Pueo, Pueo, Who's Got the Pueo?

I picked up a pueo from Feather & Fur Animal Hospital today. I dropped it off at Hawaiian Air Cargo, for transport to Kona and the Hawai'i Wildlife Center. Three hours later I got a text saying it was not on the flight & asking if anything weird happened when I dropped it off. I recalled that the air cargo person filling out the paperwork mentioned something about flight 500, I corrected her & said I was told the pueo was going on flight 548. I checked the paperwork and found it said flight 500! I checked the website & found that flight 500 is from Lihue to Kona! I relayed the info to the HWC. About an hour later they found the pueo, it was now on its way to Kona.

Asio flammeus sandwichensis.

This morning I went in for a physical for the new insurance policy that Harold set up for me. It will cover long-term care if I need it. If I don't, it converts to a regular life insurance policy. I had to answer the standard health questionnaire, give a urine and blood sample, and take an EKG.

Here's the printout from my EKG.

On the way back I passed by the bus shelter that was hit by a tree on Monday night; they were removing tree parts & repairing the shelter. Monday was when we had the big rain with thunder & lightning. There was also some wind; a tree was uprooted and fell, hitting the bus shelter. Three people got out without injuries but one woman was seriously injured.

The shelter is behind the truck on the left.

It was overcast for much of the day, I spent a lot of time out with the plants. I started with the pakalana; it had been a couple of weeks since I had tied up the vines. I found a flower cluster forming! I should have my first pakalana flowers in a week or so! Previously when I had a vine I would collect the flowers in a jar in the refrigerator until I had enough to make a one strand lei; usually pakalana is made as a 3-strand lei but I could never get enough flowers.

Telosma cordata.

I noticed the papayas in the back yard now had multiple flowers at each leaf node. But no fruits. The flowers look like hermaphroditic flowers but I am not getting any fruit. I guess I will have to dissect a flower to find out for sure what they are. (None of the plants are male; their flowers are clustered at the end of a long stalk.)

Carica papaya.

I also checked on the orange tree. I have harvested about 2 dozen oranges already. And there are probably another several dozen on the tree! The tree is about 5 feet tall so its really easy to harvest the fruit.

Citrus x sinensis.

When I went to check the mail I noticed that one of the olena plants is blooming. I think it will be several years before there will be enough olena to start harvesting roots.

Curcuma longa, syn. C. domestica.

I also found that the volunteer papaya in the front yard is dead; it was alive before I went to the Big Island. I'm not sure why it died since it is getting watered regularly. I will plant the mountain apple in its spot. I pulled out the unknown viney thing; it wasn't producing anything.


As I was going back to the house I smelled a very sweet fragrance. It turned out to be the pomelo tree with new flowers!

Citrus maxima.

Happy Birthday to Diane!