Hello 2021

2 01 2021

Hello 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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Categories : About me, Fine Art, Food, Friends & Family, Music

Odd Christmastime

21 12 2020

Christmastime 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.

“Crater View,” 40” x 30” hand-dyed tissue-paper collage by Rebekah Luke
Holiday cookies

Chef’s creation

Christmas colors

Rudolph

~ Rebekah

 


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Christmas nip in the air

7 12 2020

Staying 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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Categories : Food, Uncategorized

Promising edible garden delights

12 10 2020

Between 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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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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Categories : About me, Food

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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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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