’ See more responses here. You can find the recipe here.
This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge is ‘Amethyst.’ See more responses here. Just a couple from me this week. The top photos is a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air auto looking very clean and shiny, though a closer look shows a few signs of age. I know the feeling!
In the second photo, we are amethyst even if the look of this sign in a window doesn’t exactly lure one in.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Feed the Birds.’ See more responses here.
Just the one photo this week, of a recent encounter at the island’s Costco. These Rosy-faced Lovebirds and others were snacking in the parking lot. I’m not sure whether someone threw this there or accidentally dropped a bag of seed or something similar. Either way, this was the only photo I got because every time I was ready to take another one, a car would come by and the birds would scatter!