Darwin and Lincoln

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Ted Trimmer "Cloud from Cockpit"

Happy belated 200th birthday to Charles Darwin and US President Abraham Lincoln! 12 February, 09



Who says that one person cannot leave their mark on history?



"Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit."

W. Somerset Maugham





"Popularity? It's glory's small change."

Victor Hugo






" Only those who are capable of silliness can be called truly intelligent."

Christopher Isherwood


Word gift for visiting writers:
A "Panache" is the spray of feathers issuing from the crest of the helmet worn by a noble or noteworthy warrior or ruler.
"It is I!"





Recently a lonely peregrine falcon landed here in Hawaii. The wanderer's injured beak required some attention, so she was brought to the Honolulu Zoo to rest and recuperate.

The rare, but not unprecedented event causes one to muse on the oceans of sky that separate this most distant fleet of islands from North America where peregrines roost. How high, how far! Those sharp brave eyes!

Soon, her Waikiki vacation done, she will be sent packing to a raptor rehabilitation facility on the continent. Aloha visitor from another realm!

Aloha to the small rare twister that alighted on O`ahu yesterday and slapped a golf course worker around. Aloha and goodbye!

Aloha to the USN Port Royal which floats free of the muck and will soon have her own spa makeover in the Pearl Harbor dry docks.

And what's that cacophonic sound? Is it coming from the zoo? No! The legislature is in session. My neck aches with the testimony I cobbled today for my citizens ad hoc (read: ignored) committee regarding ill advised grandiosity by a lame duck governor administration. . .

Hence this disjointed post, but we are friends by now - you & I. Whats a little disjoint among pals, eh?

The Okinawan Cherry Blossoms are blooming in Wahiawa at the Terao nursery. Local maniacs are preparing their funny costumes for Monday's Great Aloha Run from the Aloha Tower to the Aloha Stadium. . . not me. I'm hunched over a key board.

Then I see your comments, and read your blog posts, and life is beautiful. So Aloha Toronto, Hong Kong, Lancashire, Mumbai, France, Ohio, New York City, Jerusalem, Kansas, Lake Erie, and Crete.

You know who you are. Have a wonderful day!
A L O H A! Cloudia

MoonBow and Meow

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." Oscar Wilde

" I cannot live without books."

Thomas Jefferson

"Night time is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep." Catherine O'Hara

jelly fish

The phone rang at midnight – you can imagine how I felt! Too early even for an east coast caller forgetting the time difference. The voice on the other end said: “I’m calling about a cat.” A cat?! Is this a joke? “Someone found a slightly injured orange tom wandering on Diamond Head. His microchip has your phone number. I’m calling from the SPCA.” My eyes shot open. Could this be our 2000 adoptee who jumped ship after just a week with our household? We’d taken to referring to him as ‘Houdini’ for his disappearing act. “Yes, 2000. That’s right. What shall we do with him?” By now I had located the prodigal’s ‘sister’ Miss Kitty (adopted that same day) peacefully sleeping on a pile of (formerly) clean laundry. The prospect of dragooning the escapee back to our boat in chains (or a cat carrier) didn’t sit right. “Well. . . Um. . .” I said. “That’s OK. The guy who found him wants to adopt him. Whew! These days we enjoy imagining Houdini’s wanderings among the low bushes and back streets of Waikiki. We marvel at his 8 years of survival and his amazing luck in finding a friend just in time to retire (mostly) indoors. We like to think of him in his new pal’s lap, remembering his many adventures and enjoying a warm hand on his head. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia

Lions Farewell

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Ted Trimmer: "Magic Isle"

"What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement [of the adolescent] in the decision making." Laurence Steinberg & Ann Levine

"The skepticism of youth signals the beginning of a search for something actually worth trusting, both within one's own psyche and in the world. That's why teens, supposedly stuck in life's lost years, are often so unequivocal about what they love and what they hate, and so frustrated when they feel misunderstood. The adolescent spirit is not the spirit of the lost. It is the conviction that you are not lost - that wandering has a purpose, and that what you deserve more than anything is the freedom to walk awhile on your own path." Ann Powers




The Chinese New Year begins with a new moon, and the festival ends when the moon is full. That was last Sunday, and I just happened to be lucky enough to pass by the temple in time to see a ceremony that I never even knew about before. . .

Once more, the lions would dance to the gong, cymbal & big drum. . .


This time the lions were not invited to spread good luck and blessing. Rather it was their season's farewell performance; time for them to kneel at the altar and to receive a "well done" for all their hard work as emissaries of the Divine. . .

Emotion ran high. Primal music and incense filled the air. Next, the lions bowed to an elderly gentleman, paying their respects to the ancestors as they have for the ages since humankind's infancy on this planet. . . We fed them a few last dollars for their journey, as firecrackers laid red petals on the ground we trod. . .

They wandered the smokey grounds, seemingly saying "Aloha" to this material realm till next year. . .

They knelt at the outside altars, showing the bottom of their dear sneakers. . .

. . . "Goodbye. Please take our prayers to Heaven with you!"

Afterwards, the children were themselves again: laughing, joking, ready for the next stop of this special day. It's a school day tomorrow. . . here in our Honolulu.

A L O H A! Cloudia

Foster Botanical Garden

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Saturday is a happy word. Sunday is rich burnished mahogany. . .

On Sunday, my favorite husband and I found ourselves at the 13.5 acre Foster Botanical Garden adjacent to downtown Honolulu. This eldest of Honolulu's five public botanical gardens is notably the site of ancient "Kou," the Hawaiian village that predates our Honolulu Town. In 1853, Queen Kalama granted a royal lease for this land to German physician and botanist, William Hillebrand. The doctor and his wife lived in the house that they built here, and they planted the splendid tall trees which hold court above today's "main terrace," notably the incredibly TALL Royal Palm in the top photo. My picture fails by far to convey the height of this amazing specimen. It is one of several individuals on the property designated "Exceptional Trees" by ordinance. The Hillebrands remained in the islands for some twenty years. Upon returning to Germany, the doctor published the well regarded Flora of the Hawaiian Islands (1888). Next, sea captain Thomas Foster and his wife Mary developed the property further. Their gardens were bequeathed to the City upon Mary's death in 1930, and they opened to the public on November 30, 1931. The first legendary director of the public gardens, Dr. Harold Lyon, personally introduced 10,000 new species of plants and trees to our Hawaii. It was his own orchid menagerie that formed the core of today's collection. This grand symphony of tropical greenery (including some rare and endangered examples) took over 140 years to create. It is entered on the National Register of Historic Places. You can learn more about Foster Botanical Garden at: www.honolulu.gov/parks/hbg

YES we can!

"There is only one purpose for the accumulation of great wealth and that is to do great good." Andrew Carnegie

This resembles the Seed Lei that Hawiians create. A lei of pearls, what we'd call a pearl necklace, is in Hawaiian, a Lei Momi.

"Luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity."

Coco Chanel

Pink Orchid

This fellow sat patiently for his portrait!

Tropical light shining through a living and dead lantern.

Happy Nuts!

This is a Cannon Ball tree, Couroupita guianensis, native to Guiana. Signs warn visitors to STAND BACK. The "cannon balls" (cousins to the Brazil Nut) are heavy!

Tranquility Shared. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia

What a Week!

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"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see." Schopenhauer

Construction has been happening directly in front of my boat where I live and work. Peaceful!

"Storytelling reveals meaning, without committing the error of defining it."

Hannah Arendt

The ProBowl is in town bringing lots of football fanatics to the streets of Waikiki.

Walking along, I came upon this troupe of Samoan dancers!

The people you meet on the street, local folks just making their living, are the most beautiful part of living in Hawaii!

What a week! A cancer scare, heavy steel beams swinging through the air next to my rigging, incipient world-wide depression, and a huge U.S. Navy warship run aground just off of Honolulu Airport. Just another week in paradise!

All of you who stop by here to talk-story, and to share a few moments of your scarce time, have been the bright spots of this crazy week. THANK YOU!

Your comments of support, your views on friendships, and the posts that YOU have shared in your own blogs, are more appreciated than you probably realize!

Someone asked me: "Why 'Comfort Spiral?'"

"Com" means "with." Come be my companion. Communicate.

A "Fort" is a safe place.

Spiral means inspiration, respiration, in and out, cycles around and back again. Not the downward spiral of all our fears, but the upward circular road; turning just a degree more directly to Heaven with every circuit. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia

Girlfriends and BFFs: Happy Tears & Betrayal

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"I could sooner reconcile all Europe than two women."
Louis XIV

"Women dress alike all over the world: they dress to be annoying to other women."

Elsa Schiaparelli

"Guys are like dogs. They keep coming back. Ladies are like cats. Yell at a cat one time...they're gone."

Lenny Bruce

"What a strange thing man is; and what a stranger thing woman." Lord Byron

"We have women in the military, but they don't put us in the front lines. They don't know if we can fight, if we can kill. I think we can. All the general has to do is walk over to the women and say, "You see the enemy over there? They say you look fat in those uniforms." Elayne Boosler

Recently a blogger I enjoy following a lot, Bubble Wench of Blogs of Life, was honest enough in a post to basically say: "I'm empty, I'm pissed off, and it's all because of some betraying girl who I thought was my friend. I wanna be left alone!"

We all wrote in to curse the offender and to support our friend. That's what women and exceptional men DO! But it got me thinking.

Ample research shows that for women, our mood, attitudes, happiness, financial habits, and even WEIGHT are strongly effected by the quality of our relationships; especially our relationships with other women, and MOST particularly, with our "Best Friend" or the lack thereof. We get lonely without a BFF to be unconditionally understanding. Especially when we no longer understand ourselves.

My lunch companion today contributed the fact that she too has come to enjoy solitude more than the hassles that go along with some close female friendships - though she is no hermit by any means; But I knew what she meant. Bubble Wench knows what she meant. And I'd wager that most every woman has struggled with this dichotomy in her life.

And female bosses? Blogger Akemalu tackled this one a few days ago, and that's WHOLE other post - or a doctoral thesis!


My independent solitude is a treasure that deeply satisfies while nourishing my soul & my work (words). It makes me ready to enjoy an interesting new girlfriend (or any person) on her own terms, and to let it blossom or die a dignified and quiet death. . .


So what is your take on all this? Women? Men? Intersex folks?

A L O H A! Cloudia

Climbing Pu`u O Kaimuki

Click on photos to enlarge! Path up Pu`u O Kaimuki.
"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature." Anne Frank



Once up da hill, you can see Maunalua Bay with

it's 2 (Lua) Mountains (Mauna): Koko Head (pointy one)

and the "other one."





























You can look right into the lip of Diamond Head.



"Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time." Timothy Leary



"They deem me mad for I will not sell my days for gold; I deem them mad for they think my days have a price."
Kahlil Gibran







This is the vintage (but still used) tower of a Fire House. The Spanish style tower is for drying hoses! See the houses going up Whilemena Rise?

Punchbowl Crater, site of the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific - Military heros including President Obama's Grandfather, Stanley Dunham, lie here- at the right of photo. Urban Honolulu and Waikiki Highrise hotels to the left.

Closer look at Punchbowl, right side of photo.

Back around to Waikiki & ocean horizon

Look at the tiny cars! House lots running up Willhemina Rise originally sold for eight cents a square foot, nine cents for corner lots.

Sometimes the extraordinary is hiding in plain sight.

For over twenty years I have driven right past the Kaimuki Fire House without thinking much about the hill that looms over it. I'd been close to a treasure without even knowing it! This Pu`u (poo - oo) or "hill," the high point of the neighborhood, is today crowned by the tiny Pu`u O Kaimuki Park.

Site of Hawaiian cultural practices in "pre-history," one-time home to a water tank, and to an early astronomical observatory, the Pu`u watched the arrival of the original Hawaiians, saw the first European sailing ships, and oversaw the growth of our Honolulu Town.

I have always loved Honolulu's classic little Kaimuki neighborhood with it's main commercial street ("High Street") of Waialae Avenue. Strolling the avenue, one finds a few remaining "mom and pop" businesses and restaurants, beside culinary gems offering everything from classic diner food (Big City Diner) to Asian, Mexican, French & Mediterranean fare.

Kaimuki was actually the first large subdivision outside of Honolulu (though now a part of the City & County). In 1898 two businessmen bought 520 acres of land here for 20,000 dollars, envisioning a lucrative, high class residential area where only rocky hills and hardscrabble dairy farms existed. Fee simple house lots were offered for 400 to 600 dollars each; but without paved roads it was a hard sell. Potential buyers were even offered a 50 dollar "Bounty" for every baby born in Kaimuki!

Eventually, the parched red dirt did yield to civilization beginning around this very Pu`u (Hill) O Kaimuki, behind the fire station. Today, Beth and I climbed the short, paved lane up the Pu`u and took the pictures above! Hope you like them . . . . A L O H A! Cloudia