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/