Treasure hunting by Siwa

One of my favorite things to do on the beach is to look for treasure. Treasure is different for everyone, for me it almost everything washed up on the shore. Anything that is unusual to me is picked up. Some treasures lose their value over time and get thrown back and some I've saved since I was very small. The shore is never the same twice. There is always something new waiting for me at the beach. When our family goes for walks on the beach I always lag behind picking up shells or poking around in the tide-pools.

Elena and Mary looking for shells and glass at low tide.

a. Hawaiian Snakehead Cowrie (Cypraea caputophidii), b. and c. are two purplish crab shells, d. a sea urchin test, and e. part of a larger sea urchin test. A sea urchin test is the exoskeleton.

Mom and the little girls looking in the tide-pools.

Some nuts, a bulb and a pebble found on the beach. a, c and d are tropical almonds (Terminalia catappa), locally called false kamani nuts; b. a nut from the true kamani tree (Calophyllum inophyllum); e. and f. are candlenuts (Aleurites moluccana) also called Kukui nuts; h. a bulb from the Queen Emma Lily (Crinum augustum); and g. a pebble.

 The larger shell that the small ones are sitting on is about two inches long.

This one was occupied.

Two guiding principles

 A long time ago I made the decision that my family would be my highest priority.
I did that in two ways: 

First, by putting God first in my life.  When I open my mind and heart to God, when He is the center of our lives, He guides us and our family life is happier, more meaningful, more heaven-like. I've always believed that families can be together forever, that family life and family relationships can continue on into the next life.  I'm planning on it, and doing my best to do my part to see that it happens. One year we had as our family motto, "Father first, Family forever." (Father meaning God) I think it's time to bring that one back, because I believe it more than ever.

Second, quantity is even more important than quality.  We spend a LOT of time together.  We eat, sing, pray, talk, laugh and play.  This Sunday, after church, we ate dinner together.  We talked for awhile and then I went and took a nap.  I woke up to the sound of talking and laughing, then there was our family fono (Samoan for "meeting") and popcorn and a puzzle, and the guitar and ukulele came out; then the puzzle went on but some left it for other projects, but we were still in the same few rooms, coming and going, listening to each other and laughing still. . .

Time. 

Time is so important 

and it's so important to spend it on what's most important- 

and for me that's family. 

Quality time is wonderful, 

but I've found that quantity is even better.  

It's quantity that means stability for a family.  

Quantity says,

 "You're my world and my life and that's why I'm spending it with you."  

  "I'll be there when you need me because I'm here anyway." 

 "There's no where else I'd rather be because there's no one and nothing else I love more."

These two guiding principles have made a difference in our family.  We love God and we love each other.  We have struggles, but with God and each other, we weather them. 

Jesse pulling Siwa with a vine, on a piece of boat they found washed ashore.

Science at pounders

It's Siwa's birthday this week, so she's taking a break today.  I'm filling in for her with some shots of our day at Pounders Beach.  We drove out to Pounders one day last week for science class to study the estuary.  The river meets the sea there but is usually separated by a barrier of sand .  We got to see firsthand erosion, deposition, mini avalanches and what it looks like to see a canyon or gorge carved out by water over time.

These two are facing the river.  Ironwoods grow right up to the water's edge.

 Elena watching her canyons form.

A glorious day!

Beach candy

 One of the beaches the girls and I visited this past weekend has tons of beach glass.  It was our first time there and so we had a lot of fun walking over the shore and exploring what it was made of.  Every shore has its own personality- sand texture, color, composition, plus all the things that garnish it like shells, seeds, plants, driftwood and glass.

I love nature's processes of breaking things down, smoothing rough, jagged edges and producing a totally different beauty than existed before- clear sharp glass is polished into frosted beach glass, shells and coral are ground into sand, wood weathers into bleached driftwood, and lava and limestone are carved by the relentless surf.  Nature is in a continuous state of transformation- shaping, rending, healing, decaying and rejuvenating. I used to love to run down to the beach after a storm to see what work it had done.  I would be sad about some things- damage done to a tree or the loss of so much sand, but thrilled to find the shallow stream bed newly refashioned into a deep pool, and  huge logs washed downstream for me to float on.  After time, those changes would be softened too, things would heal, fill up, float away and change again.

After I picked my spot on the sand the girls ran back and forth showing me one find after another.  I love seeing the joy of discovery brighten their faces.  I love that they still want to show me what they've found.  I love what they've found.  I'm so grateful for this wondrous place we live in- for the ever changing garnish on the sand, for the tide in and the tide out,
for rough places made smooth.

 Here are some of the treasures we collected:

Our favorite beach glass colors and one polished stone.

 Siwa made a flower.  There are so many different shades of amber glass.

Mary's bits of shells.

My favorite treasures on the beach.

Ironwood by Siwa

On Saturday we went beach hopping on the North Shore. We found some really cool ironwood trunks.  Ironwood can grow in some interesting patterns.  It ripples, bends, twists and turns. Here are some examples:

A wavy trunk with thriving Ironwoods in the background.

A close up on a pattern in the wood.

The wood where the bark had fallen off.

One of the beaches was scattered with these ironwood pine cones. They had fallen into the water and been worn smooth by the sand and surf, much like beach glass is. Tiny bits of shells, stone, and sand had been caught and imbedded in the gaps.

Butterflies and moths by Siwa

Cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae) on a tomato leaf. As a caterpillar, this butterfly feeds on vegetables like lettuce, kale, collard greens, cabbage, etc. Its caterpillar grows to about an inch in length and is light green and fuzzy.

A male Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) in my garden on a squash leaf. A female resembles the male in size but is all brown except for a line of orange spots on the wings.These are very small and super  fast. My dad says they look like jet fighters. They feed on various species of grass as caterpillars.

A Peablue butterfly (Lampides boeticus) also known as a Long Tailed Blue because of the little tails on its hind wings. Butterflies in this family are called Blues because the inside part of their wings is a light lavender-blue color. When they fly they beat their wings so fast that they look like a small bluish blur.

A Coconut leafroller (Omiodes blackburni) moth on Naupaka leaves. This moth feeds primarily on coconut leaves as a caterpillar but can also be found on other palm trees or even banana leafs. It is endemic to Hawaii.

Koa Haole Moth (Macaria abydata) also known as the Dot Line Angle Moth. It feeds on a wide range of plants belonging to the Fabaceae family or Pea family. I can usually find one or two of these moths resting on the side of my house under the outside lights at night.

An Asian Swallowtail (Papilio xuthus), the only swallowtail butterfly in Hawaii. To protect itself from predators this butterfly's caterpillar resembles bird droppings until about halfway through its life as a caterpillar when it turns a bright lime green. The caterpillar feeds on citrus leaves.

A Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae) on a basil plant. The caterpillar is striped black and orange with black spines down its back to warn predators that it is toxic; it feeds on members of the Passiflora family, or Passion fruit family.