The 2nd Annual Ocean Warrior 5K Family Fun Run/Walk sponsored by Kaaawa Elementary School and hosted by Kualoa Ranch was held this morning in Kaaawa Valley.
Kaaawa Valley slopes
The starting line
It's the second annual for Miss Marvelous, her Tutu, Mom and Papa
Turn marshals
Miss Marvelous, me, and Alice Brown
Alice Brown & Pua—the dogs enjoyed the walk, sights & smells
Ula
Her name is Ula, for the red-brown color of her fur. She adopted us, sitting outside the door for several days. When no one answered the ad for “Found: big, brown bossy cat,” we surrendered to letting this beautiful creature move in. She’s old now.
I realized that yesterday morning when I made this portrait. I stopped a split-second-in-time and saw in another way the familiar soul I’ve lived with for at least 15 years. It’s an image of an aging cat.
Ula is the queen of the household, and she has both good (DH) and reluctant (me) staff. She rules with a loud, irritating New York meow that means one of four things: “feed me,” “let me in,” “let me out,” or “pet me.”
She can bang on the screen door as though to break it down. She delights in lying between the dog, who is smaller and arrived after her, and the dog’s way out to pee. It pains me to let her have her way, but I do because otherwise she’d continue to nag or, worse, scratch or nip me.
She is so crotchety, her vet once said, “Why don’t you take her to someone she likes?” On the last visit, we all agreed that she doesn’t have to make the trip to the vet any more.
But though old, Ula’s still got it. For hours last week she stalked a dove, who mistakenly flew into the studio, and nailed it. Feathers everywhere.
DH prefers to think of Ula as ageless and not aging. I ask, “Is she complaining because she is in pain?” because lately she’s barfed more than the normal hairball barf. He replied, “Ula always complains.”
When I reviewed the photo, I thought, “Ula, you grew old before my eyes, and I hardly noticed until now.” It gave me pause.
How we love to chronicle a child’s growth and development. Yet how easy it is to miss the physical changes of life’s winter, especially of those closest to us, unless we make a conscious effort to truly look and “see” them enough to extend some kindness.
For more on Ula, click on the word “cat” in Favorite Topics (see the right-hand sidebar). Then scroll down to see previous posts about my cat.
Photographer Me Ra Koh on TV’s The Nate Berkus Show on Monday had a tip for people who shoot digital pictures. I think that includes just about all of us! Her specialty is photographing children.
You know how, every time we take a picture, the tendency is to stop to look and see what kind of image we got? Her advice is to resist the temptation and to just keep shooting. The reason is, when we are photographing, we are using our creative right brains. When we stop to analyze, we are switching to our left brains. Not to mention the images we might miss when we pause.
This morning I accompanied Miss Marvelous to her family-child interaction program and recorded her being so very pleased about catching the yellow ball her Papa threw. Luckily, there was no voice saying, “Lemme see!”
Here’s Miss Marvelous, with her mom, modeling fancy clothes at Nordstrom today. I think she was more herself after the fashion show was over. After all, she’s not yet 2.
😉
I’m lucky to be her Popo.
After the children went home, the adults looked in on the neighborhood
It’s such a happy place! The Omidyar K-1 Neighborhood at Punahou School. What a joy for students, families, and teachers alike!
The new state-of-the-art learning facility was open to alumni yesterday, so DH and I went to visit.
Whenever we drove up Punahou street since the school broke ground for the Neighborhood, we’d glance over at the construction going on on the side of Rocky Hill, wondering if Miss Marvelous might attend school there in a few years.
The new award-winning space opened to 150 kindergarteners and 150 first graders in the Fall of 2010.
The welcoming landscape design, planned with curricula in mind, captured my childhood imagination. Child-size garden pathways, native plants, soft surfaces, an amphitheater.
Arched wooden bridges over dry streams lead from classrooms to play areas where the absence of playground structures is refreshing. (There are a few in the phys ed area.) Just a couple of large soft boulders in the middle of a beautiful lawn.
The indoor-outdoor environment of each classroom is designed so that everything in this neighborhood is integrated – art, music, physical education, traditional academics, children’s ages – and in proximity. Each classroom has a raised box for planting what vegetables, fruits, and flowers the children want, a cistern with water pump, and garden tools. Punahou designed a space that nurtures the experience of being whole for the youngest of students.
Interior classroom and project room spaces are bathed in natural light. Oh, such pretty furniture and fixtures designed for little people! The teachers and children must be in heaven! Stimulation and wondrous things everywhere! It inspired me to improve the spaces at the studio for Miss Marvelous.
Last night, the remarks by the Junior School Principal Mike Walker and K-2 Supervisor JoAnn Wong-Kam were similar to the ones heard in this earlier video that speaks to the educational philosophy. http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=2951
A $6 million challenge grant from alumnus Pierre (founder of eBay) and Pam Omidyar provided the basis for the Neighborhood. The project received a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. What a wonderful gift!
Calamansi tree with ripe fruit
My father’s former caregivers grow a calamansi tree outside their back porch in Kahuku, Oahu, and they use the juice of this fruit in their Filipino cooking to season meats, fish, and noodles.
I was so happy to learn about it, I planted a tree of our own several years ago in the garden where it gets full sun and good drainage. Growing food is so satisfying!
The botanical name is Citrofortunella microcarpa, sort of a cross between a kumquat and a mandarin orange, and it is native to the Philippines, according to my reading. The average diameter is slightly bigger than a quarter dollar. The flesh is tart, and the skin is sweet and thin.
Calamansi is believed to be a hybrid of a kumquat and a mandarin orange.
You can use it in cocktails in place of lime or lemon, and as the acid in a vinaigrette dressing. Yet, there are only so many cocktails one can drink and only so many salads one can dress.
When our tree starts bearing and the fruit begins to ripen, I make calamansi marmalade in the microwave, one small batch at a time.
I like marmalade with a lot of bitter peel, and I can’t always find it in the market. Calamansi preserves has the right amount of that flavor for me. It’s wonderful on toasted English muffins or on pancakes.
Here is my easy recipe, basically one part fruit to one part sugar. How sad that sugar is bad for our health. Calamansi marmalade is so delicious!
1 cup sugar + 1 cup calamansi
CALAMANSI MARMALADE
Have ready a clean glass jelly jar and lid. Either run them through the dishwasher or under hottest tap water and allow to drip dry. Wash and scrub 1 cup of whole ripe calamansi fruit with orange skin. Cut each fruit into fourths and remove seeds with the tip of the knife. Combine with 1 cup granulated sugar in a 4-quart glass measuring cup or similar microwave-safe container. Cover loosely with plastic wrap to catch splatters, leaving a vent so it won’t boil over into a mess. Place container in a larger dish to collect any syrup that does boil over. Cook in the microwave on full power for 7 to 10 minutes, stirring half way through to blend, until the calamansi appears cooked and shriveled, and until the mixture thickens but is still liquid. The mixture will be very hot. Using hot pads, carefully pour into the jelly jar. Put on the lid securely and refrigerate. As the marmalade cools, it will further thicken and gel into jelly and cause the lid to seal tightly. Keep stored in the refrigerator. Makes 1 cup.
Beautiful homemade marmalade!
Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke
Rebekah’s Studio 
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