Hana (take two) and a wave (or two).

I always take my camera with me when I ride my bike. I like the routes that are mostly up hill from my house, so the pace is slow and there's a lot to stop and see....

Like this ewethful agility...

.....or me in the mirrored window of a house.

But enough of riding and let's hop in the truck and head out to Hana again. Why not, the drive out there alone is so bloody lovely.

I had some company along the way. This guy was strutting his stuff, but the ladies seemed unimpressed.

Strike a pose.

Keanae is about half way to Hana and the further out I drove the more relaxed I became. The colors simplify in to various shades of green, blue, black, grey and white. My eyes and senses engage in the easy palette and my whole system cranks down a notch.

Against this back drop the plants steal the show and currently the haliconias are taking top billing. They grow like weeds along the roadside, providing clumps of color and a stark contrast to the green corridor  of the Hana Highway.

Destination reached and time to set up camp.

Green oranges (no eggs and ham in site).

I have an emergency box....in case of emergencies and this is my emergency tent. As I'd left the instructions at home, that caused a bit of an emergency in trying to erect it. Luckily there were tent experts on site to come to my aid.

All the food groups covered-no emergency here.

Time to pilfer one of those and carbo load at the beach.

We didn't do a whole lot, but there are times not to. Hanging out with friends unplugged and connected with each other was pleasure enough for all of us.

Later that week I had a dental appointment (4pm last of the day) for a filling. The small talk with my dentist is always about windsurfing and he was saying how he'd just bought a video for his wife on the step gybe. After injecting me for numbness, he said "here, let's watch it" so as I settled back in my dental chaise lounge he brought up the video on the ceiling monitor.  With no more patients to attend to, we both sat back throughly enjoying the 8 minutes or so it took for my nerves to go on holiday. I can honestly say it was the best dental appointment I've ever had, plus I was reminded where to place my front hand before flipping the sail!

And finally I throughly enjoyed a long lazy lunch with some newlyweds who had just got back from their European honeymoon. In Barcelona they had come across a gift for me and this was duly presented with love. Intrigued I opened it up to discover one of my favorite things and despite the fact that I have owned this very item before, I was thrilled.

 
The wave. from Sharon on Vimeo.
Thanks to the solar panel in her handbag, Her Majesty bids you goodbye (with apologies for the dirty sanchez 'tash)!

Oohhhhh wait, one more thing, talking of waves, Kepa's now in India - living the dream and making better and better videos.

From work woes to rest and relaxation.

It 's been an intense week at work with the server that hosted both our e-mail and website going out of business with no notice. Not that big a deal if every thing's backed up - which we do a minimum of three times a day. Proper big deal if you don't back up the data on your website, which we left to said company that went belly up.

My friend Bill used to say there are three options with every job, cheap, fast and good. You only ever get two of them, so choose wisely. The scramble for our rebuild was fast and good......the bank balance took a hit for the team!

Suffice to say for the second week in a row I've not had my mid-week day off and let me tell you I've missed it.

This was long overdue.

My friend Ian and I went for the proverbial Sunday morning whale hunt. The ocean was as glassy as it gets, but after 90 minutes of paddling out the ultimate sighting was still elusive. Still - the joy is in the journey and it was impossible to ignore the fact that in late February we were cruising on the sea under our own steam on a gorgeous day, when we could be in England!

Going up! We finally converged with a mother and baby who swam gently and slowly along. After they dove we waited about 10 minutes before I said "I think it's wishful thinking that they'll surface in the same place", seconds later the mother exhaled a loud breath so close to us, that it took ours away.

These two are the result of an very successful Anglo-French accord.

Luckily for some, grasshopper was not on the menu.

A seed was planted months ago to give some attention to my yard and finally the plans are coming into fruition. Behold-before.....

.....and after.


And finally this week I'm super excited that I bought a new used surfboard. I'm hoping this declaration from the shaper means that despite the ineptitude of the rider - my new board will dispense what it says on the tin!

Green peace.

I love living in a green world.

Glorious stuff.

Yet, as I like my particular patch of green to be neat and tidy I mess with the eco system. The chainsaw, clippers and manual labor produce substantial piles of green waste, which I should compost, but guiltily don't. Instead I make a monthly dusty, dirty trip to the land fill and am left with truck-bed full of displaced bugs for my trouble.

A clever friend with a much more evolved recycling sprit than mine (and a green thumb) surprised me with these the other day. I like 'um and may have to give her my old Doc Martins so they can have a new lease of life.

The smart choice is clearly to be an Octopus tree and live on the side of a cliff, over looking the coral reef and out of reach from people like me.

Someone not out of my reach was poor Cleo. I rudely awoke her from what must have been a deep nap because rather than scampering away as I grabbed my sails, she remained in place as I pulled both them and her out into the sunlight.

Ohhhh did somebody mention a deep nap? 'Tis one of my favorite things on the plant to do and there's no time like the present. See you in...a....few....minzzzzzzzz.

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!

Eat, pray, love.

I arrived home to find this glorious praying mantis slowly making it's way up the handrail to my front door. It reminded me of a cartoon from The New Yorker magazine that's now been made into a greeting card.

She was so photogenic and it's hard to say which was her best side, this one.....

.....or this one? Any which way, I found it amazing that she could walk on those spectacularly spindly legs when she's so plumply preggers (which she is, as I googled 'praying mantis with child'). She even walked upside down under the railing on those sticky tip toes in an effort to escape my paparazzi lens. I can't wait for the little critters to be scurrying around the place, as they can eat all the crab spiders whose invasion refuses to dissipate.

Speaking of children, the other night my lava lamp appeared to have momentarily spawned Homer Simpson's next baby, d'oh!

And if I eat and drink all that shit in my fridge, I too will be bugling at the belly. What was I looking for again.....? Ah yes, that little treat in the triangle of tin foil on the second shelf.

In the meantime I remain svelte, if not a trifle (no pun intended) sycophantic at meeting Michael Titterton from Hawaii Public Radio. I'm a big NPR & HPR fan and was honored to be invited (by my generous friends Mikel & Amy) to a fabby fundraiser. What a lovely bloke Mr.T is and what a complete twirp I look! However, who cares as he exudes passion and enthusiasm for his cause and that merely brings it to a boil in the rest of us.

Did someone say cheese?

A couple of local inhabitants.

Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can, spins a web, any size, catches thieves just like flies, Look Out! Here comes the Spiderman.

Every so often the crab spiders go nuts and think they own the place by webbing everything in sight. They defiantly succeed in annoying me, as I can't make it from my house to the laundry room (via the back deck) without wildly flailing my arms about to clear the way. Yet as I waited for the kettle to boil for my morning brew, the sun hit a web just right.

Picking sticky thread off my arms, I investigated. Is he strong? Listen bud, he's got radioactive blood. Can he swing from a thread? Take a look overhead hey, there there goes the Spiderman.

Bloody impressive.

I feel like he dropped a stitch in the upper right quadrant.

And don't get me started on the snails........

Dude, how rude!

Making a sharp left outa here.