Work(ing) Garden Update 2 04/19/2015

I haven't posted this month due to 'Life' happening at a pace faster than I can catch up, so I figure it's a good time for an update to the Rooftop garden being it's been six months since the last update.  The Rooftop Garden completed with a phase 3 planting of Hawaiian plants.  This completed the three sections of the raised planter that was given for the effort.  There has been cleanups and removal of dead plants and they have grown at a slower pace than when it first started.  I suspect it is due to the rainy and windy winter season we've had.  We even had an attack of aphids which took a toll and killed some of the plants.
It was starting to rain the other evening and I caught a perfect rainbow over the garden.

There are some Hawaiian plant and herbal plants.  There is even taro plants and a couple of stalks of sugar cane.

The popolo berries were quite plentiful.

A Pineapple actually developed.. we think.. hopefully, It'll actually become a fruit since usually it's supposed to take a year and it hasn't been that long.

There's been cleanups and harvests.  The carrots didn't do as well in the garden as they had really strange shapes. A few were roundish and this one looked perfect for Holloween.

There was also a purple variety of Kale.

I've never seen flowers on green onions and chives, but it sure is pretty.

In December, my coworker who raises prayingmantis released some of them in the garden in hopes of controlling some pests.  There were around 30+ released altogether. They were really tiny and really fast.

We've been able to track the growth of several who had shed and grown larger.

We even found a few ladybug that found its way to to the garden and it's been a nice discovery. There's going to be a one-year anniversary in June and perhaps more plantings of more hearty vegetable plants. 

An update on my bottle bean plant.  I've had a couple of more harvests but those have never been as large as the original.  I also planted chinese pea and I was able to harvest one pea. ha ha..  Unfortunately, the pea plant turned yellow and died..  I'm starting a new bean plant.

21st Annual Honolulu Festival - 03/07 - 03/08/2015

The Annual Honolulu Festival is always a great shoot. You experience the Outdoor/indoor lighting shoot, the street shoot, sunset and even a fireworks shoot.. what more can a learning photographer ask for? I wasn't able to spend a lot of time, but I saw a LOT of great performances on stage and on the street. I'm glad I'm able to photograph it every year.

They are my favorite Taiko group.. I was so lucky I managed to catch their performance on both days...

There was a modern dance performance.  I had to shoot between the heads of people in front so my pics have a vignette-like effect on the bottom edge even though I tried to crop the heads out.

The inside stage is quite large and they even show the performance on a large screen.

There were performances on the street before the parade.  Next year I'll find a closer spot than where i sat..

There were a lot more traditional Japanese performers at the parade and less Hula performers this year.

This is the 10th year the Sonoda Gakuen High School girls joined in the Honolulu Festival parade.  There must've been more then 200+ girls marching and dancing in the parade.

Taiwnese Performers

Traditional way of carrying goods in Philippines..

Not so traditional goods ... hey, you'd never lose your cellphone if you carried it this way..

The sunset.. then it got really dark so I couldn't take any more performances in the parade since my 50D doesn't have high enough ISO to handle the noise.. and the flash is too harsh.. I guess time for an upgrade to 7D Mark II? :-)

I did manage to get lighted floats though.. this float is a trademark of the Honolulu Festival Parade.. 

These lanterns were carried horizontally and then as they passed my area, they raised them high up..  I had to run after them and shot a short video and also got this shot w/ my iphone!

Then, after about an hour break, at 8:30pm, the giant fireworks..They fired it off from 3 barges or boats.  It was so large, my 16-35mm lens couldn't get the entire bursts..I managed to get just a few good shots including this one..Next year I'll be more prepared.. (I tell myself that every year... )

Bean in a Bottle - 02/21/2015

I was planning to do an update of the roof top garden but it's been so rainy and windy, it has been hard to take pics.  The garden has also taken a beating from this rough weather.  I'll update later and share pics of eggplants, more leafy greens, lady bugs and even praying mantis.   For now, here's a story of my bean in a bottle.

My coworker showed me how to make a planter out of wine bottle.  We managed to get some donated wine bottles :-).  First you make a score along the glass bottle with the bottle cutter gadget, then (after seeing it done on YouTube) you pour hot water, then cold water on the glass to stress it.  Eventually, the glass will split on the cut line. Once the glass cracks correctly, you get a beautifully cut (and sharp) split bottle. I have to admit that not all of the bottles cracked nicely but I did manage to get a few. 

With some water on a sand paper so you don't breath in glass dust, sand the two cut edge of the bottle until smooth and won't cut your hand.  The shape of the bottle is important as red/blush wine bottles works best as it has a good cup shape so it sits nicely on the bottle and provides good area for the soil to go in. Also, the darker bottles don't grow green algae growth as quickly as clear bottles.

To set up the planter, I put some leftover window screen mesh my coworker had from changing out window screen.  I cut a hole in the center of the mesh and thread laundry line thru the hole and tied a knot.  The mesh screen keeps the cord and soil from falling thru the hole on the bottom. The cord is used to absorb water into the soil and keeps the soil nice and wet.  I used only one piece of cord folded once so there are two leads into the water. Next, fill with soil and add a plant then fill the bottom with some water.

Here is one I made w/ a bubble drink cup I had.  The basil was leftover from my Pho order.  NO care is needed, I just have to add water on the bottom once a week and that's it.  I didn't have to do anything and just left it near the window.  Unfortunately, since the basil plant was kept indoor, it never got any larger than this and it was best to transplant to the ground to continue to grow.  

We tried with different herbs from seed and nothing ever took... until we got pole bean seeds from the dried up beans we found from the roof top garden. It started to sprout quickly and started to crawl, so I ended up having to construct a 'ghetto-style trellis'.

After a little over a month by my window,  I was surprised to see a flower bud!!

I couldn't believe that after the flower died, it became a BEAN!!  Here is my ghetto trellis 2.0 using long drinking straws and bbq sticks.

The bean grew quickly..

After almost 2 weeks, I harvested it.  I still can't believe I grew this from a bottle planter..

Shangri-la, Doris Duke's home -- 01/17/2015

I've heard of Doris Duke and only had limited knowledge about her or her home in Diamond Head/Kahala area.  My friend invited me to join his group of friends on a tour of her Hawaii home she aptly named Shangri-la.  The tour was conducted thru the Honolulu Museum of Art and we had to meet there then shuttled to the home in Kahala.  We met the tour guide for the 90min tour at the end of a driveway.  The first spot was what's behind a large decorated door..the Mughal Garden.

At first, I was confused since this doesn't look or feel like being in Hawaii.  

You really get a sense that Doris Duke was really into the Middle Eastern Islamic Art.  We were not able to take any photos of the interior of the home where they showed us her bedroom, which was just opened to the public recently and her ornate bathroom that looks like some Middle Eastern bath house.  After the dining room they took us out to the patio. This is just a sampling of the tile work she has.  Her entire home is covered in tile work, some commissioned, some are antiques, and all were purchased from her numerous travels.  

The other side of the patio offers a beautiful ocean view of diamond head.  I only found out on this tour that the surf spot known as Cromwell's is actually the waters fronting her property and named after her husband, James Cromwell.

Here's a panoramic view I took w/ my iphone.   Here's the fencing they recently put up to prevent people from jumping off the walkway wall. 

Here is the pool house.

Here is the outside of her bedroom, the Mughal Suite. 

This is the panoramic of the ocean front home.

We were lead back to the living area thru another ornate doorway.

And so is the end of the tour.  This is her front door I wasn't able to get a photo of when we got there.  This was my last shot before we boarded our minibus back to the Honolulu Museum of Art.  Here's is the virtual tour website you can see the interior rooms that I wasn't able to take photos of.

Our tour included an all day pass of the Honolulu Museum and the Spalding House up in Tantalus so we went to check it out after lunch at the museum.  There was a Ikebana show and these were not your traditional arrangement as this one was huge.