Yard work

We love telling the story of our backyard because it is a huge undertaking, and continues to be a challenge for two homeowners who know zip about landscaping. However, we do know a little bit about cleaning up trash and so it goes like this…

The previous owners of our house were sloppy and they literally killed the yard. To use the yard as a giant dumpster in such a beautiful valley where green spring out of the soil without much effort and where the sun and rain work in harmony to produce the most vibrant colors in mountains as well as people’s yards, is a hideous crime against nature! We spent a good month clearing out the yard and ended up with about 45 bags of junk (we know this because we finished up one box of Costco trash bags) - giant killer vines, endless piles of mango leaves, termite eaten trees, concrete, broken ceramic pots, dead Christmas tree, glass bottles, soda cans, rebar, paint cans, utensils, leftover instant noodle packaging, medicine bottles, rotten wood, tennis balls, golf balls, toys, parts of some metal machinery, pipes, roofing, and other building materials. This is not to mention two truckloads of rotten mango wood trunks that have been harboring termites, roaches, centipedes, and other nasty bugs for a whole year. We truly believed that the yard had 2 foot thick pile of all this trash.

After clearing out the yard, we focused our efforts on the house renovation and have just recently resumed our work on the yard. Poor Bryan doesn’t like yard work as much as I do so when I ask him for help, he is a little clueless as to what needs to be done. He is more of a project-oriented person and yard work is maintenance where there is no completion. So, while he was fixing the mailbox (which was falling down because the based rotted out), I spend a good 8 hours moving boulders to section off the shady area underneath the mango trees from the sunny portion of the yard where I plan to grow vegetables and grass. I leveled out the yard and then laid blue rocks in the shady area. I also moved a big pile of rocks from the back end of the yard to the front so that we can later use these to build a retaining wall in the front yard. The photo above is the shady area of the yard that I sectioned off. It looks 100 times nicer than a year ago when we bought the house. I still have two piles of blue rocks (shown in the second photo) to put in this area and I plan to finish that this weekend. Wish me luck!

I have also redesigned Our Garden blog with more pictures of our plants. I also post to that blog too! The link is on the right.

Life is good

Life is good at home. I recently took a trip back to San Jose to visit my family, relatives, and friends. I had such a wonderful time I nearly forgot that my other "home", which is not much of a home, is in Hawaii. I love it when people ask me, "So, what did you do at home?" I would always answer, "Nothing, nothing much. Just sleep, eat, TV, shop, and babysit." Last time I visited home was back in April of last year, and only briefly. It was a business trip to a conference in Denver and I made a stop at home for a day before and after the conference. Therefore, it was especially difficult leaving this time because I had not seen my family for so long. I wanted to stay but reality is cruel, because it is rarely perfect.

I had dim sum with my grandma and ate the most delicious bao. It was a steamed bun with sweet mushed-up taro on the inside. My parents very much wanted to order one on the first day we went dim sum but the bao were sold out really quickly. We didn't even get to see them come out of the kitchen because people take 3-4 orders! Before I flew back to Hawaii, we went dim sum one more time. We were not thinking of that particular bao but the cart came and we ordered 2. We were all so happy.

My house is full of beautiful blooms. When I woke up that first morning upon my return and looked outside, I saw this tree with so many pink buds. I thought, is this tree new? It wasn't. I went outside and took so many pictures because while I live in Hawaii with plants blooming all year round, I couldn't believe how amazing it was to see winter blooms!

Here is another wonderful bloom, an orchid with green flowers that I bought for my parents. The flowers are big and cute. My mom described the flowers as smiling little bashful girls. See for yourself!

Here is what I spend most of my time doing, babysitting these two wonderful monkeys. My niece is 5 years old now and she is so adorable. She ran around the backyard dancing like a ballerina. Then she told me to take a picture of her with a mini pink rose that totally speaks to her bold character.

My nephew (3 years old) is a little more reserved but when he expresses his likes and dislikes, you better listen because he can be very persuasive! He has the cutest smile and attractive eyes. One time, he saw my dad watering flowers in the backyard. Since then, he followed his footsteps.

I will always miss home :)

Puu Pia Trail

I finally realize that I cannot effectively manage 6 blogs plus a Facebook and an Etsy account. My Artsy blog hasn't been updated for 2 months now, which ultimately affects my Etsy account because no art means nothing to sell. I have also failed to update the Pediatric Basketball blog with the more recent games. What have I been doing the past 2 months? I have no idea! I guess I just wasn't in the blogging mood with everything that is going on.  I am also sneezing up a storm this morning, which I blame on the vog (volcanic ash from the Big Island). 

I have been wanting to share this amazing hike that took place in March. Bryan and I have always loved Manoa Valley and will jump on any opportunity to hike the trails that allow us to explore the beauty of the valley. Puu Pia Trail starts above Woodlawn and ends at the top of a puu (hill) with a 360 degree view of Manoa. The trail is mostly gently sloping with occasional steep ascends / descends. The photo below attempts to show the steep and rooty parts of the trail.  

Near the beginning of the trail were bunches of hilo holly that I originally thought were Christmas Berry, which has thinner leaves. I love the rich red color of the berries.

Half way up the trail, we were surrounded by beautifully arched Eucalyptus trees. Though it was sprinkling a bit, we were well protected even if heavy rain fell.

Near the top of  the puu, we had a great view of the back of Manoa Valley. 

We walked a little further up and saw that the trail was suffocated with Fiddlewood. Though a major weed in the Koolau Mountains, a closer look at the string of tiny white flowers makes the weed look almost beautiful and wanted. 

Ah! We were at the top of the puu, looking at Honolulu city from the back of Manoa Valley.

Here is a closer look at the houses in Manoa. Bryan took this picture and he did a great job!

I stitched five photos together to create panorama of the Koolau Mountains that surround Manoa Valley. You can also see a little bit of the trail that leads to the puu. 

On the way back, Bryan stopped to poison himself with more delicious bug spray. When he was done, he almost stepped on this poor little toad who was enjoying his bask under the warm sunlight. Look! He gave Bryan a stink eye! 

After the hike, we went to refuel at Genki. We took this video for our great friends, Ryan, Emily, and Poki. Enjoy!

ONGA In Full Bloom

I have some major catching up to do and I am contemplating on accomplishing that with one post. The fact of the matter is, I have waited too long to blog about the past events, those that occurred before my Denver trip. I no longer recall the interesting details or captivating features that motivated me to take that snapshot. Since "pictures mean a thousand words," I will interpret that literally and hope you can decipher from the photos what I intended to say but could not put into words at the moment.

I recently became a frequent visitor of the Oahu Nursery Growers Association (ONGA) plant sale at Thomas Square. ONGA is a non-profit organization that is made up of several nurseries from Wai‘anae, Hawaii Kai, Waimanalo, and Waialua. The association organizes several plant sales a year, featuring a variety of plants - native, ornamental, trees, shrubs, and fruit trees. I am particularly interested in the native Hawaiian plants. The pictures below were taken from the plant sale back in March. I was excited to see the green rose but regret not buying it then because I could not find it in their April plant sale :( Bryan was very nice to accompany me and talked me out of buying just a couple more plants, a couple...

Fushia

Sunflower

Portulaca

Gerbera Daisy

This photo was taken on one of our random wanders in Manoa. I have seen this flower before and never knew what it was. Any idea?

Before Denver, I was in Maui for work. Talk about crazy weeks - I was in Maui two days before I had to fly to Denver, and, I made a stopover in San Jose to visit my family. Three time-zones in 2 days, awesome but tiring. In Maui, I saw some gigantic and fragrant Vandas.

I also couldn't resist taking some more photos of the green roses. I am still in love with them.

Aiea Loop Trail

As promised, here are my fabulous photos from the Aiea Loop Trail. This is one of my favorite hikes because it is a loop (if you have been on a 4 mile one-way hike, that's 8 miles round-trip, then you know loop hikes are awesome!), peaceful (rather secluded and quiet despite its proximity to the H3 highway), safe (you can walk without looking down and worrying about tripping or falling down a cliff), and interesting (slanted trees, sleepy hollow, colorful flowers). Our good friends came back from Baltimore and they invited us to go on this hike. Although it took us 4 hours to complete this hike, we had a wonderful time. We made up lyrics as we sang them, told jokes that no other would find funny, spread rumors about raspberry plants along the trail, and made up stories on trees eating people (wait, that was just me).  

Here are some cool dead trees we saw along the trail. They are hollow, hence sleepy hollow. Well, they are not creepy ... just hollow wood and ... hollow wood reminds me of sleepy hollow for no reason at all. I am full of irrational thoughts, or BS for short.

How about these slanted trees shaped by the winds and the sun. When you look at them, don't you want to slant with them to blend in?

[left] Weird tree with a tumor. [Right] Mutualism is amazing. Bryan says the big tree is being strangled by the little. Why can't people think positively? Two plants can co-exist without killing each other, just like how Bryan and I can co-exist without me killing him.

Trees dancing along the trail. How is it that some trees just decide to go coo coo and grow all over the place? 

Beautiful colorful flowers along the trail. Any idea what these plants are? Oh how I miss taking these shots.

Ryan and Bryan had this crazy idea to hike with a ginormous dead tree. What the heck, right? I think they were a little too tired to act rationally. So insane but incredibly hilarious.

Alii Kula Lavender Farm

My friend had told me about AKL and that I would enjoy walking in the farm. Well, I DID! The farm was beautiful. Even though we went after the harvest, the farm and the gardens were still entertaining the visitors with their bubbly charm. The farm was divided in half - uphill and downhill. The uphill portion of the farm was filled with little dome-shaped lavender plants. From the bottom of the hill, the ground looked as if it was foaming with green bubbles. The downhill portion of the farm consisted of an array of eclectic gardens, some of lavender, some of other wild plants. I tried to take photos of all the weird flowers in the garden but the weather was windy, so still-shots were rather difficult. The nursery was in the downhill portion. There were keiki lavender and succulents. When I walked in the nusery, I felt like godzilla trampling on the babies. Scattered around the farm are purple benches, which I absolutely adore, and resting spots. As we were leaving, I stopped by the gift shop to see what sort of products can be made from lavender. I saw jams, jellies, spreads, perfume (of course), and bath items. Nothing out of the ordinary. Back at the car, we finished the last of our krispy kreme donuts. Despite, the cold weather, I was glad I wore my purple dress to blend-in with the lavender farm.

Something missing

For the past couple days, I had this feeling that ... something was missing. It was rather weird because I would find myself standing in one spot for a long time, thinking what it was that was missing. To begin my search, I did some major gardening work this morning. Nope, it wasn't my green thumb that's itching. Then, I went shopping for a flower pot at Wally's Garden Center. Nope, it wasn't the shopping. As I exited the shop, a bright pink plumeria caught my eye. I quickly took out my camera to take a picture. YES! At that moment, I realized what was missing all this time. My body was itching to do something I haven't done for a long long time - taking pictures of beautiful things.  

That feeling is gone now. Look at the color of these flowers. The lighting is perfect - not too bright, but enough to cast some shadows on the leaves. I would say this is a pigture champ.

Where Roses Are Green

I am so excited to have organized all the pictures and videos I took during my work trip to Maui. As I have mentioned before, I am reluctant to disclose any work-related information as the issues are rather controversial. And, who wants to blog about work anyway. But I did promise you some fun pictures and here is the first batch. The first day we visited a taro loi in Honopou. As I looked out from under a tree with a freshly made juice in one hand and a homemade banana muffin in another, I felt the peaceful life of living in the country. When I looked back at the owners of this beautiful loi who were sitting on an old wooden bench with their four wonderful dogs, I understood every sweat that went into growing their taro.

Within the property are some beautiful views that you cannot see in a botanical garden or an arboretum. The photo on the left is the auwai that feeds the taro loi shown in the above photo. On the right is a photo of green roses. First time I see a true green flower. It was an amazing feeling.
  
And look! My very first photomerge (using Adobe) of four photos I took of Wailuanui Valley. I have the Canon Powershot SD800 and I just love the stitch-assist function. Next time I will try merging 8 photos to create a larger view of the valley.

Peachy Anniversary

Like all other anniversaries, this year's was great! I regret I went crazy workaholic that month because HappyOblivion deserves a gift or even some planning efforts from me. I came home from work and I see peach-colored roses on my desk. They were so beautiful. Then he took me to dinner at Alan Wong's. I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the menu! It was personalized with our names on it and signatures of the chefs! We ate until my dress couldn't expand anymore. Last came the dessert complimentary from the restaurant. The dessert had peanuts but I ate all the non-peanut portions and left HappyOblivion the rest, hee. Thank you for a wonderful time.

I must promise myself not to work too much. I was so stressed I had cold sores all over the insides of my mouth. This happens to my sister too! Now I understand...cure is to work less and relax.

Bird in Wind

You know what's worse than being in an elevator where someone just farted? Well, being in an elevator with a couple, both wearing strong perfume. I have never felt so helpless with nowhere to escape for 10 dreadful floors. Not to offend anyone wearing perfume but if you do, little will do the job. Don't go drowning yourself in that chemical.

April is such a great month. Why? Well for starters, it's my birthday (details to come). April is also Earth Month, Ben & Jerry's birthday (thus free cone day), and Baskin Robbins' 31 cent ice cream day. To celebrate Earth Month, I volunteered at the Mauka to Makai Expo at Waikiki Aquarium on the 12th. At the event, I took a picture with an oopu (native Hawaiian fresh water fish) and a humuhumunukunukuapuaa (unofficial Hawaii state fish). Malama o Manoa had free tree giveaway the following weekend to encourage the planting of native species. HappyOblivion and I got a Mamaki tree, a palm, and a curry plant. I was lucky to have gotten the last Mamaki tree. Can't wait to make tea out of it, which is said to give the "buzz" without caffeine (people are crazier than I thought). This past weekend, I went to the Grow Hawaii Festival at Bishop Museum. At the native plants tour, I learned so many interesting stories about each plant that I wish I took notes. I also got a taste of the most delicious poi on Earth! Fresh poi is like taro mochi, chewy and sweet :) After the festival, we went on a short hike to Manoa Falls with some friends visiting from the mainland. Check out my Flickr account and Garden webpage for pictures and stories.

One of the exciting things that happened last week was capturing the next "Pigture Champ". I have always enjoyed watching the wind blow at the feathers of a bird. When I wait for the bus or sit at the park, I often find myself searching for cute poofy birds with messy feathers. At the Byodo-in Temple, I squatted quietly behind a tree just to take the picture below.

I absolutely love this picture. You can see that the wind has created a mohawk for the little birdie. The body also has a couple poofy parts. Aww, the wind has touched my heart.

I feel like...

...I haven't been online for months; yet, I sit in front of the computer everyday at work. I feel like I swam 100 laps; yet, I am out of breath at only 10. I feel like I have a million things to do; yet, I live lazily as if my to-do-list will go "poof" into thin air.

In the past week, my mind was taking a journey of her own. Daydreaming? Not so much since I was aware of my surroundings. Pre-occupied? Eeee...closer but I wasn't worried about anything in particular. Ah, overwhelmed and exhausted. My mind was like a computer that had too little RAM, so she was constantly working in the background trying to sort things out. Then she completely ran out of memory and was stuck in an infinite loop:

email professor a file on my research ... but gotta look for file first ... ooo, plumeria blooming ... reply an email about my old research project ... where is that stupid file ... gotta finish reading two fat reports on streams for meeting ... I forgot all about my research project ... gotta take notes on the reports ... eat dinner ... orchids still blooming ... looking for the file again ... crap, bought another orchid ... buy soil and perlite ... need to repot tonight ... buy outreach materials for work ... free tree giveaway ... resist getting more plants ... doh, got three more plants ... work website design elements ... what to cook for dinner ... headache ... gotta call parents ... who will water my plants while I am gone on vacation ... how are my turtles doing ... laundry ... wash bathroom ... visitors coming in two days ... pack lunch for work ... hydrologist think, think about recommending a flow volume for streams ... Flickr pro or not ... take pictures of my new plants ... update blog ... watch TV ... Tivo will run out of space ... pay bills ...

My mind was such a mess. I had a million things to do but I was so overwhelmed that I accomplished nothing! I can't seem to separate work from home, just like the old days. All I want to do right now is to sit in my lanai with my garden. However, I can't even do that because there is no time. Wake up at 6, go work, come back, swim, cook dinner, eat desert, sleep. I AM GOING INSANE! How does everyone do it? Just work the life away...grrrr.

Venting is great. Now I am tired and sleepy. I only wish I could be like my plumeria (see picture), watching sunrise and sunset everyday oh so peacefully.

5 Days in Kauai

Whew...it has been one crazy week. You know I kinda' look like that Yahoo emoticon, in which the little guy wipes off his sweat and sighs. Vacation nevers feels like one when it is spend somewhere away from home. You are constantly looking at the map, making sure every single attraction is not missed, and the pictures that were taken in a rush justify your "been-there-done-that" attitude. HappyOblivion and I were trying to avoid the whole ordeal of "touring Big Island in 3 days" (ha, that's another story to tell), so we decided to take it lazy and took a trip to our favorite island, Kauai, for the short amount of time we have off.

HappyOblivion's friend was very nice to accomodate us in his new house in Kalaheo. He also let us borrow his brand new Toyota FJ Cruiser to drive around the island and go on our crazy adventures. Little did we know we were going to spend a chunk of time playing Guitar Hero and saving Toad in Super Mario Galaxy than touring the island. One of our crazy adventures was driving in the sand dunes at Polihale State Park, our friend's idea of "breaking-in" the car. The road to the park was bumpy, muddy, and rainy. We splashed every puddle, big and small, along the way while praising the performance of the car. "This car is great!" we boast, or "This car can do anything!" Then...we got stuck in the sand dune, no kidding. HappyOblivion and his friend had to dig, in the heavy rain, away the sand surrounding the barried tire, which didn't work. Luckily some locals showed up and helped pull us out. Of course we had to pay him beer money to do so but 20 bucks wasn't at all an expensive lesson considering we had no way of getting out. Regardless of this unfortunate occurrence, we had a great time on the beach. The water was amazingly clear. I still remember the sparkles that filled the surface of the water, and would reappear after every wave.

Another highlight was our trip to the Kauai Nursery and Landscaping, and the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG). I had wanted to take pictures of rows and rows of seedlings, and bunches of the same plant. Home Depot and regular garden shops just don't have enough plants to achieve the desired effect. At the nursery, I took so many pictures I thought the camera was going to die on me. There were bunches of everything and I was going happy crazy! The next stop was NTBG. It wasn't the greatest botanical garden partly because I had to pay $20-40 to tour the upper parts of the garden. Despite this limitation, I did manage to take some good close-up photos of a butterfly pollinating a large orange flower. I waited 20 minutes in the midst of buzzing bees, scary spiders (those that weave X spiderwebs - I think these are poisonous), and hungry mosquitoes. The entire time I was waiting for the perfect moment, the hungry mosquitoes were feasting on HappyOblivion. Luckily I only got a couple bug bites :D Some of the photos I like from this trip are posted in my Flickr account or below.



Lately, I have been particularly interested in photography. With that said, I would like to start a tradition in which I pick a favorite photo for each collection I create. The winning photo from this trip is...tun tun tun...

Limit 3 Heads

For a month, I have been waiting for the Kunia Orchid Show. On Friday night, I charged the camera battery so I could take loads of pigtures. I also withdrew some cash in case I bring home a couple orchids. All this time, I thought the show was in Kunia; hence, the "Kunia" Orchid Show. Then HappyOblivion reminded me that the location of the show changed to Waipahu, which is much farther than I expected. ["What? I thought you live in Hawaii," you say.] Yes, but that doesn't mean I know where everything is! I considered making a trip up there on Saturday with HappyOblivion but decided I could make better use of my time cleaning the apartment and running errands in town. Plus, coming up are 5 more orchid shows that are closer to town. Regardless of all these pathetic excuses, I was sad that I didn't go so I made HappyOblivion take me to Star Market where I could choose a plant to lift my spirits. I intended to buy ihi, a native Hawaiian plant I found in my new book Growing Hawaii's Native Plants. Obviously, things didn't go as planned and I bought an orchid instead, which ironically, I had planned on getting since Friday.

Afterwards, we went to eat dinner at our favorite place, Ninja Sushi at Pearl City. We love this location in particular because we know the owner, there is free corn tea to go with the sushi, and the shop is clean and cozy. As we both agree, dinner at Ninja is always a nice date :) Before returning home, we dropped by Foodland to buy our favorite Rosalani Kona Mud Pie ice cream which is still on sale 2 for $8. We came across the cabbage section and thought the sign a little hilarious. HappyOblivion and I have always made fun of each other's heads. Comments such as, "You have a fat head," or "Your head is so fat it blocks cell phone reception" would randomly pop out of our mouths throughout the day. I guess we are both a little cabbage headed sometimes.

A&E, U&Me

Gosh, I have been so pathetic lately. I start work at 6:45 and don't come home until 5 to 5:30. I swim for an hour and it's time to cook dinner already. By the time I am free to do whatever, I try to stay awake desparately so I can finish drawing my oopu, finally.

Ha! Did you notice? That all rhymes! Anyway, oopu is a new character I am creating for my coloring book. I finalized my hihiwai which turned out perfect. I had doubts with all the other versions but this one is just right. The characters can be viewed via the Artsy link soon.

So why the catchy title? After a 2 month hiatus, I finally popped out of my shell and went to American Eagles with a friend. I couldn't believe my eyes. The new styles are so beautiful that I couldn't resist buying something outside of the clearance racks. I am particularly interested in the tops of which I bought a blue hoodie without much hesitation. My friend bought two really nice shirts, one with the poofy sleeves and the other is white nylon with back tie. And that's not all! A&E had a promotion that if members use their A&E credit card, they get a free bag which is probably worth $10. I am tempted to go back and shop more.

On another note, ever wonder if bottled water is safe to drink? Read this article and maybe you'll think twice before buying that 36 pack bottled water at Costco.

On a third note, I have been looking for a good orchid reference book. I took a Borders-Barnes & Noble trip the other day and searched through the entire collection of plant books. I found this one of particular interest. The topics flow great throughout the book and the pictures are fantastic. Though I have to admit, the photos in this book are bigger and better but too little text.

Change is good

I have made quite a bit of changes lately, one of which is pretty obvious if you have been paying attention to the design elements of this blog. I thought a white background would give more pop to the green and the turtle banner. Second, I have updated the "About Me" page so I am no longer a graduate student trying to stay alive in school. Take a look because I changed the style to an interview format. Third, I created a new "Artsy" link in the navigation bar for all my artwork. I have yet to design the page layout so check back later. Fourth, I finally cut my hair! It's been 6 months since I last went to the barber...I know I know, it's pretty disgusting. Fifth, this is more of a happy news than a change but my orange epi is finally blooming! For the past one and a half years, it's been growing taller but no bloom. It is now about 4 feet tall excluding the roots and the bloom. You can see the full bloom in the "Garden" link. The photo on the right is also of my orchid. Amazing ey? Finally, I am super excited about the Pan-Pacific soccer games tonight. Beckam and Ching will be there!

Aiea Orchid Festival

Hello orchid lovers. I went to the Aiea Orchid Festival on June 16th and took some beautiful pictures to share with you. These are only half of the pictures. I will be uploading more later. Please check back next week!

Orchid in bloom

My baby Nalo orchid finally bloomed! I have been waiting so long for this. I bought her when she was a baby seedling so I didn't know the color of the flowers. Over the past year, a few flower buds appeared but they all died. I guess the plant was still too young to push out any flowers. Look at her now! She has matured and her flowers are beautiful! There are more pictures of this orchid and my other plants in the "Color me life" blog. Check it out :)

Weird beauty

I found this picture at the GardenWeb Orchid Forum. This flower looked weird but very beautiful at the same time. Just thought I should share with you.
Source: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/orchids/msg0715321011256.html

Orchid Improvement

I am so proud of myself. For the past week, I have been building a cabinet/ladder to display my orchids. It is very simple and has lots of storage space. I simply build 3 open ended rectangles of different lengths and stack them on top of each other to build a stair-like effect. I now store books inside the rectangles. The color is a rich dark mahogony instead of natural wood color because a dark background really brings out the color of the orchids. Below is the finished product. Itsn't it a beauty!