Skywatch Friday: Blue Sky

Tree at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Monochrome Weekend: Sunset

Big Island of Hawaii, January 2009

Manini'owali Beach Sunset

Big Island of Hawaii, January 2009

Mellow Yellow Monday #28

Orchid, Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden

Skywatch Friday No. 51

Sunset on the Big Island of Hawaii. The plume of steam on the left is the point of entry into the ocean of the Kilauea Volcano lava flow. Photo taken 1/24/09.

Skywatch Friday No. 46

Since I don't have a new picture for this week, I'm going back to the archives for a sunset photo from Hawaii.

Sunset, December 30, 2007, Poipu, Kauai

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Double Rainbow

For this week's Skywatch Friday, I dug into the archives for this picture taken from Poipu, Kauai on December 31, 2007.

Hawaiian Sky

I think I'm starting to get them hang of this meme thing on the interwebs. Anyway, one of the activities that seems to be popular is Skywatch Friday, which involves posting pictures of the sky. I wasn't able to get a decent picture of the sky today, so I'm posting a picture taken in January on the Big Island of Hawaii, looking east as the sun set in the west. The setting sun cast an interesting pink glow on the clouds over the ocean.





See more at Skywatch Friday.

Hawaii Magazine Photo of the Week

I just received word that this photo of a green turtle I submitted to Hawaii Magazine has been chosen as photo of the week.


I'm honored that this photo was chosen. Previous winners include some really nice pictures . Click the link below to see them.

Link to Hawaii Magazine Photo of the Week page

Sunbeams

Sunlight streaming through the rainforest as seen from the Old Puna Government Road, Big Island of Hawaii.

Random Big Island Images

I'd recommend clicking on the photos to see higher-resolution versions to better appreciate details like the lighting on the coconut sprout and the translucent edges of the orchid petals.

Coconut Sprout

Black Sand Beach Footprints

Roots in Lava

Tree at Pu'uloa (Hawaii Volcanoes National Park)

Wild Orchid, Beach Road, Keeau, Hawaii

Nene

Yesterday, the state bird of Hawaii showed up at the house we're renting on the Puna coast. This nene (pronounced nay-nay) has lost part of his right foot. There is a nene sanctuary nearby in Keeau, so he/she (males and females look alike) probably came from there. Nenes are an endangered species, with an estimated 3000 remaining. The population had been as low as 30 in the twentieth century. He decided to sit on our patio for a while, and posed patiently while I lay down prone on the concrete near him to get this picture.

More Turtles

A few more turtle pictures--this time at Pu'uhonua o Honauau (Place of Refuge).

Turtle

I had my tripod set up to take pictures of a turtle resting on lava rock offshore at Mauna Lani in Kohala when this green sea turtle came up on the beach for a rest just a few feet in front of Mary and me.

haiku

glowing lava
crackling, cools
earth’s birth

Survival

This is our fifth day back in the rain, grey skies, and cold of Indiana in October after a trip to Maui, the island named for the demigod who pulled the Hawaiian islands up from the sea with his fish hook, lassoed the sun to make the days longer, and raised the vault of heaven so humans could walk upright. We are survivors of the earthquake of 2006, even though we didn't go to Crazy Shirts and buy T-shirts to prove it. On Sunday, October 15, at 7:07 AM Hawaiian time (now that Indiana is finally on daylight savings time, Hawaii and Arizona are the only states that never change their clocks), the earth, and our vacation rental house shook. A quake registering 6.7 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of the Big Island. It felt like a 300 pound offensive tackle was running up the stairs at first, but the rumble and shaking intensified, and it didn't take long till we knew it was an earthquake. I am reminded of Kurt Vonnegut's description of the bombing of Dresden as he described it in Slaughterhouse Five: The giants walked and walked. My faultering memory is probably incorrect, but that's how I recall him describing the sensation American prisoners of war felt as they waited out the Allied bombing in the basement of a slaughterhouse. It was like giants walking overhead. Look it up and let me know if that's what he really said. I'm too tired to do it right now. Fortunately, tsunamis don't occur unless the intensity of a quake is greater than 7. Other than losing power for a couple hours, we were unaffected by the quake. Why? Dumb luck. Aloha.