Grow with What You've Got

 

Plants gone wild (Bee Balm, Echinacea, Kale, Squash, Concord grapes) 

 My vegetable and herbal tea garden in Tennessee would start with a fresh all dirt showing when it was still technically winter. After spring hinted its arrival, I started sowing and as the teeny seedlings began to emerge, it would quickly turn into a wild beautiful landscape filled with flowers, veggies, bees and butterflies. Okra as tall my fence, bergamot as tall as me, everything growing with everything creating a treasure hunt for each day's harvest. Every year it got bigger as I added and previous years plantings returned. 

Seedlings in their starting rows - On your mark, get set, GO! 

   I've been yearning for my garden lately. Collecting plants in my head. I've tried things off and on here in Hawaii on the coast but most everything hates salt water. They seem to do well for a month or so until high surf arrives and the salt spray kills them. Among the deceased are a number of ghost pepper plants (not just a clever name) and jalapeño. Still hangin' on though are 3 pineapples (crowns started in a glass then put in the ground) and a couple of local chili peppers. I'm still waiting on them with bated breath to bring forth their pickable heat. It's a mini hot sauce garden really. Who doesn't love pineapple in their hot sauce? 

Pineapples, Hawaiian Chili Peppers

   I found a couple of what I thought were prickly pear paddles that turned out to be cochineal cacti on the bike lane just down the road. They'd taken a free dive off the mother cactus spilling over the rock wall border of a tropical domicile. I instinctively thought to save them since surely they'd parish on the concrete, and lo and behold one had grown roots to grip the road. Okay, that one is a survivor. I found a couple others that were more recent jumpers. 

The Street-wise Cactus 

I came home and found a terracotta pot of previously tried herbs that said absolutely not to the salt air and disintegrated into the dirt for which they came. The grow your own community said Cacti like succulent soil.. quick search on what's in that...but also keeping in mind that one was growing on the concrete. Is buying special soil really necessary? Prickly yes, but not picky. I decided to make my own concoction with "a little of this and a little of that" (my motto) in soil, sand and rocks around the property. They need to also set out and form a callus over the part that came off the mother before you set them in soil so they don't just rot when you water them. This can take anywhere from days to a month. Wrong again! Maybe it was the desert climate here combined with laying on the concrete but they were already callused. Moving right along...I stuck them in the soil, watered and waited. After a week they didn't appear to be rotting and by week two they had roots!!! 

Father & Son

And then those babies bloomed! 

This was a tad disappointing as this is the full bloom
and not what looks to be a amazing bloom about to break forth!

   Next I wanted a hanging basket of mint. In my previous setup, I had hanging baskets of various kinds of mint just outside my backdoor. My coffee/tea area was just inside the door, making it very easy to pick a couple of sprigs to throw in my coffee or tea. The Salty outside had already killed the herbs so I wanted to try the sunny frosted window in the kitchen. It's not that the air inside the house is any less salty really but there's less without the additional spray from the waves. I found a couple of baskets but needed a plastic saucer with high sides since they tilted. Nothing workable in the recycle stuff, but surely I had a container in the fridge I could cut down soon that would work. The basket was in-between size for store bought trays but really there sides weren't high enough anyway. 

Then I tried the Bitchin' Sauce tub that I was nearly finished with and it fit like a glove! A perfect water tray! And the Costco super sized Bitchin' was the perfect size to re-pot the square potted herbs! It's so satisfying to reuse food containers, especially when it's a staple item. =) This one needed a video. 

When they cut back the coconut palms, they'd left me a couple stocks of green coconuts. I'd bought a nifty coconut opener on Amazon that is basically a corkscrew with a sharp end to pop the top. What I learned while opening green coconuts is all you need is a steak knife. It's like cutting into an apple. I also learned that you will get sprayed in the face, every single time. No matter where you do it or how slow. They are premature guys. No video for that one. There is so much yummy water in the green ones before they absorb it all and fully ripen into the brownish ones you see, which are more about the meat inside. 

Pop the top stem and cut a hole in the middle...mind the overspray.

Choke full of water and a surprise days later when the water I'd collected from a few coconuts had turned PINK! I looked this up immediately. I had seen pink coconut water in the store but never from the fresh out the coconut kind. Oxidation and the sugar content are the culprits, which is why it started out clear and gradually got more pink...or should I say more beautiful. Another reuse...those Costco vodka and gin containers. This was someone else's!! I have a cocktail about 5 times a year these days. haha      It was too cool of a glass container just to toss in the garbage. 

Invisible Wonders

The usual late afternoon heat has surrendered to the cool breeze of late autumn. The perfect in every way air embrace that my skin waits all year for. When the invisible wonders of peace and temperature float along side each other and wash over you in the gentlest of waves. 

The ocean is calm today after a week of unusual storms and blustery days. The humpback whales have returned for the season. I find my eyes search for their evanescent fountains every time I glance out at the sea. Great whites have also returned and I haven’t been in the water since the sighting of a 15ft dinosaur descendent 1 mile down the coast from me. 

Last week my left hand found itself caught between a window frame and large sliding window.

I’ve been doing everything one handed as the bruises, that I hope are not sheltering fractures, heal. I stripped and made a kingsize bed with one hand then made an espresso which made me think I was some kind of undiscovered superhero. Wrangling the Mastiff proved more difficult, and I kind of gave up fixing my hair but I adjusted to the rest of the daily needs. But even in my “everything’s okay, I’m fine thanks” superhero independence I had to let people help me this week. I said yes, to the kind Costco employee you offered to follow me all the way out to the back of the parking lot (because I never park close) and put the 40lb bag of dog food in my truck. Although I did say no when he offered to push the cart too. “I’m fine, thanks!”, as I used all my body weight against it. I managed to get the giant bag into the bottom of my shopping cart after an embarrassing amount of time one handed but I’ll admit I was a tad concerned about the cart to truck transfer. I said okay to my dad carrying a few large items for me. I said okay when my sister offered to braid my hair. (Or perhaps the state of my hair was crying out to her for help)

My sister moved back to the mainland this week. We had been leaning on each other far more than I realized until she left the island. And this considerable wave of sadness capsized me into a sea of jellyfish. I’m alone again, it’s nearly the end of the year, all the things I thought might happen didn’t happen, and my hand hurts.

Often rest is all I want when there’s chaos and yet still so hard to surrender to when it shows up. 

This breeze though, this gentle perfect breeze becomes everything I need in the present. It swirls with peace and dives down deep into my lungs. It rests my muscles and eases my mind. And all the heavily detailed worries and cares of only moments ago become a Monet. 

I don’t have to be perfect to feel it. I don’t have to be ready and capable and strong. I can be wounded and weak and heart broken and let it take it all off my shoulders until I’m weightless. 

May peace rest upon you wherever you are. 

Psalm 61:2-4 (AMP)

From the end of the earth I call to You, 

when my heart is overwhelmed and weak;

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I 

A rock that is too high to reach without Your help.

For You have been a shelter and a refuge for me,

A strong tower against the enemy.

Let me dwell in Your tent forever;

Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings.

Philippians 4:6-8 (TPT)

Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. 

Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests 

before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, 

then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, 

will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. 

Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, 

honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.

Honua‘ula Forest Reserve - Big Island Hiking - Makaula-'o'oma Trails

 

Up above Kailua Kona is a cloud forrest much like the kind that you’d find at Volcanos National park. This reserve nestled at a high elevation on the slopes of Hualalai volcano invites you into cooler temperatures (68-72) than the sunny shores of Kona below. 

A wet forrest to be sure as the trail is usually a little muddy and there is a fine mist or fog most days. If you attempt to come later in the day, it will probably be raining as most of upper Hualalai is beneath a rain cloud by late afternoon. 

There is an upper and lower option at the trailhead. It's 4.5 miles around the whole length or by section about 2 miles each. I’ve gotten lost once and it was because I left the trail to the wider path that frames it (the other side of this path is private property). There are stacked rocks at any crossroads and markers if you pay attention. =) 

There is also a map at the beginning of the trail and a quick snap of it, if you have your phone or digital camera with you, is a recommended move. I've also attached a photo of the new map below that was upgraded this year (2022).

The songs of birds harmonizing with the insects is the soundtrack that plays when you arrive. The sweet smell of Kahili Ginger takes the soft hand of the cool air that slowly dances down your lungs and fills you with peace. Roots reach down the path creating steps that lead the way into this wonderland of giant ferns, moss covered stumps, tropical flowers and ohi’a trees. 

Dewdrops and rain drops caught in the fuzzy moss sparkle like precious stones. Endless textures mix with golds and fully saturated greens. 

Outside amongst nature offers infinite places for rest and for quiet. Honua’ula forest holds out the offer of tranquility to it’s visitors. You can breathe here and let everything else fall away. 

 

Take this Heart of Stone

 

Yesterday evening as the sun began to set, I sat on a black jagged rock that was once red hot liquid. Transformed a few hundred years ago, unrecognizable as it's former self, by the cooling of the ocean. The water below me looked different than usual, a wind swell without the wind. The sun scatters across the thickening clouds searching for a place to break through. Tiny sparkles danced across patches of water like schools of fish quickly disappearing then reappearing in another location. 

The traffic jam of boats busting at the seams with snorkel affixed visitors were no longer seen to the farthest left nor the farthest right. Just like me, the ocean was recharging in their absence. Elegantly timed sets now a mosh pit. Each one jumping up to bump the other in white tipped peaks. I watched the underbelly of the clouds darken in full contrast from the sky above them. A butterfly fought the invisible force that suddenly stirred up the leaves of every shrub and every tree, awakening the coastline. The wind brought the soft pattering of rain as the droplets increased enough to collect in my open palms. 

It had been years since I let the rain soak me through. The beginning struck nerves with reactive tension in the same way being touched by a person used to feel. I needed to take deep breaths for it to subside, but it did subside. Tension released to a soothing rhythm. It washed over me with gentle mercy. My heart tender enough now to welcome this kindness. 

 

I still rest in the swaddle as the light branches out from the core strengthening me by a new approach. The tiniest of shimmers slowly transforming it's neighbor and spreading out until they shine bright enough to break through to the surface. 

My heart a lava rock in reverse. 

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”
― Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland  

And I will give them one heart, a new heart, and put a new spirit within them. I will take from them the heart of stone, and will give them a heart of flesh that is responsive to My touch. Ezekiel 11:19