My Hawaii Nature Journal ~ Day 6 (a.m.) ~ 12/23/2007

The difficult thing about keeping a journal on a trip is that, as a rule, you can't record an event while it is happening. I mean, if you're recording it, it stops or changes since you aren't experiencing it so much as drawing or writing about it. That means that my entries about a morning, for instance, may get made at some convenient stopping place in the afternoon, over lunch, or maybe even that evening or the next day. So the dates and times get all screwed up.....I'll have to put some of the journal pages out of order to keep things even halfway linear.

On the 23rd of December I planned a trip up the Kohala shore along the highway that skirts the northwestern coast of The Big Island. This leads past some fine sandy beaches and Lapakahi State Historical Park, an ancient Hawai'ian settlement that is being excavated, and ends at Hawi and the Pololū Valley on the north shore.

I guess I'm just not much of a beach bunny. At Hapuna Beach (considered one of the best there is) there were people playing in the water, surfing, and making sand castles, but I just wanted to photograph the neat plants and shoreline. Check out the lovely spiral forms of the flowerlets on this beach plant!

So while I didn't get much of a tan at Hapuna Beach, I did think it was lovely and I stayed awhile to watch the kids play in the surf. Somewhere along that coast, I also watched some kayakers heading off to explore the shoreline, which looked like a neat way to spend a morning.

The surf was really gentle compared to what pounds the Oregon coast -- that really surprised me, since I previously had the impression that Hawai'i was mainly pounded by giant surfing curls. Funny how we get misled by tales of the spectacular, huh?

My next stop, Lapakahi State Historical Park, was a much more fascinating experience. Lava rock enclosures surround where thatched houses once stood, the rock foundations stabilizing the roof posts and providing protection against the wind. There are also a couple of reconstructed houses with grass roofs, and the visitor center has some very interesting aerial photo/reconstructions of the way it was/is.
I monopolized the docent shamelessly, and he showed me how the kukui nuts and pandanus fruits were utilized (see the journal page).

One thing that really fascinated me was the coral beach -- not coral sand, but HUGE chunks of coral, some as big as a grapefruit, washed up over the seasons (I presume). Many of the Hawaiian beaches I've seen have occasional coral chunks on them, but this one has coral boulders, which are protected from being carried away by the Park designation, I suppose. In the beach picture above, all the white stuff is coral chunks. I wonder if all Hawaiian beaches used to look like this? In the coral close-up picture, the coral with the "fingers" is about five inches across.

I'm not sure why people in Hawai'i today don't still live in these carefree (and "free") thatch-roofed houses. In this forgiving climate, with food on the doorstep (beachstep?) and clan gathered around, what more could we humans need? Am I missing something?

I'm a little short on time today, so I'm going to end before that day's lunch. My little Instant Hawaaian book says the pronunciation of the "w" following an "a" (or beginning a word) may be either "w" or "v." So depending on your preference, I had lunch either at Hawi or Havi. It's spelled Hawi. And lunch consisted in part of a wonderful little fruit, called a rambutan, that looks something like a tentacled red sea urchin. Rambutan is NOT a Hawaiian word, and in fact it sounds rather Indian to me. Nevertheless, it was delightful, and I'll tell you about it in the next blog, so keep tuned.

p.s. according to that little book, my Hawai'ian name would be Ailina, AH-ee-LEE-nuh, with the Ah and ee slurred together.

Oops ~ Lights out!

WHOOOOOSHHHH! Right when I was hitting my Hawaii stride, a big storm came along (you may have been hearing about it on the national news) with 60mph winds here in my southwestern Oregon valley. Around 4am on Friday morning, the power went off over a three county area. At one point, the recorded message was claiming 19,000 households without power. With my woodstove and kerosene lamps, I wasn't in any trouble, but turning on my computer wasn't an option until yesterday at about 4pm. Thirty-six hours without electricity really catches your attention! I wanna go solar!

I spent today catching up on book orders and workbook prep for my Journaling/Sketching Workshop which starts next weekend -- if I get enough participants. I hadn't realized that the workshop was accidentally listed under "nature crafts," online, which evokes basket-weaving sessions and doing things with leaves and pinecones rather than writing and journaling.

As a result, so far I don't have enough participants to make the workshop go, so if you were thinking of taking a Journaling/Sketching Workshop in the Rogue Valley area of Oregon in the near future, here's your big chance! If you wish you'd known about it sooner, sign up for my newsletter in the column at right to get occasional missives from me telling about upcoming workshops.

Tomorrow I'll get back to uploading my hand-written and -drawn journal pages, photos and comments about my recent Hawaii workshop-site-search trip.

'Til then, aloha, and keep warm!

My Hawaii Nature Journal ~ Day 5 ~ 12/22/2007

Hawai'i is on the Tropic of Cancer, which means that at this time of year the sun sets around 6:30pm, which leaves nice long evenings in which to catch up on journaling and sketching. So while I was traveling, I got into the habit of picking up interesting things to sketch or glue into my journal. Seedpods, sea shells, postcards, leaves, etc., all make interesting additions to a page, as you may have noticed.
And there's time to write in the evenings, too, and catch up on the day's events.

For this page in the journal (with the jacaranda seed pod), I lightly pencil-outlined an interesting shape inside which I wrote, then later erased the lines. My plan was to draw a gecko into the empty space, but that didn't happen, so I left it blank. Later I will use one of my photos (I took lots!) for reference and draw/paint the gecko in. This is a good solution for "missed opportunities" and "sloth" ;^} The seedpod is from Shirley's yard.

The first morning, I took some time to explore Shirley's landscaping, and discovered all kinds of things: a banana tree in FLOWER, f'rinstance! The huge fruit-like flower was fascinating -- I couldn't figure out what it was at first. Ants were crawling all over the little stamens, which kind of clued me in that they might be pollinating it.

Fascinating spiky spiders spun orb webs between the lanai (covered deck) and the trees. A breadfruit tree stood beside the driveway, and there was beauty and lush foliage all around. I'm in love.

After my foliage inspection I took Shirley's advice and visited the nearby cloud forest, where I discovered colorful Java sparrows and saffron finches, red tree ferns and a lovely, 3" wide pink flower on a vine (at right) which I can't identify. If you know what it is, could you drop me a comment?

Then I drove a little further up the highway to Anaeho'omalu (Anna-ayho-oh-muh-loo -- I'm not sure where the accent is) Beach Park where lava tongues reach down to the sea. There I discovered and sketched sea turtles napping in a cove.

I wonder if it's possible that one of those turtles (the one in the picture) was a hawksbill turtle? I'm still not sure, even after studying my field guide....

Here I also found some lovely seashells to draw, and this is the only page in the journal where I used pencil instead of ballpoint pen in order to get the shells to look smooth and shiny. I didn't see a lot of sea shells on this visit. They may get picked over pretty thoroughly by people like me.

The beach sand at Anaeho'omalu is described as "salt-and-pepper" and it really does look like it. I taped on a sand sample.

I knew I should visit the galleries in Holualoa and seek an artists' group that might want to sponsor one of my workshops, but hey, being a tourist is exhausting. Besides, I had my seashells to sketch, and besides, I didn't get back until almost dark..... Isn't it amazing how easy it is to put off important things? Well, maybe tomorrow.....

My Hawaii Nature Journal ~ Day 4 ~ 12/21/2007

Bright and early on my fourth day I left Kulana Artist's Sanctuary and once more headed for the western side of the Island. But when I reached the Park entrance again I reentered on an impulse: I hadn't yet sketched that wonderful pahoehoe lava.... and wait! maybe I should check at the park gallery to see if they ever sponsor workshops....(one of the nice things about traveling alone, you can do whatever you want, when, why, wherefore....etc).

So I dressed warmly in jacket and fuzzy hat for the cold breeze (it's cold on the volcano in the early mornings, and the wind can be biting) I drove back down the Chain of Craters Road and sketched this gorgeous section of pahoehoe. If you've ever made a chocolate cake from scratch (or better yet, brownies before you add the nuts) then you have seen an edible version of pahoehoe. On the way I met a pair of gorgeous Kalij pheasants along the road -- aliens from India, but fascinating nevertheless.

This is the general area where the first Polynesians arrived, on the south end of The Big Island. I forgot to mention that yesterday I discovered some petroglyphs across the road from some specimens they encourage one to visit at Pu'u Loa Petroglyph Trail. It was nice finding my very own lava petroglyphs! There was red stain in one of them. I understand that ancient Hawai'ian parents chipped these holes in which they placed umbilical cords from their newborns. The circles shown here are about 8" across and are chipped about ¾" deep.

The pahoehoe picture shows an area about 10'x6.' That's one big cake batter....

Back onto the highway, the road went through scrubby uplands I'd never have associated with Hawai'i. I watched for nene geese, but didn't spot any, although I'm pretty sure I heard one ~ "HWAH-hwah-hwah!" ~ in the distance at one point.

I stopped several times within the next few downhill miles to strip off items of clothing. First the hat and jacket, then the fleece top, then the turtleneck and the fleece pants under my zip-off pant-legs, then the pant-legs themselves, until finally I was at Black Sand Beach in my t-shirt and shorts, in the warm, humid more-what-I-was-expecting Hawai'ian sunshine. And there, as I arrived, my turtle came.

That was wonderful.

When I was full of turtle and my sketchbook was satisfied, I returned to the highway and shortly took the South Point Road 8 miles down to the southernmost point of the island. I think from where I was standing, the next point of land was the South Pole.

The island ends in an abrupt bluff, and if you look down over the edge the water is perfectly clear and turquoise, and you can SEE the fish swimming in it. This was a favorite Hawai'ian fishing spot, but the currents were fierce, so they drilled holes into the lava edge of the bluff (you can see the holes in the picture) and tied their canoes to the shore so they wouldn't be swept away.

By the way, a note about these journal entries....you have undoubtedly noticed that they aren't perfect in terms of design, additions, etc. I decided that spontaneity and just DOING the journal was more important than creating a polished, finished product from the get-go. Sometimes I just sat down on the ground and sketched because an opportunity occurred, not taking time to figure out a beautiful design or layout. So wotcha see is wotcha get, and even if they aren't gorgeous, they're still fun, and within reach of us all with a bit of instruction and practice (that's what my workshops are all about!). BTW, the black patch on the turtle journal page is a little pile of the shiny black sand firmly battened down with clear package tape.

My day ended further up the highway, along the west side of The Big Island, at Shirley's house in Holualoa (ho-LOOuh-LOWuh). Shirley was one of my recent workshop students, and when I discovered she had a home in Hawai'i -- well things just took off from there! On arrival I found an enchanting house, with a bold neon-green welcoming gecko (it's a Gold Dust Day Gecko) waiting on the doorjamb, an absolutely perfect ending to my day full of adventures.

My Hawaii Nature Journal -- Day 3 -- 12/20/2007

Day Three was my Volcano Day. Mauna Loa, from whose loins springs Kilauea caldera and Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, was looming over all as I left Emma and Manny's house south of Hilo and started west. It wasn't a LARGE loom, just a persistent mound up which the road kept rising for thirty miles until it crested at the park entrance.

I wish I could have seen that caldera when Mark Twain saw it -- apparently it was quite hellish, red and roiling, gnashing its teeth, lacking only visible devils. Now it is quiet, black and hard, with some steam fumaroles and other vents around the perimeter belching miniscule white clouds.

Nevertheless, the drive around the rim and down the Chain of Craters Road revealed some superb vistas of both pahoehoe (puh-HOY-hoy (smooth and ropy) and a'a (ah! ah!)(sharp and cutty) lava.

There are several places you can stop along the road to see steaming vents. Shortly past the visitor center, a nicely fuming hole in the ground emits what may be pure water steam -- it has no scent I could detect. Around the west side and on the south edge, however, the vents are putting out much more noxious stuff. I hack-hacked for some time before getting smart and moving upwind. Duh. The photo with ferns, here, is looking down into the water steam vent, while barren earth surrounds the sulphurous vents (makes sense, huh?)

There are numerous flows of varying ages on the Chain of Craters road leading from the caldera down to the sea. It was a fascinating drive, with some really interesting lava deposits. One volcanic vent, about 6" across, was particularly compelling, being composed of red lava, while most of the other lava is black. The red makes it look H.O.T!


At 2:30 there was to be a nature walk at the Kipukapuaulu Bird Trail so I finished my caldera circuit in time to make that tour. There were over-arching tree ferns with furry bases, a huge hollow tree at whose base someone had left an offering tied up in leaves, and a ti plant, which is used for lots of things (like tying up offerings). More about ti plants later, and I'll put up the ti plant picture I took here when I do that.

I had taken a room for the night at Kulana Artist's Sanctuary near Volcano Village as I was hoping against hope that I could go back into the volcanic park after dark and see flowing lava, get the soles of my feet supernaturally hot by standing on a thin sheet of lava over a seething red lake of molten stone (okay, okay, that's a bit much, but I did really want to see flowing lava....).

But it turns out that the lava, which is currently flowing, is emerging in a roadless area. The closest visitors can get was some six miles distant. At the Visitor Center they SAID it would be a fabulous view of glowing red in the distance, but when it started to rain I opted to spend the night working on my journal and chatting with Cristina, who runs Kulana. All things considered, it was an excellent choice.

By the way, sometimes the journal page entries get slightly out of sequence when I need a place to write. The journal page with the caldera postacard glued to it has an entry written on December 21, after I left the volcanic park. Sorry 'bout that!

My Hawaii Nature Journal -- Day 2 -- 12/19/2007

On my second day I got up really early, about five, thinking the sun would rise at 6. But it got light closer to seven, so I had time for a nice leisurely breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I picked a seat where I could watch the sunrise over Diamond Head as I slowly woke up over my good cup of hot Kona coffee. Be sure to click on the pictures for close-up viewing.

Since my plane didn't leave until ten thirty, I had time to stroll on Waikiki Beach, examine and sketch an outrigger canoe, visit the Queen Kapiolani Park right across the street, and do some birding before catching the airport shuttle. There are some picturesque open-air trams that run through Waikiki, and next visit I would love to ride on one of those.

I love the banyan trees in Waikiki, with their multiple trunks and great, umbrella canopies. What treasures! I never did get a good photo of one.

The flight to The Big Island went off without a hitch. So far, beautiful, sunny weather. But coming into Hilo I saw the sunshine wasn't necessarily going to last. Well, Hilo is on the windward side of the island, and there's a REASON it's so green, lush, and jungley! As soon as I disembarked, I called for my car rental pick-up -- the rental cars based at the airport are handier, and you could drive right off in one, but you pay for that privilege -- and my agency arrived within minutes to take me to my car-for-the-week, so it wasn't an issue.

As soon as I had gotten my car and checked in with Emma, with whom I planned to stay the night, I took off down the highway to the south-eastern corner of the island to explore. I kept noticing wonderful scrubby trees with brilliant red bottle-brush flowers -- they were EVERYwhere. Later I discovered this is the tree favored by the fabled Hawai'ian honeycreepers, the ohia lehua (oh-HEE-uh LEH-hoo-uh). I found ohias throughout the big island, mostly small, but sometimes up to 80' or so. I love the name -- it rolls off your tongue like syrup.

I also noticed vigorous vines with huge leaves which reminded me of houseplants. Sure enough, they turned out to be monstera, commonly found in pots in office buildings here on the mainland. They really know how to climb a tree!

I was headed for Kapoha Tidepools, where lava meets the sea and makes some interesting snorkeling (which I didn't plan to do this trip). Nearing the tidepools I was amazed to see trees with huge orange tulips on their branch tips. I stopped to take a photo and pick up some spent blossoms to sketch later, and got into BIG trouble (see the journal page with the orange "tulip" flower on it.) Here's a photo of the tree branch... The flowers are a good 4" long!

It rained off and on all afternoon, but only when I didn't plan to be out in it (except once when I stopped for lunch and needed the help of a woman with an umbrella to make it back to my car without getting soaked). I don't mind a little rain, and I was fully expecting to get wet -- brought along a little plastic poncho for just-in-case.

Okay now, to keep from getting confused, read the right-hand page with the yellow noni-fruit on it before reading the left hand page with the business card from KALANI on it. This was a page spread that didn't go quite as planned.....

After my adventure with the tulip tree, I took my rescuer's advice and headed off southwest down the coast to 1. try to find the retreat center where I might be able to hold my Journal Sketching Workshops and 2. see where the lava flow buried the road.

On the way, I drove along a magical tunnel of a road with trees meeting and tangling overhead. I did find the Kalani Oceanside Retreat(YES!) and after leaving off my business brochure and description of my workshop (as I'll be teaching it in Costa Rica in February -- hey, come join us!), I emerged into the open where the sea once steamed great clouds as lava rushed into it.
I did find the sudden end of the road, but it's demise was years in the past, and there's not much to see. But you can sure get some great ice cream in the little store at the end of the pavement.

Then I high-tailed it back to Hilo to meet Emma so she could guide me to her wonderful house in the jungle for the night. I ate my first dinner on The Big Island accompanied by good conversation, sketched all evening as we talked, and was later lulled to sleep by the "Bo PEEP?" call of the coqui frogs ( from Puerto Rico, but they still sound nice). Wonderful day! Warm thanks to Emma, Manny and Ophelia for a perfect evening.

My Hawaii Nature Journal -- Day 1 -- 12/18/2007

Aloha! Here I am, back in Oregon, with the results of my Nature Journaling trip to The Big Island of Hawaii. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and since the object of the trip was to produce interesting journal pages, I'm going to include the actual pages instead of typing in the journal entries and adding the sketches (as I did for last spring's Costa Rica journal -- see the first entries on this blog, May 2007).

Here I am, all my traveling gear attached, and ready for my Hawaiian adventure.

Some things to keep in mind as you follow along: 1. I was traveling alone so I could do anything and go anywhere the urge struck me. 2. I was determined to be adventuresome, try new things, learn all I could, meet people and ask lots of questions, and I did. 3. The object of this trip was to create an interesting journal -- not necessarily "beautiful," but one that would keep readers turning the pages to see what happened next, plus be fun for myself to go back to later on. 4. Days in the tropics are about twelve hours long, so there's not enough time in the day to do/see/do everything -- but evenings are perfect for journaling. 5. I didn't go to Hawaii to swim

That being said, Here We GO! [The front cover of the journal is in the last blog.] In that last blog, I showed the inside of the front cover, but before I left home I added a clear-plastic pocket to hold flat things I might pick up during the day. The plastic is stiff (you could use a square cut from some bubble-packaging) and taped down on left and bottom edges, so things just slip inside and stay nicely in place. I was keeping an eye out for things to glue onto the pages, and used this pocket every day.

The first leg of my journey was from Oregon to Honolulu, where I stayed overnight in a hotel on Waikiki Beach. Click on the image to bring up a large enough image to read. Nearly all of the sketches in the journal are done in ballpoint pen, which keeps me from obsessing to get everything perfect, as I would with a pencil and eraser.

For the first page, I sketched all my gear the night before, laid out on the carpet ready to go. That's my entire outfit, and although it weighed only 19¼ lbs, I'm pretty sure things secretly multiplied in the dark pockets, because it seemed MUCH heavier by the end of the trip.

The next morning on the plane, I tried out my gold calligraphy pen to letter the initial cap for the journal entry, and outlined it with the ballpoint. I glued on my ticket stub as we flew.

Airports are great places to work on sketches. It beats the boredom and people stop to watch and chat. I met some really nice people, which normally I wouldn't have. The second page talks about the third page, and also gave me a place to draw my plane out the waitingroom window.

If you want to draw people, you have to be reasonably discreet and try not to stare too much. But if they catch you, you have to fess up. I was really taken with this beautiful child and tender parent.

The trip to Hawaii was over ocean, nothing to look at, so I read in my paperback novel -- the only time I even took it out during the trip. Upon landing (no baggage to claim!) I went out and caught a generic airport shuttle to my hotel, arriving about dark. With the whole evening ahead of me, I went down on the boulevard which fronts the beach and just soaked in the ambience; then after sushi dinner in a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant (for $8.50) I picked up some fallen flowers, leaves and seedpods from the trees along the beach, and some coral from the surf to sketch in my room later.

Remember, I'm not here for the night life!