Wildflowers are just beginning

The balsam root is blooming although not in the numbers we used to see. We've had so much rain and snow lately, it's great to see some color--and yellow is my favorite next to salmon, but there aren't many salmon colored wildflowers on the Hill.

Another snowy spring day

Even the bluebird house is snow covered this morning. We've seen at least one pair house hunting the past week. I'm anxious to see nesting activity, but so far they have just been trying out each box.

I was hoping to harvest a few stalks of rhubarb this week. It was growing so well with that spate of warm weather, but has slowed since this snow began.

These radish seedlings will take forever to produce if we don't get out of the 30's sometime soon.

This is spring?

A snowy way to start the day.

A few of the daffodils on the Hill.

Spring has sprung and Dr. D's bday

Watering the wild strawberries. Hubby is ever hopeful they will bear fruit.

Shooting star. The first to bloom on the Hill.

Dinner with Jim & Lauren to celebrate Hubby's birthday.

Sunny day

It was over 50 degrees here yesterday. Just a beautiful day and we don't get many of these in January.

Notice the absence of snow. We have never had this much lawn exposed in January. Of course, instead of being covered with snow, it's covered with deer poop. The deer must spend all night here ripping up what green they can find.

It was nice enough for Hubby and Cali to play with one of her many sticks. He's not even wearing gloves!

Cali in back of the house.

A new year of meatless Mondays

Last night was actually our first meatless Monday of the New Year. Hubby was sick with a food-borne illness for the first Monday and couldn't eat. He's all well now and we are back to our routine. Tried cooking with celery root for the first time in a veggie Shepherd's pie. What an ugly vegetable.

It was quite yummy, especially the crunchy bits of mashed potato.

Merry Christmas

from Nuthatch Hill.

Cali, with her Christmas gift.

Warm woolen mittens

A favorite thing from one of my favorite people.

Thank you, Jeannie, for always thinking of me.

More Hawaii

A beautiful sunset during our dinner at Mala in Wailea.

That dark blob is a turtle. We saw several at Hookipa and Big Beach in Wailea.

This was an amazing dessert called the Polynesian black pearl. I ordered this at Mama's Fish House. It was chocolate mousse with passion fruit cream inside and served in a cookie shell. Just divine.

Hubby with his Pina Colada at Mala. This is probably the best Pina Colada I've ever tasted.

I ordered a drink called "three Nenes". It's made with three kinds of Grey Goose vodka. Nene is Hawaii's state bird.

Road to Hana-Arboretum

Hubby flew to Oahu one day to visit with his friend, Mike, which left a free day for the 3 of us to drive part way to Hana.

We stopped at an Arboretum about nine miles past Paia and wandered around for about an hour. This is a view of the lush grounds with the Pacific in the background. It was quite beautiful here, but there were a lot of mosquitos that seemed especially fond of Dave and I. Debara was spared for some reason. At this point, I was sure I wasn't leaving this island unscathed.
Papyrus flowers. I tried to see if there was a scent, but as I moved in to check, there was a huge spiderweb in the way. I gave up on that idea.

Hibiscus. Gorgeous.

Ginger flowers.

Another hibiscus.

Snorkeling

We spent one day snorkeling at Ka'anapali Beach. I love to snorkel however, the water was way too cold for me and the visibility was very poor. Every time I put my head in the water I would shiver and panic. On top of that, as I was helping Debara get past the breaking waves, a rogue wave knocked me down into the surf and I sucked sea water. Yuck. I came up with another skinned knee after being thrown onto the beach. That was that for the girls.

Here we are trying to warm up.

Dave took to the water like a fish. He went out a few times and really enjoyed himself.

This is as far as Hubby's snorkel got to water.

Dave and Debara enjoying lunch at Kimo's in Lahaina.

Here we are waiting for our Pina Coladas.

Nakalele Blowhole

The guys played golf one day which left Debara and I free to explore West Maui. We went on a hike to the Nakalele blowhole.

This is the start of the hike. There wasn't a human around when we started. In this pic you can just make out the light beacon in the distance and to the right. We had to hike around that and head down into the rocks.

This is a view from the cliffs. Very scary. I couldn't believe the trail took us this close to the edge and as it turned out, we weren't on the right trail.

A view of 2 pools. Just gorgeous, of course you'd be crazy to swim in them.

After climbing around the rocks and skinning my knee, we finally ended up at the blowhole.

A nice couple took this pic for us. They came down the easy trail which was mere feet from the blowhole. We decided to go back the way we came even though the other trail was easier we would need to walk on the highway for 1/2 a mile and that seemed more dangerous to us. On the way back, the trail we were supposed to take was spray painted white by some kind soul and was so much easier to follow. No more skinned knees!

Haleakala National Park

Here we are at the entrance to the Park. The elevation was around 7000 ft. The wind was quite chilly.

Up at 10,000 ft and overlooking the crater. You wouldn't think you need to pack jeans and sweatshirts for Hawaii, but to avoid freezing up here they come in handy.

Dave with the island of Hawaii in the distance.

Another view of the crater. We didn't stay too long as it's tough to breathe and some of us were getting altitude sickness.

Secret stuff going on here. The building on the left can scan the entire horizon top to bottom in 90 seconds. This area is off limits.

Hawaiian vacation-day 1

After a long flight we finally arrived on Maui and were greeted with warm winds and nice temps. So much better than the frigid Montana weather.

Here we are at Fred's Mexican Cafe which was walking distance from our condo. We ate here about 5 times.

Dave and Debara.

Hubby cutting pineapple for breakfast. After Jan. 1, they aren't growing Maui Gold pineapples anymore so we were lucky to be there when we were. We bought 2 and they were delicious.