Vicky Durand’s Adventure Blog #82

November 10, 2024

Welcome to Blog #82

I am a day late again…..I spent all day yesterday supervising work and cooking for a dinner last night.

It has been another interesting week with beautiful sunset pink skies. The first part of the week was spent working on writing a weekly article in Mid Week called Chasing The Light. Robin Rohr is a therapist and author and puts out a weekly inspirational article. She must have run across my book and contacted me several months ago for a story on my mother.  My story will appear around the first of the year. It was a lot of work with many rewrites, but I think resulting in a beautiful tribute. I will let everyone know when it is published. Once published I will include it in a blog post.

The bottom of the driveway was getting quite muddy with overhanging trees keeping the sunlight at bay. The trees got trimmed and Laka brought up fo aur tons of gravel to solve that problem. We are also figuring ways to deal with possible heavy winter rains.

I now have one more parking space at the bottom of the driveway which gives room for possibly selling a product. The taro at the very first lo’i already has one leaf and that is going to be spectacular for all the cars passing by.

We continue working on the yard and it is looking gorgeous. Ben finished the back yard rock wall yesterday. I am hoping to keep the potatoes back far enough to plant herbs along the inside edge. I harvested lots of turmeric and might put some of that in also.

At the Farmers Market on Friday we came across Randy who was selling a shot of turmeric juice that he makes with honey, lime juice and coconut. It was delicious and I am going to start experimenting to make the healthy concoction.

My friend and author Susan Purvis (Go Find It) arrived and we went to the Makahiki celebration ceremony on Friday morning at The Kahanu Botanical Garden. The Garden is part of the National Tropical Garden and the home to the largest heiau in the South Pacific-The Pi’ilanihale Heiau. The ceremony was performed at the base of the heiau as it probably has taken place for hundreds of years. The Makahiki season is the ancient Hawaiian New Year festival in honor of the god Lono. Makahiki usually begins in Mid-November and ends in late January or February aligning with the rainy season. It is a time set aside for tribute, harvest, sport, and play. The four month period was a time of peace and plenty, relaxation, games. It was a time to honor the god Lono which a replica is pictured below. All the Hana School students were there and it was pretty chicken skin. Since it was also a time for surfing and when the surfing contests took place I wrote about it in my book.

After the celebration a Hawaiian lunch was served in a bamboo plate and games were played.

In my little spare time I have been reading Bob’s mother’s letters that he had transcribed and put in a binder. The letters are copies that were written to her family and talk about life in Hawaii during the war and the Liljestrand family. I am finding it very interesting reading.

Caruso cat loves the frog.

The neighbors dogs drop by every once in a while because they are not being fed at home. I fell in love with the little black oneput some food out, but Mana decided to bring the dish back which she did without spilling a drop.

It is a beautiful day and I am going to turn the pump on for the pool and maybe jump in before some planting.

Have a beautiful week.

Aloha Nui,

Vicky