Five Signs the Wet Side of Hawaii is Not, and the Intimacy of Water Conservation
I used to do semi-regular Friday Five posts. This post can’t wait until Friday. I’m hoping that it will be obsolete by then, that it will plant the seeds of its own obsolescence… 🤞 You’ve heard people joke about how washing their car made it rain. I’ve written before that I’m a Little Stitious, so I’d try car washing (Lord knows my car is dirty enough), but we don’t have the water to spare. For those who don’t remember every detail of my life I’ve shared on the blog (for shame!), The Hubs and I are on catchment water. In Read more…
Postcard from Puna, Hawaii: Feral Chicken Eggs are as Radiant as the Sun
You may recall that I live off the grid in East Hawaii. That means only solar power (with an occasional generator top-up of the batteries in dire emergencies) and catchment water (gathering rain from the roof). I shower outside unless it’s too cold or raining sideways. What qualifies as too cold in Hawaii? We’re not at elevation, but during the “winter” it can easily drop into the fifties at night. Those mornings I ask myself, do I really want to be fully exposed to the elements right now? We’ve had a few chilly mornings lately, but I haven’t yet taken Read more…
Your Friendly Neighborhood Mystery Writer is Still Here
I counted 21 open flowers on this orchid, another 14 buds, and even more nubbins that promise to be buds that promise to be flowers. Talk about an over-achiever! Yes, it’s been… let’s just say a while since I’ve posted. But I’m still kicking and, per my lovely photographic evidence, still doing it in East Hawaii. Don’t get me wrong—I’ve written a bunch of brilliant blog entries, usually in the shower or in bed at night when I can’t sleep. Of course, you’ll have to take my word for them being brilliant since they never made it from the ether Read more…
Postcard from Puna, Where Pork Might be Back on This Vegetarian’s Menu
Aloha, my daydreaming snowbound friends! Last post, I shared a bit of the reality of living in East Hawaii with you, specifically that we received (there’s that deceptively grateful word again) 17.5 FEET of rain last year. Seriously. Well, in true contrarian fashion, our normally rainy January has been quite dry. So dry that I’ve started regularly (dysfunctionally?) laying a hand against our catchment tank to check the water level when I feed the fish in the evening. (Don’t worry—we still have plenty of water; I just like to be reassured that we still have plenty of water.) It has Read more…
From Dog Pee to Avocado Blossoms: Odiferous Tales of Rainy East Hawaii
Happy New Year, everyone! I can still say that in the first week of January, right? It is so fricking beautiful now, sunny and breezy and the perfect temperature. Check out the anole sunning himself among the avocado tree blossoms. And boy, do they smell good. All in all, it’s the kind of day that would make you step off the plane from Iowa and exclaim, Wow, this really IS Hawaii! At this precise moment, anyway, so hurry and step off that plane because there’s a cloud bank on the horizon. 😉 Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly grateful. We’ve Read more…
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