Rosy Lady

Happy Mother's Day

I have the most wonderful Mum.  She has a great sense of humour and a sense of adventure.  We are a family who laugh a lot and my parents have taught me to find the humour in any situation which has been a great coping mechanism in life.

 

 

She has taught me to value life, to be kind to others, to follow my heart, to love my family and God, to love nature, how to sew, how to knit, how to make something from nothing by working with what you do have and how to look after the pennies.  She loves flowers and gardening and has not only passed that to me, but I know the names of a lot of flowers and plants through her.

It was a dream come true when I got to take her to Keukenhof in Holland last year.

 

My mum is my best friend.  She has been my biggest supporter and her words of wisdom often rings in my ears when I face life.  She is also the best reader of my little blog and probably the only person who has read all the way through this, so please allow me to say in Afrikaans: "Ek is baie lief vir Ma."

xxx 
 

Hawaiian quilts

I thought it was time to break up the holiday posts a bit by sharing some examples of Hawaiian quilts with you.  These were seen at the Polynesian Culture Centre on Oahu.  I apologize for the yellow colour of the photos, they were not taken in the best light conditions.

 

Aren't they beautiful?  

xx    

Rainforest, rainbows and a waterfall

 We headed out of Honolulu to the rainbow valley for a hike to Manoa waterfall.  This involved a hike through a rainforest with a steady climb up to the falls.  Of course, being in a rainforest, we had some rain, but it was still a wonderful experience.

As we crossed a bridge, I noticed that someone had laid hibiscus flowers all across, which made it feel as though we were entering an enchanting forest.  I show another photo here.

 

We got covered in mud on this hike, but loved every minute of it.

You walk and climb for about an hour and when you suddenly look up, there it is:

Manoa falls.  When we drove back to Honolulu, there were rainbows over the valley and our guide told us that it was known as rainbow valley because of all the rainbows.  

xx 

   

 

Easter Sunday

We started the day by attending the sunrise service on Waikiki beach.

The service was held by various churches in Oahu who came together for the Easter Sunday.  There were lots of people but it was a very special experience for us.  Many of the familiar worship songs were sung in English and Hawaiian.  They re-enacted how the first missionaries came to Hawaii on the sea, it gave me goosebumps.  It had rained the night before and there was a rainbow behind us over the sea for the duration of the service.

After this we had a lovely breakfast before we caught a boat out to take a ride on a submarine.

The water was so choppy that we both felt a little green before we even got to the submarine but, once the wonder of the underwater world unfolded, we momentarily forgot about all of that.

 

We saw loads of fish, sea turtles, coral, ship wrecks and an old airplane wreck.   

The sea is this blue because the sand is so white and reflects the sunlight.

The rest of the afternoon we enjoyed being on solid ground and wondered if it was such a great idea to go on the sunset dinner cruise that we pre-booked for the evening.  We kept feeling like we were still going up and down.

    

It turned out to be a lovely romantic evening of steak, lobster, Hawaiian entertainment, a little dancing and watching enjoying the sunset.

Oh, I wish I was back there now *sigh*.

xx   

Oahu Part 2: Diamond Head Farmer's market

I could not resist attending the farmer's market near Diamond Head crater and was not disappointed.  

I met this lady who has a nursery on Oahu and she 'breeds' different varieties of hibiscus.  We had an interesting chat and then she said I could pick a flower from the ones above.  A difficult decision but, I settled on this one:

Of course it was immediately placed above my left ear.

There were lots of flowers that I've never seen before:

Did you notice the detail on the leaves? Very creative.

         

And, a few more familiar ones:

I loved the casual use of Hawaiian textiles everywhere.

After some lemonade, we were ready (or so we thought) to hike up Diamond Head crater.

I will spare you the photos of my red face, it was a good climb and totally worth it (but I wouldn't do it again).  

 

 
Little did I know what was waiting as we climbed all the way to the top.

The view over Honolulu and Waikiki beach.  

Sharing a shaved ice with Hubby.  It certainly went down well.

xx              

Oahu Part 1: Flowers everywhere

The first thing that I noticed when we got to Oahu was that there were flowers everywhere.

Orchids grow in abundance in gardens, pots and in trees.  So many varieties and colours.

The Plumeria was also full in bloom everywhere.

We saw the hibiscus in so many different colours.

We saw so many different types of flowers that it is not possible to do one post about it all so, I will have to add a few more over the next few posts.  But, I wanted to share how I noticed that the flowers everywhere translated into everything else.  Like the public phone booths:

The shops:

We were wearing floral clothes.  Hubby is now the proud owner of several 'aloha shirts', while I loved wearing a flower above my left ear everyday.  Wearing the flower on the left indicates that you're not available, but wearing it on the right shows that you are single.

I could not resist adding flowers to my nails too:

xx