Trip back in time over. After this entry, my journaling turned into photography and is now scattered over the internet and on the warm Hawaiian wind
24 November 2009 @ 10:31 pm
Lava Flow!
It's hard to find a time to write entries when you're dividing up your time between work, food, sleep, beaches, laundry, meditation, marimba classes, and socializing. Now I have to add LAVA to that. Yesterday I woke up at 4 am and went to see the flowing lava. It's a 25 minute drive from Polestar, and then a half-hour hike in the DARK toward the mouth of the INFERNO.
When we were planning this trip, I couldn't understand why you have to go at such an inconvenient time, but now I see that it can be no other way. Official lava vieweing time is 5-8pm, that is sunset time, and that is when there are guards there, and a crowd of tourists. However, in the early morning there is noone to stop you from leaving the "lava viewing parking lot", and walking straight into "Hell - The Disney Ride"
In the dark, with headlamps, we walked right into the flow area, there was a strange warm wind coming from the rocks below us, and it smelled a bit of sulfur. Freshly hardened lava is silver and covered with flaky crunchy crust. ("Fresh Lava" is usually anything less than 20 years, but in this case it's more like months)
While walking, there are cracks and fissures everywhere. In the darkness, you can see glowing red in some of them. Finally we came to a place with a small Lava-Fall (think waterfall) in front of us, and a steaming cliff where lava was colliding with the sea to the side of us. There we sat, ate starfruit, liliko'i (passionfruit), and bananas, and watched the show. Before departing, we left some fruits as offering to the goddess Pele.
On the way back we were treated to an amazing sunrise. We got home just in time for breakfast and the start of the work day - 7am.
See more photos and comments at my Flickr page
where I have a lot more photos now, and will be putting up even more soon, since I've been to a few more beaches over the weekend.
This is Viki, Signing out, till the next time I can get some solid "Computer time".
Current Mood: enthralled
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Viki in Hawaii - 08 November 2009
I'm gonna take a trip back in time here. Since there's only two entries in my Hawaii journal, it won't be a long one.
08 November 2009 @ 07:42 pm
Viki in Hawaii
So I’m in Hawaii, I’ve been here a few days. I’ve already been to two different beaches, a small-town street party, and there are plans for a sleepover trip to the ominous - sounding “otherside” next weekend. That would be the other side of the Big Island where I live now, Polestar has a house there. I’m very glad that Hawaii turned out not to be a mythical land, but a real place where people live, and very well too.
Where I’m at is a beautiful place/community – “Polestar”, owned by Anne and Michael Gornik. They have created an amazing place to live, and surrounded themselves with skilled people. The people who stay here all have their own arrangements. Some people have jobs outside and also work on the farm, like Dominique, who teaches Polynesian History in a charter High School in Hilo, or Maryanna who is a midwife, and holds counseling sessions with her clients. My “arrangement” here is what visitors usually do – 5 hours of work a day, 8-12am, and 2-3pm. You can do more or less as long as it comes to 20 by week-end. So far this work has been weeding and planting, but I’m sure it will get more interesting once everything is weeded and I become more familiar with the place. There seems to be a lot of free time, but in reality it is mostly taken up by things I suddenly find interesting, like talking to people, helping cook unbelievably delicious vegetarian meals, and enjoying the ping-pong, volleyball or impromptu musical concerts that happen during free time. Everyone here is more than glad to draw you into whatever fun activity they’re doing. There’s a ukulele jam- session going on as I type this.
I brought a snorkeling mask with me to the beach on Saturday, from my last beach visit I realized that you need it to enjoy the view. Seeing only the half of the view above the water means missing out on a lot. So I spent most of my swimming time face down, staring at coral reefs, neon-colored schools of fish grazing like cows, spiky sea urchin, also of many hues, wedged under the coral. Swimming in the tide pools toward where the waves were breaking against lava ridges, I had to swim against a pretty strong current and at one point was not moving forward despite swimming hard.
There are some photos and videos to illustrate my words, however they are uneven since I was too busy swimming to take photos of the beaches, which I realize is something people may want to see. I’ll try to get them for next week. I am including a recipe for a delicious salad dressing/sauce which I put on all of my food the first few days. When it ran out I asked if there’s going to be more, and got the recipe instead. I’ve made a bottle and am very happy with it. I know the ingredients aren’t exactly hanging out on your kitchen shelf, but It’s so worth it to get them.
Recipe for Vitality dressing:
2 cups oil (sesame or olive, or your favorite)
¾ cup Bragg (Liquid Aminos, all purpose seasoning)
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon dill
2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon mustard (powder or paste is ok)
Lemon juice (1 lemon)
Current Location: Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii
Current Mood: grateful
08 November 2009 @ 07:42 pm
Viki in Hawaii
So I’m in Hawaii, I’ve been here a few days. I’ve already been to two different beaches, a small-town street party, and there are plans for a sleepover trip to the ominous - sounding “otherside” next weekend. That would be the other side of the Big Island where I live now, Polestar has a house there. I’m very glad that Hawaii turned out not to be a mythical land, but a real place where people live, and very well too.
Where I’m at is a beautiful place/community – “Polestar”, owned by Anne and Michael Gornik. They have created an amazing place to live, and surrounded themselves with skilled people. The people who stay here all have their own arrangements. Some people have jobs outside and also work on the farm, like Dominique, who teaches Polynesian History in a charter High School in Hilo, or Maryanna who is a midwife, and holds counseling sessions with her clients. My “arrangement” here is what visitors usually do – 5 hours of work a day, 8-12am, and 2-3pm. You can do more or less as long as it comes to 20 by week-end. So far this work has been weeding and planting, but I’m sure it will get more interesting once everything is weeded and I become more familiar with the place. There seems to be a lot of free time, but in reality it is mostly taken up by things I suddenly find interesting, like talking to people, helping cook unbelievably delicious vegetarian meals, and enjoying the ping-pong, volleyball or impromptu musical concerts that happen during free time. Everyone here is more than glad to draw you into whatever fun activity they’re doing. There’s a ukulele jam- session going on as I type this.
I brought a snorkeling mask with me to the beach on Saturday, from my last beach visit I realized that you need it to enjoy the view. Seeing only the half of the view above the water means missing out on a lot. So I spent most of my swimming time face down, staring at coral reefs, neon-colored schools of fish grazing like cows, spiky sea urchin, also of many hues, wedged under the coral. Swimming in the tide pools toward where the waves were breaking against lava ridges, I had to swim against a pretty strong current and at one point was not moving forward despite swimming hard.
There are some photos and videos to illustrate my words, however they are uneven since I was too busy swimming to take photos of the beaches, which I realize is something people may want to see. I’ll try to get them for next week. I am including a recipe for a delicious salad dressing/sauce which I put on all of my food the first few days. When it ran out I asked if there’s going to be more, and got the recipe instead. I’ve made a bottle and am very happy with it. I know the ingredients aren’t exactly hanging out on your kitchen shelf, but It’s so worth it to get them.
Recipe for Vitality dressing:
2 cups oil (sesame or olive, or your favorite)
¾ cup Bragg (Liquid Aminos, all purpose seasoning)
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon dill
2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon mustard (powder or paste is ok)
Lemon juice (1 lemon)
Current Location: Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii
Current Mood: grateful
I need to write stuff down
I need to write things down, but not in secret. But not so public that everyone sees it all the time updated on their daily feeds and emails. And not something I will lose track of and forget it exists like the Livejournal that I apparently run.
This little tidbit kept me up so long the other night that I was forced to type it up on my phone before it let me go to sleep:
I just hit the Preview button. Oh god, the starter Theme has pink hummingbirds. That will need to be fixed. Yes, lavender hummingbirds will be much better.
This little tidbit kept me up so long the other night that I was forced to type it up on my phone before it let me go to sleep:
building elegant castles of thought in my mind but unshared they crumble to dust within hours
September 20 at 11:09pm
Simon Lvov - May be you should start writing a book? :)So to that end I created a Goggle+ account (Im not sure why, it's not a journal. I got distracted, as I often let myself do) and then this blog. Hopefully it will be connected to my gmail, and all the other goodies Google so graciously bestows upon us, while proclaiming "don't be evil" but at the same time bringing us ever closer to "The Matrix". I, for one, welcome our digital overlords. Why only today I tried to take something out of my bag, and ended up tangled in earphone and phone charger wires, nearly tripping me like trussed-up prey. And that mental image did not lead me to smash all electronics around me to pieces and burn them, but rather smile fondly at the constricting wires.
I just hit the Preview button. Oh god, the starter Theme has pink hummingbirds. That will need to be fixed. Yes, lavender hummingbirds will be much better.
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