Toast and Shaka with Santa!

As our second Christmas in Hawaii draws near, we wish you all the very best holidays and a joyous new year. We promise new photo updates soon. Mele Kalikimaka! 

Kate & Mark

Happy April Fool Anniversary!

April 1, 2014 — Today is the first anniversary of our move to Captain Cook, Hawaii. No fooling!
Lots to show since the last installment. Farming, art, visitors, Christmas, pets, and the ever-present volcano.

Starfruit beginning to ripen. Finally, after months of just flowers, we're getting fruit!

An afternoon's harvest - including the ripened starfruit. So juicy and sweet-tart. I can't find any way to preserve them for later, so we slice them into green salads!

Kate started an herb farm, beginning with the perennial rosemary that grows on the farm. Here's the first harvest of cilantro. This is growing in trays under the shade canopies. Cilantro likes hot weather, but goes to seed in direct sun, so the shadehouses are perfect.

Here's the packaged product, ready for the local grocery shelves at ChoiceMart. It goes fast, and we plan to grow lots more cilantro, basil, and mint in addition to the rosemary.

Artist at work. Photo by Tim Hearsum. We enjoyed several visits with Tim & Judy while they were staying on the island for 2 months.

Mark's painting of our banana trees. These are right outside his studio, which is located inside our garage/barn.
The barn has plenty of windows and good lighting. The original owner who built this place was an artist.

3 of Mark's paintings hanging in the Cliff Johns Gallery in Kealakekua.

On Christmas morning, the palm tree sprouted its own bright red ornaments!

We didn't bring a lot of extra "things" when we moved, but I had to bring my Santas. They look a little over dressed for the weather.

Django seems rather proud of our tiny Norfolk Island Pine Christmas tree. And his brand new Hawaiian-print collar. Oh, 3 months later, that Norfolk Island Pine is twice the height it was at Christmas. Things grow fast here.

This is facing west at sunrise. The rising sun is coming over the mountain behind us. Light, water, and clouds do strange and beautiful things. Here you can see the shade canopies where we have the cilantro growing. The ocean is about 3 miles away and 1,500 feet below us.

Kate' sister and brother-in-law, Bonnie and John Gordon, made a whirlwhind trip around the island. Here we are enjoying the sunset cruise, heading back to Kailua-Kona from Kealakekua Bay.

Here's a Jackson's chameleon. These little adorable little characters hide in the trees and sometimes appear on branches or on the ground. Turns out that they, like many of Hawaii's creatures, are feral pets.

Speaking of feral pets, Hawaii Island is overrun with feral cats. The previous owners adopted this feral kitten and named her Spook. We willingly adopted her with the farm. Kate works nights, from home, for Hospice of Kona. Spook likes to come in at night and help with the paperwork.

Spook also loves to help with the gardening.

Django turned 9 years old, but he still acts like a puppy. Here he is playing with the neighbors' 4-month-old puppy Lea. Lea's going to be MUCH bigger than Django.

When we travel, Django parties at Paws University. The other dog is a Parti Poodle.

And here's the volcano. This is "afterglow" or glowing steam at sunset. The actual lava is way down inside the crater. Seen from the bar at the Volcano House restaurant inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Pizza, beer and afterglow. Not bad!

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