Mr. Boyce wrote that he took off about 5 weeks off from his regular job and set out in his truck with no particular destination in mind—but with the intention to produce timelapse sequences. This entire timelapse sequence, titled Edge of Stability, was recorded between May and June of 2015.
Isn’t it wonderful to be consumed by a creative venture! To learn as much as you can, to experiment, to work hard to fulfill your vision—whether you use a camera or fabric.
The library inside the Capital smelled like old books, which is a nice smell! It’s a tall space with two amazing spiral staircases.
The books were pretty on the shelves. I would have taken many more photos but we didn’t get to stay long.
Also seen on the tour were mosaics which made me want to play with tiny tiles…
And spiral stairs to climb up and down to the dome. I got a little dizzy and my thighs are still sore.
We got to look outside from one window when we were high in the dome. I guess squirrels don’t come through the gap in the screen…
I was surprised to find the signs of the zodiac painted on the ceiling on the ground floor.
There were quotations in many places. Every politician should take this one to heart…
And then we went outside where I had noticed a gold building. It was, not surprisingly, built to reflect the Capital!
I think this last photo may be my favorite one of all.
I’m happy to be back home, even though it means I’m not in Hawaii. Home is indeed where the heart is.
Two very fine quilters sent photos of their quilts for me to share with you. In both cases, the applique colors shine against the black backgrounds.
Joyce Lytle wrote this about the first quilt:
In the retirement village where I live (Savannah Lakes Village) in South Carolina, we have a group that meets every week. Every 2-3 years we make a quilt, then give it to a non-profit organization in our town of McCormick to raise funds for their group. That way we do not have to sell the raffle tickets, they do. Of course we all purchase tickets and hope we win the quilt! LOL.
The binding still needs to be stitched to the back and a sleeve attached. We haven’t decided which organization will get the quilt yet, but we are sure they will be thrilled.
I agree—the winner will be thrilled. You all did a wonderful job!
Roseanne Bullock, from Adelaide, Australia, sent the second photo. She wrote:
Have attached a photo of my version of your Stars In The Garden quilt, which I am happy to say came equal second in our exhibition jut last weekend. No prize, but considering we had 108 quilts, hangings, etc, I feel very happy with the result. Hope you are too!
Loved the pattern and only modified it slightly, as I was hand sewing, missed doing the hydrangea block… Did a mini stipple all around the flowers, took me two weeks!
This is a lovely quilt! I’m impressed that it only took 2 weeks for a mini-stipple :-).
I thank you both for sharing the photos of your lovely quilts. They are inspirational!
We are staying in Waikiki. Let me just say that this is a place that is about shopping. Lots of it. If you don’t have shopping where you live, and if you like to shop, this is Nirvana. If that’s not your thing, Waikiki is sort of like hell.
I can love it, in small doses. Let me just mention that Steve and I went to the Apple store and I had a sincerely great time. My wrist is happier than I thought it could be. I know, I said I would resist. Dammit. I could not. More about that in a future post.
The four of us went to Kailua Beach today. This is one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet, depending on when you go. In our experience, it’s better in the summer than it is in the winter. I mostly took people pictures for this post but if you check my instagram or facebook feeds, you’ll find more.
The Japanese kids are so very cute! And their parents are cute too!
This mom pulled her kids going…
…and coming. 
And this woman may be the selfie queen. Later, I offered to take a photo of her with her phone but she was all about doing her own thing.
Let me admit that I take pictures. More than I used to. But I am not going to fall into selfie-land. Just how much documentation do we need? I know that the photos I took on this trip are largely meaningless in the grand scheme of things. They are not going to be famous, or noteworthy, or… you get the idea. They are fun! And I enjoy sharing them. But tomorrow, when we hike up Diamondhead at a very early hour, I am not carrying the big camera. And Steve says he isn’t either. Watch for instagram photos :-).
We fly home tomorrow. This has been a lovely trip, shared with good friends. I hope to get back to Hawaii in the future. If you have never been, don’t miss this place. It is truly special.
Aloha!
We hiked the Alakai Swamp Trail today. 4 miles in, 4 out. This is a hike that remember being hard. Steve, however, had different memories. Last night, Keith looked online and found that many people had called this a hike of moderate difficulty. I think that it helps a lot to know who is doing this labeling. A mountain climber would call this hike piffle. My mother would call it impossible. We made it, but there was plenty of effort involved.
There are terrific views on this hike if the weather cooperates. It did for us. We saw into the first overlook:
We took photos and no one fell over the (incredibly steep) dangerous edge.
Let me add that at this spot I visited with Jim, a man with a very big camera who was photographing an owl that I only saw the end of. This is what I do. I visit with strangers and as a result we have met some interesting folks. Jim, apart from knowing the birds, was also watching an enforcement helicopter that we would have missed. It was going after back country hikers/campers/pot growers. We’ll never know but it was interesting to watch the helicopter land on a tiny ridge of land way below us.
Yesterday we met John Lydgate, the grandson of the Lydgate who started Lydgate Park. He looked interesting so I said hello. Darned if everyone isn’t interesting in one way or another. Anyway, back to today.
This is a benign stretch of the trail but it lets you know there is rockiness and mud when it’s wet. Luckily we did not encounter mud. Been there, done that, happy to have missed it today. There are stairs, lots of them, going and coming. I was so happy to have on my knee braces and to have started the day with ibuprofen. But, after 4 interesting miles during which I ignored my camera, we got to the end.
Off in the distance is Hanalei Bay. You have to drive all the way around the island to get to there from where we were today. It’s a rare treat to get to this spot and not have the view blocked by clouds, which explains Steve’s happiness. (Hunt and Karen Tooley, who missed it on our last trip—we wish you had been there with us!)
Other people came and took a photo of us all. Yay!
And then we walked back, 4 miles. The stairs were more up than down. I was not loving it but what can you do but just keep going.
I lost my (prescription) sunglasses along the way. Darn. But we made it out and could still move by the time we got to the car. Yay, again! Lunch was late because… well, let me just say that some of us thought the hike was more moderate than it really is.
We stopped to look into Waimea Canyon on the drive back to Lihue. I’ve seen it before so didn’t spend much time looking. Goodness—am I jaded? No, I think I was just tired and hot. I at least took a picture of my 3 companions.
Believe it or not we stopped for groceries (and non-prescription sunglasses) and got back to the condo where Steve is now cooking dinner. I do so love that man. When I finish this post we get to eat dinner, which is one of the 3 best meals of the day :-). Bye!
We spent the day hiking, looking for birds and looking at nature. It was fun and it’s late so I’m not writing much, just sharing photos :-).
We started with the Pu’u O’o Trail hike, which starts off of the Saddle Road. It’s not a long hike, lots of stopping for photos and looking for birds, and taking photos of people (Steve and Keith) looking for birds.
Of the nearly 200 photos that I took today, only a few turned out well. I’m still working on manual focus, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Maybe, by the end of my 52 Week Photo Challenge class, I’ll be much better. As it is, I’m happy with the photos that did turn out well and the rest are gone!
This next one cracks me up… who is looking at what?
In the afternoon (after lunch at Sompat’s Thai in Hilo) we went to Volcano National Park and did the Pu’u Hulu Hulu trail this afternoon.
That’s Amanda, sitting next to a broken lava dome.
This is a spent Ohi’a Lehua blossom. I’ll have more of these later on.
Amanda got a nice picture of me—many thanks to Amanda! I don’t look as bad in the hat as I imagined that I did!
This is a branch from an Ohi’a Lehua tree. The look of the tree changes depending on where they are. I am doing my best to take interesting pictures that are in focus and not over or under exposed, manually. I love it when it works!
We saw several rainbows today and this one, on the way back to our rental house, made us stop to take pictures. The ends of the rainbow were both in the crater. So cool!
I hope to post more photos tomorrow. I hope that you are enjoying your life right now as much as we are :-).
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