Its Almost Time for Santa To Come to Hawaii

Through his outrigger canoe....at least thats how Santa does it here in East Hawaii. All the Christmas elves are filling up those gardening enthusiasts wishes with tools, and books and of course plants galore....ooooh my!

Here's a preview of what Santa has in store for you....if you've been nice!

Aren't these the most amazing tropicals that Santa Has in store for your Christmas stocking! Hope you've been good all year!

Aloha Friday, Lets take a Nice Walk Today.

Happy Aloha Friday. It is such a nice sunny day today in East Hawaii, I think I'll take a nice easy hike today to see a local waterfall, won't you come join me?


We are going to Rainbow Falls which is just above Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. It has been raining the past week so the waterfall should be putting on quite a show.

Well, its quite busy this morning, all the tourists are up early and taking their kodak moments. We'll have to take an off the beaten path trail to avoid everyone, but of course I need to first take a shot of the waterfall.

Here it is Rainbow Falls.....

A close up view from another vista point.

Right next to the observation platform is this amazing mango tree, it seems to be over forty feet tall and not a single mango on the tree left over.

How about we take our hike and get ahead of the tourist pack down below? Theres a short climb up to the observation area overlooking the waterfalls and the vally below. Don't worry theres no more climbing outside of these few stairs to the top!

A beautiful view of our accent to the top

Okay that wasn't too bad a hike up here and aren't the views amazing from up here?

The vistas are quite clear and you can see all the way down to the ocean.

Lets go down through this forested area so we can make it down to the waters edge.

Its a little spooky around here, all the trees tend to get very close around here.

Isn't this an amazing banyan tree, all the arial roots and going down to the ground and creating new stems that will support a larger tree.

Now its getting a little more muddy on this trail so hold onto anything you can so you don't slip.

Okay, we are finally here at the waters edge, there's no-one up here at all.

What a nice way to enjoy the day in complete solitude.

Well its been a nice hike, lets go back through the forest, aren't these the strangest looking banyan trees?

Aaaah, finally back down into the main parking area, I need to take a few more photos of the amazing wild gingers around the park and one more photo of the falls before we leave.

Thanks for taking the walk with me on such a sunny day, its nice to share this with a friend.

Wordless Wednesdays

Variegated Tropical Plants - A Plant Fanatics Passion.

I miss the fall colors and all the beautiful maple trees on the mainland at times....but, living in hawaii does have its perks too.


One of my favorite all time addictions as a plant fanatic is to find these amazing discoveries in the variegated plant world of the tropics. Its almost an endless plant orgy of amazing colors, variegations and beautiful combinations that truly amaze.

Here are a few of my favorites in my garden growing as a took a walk around the property.

I truly love coleus plants, this is one of my favorites, not sure what type of inky hybrid coleus this one is...too many different names that have changed with all the hybrids.

This ti plant is one of my favorites, its called a chocolate queen...isn't that lushious!

Aaaah the foliage on this canna called Tropicana are stunning, this one just finished a flower bloom, will have to take a picture of it for the next time.

I love crotons, they have some amazing color spectrums.

Here's another beauty, let me introduce my ti plant named Xerox

Another favorite of my plants are the  new zealand impatients...I'm starting to get addicted
to these new hybrids....

Can you believe that these are actually volunteers coming out of the side of my compost pile...amazing.

I don't think I have enough variegated plants....time to do more exploring !!!

Bits of my weekend.

It was a very low key weekend for a change,

usually I have too many things packed on my to do list

but this weekend i actually took it nice and easy....

Stayed in bed till past seven in the morning,

 which is late for me, I finally finished a

book that took me way to long to finish, but

 i'm glad i finally finished it.

It was only 65 degrees this morning....brrrrrr.

I made some nice

warm oatmeal

with lots of nuts and raisins,

and honey,

 and lots of chocolate sprinkles.

I took a nice walk around the garden this morning

and pulled out some more weeds

 


and transplanted some pot bound plants.

I made alot of cuttings with these coleus plants, they are getting almost five feet tall (scary)

Stopped to admire my variegated
 impatient,

thanks for greeting me today!

Went to Arthur's studio to do some
figure drawing

 its been awhile

since i've come down to work with my pencils again

and it shows (frustration)

Made a nice big pot of Turkey soup, from all the turkey leftovers yesterday...

hmmm, I can't wait til supper time...

It was definitely a nice low key weekend,

I should do this more often.

Aloha Friday

In the early morning I walk out to the garden

to sit and reflect

to see the beauty in what my garden wants to show me

to contemplate a new day

I wander around the beds and discover new things

I smell the jasmine and gardenia bloom profusely

Then pick a fresh tangerine from my tree

and enjoy the view unfolding around me.

Wordless Wednesdays