That Was Awkward!

So I met the owner of the invasive fern on my mid-morning walk today. It was Kelly. Of Abby & Kelly from the park. It was awkward; it probably would have been easier talking to someone I had not met before. But its done. I confirmed that it is the invasive Australian tree fern, Cyathea cooperi.  I talked to him about the removal and replacement, including installing a drip irrigation system to keep the hāpu'u well watered while it is getting established, but I think I forgot to tell him I was willing to pay for all of it. I told him if I couldn't find a hāpu'u on O'ahu I would give him a start from Grandma's hāpu'u from the Big Island that has to move because of the remodel.


I had heard the gate opening & someone saying something so I turned & was surprised that it was Kelly. I had thought he lived on Maunalani Circle; I jumped to that conclusion based on faulty data. When he had initially told me he lived 2 blocks from Maunalani he said go to the stop at the end of Sierra & turn right. At that time the only street that I knew was up there was Maunalani Circle. A few months later I learned there were 2 other streets up there but never bothered to update the map in my head. I'll have to be better about that when people tell me things.

It was more apparent this morning during my morning walk that the sun is rising later. The sun was at about the same level behind the hillside as it was on Sunday when I had started about 5 minutes later. It will be interesting to see how dark it will be on with winter solstice. While I was walking this morning I only saw LaVie off in the distance.



I saw a Northern Cardinal as I was on my way in from my cool down stretches. I have never seen a Northern Cardinal on O'ahu before, only on the Big Island. And I had told Tani she needed to go to the Big Island to see one. I'll have to send her the photo I took of it.

Male Northen Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).

The people that work here at Maunalani are pretty special people. A few days ago I asked Thelma where she got the spiral hair tie that she was wearing; the spiral hair ties are what Shawn recommended for Kai when he cut Kai's hair, Shawn only had sparkly silver ones at the salon so we didn't get any that night. Today Thelma gave me some spiral hair ties! I am pretty sure she is making minimum wage and yet she went out of her way to buy some and give them to me. Amazing!


When I got up to Maunalani I found that Dad ate none of his breakfast but finished all his supplements. And he hid the banana in the bed again. He did much better at lunch; he ate his 1/2 peanut butter & jelly sandwich by himself in about 5 minutes.


Lunch today was Kālua pork with cabbage, Steamed rice, Tossed salad, Bread pudding, and Chicken gumbo soup. I gave Dad the bread pudding; he ate about half of it.


On my afternoon walk, I worked really hard not to think disparaging thoughts about Kelly's fern when I walked by; I was fairly successful. It is easier if I don't look at it and think about other things; if I look at it I can't help but think "pilau fern" as I walk by.I found a dead centipede on my walk; I took a photo with a tape measure next to it. As I was returning to Maunalani, the work truck was parked in front getting a makeover for the parade.




My 3 walks from Maunalani only amounted to 4.95 miles; I needed 0.55 more to reach my daily goal this week of 5.5 miles. I went a little farther after dinner for a total of 5.8 miles today.


I went straight out to the freeway and back on 8th. It is a pretty boring street for Christmas lights. But I also found a dead Zebra Dove.

This house is not actually on my night walking route, its on the cross street.

Zebra Dove Geopelia striata).

I did a little online research tonight and found there is a nursery here that says they have 6 foot tall hāpu'u available. I will drop in next week and check the condition and provenance of what they have. Hopefully they will be in good condition and locally obtained. I think that's probably the biggest hurdle to replacing Kelly's fern which is about 5 feet tall.

Happy Birthday to Dr. McD & David!