Hello internet, after a crazy couple of months that involved my brother's wedding, sleeping on the couch for two weeks, a broken computer, and a piano recital from my students, I am still alive. I think. I am also in the midst of planning a trip to a different coastline (location to be announced later) which has been fun but time-consuming. But as life slows down a little this week, I hope to start catching up online here.
Much of my family came out in April for my brother's wedding, and I can't tell you how wonderful it was to all be together again. In Hawaii, of all places. We did lots of fun family stuff - went to a luau, had a day at the spa, and spent plenty of time soaking up the sun at the beach. Within the next week or so, I hope to post some photos, including some of the wedding, which was outside by the sea. For now, here are a few random shots.
There are chickens. Everywhere. Sure, Hawaii has monk seals and sea turtles and humpback whales and geckos and albatross. But the animal most commonly sighted (on my island at least)... is the wild chicken. Some people say that farm chickens were set loose during Hurricane Iniki, and ever since they've multiplied to the billionth power. The roosters crow at ungodly hours; the hens roost beneath every other bush. They have no predators (hello, cats?) so they have no population control. We see them in parking lots, on the highway, on telephone lines, on distant hikes up in the rainforest. They are simply irritating, for no other reason than that there are too many of them! You can't even eat them - there's even a t-shirt that describes that the only way to cook a wild chicken is to put it in a pot of boiling water with a lava rock. When the lava rock is tender, the chicken is done.
To continue the thought from my previous post, I would like to show you this picture:
Note the relaxed group of dirty chickens waiting for some misled civilian to throw them some more Lucky Charms. Also note the crouching feral cat to the left.
Conclusion: the surplus wild chicken population is greatly due to the stupidity of the wild cats.
Gone are the days of black bears and mountain lions. No more do I need to be afraid of rattle snakes or coyotes. I live in Hawaii now, not Colorado, and the wild animals here are a bit on the milder side...
Take for instance, the wild chicken:
Here, the wild chickens are looked on (by locals, at least) as dirty, diseased road hazards. Some people use bumper stickers to notch off how many they've managed to hit with the grill of their car. Tourists, on the other hand, seem to enjoy these beings of pestilence, taking millions of photos of them to show their friends at home. Personally, I find this behavior yet another example of the strange idiosyncrasies belonging to the race known as tourists.
The other day, this rooster was posing for me, for no apparent reason. I didn't have any food to give him, and still he stood there glaring at me. I found myself noticing the uniqueness of a chicken eye and wondering why I had never noticed it before. In fact, I even found myself studying the different colors of feathers that this rooster had. And to make matters worse, I almost thought that chickens perhaps weren't as ugly and dirty as all that. But fear not, I stopped myself in time, remembering that these very same chickens love to crow at three in the morning, and realized that what seem to be beautiful feathers are really just a disguise to hide the roadkill beneath.
Not all wild animals are as detrimental to society as the chickens though. The geckos that we have in abundance are really rather cute and harmless. Some people find them annoying (because of the mess they tend to leave on windowsills and baseboards after an insect feast), but I don't mind them wandering around my house with their sticky feet and Australian accents.
This gecko was stuck contentedly on the ceiling over my bed one night, and do what I might to persuade him to find a more agreeable hideout, he firmly held his position. After a while, I lost him through his camouflage techniques, but eventually something (a tendency to narcolepsy perhaps) caused him to lose his grip, and he fell on my comforter. Thankfully, one of the resident knights caught him before he found his way to my pillow.
There's just something about quiet harbor days that gets in your soul and makes music with your memories. I took these harbor photos the day before the tsunami, strangely enough, when the world felt peaceful and the boats weren't capsized. I love these houses on stilts above the calm waters. Beach houses are amazing and all, but harbor houses have a beauty all their own.
...boating downhill...
Cars can only get you so far on an island. One of the best ways to see the bigger beauty of the coastline is by sea. Kayaks and canoes are a lot of fun if you don't mind a little exercise and a lot of fresh air.
Abandoned boats in the harbor strike me as some of the most peaceful things in the world.
There was this solitary man gazing out to sea, and this solitary chicken gazing at the man gazing out to sea.
I'm not quite certain what kind of tree these are, but it reminds me of photos I've seen of Africa. It's so beautiful how the leaves grow on the top, leaving the stark branches silhouetted against the tropical sky.
...I'm going to call this one Stu...
The sounds of Hawaii: ocean waves, myna birds, rustling of the palm trees, and ... WEED WHACKERS.
This poor man was having a little difficulty attaching his whale weather vane to the roof; he was also probably wondering why I was taking his picture.
...classic postcard shot...
Call me crazy, but I, like Lilo, enjoy taking photos of tourists, especially of snorkelers. They're such a fascinating species ;)
A couple Fridays ago, I went to art night at one of our small towns. The art community gets together - musicians line the sidewalks and the art galleries open their doors to show off their paintings. It was rainy and dark, so I didn't get many good photos...
These orchids are absolutely real, showing off the artwork of their Creator.
One of the best things about island life? Sunsets on the sea every single night. I love living in a place where the people line the sea at the end of the day and cheer and clap as the sun sinks beneath the horizon.
"I want to live where the talk of the town was about last night when the sun went down." ~ Jack Johnson
I would also like to thank Maya over at Completely Coastal for sharing my post about the Bethany Hamilton movie Soul Surfer. Completely Coastal is a beautiful blog - if you enjoy seaside living and decor, you'll love exploring this site. I really enjoy looking at all the photos and getting ideas for coastal decoration. Thanks so much, Maya!
Living in Hawaii has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not many people get to call paradise home. Although I can't always be on vacation here (yes, people do have to work in paradise), I like to get out and explore my island - the people and places that fall through the cracks so many times. The seaside is always my favorite place to escape to, rain or shine. There's just something about being on the edge of the land looking out to the indefinite that puts your mind at rest. The islands also have a lot of local farmers' markets that provide locally grown, organic food and a unique atmosphere for the community to get together.
We're in the last stretches of the Rainy Season here. I took these two photos a few months ago on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I love rainy days at the beach - the tourists are few, the air tastes like heaven, and the sea sits by itself with a happy face at being ignored.
And here's a photo of random wild chickens eating some Lucky Charms.
Walking to the farmers' market...
At this particular open-air market, the vendors have tables scattered throughout a shopping center. Here's someone selling wheat grass...
...and a gecko...
...someone selling macadamia nuts...
These are flowers that grow in the cooler regions of the mountains. I can't remember what they're called, but they are so beautiful and exotic, like they came right out of the Garden of Eden.
...someone selling orchids...
This guy was playing an electric ukulele. The ukulele is probably the most popular instrument around here. If you are interested in listening to some, I recommend trying the musical genius of Jake Shimabukuro. Watch this video and get blown away.
Stat tuned for Island Life Part Two which I hope to post later this week.
