Martin Likes Peanut Butter!

As I was doing emails after lunch, Martin came up from behind my laptop. He headed to 2 crumbs of Parm Crisp that I had neglected to clean off the table top. He lapped one up, then promptly spit it out! I did not know lizards could spit things out. After Martin gave me a disgusted look, he disappeared. (Yes, I know, I'm anthropomorphizing, but he really did look disgusted!) I saw him a minute or so later, clearly heading somewhere familiar. He went to the peanut butter knife, that I really should not be leaving out, but I get in to the peanut butter several times a day so I do. Martin spent about 12 minutes eating peanut butter today. I think I will have to clean up my act so I do not have an obese day gecko waddling around my kitchen!

What's this?

I'll try one.

Yuck! That was horrible!

That's not funny!

Is this the same thing?

I don't like those!

More of that yucky stuff!

Don't want that.

There's what I'm looking for!

... the peanut butter!

Meerkats aren't the only ones that can stand up!

That's enough for now.

Well, may be just a little more.

What are you laughing at?

Mmmmm! Peanut butter!

Okay, that's enough now.

Well, may be just a little more ...

Okay, now I'm done!

For reals! I'm done now!

See! I'm really leaving!

About an hour later Martin came back. He was on the table when I saw him. And I was pretty sure it was Martin because he was quite undisturbed by me. I put some peanut butter on a plastic knife and offered it to him. He licked it, I put the knife down on the table, he continued eating. Then he did something interesting. He grabbed the knife and pulled it under the shelter of the sheet of paper he was hiding under! He continued eating; I did not see him finish or leave since I went to the other end of the table to make dinner.





While part of this was going on I texted Anne; she had texted a week or so ago that my "little lunch buddy was cute!" I decided to up his cuteness factor and sent her a photo of Martin licking the knife. She asked if I was able to distinguish him from the other day geckos in the house; I told her I was trying to take photos of their back to see if the red patterns were distinct. I have now done more research online about Gold Dust Day Geckos (Phelsuma laticauda); looking at photos that are posted about them. It does appear that there is a lot of variability in both the 3 red elongated blobs on their backs as well as the 3 red bars on their heads. Some of them also have bluer toes and legs; Martin does not. The other reason I think I am seeing the same Martin is because of how little he is disturbed by my presence; other day geckos don't let me come as close before they dart away. The literature seems to confirm that they are flighty but can become used to an individual "handler". I was also incorrect about the sexual dimorphism, I just can't see it easily. When females are breeding they store calcium in sacs behind their head, as can be seen in one of the photos that scroll through at the top of the Gecko Web website; the sacs deflate after they lay eggs, so Martin still might be a Martine. The characteristics for males are not transitory like the calcium sacs; they're just more difficult to see without handling the gecko. According to the Family Life Share website which talks about them as pets, adult male day geckos have, "conspicuous femoral pores as well as the hemipenal bulges situated at their lower tail." They also say males are longer and bigger than females, but I haven't seen Martin or any other geckos in the house close enough to each other to make that comparison. Lengths range from 4.5" to 6" and I am sure there is some overlap in sizes like many other species. According to the websites, they live 8 to 10 years in captivity. They cost $50 to $250 to purchase! I'm glad Martin chooses to provide me with entertainment for free!

(From Aminoapps,com)

The Saffron Finch tried his darndest to get me out of bed at O-dark-thirty, but I resisted! I even snoozed through my alarm a couple of times before seeing it was going to be a beautiful day to work outdoors, that I should not be wasting.

Birdrise, twenty-four minutes  before sunrise.

Alarm goes off eighteen minutes after sunrise.

Ten minutes later it looks a little cheerier.

OK, thirty-eight minutes after sunrise; looks like its going to be a really good day for outside work!

I started on the red lava rock after my morning cup of tea. I had set the new pot for the poinsettia on the rocks by the gas tank; I wanted the rain to get it well hydrated before I put the poinsettia in it. Since the bags were still in the car, I just backed up to a good location and just unloaded straight from the trunk to where the bag would be dumped; just wanted to move each bag once! With the 15 bags I got all of the area in front of the tank covered as well as a little along the east side by the fern.

The new poinsettia pot, an unglazed clay pot, now well hydrated.

Before starting this phase of the project.

Close-up.

From the easterly side.

Add caption

All pau for now!

When I was done with spreading this latest batch of red lava rock, I took a walk around the yard since it was such a nice morning. I'm glad I did! I found the jaboticaba is full of small white blossoms; it should have a nice crop in a couple months. I also found out that the popcorn orchid is blooming! I need to get an orchid pot for it; right now it is in nothing. It's just lying on the rocks under the jaboticaba.

Flowers on the jaboticaba.

The popcorn orchid in bloom (Oncidium sphacelatum).

The orchid in the tangerine is also blooming; it's a Coelogyne! This is the first time I have seen it bloom. There is another orchid below it that is not in bloom; it does not look like a Coelogyne; I think it might be a Dendrobium but I will have to wait until it blooms to start figuring it out. I found the last clump of fruit on the other tangerine tree; this one also has flowers.

There were a few macadamia nuts on the ground. I need to get that nut raker! It will make harvesting easier. Even though there weren't a lot of nuts, they are hard to spot when they are on the grass.

Finding this one was easy!

But how about this? Can you find the 2 nuts? Answer in tomorrow's blog!

How about here?

I found a coconut on the ground; I'm not sure why it fell off. It is rather large for fruit drop but its not like coconuts are very susceptible to being easily knocked off the tree. I discovered two ripe mountain apples on the ground; I think they are leftovers from the previous bloom cycle, I tossed them over the fence for Toto's cows. I can only see small green mountain apples on the tree. I found one ripe guava on the ground and 1 in the tree; there are a lot more green ones in the tree, as well as flowers, too!

This is the stage the rest of the mountain apples are at.

Guavas, rioe and almost ripe..

A bunch of green guavas and one flower.

I also found a bunch of young fruit forming on the lychee tree! I hope I am back when they are ripe an ready for eating; Lori loves lychee! I found one trio of ripe tangerines; this is on the tree that had flowers a couple weeks ago.

Tiny lychee fruits forming.

There were a number of bunches forming on the southerly side of the tree.

Here's a bunch highlighted against the sky.

The persimmon is still dropping little fruit; I hope it stops doing that soon or there will be no more fruit on the tree! The mondo grass that I dug up is looking good with the irrigation. The mountain apple seed that I planted has sprouted and it is doing well, too.


There is more 'olena coming up. And the red ginger is starting to send up a couple of inflorescences. And the Coelogyne in the anthurium garden is starting to wind down. I found another new fern; I will have to keep watching it to find out what it is.

Red ginger (Alpinia purpurata).

The Coelogyne nearing the end of its bloom cycle.

Unidentified fern.

I took a bunch of photos of Grandma's surviving anthuriums. She had mainly red but also some pinks, a green and red one, and a whitish pink one.

These are smaller than the top one.

These are near the hāpuʻu to be moved & also need to move so they donʻt get stepped on.

These are also at the base of the hāpuʻu.

The Meyer lemon has a new crop of little lemons coming on. And the calamansi is still covered in fruit. I tried the calamansi preserves that Vickie gave me when I was here in April; I will have to get her recipe for those, I like them also. Here is a photo of what I harvested today. I guess I could have picked the Meyer lemons also but I did not feel like reaching all the way in to the center of the bush for that.

Meyer lemon.

Today's harvest.

As I passed the ramp I noticed that it is once again in need of work; I will have to get together with Chris to find a solution that does not require frequent maintenance.


I also saw that the heliconia under the house is popping up again. I have already dug it up twice and removed the tubers I could find, but I have apparently missed some. I am now going to resort to the last resort, Roundup. I have been applying it with a paint brush so that there is no overspray.


When I put my sunglasses on yesterday, something scratched my temple. I took them off and discovered that one of the earpieces is starting to break. I repaired it with paper tape, I'll have to see how long it holds up.



After lunch the weather was still looking promising. I took the new pot to the church to repot the poinsettia; on my way in I saw Joy as she was leaving. She stopped to let me know everything was cleaned up and ready for Uncle Kazu's service on Tuesday. All except one vase of heliconia was still in place; I put the stems back in to the vase. After I potted the poinsettias I watered it in well and also watered the portulaca. I checked at Sunshine yesterday for more portulaca or other succulent or drought resistant plant but could not find any that would stay relatively small and need less maintenance.

As expected, the wind blew some of the heliconias out of the vase.

But not these in the PVC.

Looking good again along with guava offering.

Also looking better with the guava and a new pot!

Hope the poinsettia does well in its new pot.

Since I had time, I stopped by the house that Bill pointed out as belonging to cousin Steve; but he could not remember exactly how Laurel is related to cousin Steve. So I don't know if I am also related to cousin Steve. I decided to find out! Steve wasn't home but I had a great talk with his wife Tione! Even if Steve (& Tione) are related only on the Uyama side of Laurel's family, I think I will stay in touch with them! (I am related to Laurel on the Mayahara side of the family.) By the way, they have an amazing view of Maui!


This is the last report from last year's hurricane season; the map has remained the same all this time. Unlike the Eastern Pacific map which actually started showing some activity about a month ago. Our season starts tomorrow; their season starts in mid-May so they are a little earlier than we are, but even for them, Tropical Depression 1-E was earlier than normal.


There was one new case of COVID-19 reported today for a total of 652 known cases. Deaths, hospitalizations, and percent of people released from isolation have all remained the same. In a pnademic boring statistics is good.

Cases in the past 28 days.