December garden in Orchidland

 

 

Its time for garden bloom day again, I haven’t participated in quite awhile due to recent travels and holiday gatherings with friends that have kept me occupied.

 

But, this morning was a clear and sunny day, a nice change from a cool rainy night seeing the Christmas parade in Kea’au town last evening.

 

 

After a month’s travel in Japan, I was greeted by large grass, junky castor bean plants and various weeds popping up in my new back yard garden bed almost full grown within a month’s timeframe.

 

The weeds below are already taller than my six foot height – things grow exceptionally quick here – especially the weeds that love the new garden beds below.

 

 

 

After clearing out one section of the garden, I can finally see the bones of the garden I planted the month before starting to appear again- its looking pretty good again.

 

In the jungle area behind, I was able to find a variety of my bromeliads hidden in the tall grasses. I only spotted them because of the bright yellow blooms from this beauty brom below peeking out through the thick grass.

 

 

The area around my water catchment tank is another area that needs to be weeded completely, here you see it crowded out with ferns, grasses and the ever present purple princess flower (no blooms in the photos)– tibouchina urvilleana – a real pest that reseeds everywhere.

 

 

 

The front yard is still in decent shape, even though I haven’t tended this part of the gardens in also because of the holidays. A beautiful spike from a group of bromeliads are at their third month of blooms now. My bright yellow croton adds more color and is one of my favorite yellows in garden.

 

 

 

Here’s a sweet bloom from one of my ti plants, they are pretty up close, but insignificant at a distance.

 

 

Not too many of my hibiscus flowers in bloom at this time of the year except for my stalwart yellow dazzler at my side gardens.

 

 

 

I think its time to start trimming the leggy impatiens, they are so easy to propagate here, especially this orange variety below.

 

 

This is the 3rd round of blooms from my white bauhinia orchid tree…yeah!

 

 

I have large swathes of pink flowers coming out from my medinilla magnifica, almost the size of miniature trees in my front yard.

 

 

More colorful impatiens, red ti and strobilanthes to add a full spectrum of color.

 

 

A last sweet bloom to great me this morning, one of my favorite purple hibiscus flowers.

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the tour, to visit other gardens around the world for bloom day, go visit

http://www.maydreamsgardens.com

A visit to the West Side of Hawaii Island

 

(Early morning view at the Marriot Waikoloa)

 

 

 

Where has the year gone already? It seems like I just got back from my Japan trip and celebrated Thanksgiving and now Xmas is just around the corner.  I always have these "How did the year go by so quickly" thoughts at this time of the year. Oh well, at least I'm enjoying it by visiting the west side of Hawaii Island at one of the nicer resorts with a beautiful sandy beach to relax and explore.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm up early and the light is gorgeous looking out from the balcony overlooking Anaehoʻomalu or A Bay as locals call this gorgeous stretch of skinny beach front. A large anchialine pond is on the other side of the bay used by early Hawaiians as a fish pond to grow a variety of local fish.

 

 

 

The resort at Waikoloa has preserved the ponds nicely and placed a variety of signage to explain the ancient Hawaiian's use of this area, various sea life found at the fish ponds and information about Waikoloa. Native plants, grasses are planted on the jagged lava rock areas around the ponds with the requisite but still nice coconut palm.

 

 

 

The morning light is just spectacular now and I have to take a few more photos while I'm also enjoying the wonderful vistas and soothing morning breezes along the trails.

 

 

There were already quite a few yoga people doing their morning sun breaths along with the joggers, quite a nice way to softly start the morning, don't you think?

The sand is cold and firm, unlike some of the soft and super sandy beaches in many parts of West Hawaii. No matter - its still a spectacular scenery and you can see the entire Mauna Kea mountain range in the background. I walk quite a distance along the shoreline to various coves and rocky beaches.

The blue, blue skies and ocean are really amazing this morning and I'm almost ready to jump into the water and go snorkeling, but I decide to take a longer walk along the shoreline and enjoy the views - hopefully I'll be able to spot some migrating humpback whales this morning, this is one of their favorite hang out spots very close to the shoreline.

 

 

The sailboats are loading up with tourists for their morning whale watching tours. Unfortunately, I was not able to spot any whales along the shoreline this morning. Still, it was a very pleasant hike enjoying the west side of the island - I'm always ready for some pampering at any of the resorts on this side of the island for a change of pace to the east side.