On obligations

19 11 2020

Besides taking care of your family, what regular activities during this unusual year of 2020 amidst the coronavirus pandemic are you doing that you classify as obligations? I mean obligations in a good way. What commitments do you enjoy? I have four:

• The first is the weekly class in fine art painting that I teach in person on my covered deck. Two faithful and lucky adult students gave me the honor to teach The Gloria Foss Color Course for what is probably the last time in my art career.

• Next is my study of Hawaiian language, ʻŌlelo Makuahine (mother tongue), with Kumu Keoua Nelsen who teaches the Kealaleo method for people who have tried to learn Hawaiian many times without success. 😃 Nowadays the three-hour Saturday class is online via Zoom, but it works and we have homework.

• I’m a citizen of Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi and it’s political action committee (KPAC) as “kupuna adviser.” Age has its privileges. We have facilitated community education, such as “how to navigate the legislature,” monitor bills, and write testimony.

• Last but by all means not least is choir practice with the Windward Choral Society directed by Susan McCreary Duprey. It, too, is on Zoom (I’m getting used to the technology, hated it at first), but our director is creative and an “Energizer Bunny.” She makes it work. Among other scores, we are rehearsing George Frideric Handel’s Messiah for a 4 p.m. December 13 performance on (you guessed it) Zoom. I love to sing!

 

Happy and safe holidays, everyone.

~Rebekah


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Categories : About me, Fine Art, Hawaiian, Music

Festive autumn lights

10 11 2020

Autumn in the Islands is comparatively warm, but the trade winds can kick up, and we have rain. The holiday season looms as it does everywhere. I’ve been getting into a festive mood. I found new lighting by shopping online; so easy and dangerous for the pocketbook when self-isolating during the current pandemic.

Artificial Jack-o-lantern, battery powered, in the front yard

 

Moon rising on Halloween night

 

Gorgeous sunset over the Koʻolau Mountains as seen from Kāneʻohe Bay last Thursday. Flame torches provide ambiance for dinner with friends.

 

New tiny white lights decorate the house exterior. They are on an automatic timer for six hours a night for as long as their batteries last. An online catalog find.

I can’t wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up our Christmas tree.

Be well and stay safe. Love,

Rebekah


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Manna from heaven

3 10 2020

Maʻafala

Manna from heaven, or, I should say, Maʻafala from heaven! We picked breadfruit today just as it stopped raining avocados in the garden. It is the Samoan variety cultivated on the Island of Kauaʻi, and it grew from a potted plant into this magnificent tree. They are smaller than the Hawaiian ulu.

Maʻafala tree is bearing fruit

I am guessing the bountiful year is the effect of the climate change on our planet. Happily we have shared for weeks now beautiful avocados with neighbors and friends, made lots of guacamole, and froze batches of the same. Mashed or cut-up avocado freezes well and doesn’t discolor if you combine it with lemon or lime juice. 

Morning count on the porch railing. One day nine had fallen to the ground from the night before.

Mahalo e Ke Akua for the abundance.

~ Rebekah


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Stringing a lei of kou

21 09 2020

The kou tree in the front garden is blooming and dropping delicate orange-colored blossoms. When strung into a flower lei they look like ilima.

The Hawaiian-English dictionary has this description:

“ 1. n. A tree found on shores from East Africa to Polynesia (Cordia subcordata), with large, ovate leaves, and orange, tubular flowers 2.5 to 5 cm in diameter, borne in short-stemmed clusters. The beautiful wood, soft but lasting, was valuable to the early Hawaiians and was used for cups, dishes, and calabashes. (Neal 714–5.) (PPN tou.)”

I keep the lei cool in the open air between wet newspaper, avoiding the refrigerator, and re-dampen the newspaper as needed.

Beautiful.

After wearing, you may save the lei. As it dries to a rusty orange, snug up the flowers together along the craft ribbon to wear again!

Aloha nō,

Rebekah


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Today in the garden

10 09 2020

Red ginger

While in coronavirus lockdown until September 24 (according to latest Hawai’i report), travel without a mask is limited to my garden. It’s not exclusively my garden, as family and neighbors are on the lookout for its fruits and flowers. Here’s this morning’s tour:

Papaya volunteer

 

Ti

 

Avocado in between red hibiscus cuttings

 

Avocado close up

 

Avocado split from its fall from above

 

Ti

 

Panax

 

Kukui nut

 

Donkey tail in a hanging basket

 

Ti

 

Lilikoʻi (passipn fruit)

 

Red ginger

 

Maʻafala breadfruit

 

More Maʻafala breadfruit

 

Pele’s hair — hinahina

 

Maʻafala breadfruit. I’m waiting for more latex sap to ooze out and onto a smooth skin, indicating the breadfruit is ready to harvest.

 

Fallen breadfruit leaf. I’ve used the shape in my art work.

 

Heliconia variety

Be well. Please stay home during coronavirus season—six months and counting!

~Rebekah


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Categories : About me, Food, Hawaiian

Satisfying a sweet tooth

9 07 2020


Like many of you self isolating at home from the COVID-19 pandemic, for four months now since mid March, our family has returned to home cooking, saving gasoline and money that would have been paid to restaurants. For health reasons I should avoid eating sugar, but I love to bake. So what the heck?
Have a virtual taste of my pie, Dutch baby pancake, scones, and malasadas!

~ Rebekah


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At home for the long haul

8 06 2020
JJ

Another dog picture, but hey, my dog seems to be the only constant during the current pandemic while we all stay at home. You are staying home, right?

Or at least assigning your trips “off campus” to the same one person per household. For our family that person is Pete.

He took advantage for a brief time of the order-and-pick-up service from Kualoa Ranch just five minutes down the road. Other times he went to Windward Mall in Kaneohe for the weekly farmers market.

The mangoes came from Ewa, the lady said. Yummy, and a good find because our tree isn’t bearing this year.

Coffee cake is topped with fresh mango slices and cinnamon sugar, then baked.
What a beauty!

~ Rebekah


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