Happy Birthday, Susie!

Today was my friend Susie's 80th birthday! Her friends and family set up a Zoom birthday and I learned a couple things about both Susie & Zoom. First, about Susie: she's been very active in the developmental disability community and fostering cultural awareness as well as the birding & environmental issues I first met with her about. In fact, I once saw Susie down at the state capitol lobbying  for developmental disabilities legislation while I was there with the Asian Pacific Islander Coalitions lobbying for supporting legislation. Susie also has a lot of friends in a lot of different communities; so many, in fact that I learned that a Zoom chat limits you to 100 participants! Anyone trying to come in after that is out of luck! Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Susie!

Waiting for the party to begin.

There was also one slide show & 3 live music performances. We also sang Happy Birthday and held up candles.

At the end of the group birthday celebration, we broke out in to smaller themed chat rooms; I chose the birder group. The facilitators for that group were my friends Lorna & Darrell; it was great to see them also! I invited the birders to come for the Hawaiʻi Island Festival of Birds once the 14-day quarantine is over; this year it is planned for October and will be a virtual tour. Registration is free!

The Saffron Finch woke me up this morning like it used to! Although it is sometimes annoying, I am glad it is back! I waited until after alaula (dawn) to actually get up.

Birdrise twenty-four minutes before sunrise.

Wake-up seven minutes after sunrise.

The weather at kahikole (after dawn) looked similar to yesterday, overcast and gray but with no precipitation. Which is great weather for working outdoors. A small amount of precipitation is okay, too.


There was just about an hour between the time the Susie's birthday Zoom ended and lunch, so I went to Sunshine True Value to get the other orchid pots. I also picked up another bag of potting soil, and more weed cloth plus metal staples to hold them in place instead of having to find rocks. I also got myself a birthday present: a retractable clothesline! Since Chris is no longer around to build one for me I decided to get a retractable one. The mud daubers built a lot of nests on the previous clotheslines we had set up in the garage; this will solve that problem. But that also means I can't leave the clothes pins on the line when I bring in the laundry. Oh, well.


After lunch it was actually sunny and hot; I decided to wait a little to see if it would cloud over again. And it did! So I went out to plant the anthuriums. I am putting Grandma's anthuriums in the portion of the easterly bed closest to the path; I am using the hāpuʻu closest to the path as the limit for that portion of the plantings.

I move the mulch aside for each planting spot.

I temporarily anchor a plant in place.

Then I cover the roots with mulch.

Before. From the southeasterly corner looking westerly.

Laying out the plants.

After.

Before. Looking towards the center of the heirloom planting area.

Laying out the plants.

After.

The southwest end after planting.

I had trimmed off one anthurium that was growing on a hāpuʻu stump and planted it with the others; it had been hanging upside down & I tried to tie it back on to the stump with limited results. I found a couple other plants that I will also cut and move tomorrow

This one spreading in to the path needs a new home!

These are all just hanging in the air & will be moved.

These are all well rooted and don't need any help from me!

I have at least one native fern in the anthurium garden right now that I will be keeping; there are moa growing in several places. I also took a better photo of the Adiantum sp.; it is definitely A. hispidulum so I will be removing them from the garden. I am also removing the non-native Nephrolepis sp. from the garden.

Moa (Psilotum nudum).

Adiantum hispidulum, non-native invasive fern.

After planting the anthuriums, I harvested macadamias and saw one of Toto's cows grazing near the fence. I went over to feed her some dropped ʻohiʻaʻai; I found out she also likes guavas and ti leaf but was not too interested in the citrus.

The neighbor is interested in what I am doing.

She tries to act nonchalant.

But the ʻohiʻaʻai and guavas have her attention.

Like that past couple of days, I was really grubby when I finished up planting the anthuriums. I had already moved my clothes to the outside shower. This evening I also added a couple more Command hooks to hang my clothes on. Now I need to remember to pick up a shower caddy for the soap & shampoo bottles.


Wiley was waiting to be fed this evening. I continued talking to Wiley while s/he was eating and this time s/he was less bothered than the last time. When Wiley had finished eating and was walking away, I called and Wiley stopped. I rattled the food container and s/he started to walk back towards the bowl. I put a little in the bowl and let Wiley eat it undisturbed.

Are you going to bother me again?

I still want to eat.

If you keep talking I'm going to leave.

Just kidding!

That was good!

Now I'm leaving.

Wait. What did you just say?

More food?

Yes, I'll come back for that.

During dinner I saw Martina and Spot on the window sill. The difference in size is very apparent when they are close to each other.

L to R: Spot, Martina.

There were 28 new COVID-19 cases reported today; with the data correction that brings the total known cases up to 1382. There were no new deaths or hospitalizations reported. A little over 75% of cases have been released from isolation.

Our 2nd spike looks larger than our 1st one.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Susie, Leanna, & Seyda!