Posts Tagged ‘Scene in Hawaii’

PostHeaderIcon In My Mother’s Garden: Neem Tree; Miracle Herb from India

Neem Tree in My Mother's Garden in Hawaii

Neem Tree in My Mother's Garden in Hawaii

Dot’s Thots: I love plants as sources of health, nutrition, sustenance, beauty, awe, and a faith in a higher states of existence.  Sometimes I feel one should aspire for the purity of return that a plant gives you for nurturing, feeding, and loving it.

Close Up Look at Neem Leaves, Honolulu, 31 August 2009

Close Up Look at Neem Leaves, Honolulu, 31 August 2009

Neem, Herb from India:  My Husband’s Toothbrush and Tongue Cleaner

Just a short note — when I got back to California, I found that I had not posted about the neem tree in my mother’s garden.  For years I have heard about the miracle of neem as a powerful antiseptic aid and had heard about how my husband used to use neem twigs for dental hygiene.  He used to chew on the bitter stems of this herb from India until he got the fiber softened, rubbed his gums and teeth clean and split the twig to get a slender tongue cleaner with which he scraped the gunk off his tongue.  All his life he had told me that teeth were like stones to him — toothaches were an unfamiliar and therefore frightening concept.

I have also seen neem shampoo, soap, and ointments in the Indian shops.

Scene in Hawaii:  Neem at a Nursery

One day I found this plant in a nursery in Hawaii and since I could not have it shipped back to me in California, I bought it for my mother.  She is infinitely curious about plants and has fostered this in her garden.  When I can get the hubby over there, I am going to ask for a demo on the neem toothbrush and tongue cleaner.  Hope you enjoy the photos.

Aloha, DoT

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      Mantis ComposT-Twin

      PostHeaderIcon Scene in Hawaii: View from My Mother’s Hospital Room

      NOTE: DoT has been posting from Honolulu since late July when she left California to help her mother through some medical procedures. She will be doing so until she can return to Orange County.

      Golf Course View From Mother's Hospital Window, 20 August 2009, Honolulu

      Golf Course View From Mother's Hospital Window, 20 August 2009, Honolulu

      DoT’s Thot: Finding the silver lining in our cloud was appreciating the view from the hospital room that mother was in and enjoying the sunset one day.

      Looking Uphill Out of the Window

      Looking Uphill Out of the Window

      Mother is Getting Well:  She Had a Nice View from Her Hospital Room

      We watched the sunset from this window one evening when she was able to sit up, the day following her surgery.  We were able to sit Mom in a chair by the window and watch as the sky darkened and pink streaks appeared in the west.  She ate her hospital dinner there and we were happy, because she was told she could come home the next day.  The golf course greens and the hillside homes with trees was a nice diversion that evening — our scene in Hawaii — a golf course view from the hospital window.

      Aloha, DoT

      P.S.  Mom is recuperating nicely.

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      PostHeaderIcon Scene In Hawaii: Rooster at the Shopping Center

      Rooster at the Car, Investigating 21August 2009

      Rooster at the Car, Investigating 21August 2009

      DoT’s Thot: Roosters were a familiar sight in the Hawaiian countryside when I was little, but I never expected to see one while going to town to shop at the drug store and go to the market in the shopping center.

      Scene in Hawaii:  Rooster in the Shopping Center Parking Lot

      While visiting in Hawaii, I decided to go to Long’s Drugs to get a few things.  CVS had bought the chain and I lost the Longs in California.  I miss that place because of the merchandise which was not quite so generic and ubiquitous.  Here in Hawaii, it is so strongly branded that the Longs stores are being kept intact by CVS.  I went to the one in the shopping center on Waialae and 4th Avenue in Honolulu.

      Rooster in the Parking Lot at the Shopping Center

      Rooster in the Parking Lot at the Shopping Center

      Rooster!

      The weather was hot, so I went to find a shaded parking spot.  Over on the opposite side, 5th Avenue, there is a little strip of grass with trees.  I went and parked my nephew’s car in the shade.  I grabbed my purse and started out the door and stopped short.  There I saw a rooster, a colorful little guy scratching in the grass.  I popped back in and grabbed my camera.  Here are some photos.  The rooster reminded me of the chickens people had in the country.  Here in a town shopping center the rooster strutted about freely, scratching, pecking, and totally unafraid of me.

      Back when I was young, I knew that some people kept chickens for eggs or sometimes roosters for cock fights.  This one looked like someone’s pet that had escaped. Anyway, that’s the scene in Hawaii for the day.

      Aloha, DoT

      P.S.  I have seen it several times since.  apparently this is an urban animal -scene in Hawaii.

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          PostHeaderIcon In My Mother’s Garden: Pakalana, One of My Favorite Fragrant Vining Flowers

          Pakalana Blossoms on the Vines Found Among the Red Ginger

          Pakalana Blossoms on the Vines Found Among the Red Ginger

          NOTE:  DoT has been posting from Honolulu since late July when she left California to help her mother through some medical procedures.  She will be doing so until she can return to Orange County.

          DoT’s Thots: They say that the sense of smell is perhaps our most evocative sense.  I do know that the scent of certain flowers affect my sense of well-being in a deep way.  Pakalana blossoms always makes me feel refreshed in a gentle way.

          Pakalana Bud Details

          Pakalana Bud Details

          Fragrant Vining Flowers Make Lovely Scented Leis

          While looking at stalks of red ginger, I was so very pleased to find some pakalana blossoms on vines twined around the red ginger stalks.  The modest pale green and light orange blossoms are so pleasantly scented as to invoke freshness, light and pleasant, never cloying nor heavy-handed.

          My father, who died in 1996, loved these blossoms for their fragrance.  He tended to like blossoms for their scent rather than for their colors or shapes — yellow and white ginger, gardenias, jasmine, and these pakalana blossoms.  These fragrant little blossoms make a very pleasant lei to wear, one that is quietly dignified and smells fresh and refreshing.

          Aloha, DoT

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              PostHeaderIcon In My Mother’s Garden: Shell Ginger Hidden Among the Red Ginger

              Shell Ginger, Honolulu, HI 12 August 2009

              Shell Ginger, Honolulu, HI 12 August 2009

              NOTE:  DoT has been posting from Honolulu since late July when she left California to help her mother through some medical procedures.  She will be doing so until she can return to Orange County.

              DoT’s Thot: It has been said that you can’t go home again, but it is true that you can visit and remember times and things past.  Here is another flower from times past.

              Shell Ginger Hidden Among the Red Ginger

              I was taking pictures of red ginger in my mother’s garden when I noticed some white among the green and red.  “What could that be,?”,  I thought to myself, pushing aside the red ginger stalks.  Hidden among all the red ginger was this one blooming stalk of shell ginger.

              I took the pictures, put them on my computer to show Mom.  She was utterly surprised, telling me that the shell ginger had apparently disappeared some time ago.  The stalk of blossoms is modest for the shell ginger, but we were so pleased to see the blooms.  So, here is our garden scene in Hawaii to share with you.

              Shell Ginger Closeup in My Mother's Garden

              Shell Ginger Closeup in My Mother's Garden

              Close Up Details of the Shell Ginger

              When you look at an individual shell ginger blossom, the name becomes even more appropriate.  The pearly white outer petals, which look like little white shells,  open to reveal a very pretty red veined yellow center.  This ginger does not have the fragrance of my father’s favorite ginger, the fragile yellow ginger, but is a very pretty one to look at.  This was a nice surprise for both Mom and me.

              Aloha, DoT

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