We wish you a very happy Solstice, a wonderful holiday season, and a happy new world!

Since last summer, you could say we have been home bodies. We rearranged our lanai furniture this spring to make a more inviting seating area for entertaining and we added an outdoor table. We now eat most our evening meals on the lanai enjoying the sunset and beautiful color in the clouds. We traded out the fish tank for a bird feeder and bird bath. The fish went to a good home and we get occasional reports of their progress. During morning tea and later as we work on our computers, we are entertained by the antics of the birds, have colorful flowers in our view, and watch the beautiful blue ocean for signs of Humpback whales. We saw our first one from shore in the distance last week. Hopefully, soon, there will many spouts close to shore. Neil saw a spout and a baby tail fluke just as I typed this. The binoculars are in handy reach on our desks.

This past month we have been reorganizing and updating inside. [Thank you wonderful parents for Christmas money.] Having finally found a fabric we both liked, we recovered the couch cushions allowing us to get rid of the sheet that covered the previous worn and split fabric. We are really appreciating seeing the couch again. We took advantage of Cyber Monday to get a new color laser printer. Its arrival required some major reorganizing (and cleaning) to position it in place of the two old printers (one color inkjet and one B&W laser). Next came the sewing projects to, shall we say, camouflage it and produce a fitted dust cover. We are rather proud of how the corner area now looks: hiding the storage area underneath the top shelf. We had some extra fabric we hadn’t used on the printer covering and decided it would be great to replace the plain blue shelf covering in the bedroom.

We are very excited to have company coming. Neil’s daughter, Mailea, is arriving right after Christmas for a few weeks visit to Maui. She is currently in the middle of her PhD program and looking forward to some R&R. Ari, Neil’s younger daughter, was thrilled to transfer mid-year to her desired nursing specialty of labor and delivery at the hospital in Santa Maria where she has worked the past year. Mom and Bill were able to come in October for a week while I house sat in Makena and they are going to be able to come for two weeks again in January. They are seriously thinking about buying an oceanfront condo and moving to Maui. I am keeping my fingers crossed! Neil and I previewed many condos for them through September and sent photos and descriptions.

They narrowed it down to four of them which they viewed during their October visit. There are now more on the market and they will have time in January to view others.

Quentin and Vajra had Sophie’s holiday visit over Thanksgiving this year. We got to spend a few days with them during her visit. Quentin continues to do well in school and is a joy to me. Dad and Jane have been through some health issues this year. Jane had back surgery in June and there were complications. She was in the hospital a few more times and in the rehab center till fall. Both she and Dad are thrilled to have her home again and doing well. Dad is now feeling pain in his back and having tests.

Plus he just had cataract surgery on one eye and feels his vision is blurry. He is hoping it is from the drops and will clear up soon. We enjoy having Jean and Morley right next door. They are doing well and we are grateful.

We are grateful for each moment of each day and for having wonderful family and friends. May each moment be blessing to you and we wish you a very joyous season.

We continue to enjoy our morning tea on the lanai among tweets and flutters and flowers.

Back in the spring, we noticed some House Finches, called Papaya Birds in Hawaii, visiting the cardinals sunflower seed cup feeders I wrote about last March. After my visit to Dad and Jane’s and seeing their birdfeeders, we decided to get one. We decided to place it off the corner of the lanai where we can watch it from our computer desks throughout the day as well as at morning tea time.

This now gave Neil a “project.” He developed a two pulley system that allowed us to lower the feeder for easy filling. He added a 2 pound dive weight on the bottom to stabilize it during high winds (sometimes quite gusty) and a small fishing weight on the end of the string to keep it from flying loose. The finches loved the feeder and a pretty soon their friends and distant relatives started to sit in the trees and on the railing waiting their turn. Neil next added perches for them to sit closer (where we can see and enjoy them better). The first few times the trade winds got brisk we watched the seed being blown straight out of the feeder sideways. So Neil got a 2 foot square of clear Plexiglas from Roger to put up as a wind shield. Works like a charm.

Javanese Finches were the next to discover the feeder. They are an elegant looking bird and remind me of puffins. Another friend of ours calls them ‘tuxedo birds.’ They are also aggressive bullies. In the morning, they sit as “birds on a wire”, sometimes as many as 50, waiting for feeding time. We fill the feeder when we are ready to go out on the lanai for tea and once the seed appears, they start the invasion. Neil calls it Fight Club since they seem to enjoy the squabbling as much as the food. They vie for position and growl at each other and threaten to bite each other to get to the cups. The papaya birds are quiet and stealthy and actually much braver when it comes to coming near us humans. When the Javanese get startled and fly away to the safety of the wire, the papaya birds fly in to snatch a big sunflower seed and fly away to eat it in peace before the Javanese fly back in number. Speaking of projects, Neil had to redesign the cups to get them to dispense the birdseed mix just right; Initially it was getting jammed up by the sunflowers in the mix or it was dispensing seed so fast that the Javanese were knocking most of it out to the ground. Never fear, there are 3 species of doves that have shown up to eat the offerings dropped down to them.

There is also another avid birdwatcher that frequents our lanai or camouflaged ground positions.  Sunshine, a stray Birman cat, adopted Morley and Jean this year, but hangs out at our lanai around bird feeding time. He has caught and eaten a few of the birds but fortunately most seem wise to his ways.

The birdbath was the next addition to the feeding area. We wanted something high enough we could see. It also had to have enough weight to be stable in the wind. A terracotta planter bottom dish fit the bill. Although the birds would drink from it, it was several days before we saw one actually take a bath. Kihei has so little rain; I’m not sure if they knew how to use water for bathing! Ha

The mated pair of cardinals built a nest in the front mango tree and hatched a little one. It fell out of the nest too early and couldn’t fly well enough to get to safety. The local cats were stalking it. Neil climbed up the tall ladder (with me stabilizing it) and put the baby bird back in the nest TWICE. And each time it hopped out and down again. We had to leave it on its own after that because it seems that’s what it wanted. Mom and Dad bird both chirped and stood guard as long as they could till dark. We never saw the baby fly more than a few feet and didn’t see it the next day. We assume it didn’t make it. Soon after the cardinal pair moved to a new tree somewhere off the street behind us and we hope they have better luck with new offspring. The adults still come back for sunflower seeds but no young have shown up. We keep watching.

Hanging flower baskets and planter boxes were another addition to our lanai environment. We had been successful growing tropical plants in our garden and yard, but just haven’t been able to get edible plants to survive. I think it is both the soil and the bugs. Neil, with my assistance, hung the planter baskets, built wood planters, and put in a drip watering system. We now have rosemary, basil and mint growing beautifully in our above-ground planters! We put a succulent which produces fuchsia colored flowers in one pot to add a spot of color. The final treat to enhance the lanai this December is a blossoming orchid plant. Quentin and Sophie gave me a blossoming orchid plant two years ago. After it lost all its flowers, I put it in the garden outside to get watered nightly, paying it no more attention. Two years later, grew a stalk with several buds. I brought it to the lanai where just one of the flowers has opened so far. Again, it is positioned so we can see from inside the house as well as at morning tea.

Photos by Neil.