Thought I’d keep it simple this morning, showing the many faces of the red hibiscus blooming on the hedge. I brewed a cup of tea with the petals. The liquid is a pretty cyan blue color! Enjoy! ~ Rebekah
🌺
Keeping it simple
15 03 2021Comments : Comments Off on Keeping it simple
Tags: hibiscus, red hibiscus
Categories : About me, Food, Hawaiian
Changing times
9 02 2021Quoting my friend Kalei Nuuhiwa:
“Weʻre officially out of Makahiki as Kaʻupenaomakaliʻi is moving to our zenith shortly after sunset and begins to dump all the Makahiki constellations out of the net. We end Kāʻelo this week and move into Kaulua who are all ruling across the night sky and the wicked weather we are going to be experiencing.
“新年快乐 (Xīnnián kuàilè), Gong hei fat choy, & Gong xi fa cai on Thursday Hawaiʻi time and Friday China Time. Happy Year of the Ox!”
Lion dance
Traditional Chinese festival food—zoong and gao
Enjoy these changing times. ~Rebekah
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Categories : Food, Hawaiian
Hello 2021
2 01 2021Hello studio fans,
No resolutions, no affirmations. This first post of the new year is more like a personal inventory—a pause to take stock of my likes and what brings me joy, as well as my wishes.
Just looking around, I see I like flowers and fashioning lei. I like to garden and grow food. Cook food, bake fruit pies. Play music, sing. I like to play with my dog; I know he understands English, he’s just not able to speak it. I like to create, as in making art, I like to write and make photos.
I enjoy visiting with our two granddaughters and hope I can be a good example for them.
I enjoy connecting with friends and relatives, remotely at this time. I look forward to a time when I can see them in person. How will we have changed?
And as for my wishes, but no promises, I wish to be kind. a good listener, an understanding mate, lighter all around.
Stringing kou flowers into a lei
Sweet potato stems peeled and prepped for cooking. Tasty!
Mountain apple pie
At the Yamaha
JJ the family dog
My most recent oil sketch with red and green complements
Our moʻopuna
Happy New Year!
All the best,
Rebekah
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Tags: 2021, Happy New Year
Categories : About me, Fine Art, Food, Friends & Family, Music
Odd Christmastime
21 12 2020Christmastime 2020 seems odd to me. I can’t articulate my feelings well, except to note that Kilauea volcano started to erupt at Halemaumau last night. The video footage I saw was beautiful.
The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, the “Christmas star” seen over the manger 2020 years ago, is happening again.
We’re exchanging gifts of home-baked cookies with neighbors and friends, but with face masks on and from a distance because of the pandemic; no hugging.
I am making a pecan pie for my two painting students who are bringing lunch on the 23rd. It’s the final class of Painting I, and coincidentally the studio setup is comprised of the complements red and green Christmas colors.
Chef Logan, who usually delivers our mid-day meal, is taking a break, only to make it up by providing an intimate Dinner for Two for my darling husband and me on Christmas Day. We don’t have to cook!
All this seems odd to me because all I really planned to share was the reindeer Rudolf that my father-in-law—whose father’s name also was Rudolph—made to wish us a Merry Christmas.
Chef’s creation
Christmas colors
Rudolph
~ Rebekah
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Tags: 2020, Christmas, volcano
Categories : About me, Fine Art, Food, Friends & Family
Christmas nip in the air
7 12 2020Staying home because I really don’t want to get sick with the COVID virus, I’ve had to put a moratorium on my online shopping for Christmas gifts. It’s almost too late, but I rationalize that I am not spending money on gasoline for the car or eating out at restaurants.
One room here has been designated “Santa’s Workshop” with gift wrapping and mailing supplies and an area for incoming “no peeking” packages. Quite a few for a big family.
Yesterday our neighbor Eddie presented us with a bag of carambola starfruit—as a kid we called them five fingers. I got up early this morning to process into tangy pickles after a Better Homes and Gardens recipe. I see that I’m out of whole cinnamon sticks, so that means I’ll be sending our designated shopper (DH) out to get some.
Carambola from Eddie
When sliced crosswise, you can see why they are called starfruit
A wonderful gift is one that you make yourself. Merry Christmas! Love,
Rebekah
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Tags: carambola, starfruit
Categories : Food, Uncategorized
Promising edible garden delights
12 10 2020Between rain showers I captured promises from the garden, avoiding the happy honey bees.
Passion flower and fruit:
Passion fruit
Sweet potato tops for a veggie:
Sweet potato leaf shoots
Red hibiscus for tea:
Noni flowers for salad:
Figs:
Figs
It’s rewarding to to grow our own food.
~ Rebekah
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Tags: edible garden, figs, hibiscus tea, lilikoi, Morinda citrifolia, noni, Passion flower, passion fruit, red hibiscus, sweet potato leaves
Categories : Food
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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Tags: abundance, avocado, Breadfruit, food safety, garden, guacamole, home grown, Maʻafala, tree
Categories : About me, Food
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