Seasons

I'm finding the seasons here quite distinguishable. Being from Michigan and actually seeing everything change from cold to rain to warm to snow, I thought I may not like perpetual summer. So far not so. Everything here definitely has it's growing season. Some faster than others but they all have their time. It's easy to see now why almost any time is a good time to visit Hawaii. If you come here in the summer I think you get to taste more of the fresh fruits and vegetables. Right now we have dragonfruit coming in. We eat it like a melon and it looks like a magenta kiwi inside only much bigger. Pineapples have been ripening and have been part of our breakfasts besides drying a few. Lilikoi are dropping like flies. You don't harvest them, you just pick them up when they fall. I made juice out of them and froze most of it. Mangoes are just about done and I have some of those frozen. Smoothies taste great with them. After all that work now they tell me all I need to do is take some chopped up fruit and pour vodka over it and let it set. (For how long? A long time is okay, I guess). Then you just pour a glass of 'happy Hawaii' anytime guests arrive.

Of course the big deal here is that 'picking' season has finally arrived. Today we have about 6 pickers out in our coffee orchard and we will be weighing and counting this evening. We will sure find out how much cherry we are able to process today. Ron had been picking some as it slowly came in and in one month we got about a total of 700 pounds. We will surely get more than that just on one day today. Then we will go into drying and raking mode. They probably will not get it all today so pickers will be back Monday to finish up. Meanwhile we have more cherry still on the trees that needs to redden up so we can hardly calculate how long picking season will last. We have guests coming in Nov. that want to pick so we can only hope we still have beans ripening up till then. I think they will be glad it's only a few.

Five of us took last Sunday and went up to Wiamea to see the "King & I' at the community playhouse. Vog had cleared out and the views were spectacular. We could see Haleakula on Maui from the road there and everything was so green against the Kohala Mts. Later we had dinner at "Cafe Pesto's". My first time there and a definite go back and nice place to stop in Kawaihai when visiting.

No matter the season new places to snorkel keep me busy. Our closest beach area here called Mahini beach is my next stop. Maybe tomorrow. I need things to take my mind off something I discovered. Even though this may be paradise, they still have root canals here. Yes I have to have one and it looks like next Wed. is the day. Never had to have that done before but one thing I know is that when I walk out the door after the procedure I will be looking at the beautiful Pacific and that's, I think, something to look forward to.

So much happens in summertime........................

I don't know that I have the time to write all about it! Ron bought a tomato plant last week from a vendor next to us at the market because tomatoes are hard to grow here----huh!! Well it's in a container and it has doubled in size already. It's like we have a conveyor belt of fruit pouring in. It's a shame to waste it but we are overwhelmed. After spending the spring and summer months in Michigan praying and tenderly coaxing our greenery to grow and ripen before frost, it's amazing to watch it grow here. In fact, try to stop it! Ron calls me the wicked witch of Hawaii as I tend to grab, pull, cut and stomp on foliage and plants I don't want and they 'just come back'. One good thing, all this 'extra'(so they say)rain is producing a bumper crop of coffee. Ron is spastic over all the coffee trees that are falling over, heavy with cherry.
I did get him to take a day off and go to the 'Two Step' snorkel/swimming area with me. He even got out on a body board and floated awhile while I did my jogging exercises in the bay. Then Tues I went to the Honounou NP area with some neighbors. A lava area that Ron & I were able to walk across last winter was filled with water and a nice pool and waterfall area was created because of the extra high tide occurring. We were having a blast when a huge surge came in and swept quite a ways inland and I was enjoying the ride until I realized that I was being carried out into the open sea. I immediately tried to swim back and the force was too great. A young boy was right next to me and we grabbed on to each other until the surge let up. It was actually shallow enough to stand when we grabbed onto some rocks to steady us. Meanwhile my friend had been pulled out much farther and her husband was trying to pull her in. I was luckier than Marci & Chuck who were scraped up a bit from being bounced into the rocks by the huge incoming tide.
Later that evening Marci and I and 4 other friends met for dinner and a movie. Mama Mia is showing and I remembered how much I liked the live version, so we made it a girls night out. Let me tell you we thought the movie was as funny and raucous as the live show. We shared many belly laughs and James Bond "007" singing in Elvis style bell bottoms was a hoot!!
Ron took a bike ride yesterday and he makes a loop which takes him down to the bay and back up to the highway. He saw some friends heading down to the bay to swim and watched as dozens of dolphins were swimming and spinning around. Today he ran with Mark, his friend from Michigan, who has been here for a few weeks. They came for dinner one night and told us they are thinking about moving here. In fact Wendy has taken a teaching job here to try it out. She'll be teaching at Kealakehe Middle School. See, it's possible, y'all can just move here too!!!