Blue Skies at Last

The Christmas holiday visiting family and friends in San Francisco and the Bay Area was something I was looking forward to despite the dreary cold and rainy weather forecasted ahead for the holidays. And it has been dreary and wet.

So when I saw a brief hint of blue, I dashed to Bakers Beach which is a only a few blocks away and was rewarded with Beautiful skies crowned with puffy blue skies and the city looked dazzling again at least for this bright and yet brief moment in time and amazingly I was the only one at the beach to witness this magic moment - what a treasure!

The sky was starting to turn into its brilliant sunset colors, ending a cold and wet day on a slightly warmer and golden note and I was glad to witness this and enjoy the moment.


To view other watery wednesdays today go visit http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

A Wonderful Christmas Surprise

 

Have you seen this lovely Christmas YouTube. Its so beautiful and it so well done. I also sing in our local men’s chorus and have secretly wished we could do something special like this.

 

 

Actually, our men’s choral group called the Puna Men’s Chorus just wrapped up our Christmas performances and it was very successful. We are just so thankful to all the wonderful supporters and glee enthusiasts that are encouraging our little group to grow.

 

Who knows, maybe one of these day’s we will be posting something fun and surprising like the video above.

Along the Red Road

This area along the most eastern coastline of East Hawaii used to have a one lane red asphalt road running the entire length of its shoreline and nicknamed the red road. Even thought the road was widened and black asphalt laid down, its still lovingly called the red road. The entire puna coast is magical and filled with lush forests, rugged coastline and coconut groves which all allude to a place unchanged in decades.
I love to explore this area and visit regularly to see friends and just enjoy the amazing views.






There are many lava tubes that can be explored along the ways that have been used by the ancients to bury relatives or even store provisions. These places are quiet spiritual and have such an alluring presence.


















The coconut groves along the shorelines seem to extend forever and ancient trails connecting many old communities along the coast are still intact and used by locals to traverse and find secret fishing spots or areas to relax and watch all the stars at night.









This is my contribution to skywatch friday, to visit others go to http://skyley.blogspot.com/

A Second Anniversary Party at the Beach.

This event marks our second anniverary as the Big Island international food group gathered for another spectacular feast. What has started as a low key group of foodies getting together with themed cooking events has blossumed to a full fledged non-profit group, adding on educational programs to our gatherings, monthly contributions to our local food basket and even volunteering there with group sorting and packing work. We hope to influence and help others in need with the community and will be doing more outreach and supporting scholarship funds or other educational programs through our efforts.

This just shows that a collective gathering of like minds can make an impact outside of simple potlucks, but collectively can make a contribution to our community.

We made special placemats filled with photos of previous cooking gatherings from the past including our french, filipino, tapas to our first wine tasting and pupu party.

Tonight we recreated a chinese banquet to celebrate the first event gathering which was a chinese theme and  the selections ranged from lemon chicken, to hot and sour soup to pot stickers completely made from scratch.

This event also marks a special aloha to our friend Kathleen who has just recovered from a major car trauma and was here to celebrate her recovery and enjoy the festivities.

.....As you can see the food line started up early and the plates were easily filled up.

Whats an anniversary party without having it at the beach in Hawaii, these are the sous chefs that make each and every event special. It was a special night and the photo shows how wonderful each sous chef is to this group.

 

I thank the sous chefs who have made a tireless effort to make each and every event special, aloha to you. 

Too see other worlds today go and visit http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

Wordless Wednesday with just Exotic Orchids

To see other wordless wednesdays around the world go to http://www.wordlesswednesday.com/newhome/

Our Local Food Bank

The Hawaii Island Food Basket, serves all the main charity and food organizations throughout Hawaii Island and is always in need of donations and hands on volunteer help. Thats why our international cooking group decided to spend the day in two shifts to help out with sorting, packaging and cleaning the warehouse to prepare for the deluge of food needs from the various charities.

One of the main group projects was to put together ten pound bags of proteins to be used by the various charities for meals. These bags included appetizing canned foods including beans, spam, vienna sausages, tuna fish and imitation meat spreads as the typical contributions and needed items. Unfortunately, we found out that there were alot of shortages included the beans, spam and other canned meats to include in the protein bags. Sad to think that this qualifies for protein meals, but for these charities in need it is sufficient.

 

Our group was very happy to see that the regular food contributions have made some impact and seeing the need for additional protein, made each of us realize what is necessary and lacking from these contributions.

Aaah its break time and enjoying some time with friends.

We do hope as a group to participate in more of these group eventsand help out our food bank. Its such a small thing but makes a big difference. If you are on the island and would like more information on helping our local food bank, please visit or make a contribution to this wonderful organization. Here is the webside for more information http://www.foodbaskethi.org/



Happy Thanksgiving holidays to all my family friends and viewers and thank you for following my blog.

noel

Photo Hunt = Juicy

I always enjoy some of the photo hunt weekly challenges because it stretches one's imagination and I enjoy seeing other interpretations of these themes, they can be quite inspiring, funny or totally off the wall. This week's challenge calls for something Juicy.


Well that to me is very simple and quite easy, breakfast tends to be my juiciest meal starting off with a fresh and ripe papaya, some delicious and yes juicy rambutans (red fruit in photo, tastes like a lychee fruit), yogart and toast with sweet jam . The papayas I harvest from my trees, and if I don't have any ripe ones, they are readily available at any farmers market - six or seven for a dollar, how can you beat that?

This always starts off my day right and I'm so addicted to this meal, I never seem to want to change this from my morning routines along with a nice browse on the internet :)

To view other photohunt Juicy themes go to http://tnchick.com/

A Different Sunset

It took me a long time to process these pictures of my trip to Yosemite, I was still working out the kinks to a new computer which can be very time consuming. But, when I finally got around to getting the pictures completed, I was completely captivated by what I saw the first time seeing my first sunset at Glacier Point, it felt like reliving a treasured moment and one that you would love to see again and again.

 

It truly is a spiritual experience watching the canyon slowly darken with the shadows of high granite peaks and the last rays of the sun creating a golden light on Half Dome and then later blanketing the skies with orange and pink hues that remind you of fake California sunsets over famous monuments. But this time its real and I'm witnessing this magic scene it for the first time.....just amazing to see.




To see other gorgeous skies for friday go visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Day of the Dead

Our international cooking group through our host Atma really educated our cooking group a few nights ago with a Day of the Dead celebration showing everyone how important family and tradition is. Remembering beloved deceased members by visiting their graves and creating special dishes that they loved is what many cultures do to celebrate this occasion and enjoy this joyous event.

We usually do not celebrate this festive event in Hawaii compared to Halloween. But this event was a wonderful experience to really celebrate the origins of Halloween and understand both the pagan and christian beliefs that have lead to the actual events we know today as the Day of the Dead, the end of summer solstice, All Saints Day and our well celebrated Halloween all wrapped up into these various celebrations.

Our version included dishes we made in honor of some special in our lives and each made a tribute to that person and what this dish signified. It was a very symbolic and wonderful evening, something really experienced to the best intent of what this holiday signified and that is our Ohana or family.

Toss in the odd ball but fun mummy wrapping contest and it really brought out the crazy...talk about a strange tribute to our ancestors.  You can tell this was not a very serious event most of the time.

 Whats a celebration with out loud drumming and a wonderful bonfire to do some wild dancing and burning out the rubbish.

Atma made a special alter so we can bring photos of our relatives or friends and do a nice tribute to them, typical of what latin based celebrants do in their respective cultures in honoring the dead.

A more A-typical celebration to end our evening is the fire spinning display from one of our hosts, its was truly exciting to see in the dark!

This is my contribution to My World Tuesdays, to visit other views of the world go to http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Its Dark out There.

Its Dark out and the party has just begun...don't be afraid of shadows in the night - its only Halloween and our friends in Honolii are having their crazy Halloween event filled with some very lively characters. Tonight we have some familiar local politicians, pimps and fairies, Miss Dot Com to Cleopatra checking in for a visit. Things started off quickly thanks to the smashing drinks with the famous margaritas our host has created for these thirsty free-loaders.

Hmmm pizza, anyone up for a slice?

Its still early but our local pimp was working the hilo crowd and pimping away...not sure if business was brisk or not that night.

Aaaah the fairie from Volcano dropped by I see...boy she really got her party dress all shiny and ready

Our local politician Aunty Emily with her estranged husband who ran off to Alaska and claimed spousal abuse...I guess its going to be a tight race again this year with all the mud wrestling out there.

Cleopatra is all bejeweled and looking glamorous.

Don't they just make a lovely couple, just love all the dazzle.

Aaaay...I've been pillaging waaaaay to long, time for a nap before we check out the goodies!

What do you call this wild get up - well you can tell everyone you've seen a Puna-mabob for the first time,  consider that a treat!

Miss Dot.com loves to roll the dice with these two high rollers....keep it coming were going for broke.

Aaaaah Aunty Emily, always the first to the buffet line and working the crowds for the Puna vote :)

No I am not a witch says candidate Christine O'Donnell, although I love my black hat and pearls...btw where are my fellow tea baggers?

Aaaah the hot pink Leilani butterfly has dropped in for a bit of nectar...wonder what makes her eyelashes so pink??

What can I say, all that glitz in one corner is bound to attract alot of flies.

Well this is the first time I've seen a gorilla in tie-die, i guess he was in town for another crazy banana fest. Those Hilo partiers really know how to have a good time don't you think?

To see other posts about the dark go visit photo hunt today http://tnchick.com/