All creatures great and small.

This cheeky chappy has taken a liking to my laundry room. It's safe and warm in there, well almost safe as I trod on him the other day as I entered without knocking. Thankfully we're both fine after the shock!

Being a chameleon this is his brown bag look. 

Crikey Cleo, make yourself at home!

This industrious crab thought he'd hit the jackpot with a whole dorito chip for dinner.

He diligently dragged it all the way to his burrow.....

.....only to have his plan foiled due to engineering difficulties he could not have foreseen.

In other crab challenges,  things didn't bode well for this one as he was at the bottom of the steps from my office. He must have hitched a ride on something to end up there, as he was at least 10 blocks and a busy highway from the beach.  Talk about a crustacean out of water.

Uffff and talking of things out of water, what can I say about this poor girl. Such a speckled beauty to be iced, sliced and diced. There's no question I'd be vegan if I had to buy all the animals I ate this way. 

And while we're on the subject of nuts and berries, if only I lived in a place with squirrels, because this would definitely be my nut feeder  of choice.

A busy week.

Having surfed and attended a yoga class, my day was already an eight. So when I got the invite from Mel to come and eat lunch prepared by a private chef and launch from his house...well it jumped to a ten.

And talking of jumping, I had to before rigging up!

Team Italia & Team Swiss are in town and Renata's birthday was a perfect excuse to congregate and appreciate.

Doh! I didn't take this grasshopper pici (I wish), but it makes me smile every time I look at it.

I didn't take this one either and it was forwarded to me with the comment "one of your friends I'm sure", again, I wish!

The third and final pici I didn't take was this one forwarded by Meesh. Here's the story morning glory. More shocking is that this beautiful photo was taken with Ulli's iphone!

It's a tradition to have a pre halloween party pici taken in Ulli and Michelle's kitchen.

Gotta have the contrast before things go quickly down hill!

And finally, spot the windsurfing pioneer!

Ho'okipa offerings.

At low tide I padded around Hookipa looking for a shot, but was too impatient to hang around for a corker.

This one however caught my eye as now I know (post clinic) that throwing a rooster tail is as much of a learned windsurfing skill as any other. This one gets a 6.5 out of 10 from the British judge.

This looks like Mark Angulo and his mutant....but what do I know?

Feminine prettiness collecting shells.

Talking of Hookipa, this beautiful fish used to live there and how rude of me not to have removed the kitchen sponge before David Baileying my dinner. It does give you pause that just hours before this beautiful creature was swimming in the ocean and the next thing you know it's caught, is in a cooler, then stuffed in a bag with his head down the garbage disposal at my house. The value placed on it's life was a mere $10.00, oh the indignity of it all.

What can do, but honor it by making a delicious dinner and not wasting a morsel.

And finally, remember my friendly neighborhood heavily prego preying mantis? Well she (or one of her girlfriends) just deposited her egg sack on the hand rail of my front stairs. I overrode my homeowner urge to scrape it off and am now eagerly awaiting the happy event. Stay tuned.

Even I was ready for a new post.

So the left tree asks the right tree, "dude, how do I get on to the Internet"? The right tree answers, "you log in dummy"!

Whilst on the woody perennial plant theme, unbelievably it's jacaranda season again. They are such majestic beauties and with the lush fields and moody clouds of upcountry as a backdrop, their color really jumps out.

As did these sun beams on my way home from work Friday night.

Despite having a closet in my house where everything goes to die, I don't consider myself a pack rat. However, the amount of shit I gathered for my garage sale this weekend would dispute that fact. I'll be honest, I was embarrassed at the amount of stuff that surfaced, that being said the $580 I made getting rid of it helped ease my shame!

There's a new kit in town....Cleopatra, who belongs to my neighbors. I joke with my tenants that they can have cats so long as they don't meow (nothing more annoying) and shockingly, neither of the two compound cats utters a word, purrrrrfect.

Last week as I drove by the harbor to check out the swell, I felt actual sadness at what I saw. My favorite buoy washed up and rendered useless, all naked and vulnerable, one can only assume by the tsunami surge. I'm crossing my fingers it will be back in its rightful and dignified place soon.

On your marks....

get set.....

Go!

The way I see it.

Upon waking this morning, my thoughts arose in the following order: "What a good sleep", "I think it's still early?", "yeah-I'm off today", "gotta pee", "wow-look at the moon", and (with ablutions completed) I slipped on my dressing gown and stepped outside for a digital moment.

Meanwhile, I was putting petrol in at the Shell station a few days ago and noticed I had company. As I stood there squeezing fuel with my left hand, my right brain was trying to figure out how to photograph my companions impressive shadow. Like a giant paparazzi I obnoxiously kneeled down right in her face and she quickly started advancing toward the shade. Before she made it this was the best shot I got.

At the back of Savers I was dropping off some old clothes and was momentarily mesmerized with joy at this simple and slightly asymmetrical vision.

MACC glass surrounds the parking lot trees and can often be found laying benignly in your parking space. Despite it's smoothed edges (and being the big girl that I am) I still avoid sitting my truck on top of it.

The Maui convertible. Shaka to you too Brah!

Slowly but surely.

Sorry to be running at a snails pace to the next post, patience grasshoppers! (Thanks Kimmer for these great creature pics).

Meet the Neighbors

Big Daddy Rambo.
Bambi. and the kids......(no pun intended). Or are these fawns?
Seriously, these four leggeds live just two houses down from me and if you ever need directions to my house you'll hear this; "blah, blah, blah then look for the rams, deers & goats and turn right-mine is the third house on the left".

Wallace & Gromit.

How frickin funny is this? I was leaving Mana Foods, which is kinda of like the "star wars bar" for grocery shopping. In hindsight I should have gone inside & taken photos of possible candidates for "Wallace"....if only I had some cheese!

Isn't he cute?!

Dirty floor = not my house!

Murder most foul.

A few weeks ago I went to open my mail box and guess who was hiding in the hinge! Oh my word, not pretty and I wasn’t even woman enough to open & close the mail box over & over again to put the poor little bugger out of his misery! I just walked away racked by guilt and found him devoured by ants the next day. Now I knock on my mail box before entering.

A few years ago I went to close my bedroom window and guess who was hiding in the window jam! Oh my word, not pretty and I wasn’t even woman enough to open & shut the window over and over again to put the poor little bugger out of his misery! I just walked away racked by guilt about how bad I felt for squishing the poor innocent little gecko! Now I look before closing the window.

I go in my storage closet every few weeks and (you guessed it) who’s there to greet me in the door jam but a dried up, prehistoric, stuck to the door jam, former gecko!

So imagine my delight at seeing this plump little fellow on the outside of the screen and seemingly out of harms way. I just had to take his photo to prove he was still alive before I blinded him to death with my flash!

Tribute to Steve Irwin.

As a tribute to Steve Irwin, Giampaolo decided he’d work his way up to crocodiles and start with something more in his league, a salamander. Crikey he’s a cute little fella (the salamander not GP)!

He's/She's back!

I have to wonder if my friendly neighborhood praying mantis is the same creature from a few weeks ago? I have no way to tag it, other than the lens of my camera. How amazing is this insect that it can stand vertically, balancing its big ass body on such wee high heals in a great big wind?! I have so much to learn…..

I was sitting at work a few weeks ago watching this little chappy (or chapette) hanging out on the railing and just had to test the macro.....I still don't quite have it sussed. Note to self: Must go & butter up Uncle Ulli with a new copy of "Hello" & make him spill his secrets!

Feeling crabby?

Not half as much as this little chap! How about natures camoflage....it's what all the fashionable crustaceans are wearing this season, at least those that want to live.

Cuuuuuuuuute.

Blanca and the rabbit, what a team. They magically hopped by work the other day and made my day. Fantastic....

Jackson chameleon

I was weeding my garden this morning and use a few old trash cans to hold the rubbish. I went to fetch one and look who I found inside! I said out loud “oh my word you’re a beauty”, I was as excited as any little kid would be.

He's a young male and must have fallen into the can. There was no way he could have got out by himself, I also think he must have been there a while because he's quite thin.

Jacksons were accidently introduced into Hawaii in 1972 and are pretty common here, though I haven't seen one around the property in a while. Eduational bit: They use their eyes independently & sit completely still watching for a prey item to cross their path. When one is spotted, both eyes will converge and it will sway a bit to better its vision and to confirm the distance to the meal. Prey is captured by projecting the tongue, which is one and a half times the lizard's length & can reach full length in a sixteenth of a second. NICE!

Off he goes........
Don't worry I didn't leave him on the deck, I got a stick & carried him to a tree as I'm sure he was starving. I was so happy to spend some time with this little fellow :)