Floors Are Done!

And so is my back! Today I mopped myself back to the kitchen rather than the bedroom; I needed to have access to an exterior door since I heard Masa working at Jessie's. I needed to talk to Masa about the ʻōlena patch that his helpers keep weed whacking; if they continue they will kill the rhizomes and my patch will die out. I only used the Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner in the kitchen, bathroom, hallway, and my bedroom; these are the high traffic areas and also have the most exposed floor area. My room is the only one that still has packed boxes stacked along the edge of the room. I used just the Swiffer in the other rooms to wet mop the floors. Now I don't need to wear something on my feet to keep them from getting dirty in the house!

The bathroom floor after being cleaned.

The bathroom and hallway floors after being cleaned. I really like how they shine!

Used pad (top) and new pad; they're washable unlike the Swiffer.

It now appears there is a Northern Cardinal that has taken over from the Saffron Finch in waking me up in the half hour or so before the sun rises!

Forty minutes before sunrise.

When I finally did get up it was overcast and looked like it was going to rain. It would have been a perfect morning to do outdoor work along the south side of the house but the floors are always the priority when I get here.

Eight minutes after sunrise; a bit overcast.

I checked on my air filter order from Smart Air this morning. I'm not sure if I just won't get any updates on where its at until it gets to the US or if it is still really in Hong Kong. I thought Hong Kong business people were really efficient so it doesn't make any sense to me that it has been stuck there for over a week now.  

As I was finishing up the floors, I saw Masa mowing Jessie's back yard; there were about a dozen Cattle Egrets following him around looking for injured prey items. I think they like Jessie's back yard since it is larger with more grass; they don't follow Masa over to my yard.

Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis).

For lunch I ate another one of the vegetarian meals for Sarah that was in the freezer; it's Best Before date was 02/2019. It also had more carbs than I should be eating. It tasted okay; it probably would have been better if I had eaten it 15 months ago.






I can get a $150 rebate from Hawaiʻi Energy for getting rid of the old refrigerator and replacing it with an Energy Star-certified refrigerator, which I am. I went to fill out the paperwork online today but ran in to a glitch right at the end and had to call in to see if it was accepted. But it's Saturday, so I will have to wait until Monday. I think the glitch might be that they have to haul the old one away before I apply even though I have already paid for it a week ago and it won't be delivered for another 2&1/2 weeks.


I took a walk around the house to get photos of the other plants and make notes on what part of their life cycle they are in. Starting from the garage and going counterclockwise, here are the ones I did not mention earlier. The gardenia I mentioned earlier is the first notable plant as you step out of the garage; the jaboticaba nearby has set some fruit but not much & they are still very green. The Japanese chestnut in that cluster is just full of leaves & nothing else. The popcorn orchid beneath the canopy is full of buds and should look spectacular in a month or so. To the left as you walk by the jaboticaba is a pink camellia that is at the end of its bloom period.

Jaboticaba (Plinia cauliflora).

Popcorn orchid (Oncidium sphacelatum).

Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata).

Pink camellia.

The dragon fruit is just putting out vegetative growth, I found no buds on it. The macadamia was flowering back in April, it now has nuts and some are dropping; I will have to pick them up and see if it is just fruit drop or if they are mature. The dwarf Samoan coconut still has a bunch of nuts forming though none are very large right now. The bananas have no fruit on them; though one did have a flowering stalk, no fruit formed on it.

Dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus).

Macadamia (Macadamia sp.).

Dwarf Samoan coconut (Cocos nucifera).

Banana (Musa sp.)

The tangerines, which were at the end of their fruiting season last time; are just starting to put out flowers to start the cycle all over again. I've already mentioned the mountain apple; nothing has changed there. But I did find a couple of hāpuʻu keiki near it. And under the guava I saw a bird-eaten ripe fruit on the ground so started looking in the branches and found a ripe one which I harvested!

Tangerine (Citrus reticula).

This orchid is growing in the tangerine; Iʻve never seen it in bloom.

Baby hāpuʻu (Cibotium glaucum).

Bird-eaten guava (Psidium guajava).

A ripe one!

I checked on the status of the avocado fruit (Persea americana) as I went by; it has fallen off so, as I suspected, no avocados this year. The ʻōlena still appears to be dormant; I hope it is not because it has been getting weed whacked. The common ginger and upland kalo are doing fine even though they are a little overgrown with weeds.

Dormant ʻōlena rhizomes (Curcuma longa).

Common ginger (Zingiber officinale).

Upland kalo (Colocasia esculenta).

Hāpuʻu (Cibotium glaucum).

The common ginger seems to do better under shade.

The upland kalo might be doing better here since there are less weeds in the shade.

The persimmon (Diospyros kaki) has tiny fruit forming! I have never seen it with ripe fruit; one year I did see half grown green persimmons on it. The anthuriums are blooming well. The blue ginger is blooming well and the moa is growing abundantly.

I think these are the male flowers since there are 3 of them.

I think this is a female flower since it is borne singly.

A dropped fruit.

Anthuriums.

Blue ginger (Dichorisandra thyrsiflora).

Moa (Psilotum nudum).

The start off of the last orchids Mom grew is surviving, though it has not flowered yet. The orchid that Suzanne gave us for Mom's hatsubon has new growth but has not put out a flowering shoot yet; it usually flowers every year around Obon which will be in July.

Start from the last orchids Mom grew.

The hatsubon orchid.

The Christmas cactus on the hāpuʻu stump is doing well. The 2 others in pots are surviving; they had been moved to a spot too close to the eaves so were drying out when I was last here. I moved them and they are doing better.

Christmas cactus.

There's at least one unknown fern growing under the hāpuʻu; I need to figure out what it is. There are 2 others that I think I am pretty sure what they are; one is a type of maidenhair and the other is a type of sword fern.

Unknown fern.

There is an orchid growing on a hāpuʻu trunk that I have never seen in bloom before. At first I thought there was a large hymenopteran crawling on the stalk because the flowers are green with dark black-brown markings, and I thought, "Oh, no! Murder hornets!" I am not sure if this is the same orchid species as the one in the tangerine tree; it has a pseudobulb and leaf that look the same.

I almost walked by them since they blended in with the other foliage.

Doesn't that look like something crawling on a leaf?

Close-up of the flower.

I took a photo of the hāpuʻu that needs to be moved and sent it to Kamaka; he will be helping me and the Aikane Nursery landscapers with moving it. I'm not sure when that will occur yet; I have not heard back from Greg on a date for the work.

This hāpuʻu is quite large.

And very close to the house.

The pink flag marks the corner of the sewing room remodel.

The iris near the corner of the house has one lonely blossom forming. I am wondering if it would bloom more if it had more sunlight? I will have to get a start off of it and move it to a different location to see if it makes a difference.


The Meyer lemon has a few fruit on it and the calamansi, as usual, is covered with fruit. I really need to get out early in the morning and pick a bunch of calamansi and start another batch of salted limes!

Meyer lemon (Citrus x meyeri).

Calamansi (Citrus x microcarpa).

At the front of the house the kokutan is covered in small whitish-pink blossoms; it usually is. The heavenly bamboo is growing well and is flowering, thought the flowers are small and non-descript; its lacy colorful foliage is more impressive than its flowers. One of the azaleas is hanging in there under the shade of the puakenikeni but the other that had better sunlight has died. The white camellia is still alive, though it has not grown as large as the pink camellia.

Kokutan (Rhaphiolepis umbellata).

White camellia.

Heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) with red azalea in background.

Dead azalea; I should remove it and let the heavenly bamboo fill the void.

This is why I cover everything up with plastic when I leave, even if it's only for a month. I washed this dish right after lunch. When I got back in after taking photos of the plants it was about 3 hours later; the culprit was no longer there. I wonder if it was my visitor from yesterday? I did not see any geckos in the kitchen at all today. Obviously I will have to wash this dish again before I put it away.


After dinner I got on the treadmill and did a little over half an hour of walking. One of these days I will download the owners manual and figure out what all it can do and try one of the pre-programmed work outs. But for now, I will just walk for half an hour.

My time was actually 32:23.

Here is the calendar I have been using to track the number of known COVID-19 cases and how many new ones there are each day. As you can see, for the first 16 days of May we have had between 0 and 4 new cases each day. According to the LG, our state has one of the lowest rates of new cases in the nation, not to mention the lowest per capita death rate.


There were 2 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing our total up to 639 known cases. Our death rate has remained the same and 1 new person has been hospitalized. Nearly 90% of people who tested positive earlier have now been released from isolation.

About 3% of the population has now been tested.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Terri!