upcountry sights

gardening day

I joined my friend Udeya, pictured below, to prepare a future garden bed for the tulsi (holy basil) plants that I am growing. She lives in a rainier, more jungle-y area than we do. I had so much fun being a farmer. I was really in my element.

Udeya holding a cutting from a lush tulsi plant she discovered that grows in a remote area of our island. She has heard that this variety propagates easily from cuttings and we are hoping we can grow this variety on her property. This will avoid the need for starting from seed, which is tricky.

Susie, her friend helping us clear the land for the future tulsi garden.

Udeya's veggie garden

gamekids

The girls are joining a production group called Gamekids that meets right in our town. Gamekids is an educational television and internet show which encourages young people to play with creativity and imagination. The program features games, activities, recipes, fashions, folk-lore, digital storytelling, and much more! The kids rehearse a couple of times a week. They do singing, theater shows, spontaneous acting, a little bit of modeling and some dancing, although I am not sure the girls will want to do the dancing numbers. The group is run by a sweet pastor. His background is in film and television.

The group consists of kids ages 8 - 13. I am so impressed with how sweet and humble this talented group of kids is, how the older kids teach the younger ones the dance routines, and help one another out. Pictured above is the group being filmed in a park for an episode on playing running games in a park, and telling riddles. It was Sky and Annabel's first experience, and they had a lot of fun. http://www.gamekids.com/index.html

swiss family robinson froghouse

The kids found a tiny frog in the backyard and since we don't have any pets and they REALLY want a pet, anytime they capture an animal from the wild they instantly make a home for it and beg to keep it as a pet. They made this habitat for the frog with rocks and leaves and moss and bark and wood and ferns and food - lilikoi. The little froggie himself is not pictured. This was right before he moved in.

I thought it was a beautiful work of art.

Like the famous artist Christo, who wrapped the perimeter of entire small islands in pink cloth and did a gorgeous piece called "Running Fence," a cloth fence that undulated over hills in northern California for miles, the froggie home too had a short life. But honestly it was as beautiful and balanced artistically as the works of art fellow students made when I was in art school.

It remained in the backyard for a few days. Ah, the creative children I live with. They are a constant source of inspiration.

sky is 12!

This is hard for me to believe. I can remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. She is such a sweet girl. I feel honored and proud to be her mom.

Sky enjoyed helping me make her cake --vanilla cake with lilikoi frosting made from fruit from our garden.

She had a sleepover party and invited her friends from school.

Young lady Skylar