Bodacious Blackberry Jam

Today we found out that Kaia really likes the Bodacious Blackberry jam that my friend Darla made; I have 2 small jars. I put it on toast for her and discovered she does not like the crusts on the toast & tries to avoid eating them. I told her she had to eat the crust if she wanted another slice, so she did. 

I had texted a photo of Kaia with blackberry jam all over her face to Darla so she could see how much Kaia enjoyed it. In return, Darla sent me a photo of her dog Kaiah, who is twice as old as Kaia.

Kaiah helping to look for gray whales off Camano Island.

When I arrived on Monday, I went straight to Target and picked up the juicer; Sarah used it this morning. She is on a celery juice cleanse so she chopped up a bunch of celery and juiced it.

A whole bunch of celery.

Kaia helps juice the celery.

One bunch of celery equals one cup of celery juice.

After breakfast Kaia selected one of the books to read this morning, Puulei and the Everyday Rainbow. It is also one she wants to take home with her.

After breakfast Sarah went out to weed the red cinders along the south side of the house for me. In the meanwhile, Kaia watched her for a short while from my bedroom window.

Kaia looks out the window, watching Sarah weed the red cinders.

While Sarah was busy working, Kaia & I did some other things. Like shelling the macadamia nuts that had been curing since last summer. It turns out, even with the great macadamia nut cracker that Lem made, it was still too difficult for Kaia to crack the nuts.

She wore her sunglasses to protect her eyes from flying pieces of shell.

We also played games with Sister Mouse & Brother Mouse.

Sister Mouse (L) & Brother Mouse.

Kaia spent some time writing notes to Sarah & me. She's only 4 so she's just learning to write.

After Sarah finished weeding we had lunch. After that we did some shopping. We started at Nakahara Grocery Store in Hāwī.

 

Then we went to Kohala Grown Market where you can get fruits, vegetables, & value-added products made in Kohala or on Hawaiʻi Island. Sarah bought a couple of egg fruits, chico sapotes, & mangosteens for us to try. Kohala Grown also serves smoothies & sandwiches.

Sarah selecting egg fruits.

Some local value-added products.

The smoothie menu.

Some of the safety guidelines.

There was a rooster wandering around outside Kohala Grown; Kaia was very interested in what the rooster was doing. The rooster did wander in to Kohala Grown and looked like it was trying to find some omiyage for his friends!

Hmmm, I wonder what the rooster wants?

The rooster also checked out the dog water bowl.

Then we went to Arakaki Store in Kapaʻau so Sarah could check out what they had. Each of the 4 grocery stores in the area are slightly different in what they specialize in.

The community board at Arakaki.

We headed out to the Pololu Valley lookout; it was packed with people. Cars were parked a whole lot further up the road than I had ever seen it before. We turned around and went back to Keokea Beach State Park to check out the swimming area for Kaia. And she was unable to resist the water! She ended up wading deep enough that her dress got wet; we'll have to come back when she has her bathing suit on so she can spend more time playing in the water.

Kaia can't wait to get her sandals off.

They're off! Let's get in the water!

The breakwater in back helps create the kids' play area.

When we got home we tried the mangosteen which was ripe. It was tasty and I would eat it again.

I saw the gray tabby & white cat walking through Jessie's backyard; it never came up to the house. I also saw Wiley crossing through the fence to come to the house.

The gray tabby & white cat.

Wiley.

The Aix weather app forecast rain all day in Kapaʻau, enough for it to accumulate. There was hardly any rain or other precipitation today.

I'm not sure how I got to this, but I read an article about prank calls being made from the Hawaiian monk seal rehabilitation center in Kona. The culprit was caught; it was a Gold Dust Day Gecko that had crawled on top of a Smart phone!

There were 84 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 33,207. There was also 1 new death reported, increasing the death toll to 488; currently 1227 cases are considered to be active. The 7-day average of new cases on Oʻahu is 65 with a 2.2% positivity rate.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e John!