Category / garden

by princesshotflash

My Citrus Nursery

After a watering

Haha! In my dreams. I’ve been raising variety of citrus from seeds since last year. It’s always fun to see the seeds germinate and the tiny leaves to into little leaves and then move into little pots then to the next size.

  • germinating seeds
  • tiny leaves sprouting
in my mom’s kitchen

First of my trees are from my mom’s calamansi and kumquat trees. And I have variety of miniature calamansi from our neighbor, blood oranges that bought from Kokua market, Meyer lemons from my sister and local lemons, one from a miniature tree.

Top row l to r: Mom’s plants with (a bad slug); Middle row l to r: kumquat, mini calamansi, calamansi; Bottom row l to r: empty pot, mini calamansi 3x (the last pot on the right is a survivor of a slug attack)
my cherished blood oranges

Not sure what I’m going to do with all of these little trees but a few of them will move along to our new house once we find it. And who knows how long these trees will take to fruit. The process is fun.

by princesshotflash

Mom said

“I want you to take a picture of my irises in the back. They are in bloom.”

Irises

Mom wanted the 2 buds in the shot
close up
other bunch

And like a good daughter, I took the pictures. Yes, pictures. I even took more than one. The crazy daughter I am, I took pictures of the flowers in the back. And yes, the irises are beautiful but there are other beauties back there, too.

Orchid

Not sure what these are called but they are quite striking.

Joe McGyver

Can’t be in the backyard with seeing a gadget that my dad, Joe McGyver, made up. This is a papaya picker when they had a very tall papaya tree. Made with items around the house. Now hidden by the calamansi tree.

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hand woven wire basket

Speaking about calamansi, that was the whole reason for being in the back yard, to pick and prune the calamansi. I got out the rickety wooden ladder and climbed up to prune the branches that were leaning into the neighbors yard and one that were too high for use to reach. I did cut away a few branches with flowers on it. Oops! Mom thought the pruning would help the tree produce more fruit. Not that we need more.

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our bounty

Here’s our small papaya tree with fruit on it. Mom said that it isn’t really doing well and not sure if the fruit will do well.

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More flowers

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Akulikuli came to mom’s garden by way of Uncle Robert. She is always getting plants from him. This flower in made into leis–beautiful pink lei. I got on from for my HS graduation many moons ago.

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Anthurium patch with this unusual bloom. Kind of a plum color not your usual red.

 

by princesshotflash

Flower in the Front

Killing time as my parents get ready for an outing to Costco, I roamed around our small front yard and decided to take pictures of the flowers in bloom.

Desert Rose

Desert Rose

There’s a row of these rimming the front of the yard. They are odd looking plants. The stem and base are grayish, gnarly, and tangled with leaves here and there topped with bright dark pink blooms. Mom likes these plants they are all over the yard. Notice in the bottom left corner of the image, the orange-yellow pile of stuff are the papaya that Mom feeds the birds in the morning and then turns into compost.

Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea

The bougainvilleas are potted and run up the side of the front yard. They are very old and a few have worked into bonsai by my dad. Most of them in old cement pots some of them made by my dad (That’s another post). There are all sort of colors from this fuchia to lilac to orange.

Cup and Saucer

Cup and Saucer

The finches favorite, at different times of day they come to get the nectar from the flowers and play. These birds blend in with the plant and are hard to get on camera–no pictures. I usually know there because the cats are staring out the window at the tree.

Ice Flower plant

Ice Flower Plant

This beautiful intense magenta colored flower is so delicate and last for a day. The plant looks like a succulent and I don’t know why it’s called ice plant when it seems to love the hot dryness of Waipahu.

CAT BREAK!!!

Orange watching me. And yes that is purple on the trim and I had nothing to with that choice
Lady’s Slipper

Lady’s Slipper

Since I arrived I wonder what those long leafy plants were. There were no flowers. Mom told me they were lady’s slipper and will bloom in the winter. As winter starts to arrive, buds start poping up. Then these fabulous flowers appear.

Hydrangea

Hydrangea

Almost missed these, the flowers almost blended in with the leaves. Just that little hint of pink made me give it a second look.

Azalea

Azalea

These bloom like crazy in NJ in the spring but it’s in the middle of February in HI there are few blooms on this azalea bush. Big blossoms.

Rose

Rose

Last but not least this pink rose plant. Two buds plus a bloom on the plant. The bloom was already spent so that’s why took a picture of the bud.

by princesshotflash

A Backyard Interlude

Just a little interlude between my baking and jamming for the holidays.

My parent’s backyard is a combination of dad’s workshop (what is left of it), mom’s flowers, fruits, and veggie garden. It’s a mish-mosh of mom crazy plant collection combined with dad’s McGyver skills of the gardening ware of plant hangers, cement tiles handmade by dad, and many kinds of pots, handmade, recycled and store-bought.

Dad’s workshop and old projects

Dad’s MacGyver Rotisserie for his hulihuli chickens
love these oil cans
Popular Mechanic project
old metal chests fill with what left of dad’s workshop

Greenhouse

potting bench
homemade trellis
plants in the greenhouse
multi-tier plantings
anthurium plants
love the transition from light green to light pink

Citrus

Morning harvest of Calamansi
Calamansi tree
fruit on the tree
Kumquat
papaya with flowers
green eggplant
beet seedling
waiting for the lettuce
kale plant from my Uncle Herman garden

 

by princesshotflash

Hawaii 2017

UPDATE: Not sure why this went back to draft. I had to republish this to get it out of my draft folder. Sorry to repost. Still learning WordPress.

I’m back from my trip to Hawaii to see my folks, family, friends and Oat’s send off (Next steps: part 1 and part 2). Wanted to share photos of what I did. It was a great trip. Thought it would be hard without Oat but I had a really nice time family and friends beside being very hot.

Morning walks

I tried my best to keep up my walking when I was back. Not as early, no cats to nudge me awake. But I should start walking at 6 but never was out that early. So hot, what a sweaty mess.

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Waipahu Gym

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Waikele Golf Course

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White egret by side of the road

Food

Doing too many things, not too many shots. I’m surprised I don’t have all shave ice and popsicle images because they were my major food group on this visit.

Flora and Fauna

Most of my shots are from my parents’ yard or their neighbors.

one of few street tree left
these are everywhere
neighbor’s dragonfruit
mom’s orchids
gecko on a turtle
monstera
flowers for Auntie and Uncle
me in the cane fields

Places

Hung out with folks most days with the last week being a whirlwind of events. Wasn’t the greatest of documenting things this trip.

Marukai

Went with my cousin and her family to Marukai. It’s like a Costco for all things Japanese. Love their candy and pickle section but this time I didn’t go crazy, instead I could watch 3 little girls go crazy. Picking up every cute and proclaiming, “This is soooooo cute!!!!! Can I get it, pleazzzzzze! I’m so glad I’m just a cousin.

bento box eraser
micro size lego like beetle

Okinawan Festival

The Okinawan Festival is annual event that is held at Kapiolani Park that is getting bigger and bigger every year according to my friends. There was food, plants and craft/dry goods tents with a Bon Dance in the evening.

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View from the Okinawan Festival–Diamond Head

Bon Dance is summer tradition in Hawaii. It is usually connected with a Buddhist temple/church and it is when you go and pay your respects to your ancestors. There is usually live drumming and singing. They perform at top of the a center tower and everyone dance around it.

I was hoping I go get out to a Bon Dance. Something I miss living in NJ. I know there is on in South Jersey but never made it there. Here’s a short video of the Bon Dance that my friend Allyn shot. I’m in there some where, look for blue dress.

Ko Hana Rum

I found out rum was being made near where my parents live, on the outskirts of Waipahu, the cane fields in Kunia.

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from the KoHana Tour

My friend, Jan told me her daughter’s boyfriend works there giving tours. And I asked her if she want to go with me for a visit. I needed to get a special gift and I thought Rum distilled in Hawaii sounded good.

Though not, a drinker–a glass or two of a nice red wine is my limit, the tasting w