Warm greetings all! 🙏 💚
For the past several days it's been quite cloudy and raining, on and off, here in far East Hawai'i due to a tropical storm passing through the area. For the most part we barely noticed that a storm was afoot, as the rain wasn't particularly intense, and there was very little strong winds. The one exception was along the coast, and at the beach, where a couple days ago the waves were the largest I've ever seen them, but more about that later.
Today was wet in the morning, then toward the afternoon, the sun came out strong, and it got quite hot (for Hawai'i), so I decided that today was a good opportunity to go for a nice long walk to The Lawn (main park in front of Seaview), and the beach (Kehena, our locally beloved black-sand beach, which has been traditionally clothing-optional since 1955), after I finished lunch.
The Pacific Ocean was gorgeous today, in a lovely array of turquoise, aquamarine, and deep blue. This is looking to the left, up the coast to the North-East, from The Lawn.
Looking straight out to the huge blue expanse of the Pacific, from The Lawn again.
This is looking to the right, down the coast to the South-West, also from The Lawn.
A shot of the lovely coconut palms and grass (with fantastic shadows!) at The Lawn.
A shot from across the road from The Lawn, looking down the coast to the South-West.
Looking out to the waves crashing on the rocks, across the road from The Lawn.
Looking to the South-West again, from across the road.
I wish the colors of the water came out in these photos, as they were so clear and bright! Hello Great Pacific!
After walking to the trail that goes down to the beach, I sat in the shade of an Australian pine (called ironwood here in Hawai'i) - Casuarina equisetifolia for about an hour, doing my last Hive rounds before going down to the beach, as I rarely have mobile phone service there.
This plant has an uncanny resemblance to pines. Even being in a forest of them has the feeling of being in a pine forest. This is very interesting indeed, because they are not related to pines, but are actually a flowering plant.
Australian pine foliage and seed pods swaying in the breeze. Even the seed pods look something like pine cones!
Here's a close up of a few of their seed pods. I love their symmetry!
A view of the ocean on the way down the trail to the beach.
Looking up the coast to the North-East, from the trail.
Looking down the coast to the South-West, from the trail.
I know that it's not very easy to make our in this photo, but the huge waves over the past few days carved out a giant hole in the rocks that were part of the trail down to the beach. Now it's necessary to climb a bit more than before.
This used to be a rather easy trail down to the beach. Now most of the rocks that made up the trail are gone.
One more view of the cavity where the rock trail used to be.
Thd waves, due to the tropical storm passing through, we're seriously gigantic, and they went all the way to the cliffs at the back of the beach, even into the new jungle forming on this side of the beach.
Lots of vegetation and rocks tossed aside all over the place.
Even though a bit disheveled, most of these plants have a high salt tolerance, so they'll recover quickly.
Looking up from where I set my circular blanket in the sand, at the coconut palm and Australian pine above me. Yes, the Australian pines grow right on the beach too, and are indeed very salt tolerant, even though they and the sand in which they are growing were completely drenched in salt water.
Sun, shadows, and Australian pine 'needles' in the black sand.
My little place in the sand.
This used to be the drum circle area, surrounded by large rocks and trunks, under the Australian pines. The giant waves wiped most of it all away.
Looking out to themassive blue Pacific, from my blanket behind the driftwood.
On the walk home, I took some photos of the various wild and cultivated flowers along the way. This is one of the three Asian ground orchids that grows prolifically here, Phaius tankervilleae - Nun's Orchid, Nun's-hood Orchid, Veiled Orchid, Chinese Ground Orchid.
Noni - Morinda citrifolia flowers, soon to be fruit.
Some lovely flowers of the purple passion fruit - Passiflora edulis.
A vivid pink hibiscus - Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.
A golden trumpet vine - Allamanda cathartica.
*The last few photos are of the utterly glorious and striking clouds that I saw on my walk home. So so so beautiful!
I can't seem to stop taking photos of clouds!
Seruously,more clouds!
Almost done, I promise!
OK, this is my last cloud photo, and the last photo of this #WednesdayWalk!
That brings me to the end of my #WednesdayWalk for this week! I hope y'all enjoyed the tour, and that it made you smile! Until next week!
Thank you all so much who have helped me get to where I am today, and allowing me to share more of the beauty and magic from my life and my world with you, and for your continuous appreciation and support! I am truly deeply grateful! 😁🙏💚
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Signature image created by @doze, and the dividers made by @thepeakstudio, with all tweaked to their present form by me.