Turtle Town

Aloha!

Welcome Aboard

click on photos to enter them An old scene re-enacted off Waikiki

"The Brain

is wider than the Sky

For put them side by side

The one the other will contain

With ease and

You

beside —

"I don't need hands to bless you."

"The Brain is deeper than the sea

For hold them

Blue to Blue

The one the other will absorb

As Sponges

Buckets

do —

Mom & Boy going to da zoo.

The Brain is just the weight of God

For

Heft them

Pound for Pound

And they will differ

if they do

As Syllable from Sound "
Emily Dickinson

Portholes are tiny things really, so when I leave this keyboard, straighten out my back, and go out on deck, the Waikiki skies are like the sudden rush of a strange and wonderful intoxication. Look! I'm in Hawaii!

So it felt special as usual when I left my desk and got in my kayak to paddle through the gathering dusk again last evening.

I like the way that droplets of water dripping from my raised paddle ruffle the calm, if swelling surface inside the harbor. I paddle past moored boats, twigs and flotsam; the occasional branch gliding like a baby sea dragon. Passing the Hawaii Yacht Club I could see friends having a Friday Pau Hana (after work/happy hour) libation as the retiree band set up. Across the channel, the Family Festival occupied Magic Island with turning amusements, scented smoke of carnival cooking, and the sounds of the world's greatest municipal band: The Royal Hawaiian Band (which played for royalty and dignitaries in an earlier rendition of our Hawaii). They were playing pop stuff, big band, and the channel hosted pleasure boats to-ing & fro-ing. I like when outrigger canoes paddled by 8 or so strapping guys go by. I can smell their healthy manhood and a tinge of sizzle passes across the water level. Suddenly I am in Hawaii of times immemorial. . .

The outriggers paddled by wahine (women) inspire me in a different way, but inspire me nevertheless. I can hear the steersman calling for a change. "Hup" Did you hear that?

I was just enjoying the present.

Magically I understood again how special it was to see a sea turtle on my first paddle in over a year. That was weeks ago. Suddenly I knew that since I had "registered" the specialness of the occurrence, I was now free to see turtles as a daily commonplace.

Out beyond the last jumbled rock jetty where the fishermen play, is a stretch of shallow protected water. The wave breaks and surfers are still further out, and it is too shallow for boats, so it is a special, Caribbean-y space for kayakers, stand-up paddlers, and one-person outrigger canoes.

Out there, I put my double ended paddle across my knees and turned to look at the mountains of Oahu wreathed with weather, clouds and light behind me. I saluted Diamond Head at the other end of Waikiki wreathed in sunset technicolor clouds and legends.

Just me alone with the sky, the sea and the sound of my own heart beating - or is that the surf pounding?

I liked resting on the churning bosoms of mama ocean as they heaved and gently rocked me this way and that. This is where I saw that welcome back turtle feeding in the early evening shallows.

Suddenly I knew that they were there.

I watched each capricious little wavelet that raised it's hand. I was looking for turtle heads to break the surface and take a breath. To experience flowing lava is not merely to see it, but to smell the sulfur and to feel the heat. Seeing sea turtles is not just seeing them, not even their brown sentient eye gazing across the wavelets at you. No, experiencing turtles fully is to have them surface near by enough to hear their ancient breath of fresh air.

Then you know that someone else is near, making that sound older than Chant & Hula in these islands.

There they were, lazing near the surface, floating in the currents as I was. Bobbing for food, and raising their heads to breathe and look around. Carefully I prevented the paddle from drumming against the kayak. I just floated and looked.

Then stealthily I paddled closer. Close enough to see dark shapes gliding just beneath the surface.

"I love you. I honor you. I appreciate you." I thought loudly as I enjoyed the ocean evening cathedral with my fellow congregants. Western clouds and Waianae mountains glowed like instructive and beautiful stained glass. The sea and land poured brackish incense into the nave that steepled my little boat-pew.

Sailboats, powerboats, paddlers and surfers played beyond the reef. But the turtles and I were alone in a sepulcher of solitude. Time stopped pre-historically.

Then one swam right by and under me at arms length. I could see the patent leather patterns on her dear head, and the graceful flip of her flippers (more graceful than my paddle). I breathlessly admired the jade of her shell and vaguely Asian olive brown eyes. I could swear she looked right at me.

This is turtle city; and I can come out here every day!

Isn't life wondrous....when you allow yourself to drift into the Comfort Spiral?

I'm glad that Y O U came along with me today.

Mind your step as you clamber back on solid land......

Oh, and "Ding" sends you her turtle love.

A L O H A ! Cloudia

Saturday Beach Summer Sighs

ALOHA

Waikiki Beach Goers!

(You're Here Now ;-)

click on photos to enlarge "To see the Summer Sky

Is Poetry, though never in a

Book it lie-

True Poems flee."

Emily Dickinson

"Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,

And left the flushed print in a poppy there."

Francis Thompson

Do you see the Seal Face?

"Oh, the summer night

Has a smile of light

And she sits on a sapphire throne."

Barry Cornwall

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

Albert Camus

"There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart."

Celia Thaxter

Greetings my friends!

Isn't it a perfect day to savor us some Summer?

Please leave me an "Aloha" in "comments" to make me smile a silly smile.

Then go for a paddle, a wander, an ice cream cone, or a guilty stare over the horizon of the every day.

Immaturity Unlimited - All Aboard!

Aloha Playmates!

Welcome to the ALL LEGO Post

Click on Photos to Return to Childhood.

I always wanted a Medieval Market Village!

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
Plato

OOOOOO! Only $109 USD !

“I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.”
Leo F. Buscaglia


Miniature Village People!

"Macho Macho Toys. . . .I Wanna Play with Macho Toys."

See the reflection of my giant camera & hands?

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.”
Joseph Chilton

Giant Camera Hands Looming Over the Casting Call

“You can't have everything. Where would you put it?”
Stephen Wright

Arg! $109 USD again! The Pirate Ship comes Separately

“It is better to play than do nothing.”
Confucius

Choo Choo!!!!



“I didn't get a toy train like the other kids. I got a toy subway instead.

You couldn't see anything, but every now and then

you'd hear this rumbling noise go by.”
Stephen Wright

Ala Moana Shopping Center now boasts it's own Lego store! If you are in Honolulu on August 15th you can join the youthful throng (of all ages!) oooo-ing and ahhh-ing over a major exhibit of Lego-built wonders at center stage.

But listen here, if you are anything like me, do yourself a favor and stay away from the L Store itself!! I don't remember playing with anything like the exciting and detailed products I saw in the place!

Like most Hawaii residents, we live in a rather compact space. I got as far as the cash register with my "Pirate Ship & Hideout" and an amazing green locomotive before I snapped out of it!

The diminutive scenes of city life on display, and the legions of distinct little Lego people populating them, made my head swim with their detail and complexity. You could happily drop some major bucks there; so if you DO go, bring your credit cards, and perhaps a child or two for "cover."

A L O H A! Cloudia

Happy Cat and Honu

Aloha,

Campers!

(click on photos to be amazed!)

The Moving Hand Writes, and Having Writ - Moves On; Dissolving to Sunset.

"Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything."
Kurt Vonnegut

Very Nice Gesture, Local Boy!

Hawaii folk competed with Pennsylvania fans to vote him into the All Star Game.

"As you journey through life take a minute every now and then to give a thought for the other fellow. He could be plotting something."
Hagar the Horrible

Happy Cat Hawks Miniature Shoes

"The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them."
Albert Einstein

"Remember to go outside everyday and walk on the Earth and look around at the beauty – the birds, the trees, the flowers blooming. Put your mind at ease by remembering the cycles of Nature, which are endless and renewing constantly. We are part of that Nature – and are also renewing.
Don’t lose faith in that which is timeless-your heart, soul and nature.
We are all related"

Mitakuye Oyasin

A Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle, a Honu, was rescued off of the west coast of far Kauai with a chunk missing from her shell due to a strike by a boat propeller.

They named her "Ding" and brought her to Oahu for repairs and recuperation.

Everyone involved loved Ding, for she had "dinged" their hearts. It was thus with a tinge of sadness that they bid her "Aloha" once she was healed, happy, and sporting a

partly-fiberglass shell.

I'm happy to report that she has been spotted capering once again in the surf off west Kauai.

Next time I'm out in my kayak, I'll ask the turtles to send her our regards.

I'm certain our message will get through!

A L O H A! CLOUDIA

What the Moon Smells Like

A l o h a !

Come inside

(click on photos to enlarge)

Tropic Moon, why you look so small up there?"

"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads."
Erica Jong

The Natives are . . .

Handsome!

"The covers of this book are too far apart."
Ambrose Bierce

Flapping in the breeze. My jaws?
NO!! Flags!

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

When astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins returned from their history-making journey to the moon, 40 years ago this Summer, they splashed into the Pacific about 800 miles southwest of Hawaii.

Thus my island home of Oahu was the first solid land under their feet. It was not their first isle visit, as the Big Island's Mauna Kea had hosted their pre-flight training among her other-worldly rocks in a place now known as Apollo Valley.

Once back upon US soil, the astronauts had fun complying with customs and immigration regulations. Official documents thus record that they arrived from "The Moon" aboard "Flight 11" arriving at "Honolulu Hawaii." In answer to the health question regarding "conditions on board that which may lead to the spread of disease" they answered honestly (gulp): "To be determined."

A customs declaration was also dutifully filed regarding the 47 pounds of Moon Rocks they had obtained. Aboard the gleaming, modified Airstream trailer, that served as their 21 day quarantine, the astronauts and flight surgeon William Carpentier (along with NASA technician John Hirasaki) were the first humans to observe the naked lunar minerals inside the Earth's atmosphere. Though they looked like "ordinary rocks" there was one interesting thing about these rocks. They smelled like burnt gun powder.

A L O H A, Earthlings!

Cloudia

Summer Wool Gathering

Aloha, friends!!

Click on photos to enlarge

"I never liked the middle ground - the most boring place in the world.

Louise Nevelson

"If you genuinely have something to say, there is someone
who genuinely needs to hear it."
Arnold Patent



"Life is getting up one more time than you have been knocked down"
John Wayne

Recently, fossilized bones that are thousands of years old, have been found here on Oahu. They tell of giant flightless geese (with 6 foot wingspans) who once lived on an island very different from the one we see today.

To the slow growing trees, we are just a blur. The ancient mountains have barely noticed our presence yet.

Some days I'm just a flightless bird

preening my useless wings. . . . .

A L O H A, Cloudia

Paddle Girl

Aloha!

Welcome to Waikiki!

Don't worry.

No one will be paddled in this post! -

Goodbye Wil, Heff, & Bama Trav;-)

We're talking about kayak paddling, silly!

That's my baby, right by the hatch (door to you) for a quick getaway when blogging gets too intense.

Join us out there!

See the reflection of me taking this picture?

Time To GO!

I hadn't used my kayak in over a year!

Now I go out almost every day.

It's peaceful on the water, and I get to see my home

from a different perspective than usual.

Out there,

I like to sing nonsense songs to myself,

or think about things I've read that day;

perhaps something I saw on YOUR blog.

On my first voyage after so long, I saw a sea turtle!

The head broke the water just in front of me,

and we met eye to eye.

"Where have you been all this time?!"

was the message I got.

And he was right!

What's more important than

this?

*+*

"Show up! Be enthusiastic!

Put some energy into the life you're living now!

How will anyone ever be impressed by your star-like quality if you're waiting to cultivate that quality until you become a star?"

Marianne Williamson

A L O H A! Cloudia