Homespun Honolulu

Preservation and protection seem to be strong themes these days. We’re protecting our land, our landmarks, our culture, and our health. We’ve got interesting items to pull together this time.

We love home and we love the icons that have grown up around us.  I’m just so amazed that so many others feel what I’m feeling.  With that said, I would like to welcome our newest Carnival blogger!  She’s been out there a while but she’s new to us here!

Margaret Wille presents a Success Story for Our Island: Mama Banyan and Other Special Trees at Reed’s Bay Park (Banyan Drive) Saved! | www.margaretwille.com posted at Kohala Blog.  Margaret says that this post was “the success story following preceding blogs on this subject.”  If you’re taken by this story, you can see more of the story here and here.  Thank you, Margaret, for joining us!

We need to run down to the shoreline and Ryan is going to help us with the running skills we need as he shares a piece of an event that is near and dear to my heart.

Ryan Suenaga shares the outcome of The Great Aloha Run 2010 posted at The Athletic Diabetic.  I haven’t talked about it yet myself, but I will.  We have a lot of similarities, Ryan.  I’m right there with you!  Thank you for sharing my friend!

Let’s run back over to the Big Island now as we let our emotions take in the impact of the shoreline.

Bobbie asks a loaded question!  “What do you think when you see the ocean?”  My oh my!  I could go on for hours with that question!  Think about it and then go tell Bobbie what you’re thinking, if you haven’t already!

Going back inland, Sheila is going to show us what happens when we care for and protect what we have.

Sheila presents Visiting Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden posted as always, while giving Hawaii Vacation Advice at GoVisitHawaii.com.  I am amazed at the different ways that people write about things and Sheila’s viewpoints always come in on a fresh breeze where nothing is taken for granted.  Hats off to you, Sheila, for always putting a fresh spin on things as you see them through fresh eyes.

We have more to preserve and protect.

Evelyn (me) shares a bit about the birthday gift for King Lunalilo when she talks about Historic Events Repeating Themselves and follows up with a few notes about the preservation of the Hawaiian language.

That’s it for this time! Please join us and submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Aloha using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.  Guidelines can be found here.

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Carnival of Aloha, blog carnival.

To be specific, let’s talk about soup!

Our food-blogging friend, Valerie, does Four Foods On Friday as a blog meme over at Fun Crafts and Recipes.  Val usually throws four questions out there for us to think about and answer.  More recently, Val has done it a little backwards — she put one question out there, looking for four answers.

Last Friday, Val asked, “What are your four favorite soups?“  I thought about avoiding this one because I’m not much of a soup eater, or a soup maker.  After thinking about it for a while, I realized that there are some that I like.

I came up with these:

1. Cream of just about anything soup (zucchini and celery are good)
2. My own Corn Chowder (Val’s post reminded me about this one.)
3. Zippy’s Portuguese Bean soup (This one is very popular in our State.)
4. Pea soup was my favorite as a child (I think it was Campbell’s.  I don’t remember any ham but I could be wrong.)

There are others I like such as French Onion (if it has a lot of cheese) and Miso soup (when it’s cold outside).

I’m actually talking about this because the lenten season is upon us and I want to see what kind of soup you guys like! So, join in the meme in Val’s Kitchen!  Maybe even provide a soup recipe or two — for those of us with soup-deficient menus.

It’s baaaack!  Again the view of the mountains is blurred by the vog carried over from the Big Island of Hawaii.  Kauai is probably the only island that is free and clear of the air smog vog floating over the rest of the smaller islands.  The Big Island’s Kilauea volcano is obviously very busy!

Here’s hoping that the tradewinds will return soon and carry all of that bad air away, quickly.  In the mean time, I’m hoping that the Big Island and ALL the other islands will send in their posts for the upcoming Carnival of Aloha scheduled to go live on Monday, February 1, 2010!  Send in those posts about anything to do with the State of Hawaii.

Consider yourselves reminded!  The deadline for submissions is this coming Wednesday, January 27th.  Come join us!

I started this article back in December of 2008.  That shows how long I’ve been aspiring/contemplating the sharpening of my literary pencil.  In reality, it has been a lot longer than that but only relatively recently has the plot actually decided to come alive.

The best part of all of this is that blogs that managed to make an impact on me are still around!  So, I’m going to share some of my literary darlings with you guys.  As I was putting this together, I couldn’t help but be reminded about my eclectic taste.  Don’t be too surprised, I’m afraid that it’s just my nature.

Part of what drives me is the “voice” of others who are aiming at the same aspiration.  In the case of Mark David Gerson, that aspiration has been reached and now, as a writing coach, he aims to help others to reach there as well.  A source of inspiration himself, Mark David has said to me (and I haven’t forgotten it) that, “your inspiration is all around you!”  Mark David’s greatest asset in my eyes?  He’s a former Hawai’i resident!  No bias or anything.  I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but I can’t help but love the cover of The Voice of the Muse!  I’m not sure just whom to blame this on.

I can tell you to whom goes the blame for that “uppity” last sentence!  Writing Forward handles everything from grammatical topics to plot and character issues.  I fell in love with this blog when I read the post that I’ve used for the link to this blogger and I’m afraid that I’m very stuck with my opinion.

Wait, I’m not done!  About my “uppity” sentence — in January, 2010 I found another article from Writing Forward to add to this!  I threatened to link back to this article by using the word whom rather than the word who in a sentence.  That way, I could blame being “uppity” on poor, darling Melissa Donovan who is just trying to help us all write better.

Jurgen Wolff at Time to Write also shares “tips, ideas, inspirations for writers and would-be writers and other creative people” along with a lot of thought-provoking observations and commentary.  I admire Jurgen’s genuine concern for the written word and the old-fashioned publishing medium that encases those intelligent and carefully-crafted texts (I mean books).

Attempting to make my own story-in-progress verisimilar (yeah, I had to look that word up too), I have done some research into different aspects of cultures, societies and lines of business that are normally outside my circle of knowledge and my physical boundaries.  In the process I found places like The Golden Pencil (I love that name) that provide a little bit of everything.  (That was the name of the blog in 2008.  Now, in 2010, it’s called EveryJoe.com.)  But, there are still articles about writing and all kinds of things.

Oddly enough, or maybe not odd at all, I have learned many things from other bloggers, even the strange ones.

I’ve picked up new words like the one above, “verisimilar,” from bloggers like my brilliant but sick friend Bobby Revell at Revellian.com.  To provide a movie-type rating for his writing, I would rate them somewhere between R and X.  For a letter grade?  I’m afraid I have to give him an A+!

WARNING!  Bobby is, from time to time, a bit unorthodox, so be careful!  His writing is carefully crafted together with great visual descriptions that are, er, um, colorful.  Let’s put it this way, horror and smut fiction are his specialty.  If you can’t handle it, don’t go there.  But, you really should!  He’s so deranged, I just love him!  Some of his horrific and disgusting literature has left me rattled for days, so beware!  I’ve also found some other writer bloggers by following them back from their comments left at Revellian.com.  Thanks, Bobby, for the introduction to the other writers and for the occasional vocabulary boosts!  I’m not quite sure if I want to thank you for shaking up my nervous system.

Need a reality check?  Larry Brooks over and StoryFix.com will give you one!  Just the facts baby, those very often cold and hard facts.  It’s okay, Larry is here to help us “get it written, get it right, get it published.” Larry doesn’t pull any punches or play games with the facts.  I’m just glad he wasn’t one of my high school teachers!  I subscribed to his posts (as I have with the others) and I save them all so I don’t miss too much.  For many things that have caught my attention, I keep a tab open on my Firefox browser.  For StoryFix, I have a whole window set aside from the rest.  I think that’s a compliment.   It doesn’t say much about my ability to commit and stay focused, but that’s another issue.

Jennifer, who is Writing to Survive, presents some very insightful thoughts and provides a little of her own inspiration without even realizing it.  She too seems to have novel aspirations!  Reading between the lines, it seems that Jennifer has been infected by the NaNoWriMo bug, as have I.

Many people have been infected by the NaNoWriMo bug and that’s not just Americans — there are people from all over the World that focus in on National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) every November. At this point I have to mention Chris Baty and his No Plot? No Problem!  Chris says it’s not a problem but Larry Brooks says, “Wanna bet?”  Hey, I never said they all agree with each other!

I do have to also acknowledge that this post has gotten way longer than I had originally intended.  I’ll end here and figure out who has been forgotten and talk about them later.  What got into me?  I have no idea!  They have all inspired me in one way or another and I just felt the urge to share some link love with them.  Besides, anyone willing to help me fix my writing receives automatic friend status!   Thanks guys, for helping me with my literary aspirations!

Shame on me!  Homespun Honolulu’s birthday was yesterday, January 12th.  My blog and my husband share the same birthday so that makes it easy to remember.

I was a little focused on trying to figure out something to do for hubby yesterday so I didn’t think my blog would mind a belated birthday wish.

Homespun Honolulu is three (3) years old!  Still a baby with a lot of growing pains to go.  It’s all good pain though and it’s fun to keep track of these things.  Homespun Honolulu’s New Year’s resolution: TALK MORE AND KEEP TALKING!

Since we’re going to be doing quite a bit of traveling with this Carnival I thought it might be a good idea to find a nice comfortable tree with a lot of shade.  Pull up a folding chair or a beach mat and find a good spot under this beautiful, old tree and enjoy the ride!

Now we all know how much we need food to sustain us on our Carnival journey!

SVB talks about Cutting Food Costs: Consumers Switch To Spam posted at The Digerati Life.  While SVB chuckles at the Spam mania, Hormel is adding up their income; they have got to love us over here!  Anyone remember the crowd of campers waiting for Mililani WalMart to open with their sale of Spam at .99 cents a can?  Oh my!  Only in Hawai’i!

With a meal like that we do need our exercise.

Ryan Suenaga helps us with that when he talks all about the Great Aloha Run 2010 posted at his blog, The Athletic Diabetic.  He’ll get no arguments from me!  I can’t wait!

But, that’s in February.  We’re just a little anxious.  Let’s finish up with our New Year’s celebration!

Susan says Happy New Year! to us from the poop deck of the Falls of Clyde.  This is one of the Notes from the Wooden and Iron World.  I’m excited to have Susan join us, and from the poop deck of my boat no less!  I hope she joins us often!  We need more maritime “rides” for our little Carnival!  I know the Falls has already been labeled a Carnival “ride” but Susan has a little bit more of the inside scoops!  There is more wood and iron sailing around out there too!

We need to dry our feet a bit so we’re going further inland.

Kris takes us to the Big Island of Hawaii to visit the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Garden posted over at Big Island on the Cheap.  It’s always good to find bargains that are breathtaking!

There’s the beautiful that Kris shared with us and then there’s the historical with its emotional impact.

Sheila tells us about Visiting the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor posted as part of the Hawaii Vacation Advice at GoVisitHawaii.com.  This is good advice too — many of us, self included, that have lived here all our lives are yet to visit this part of American History.  Sheila is doing way better than I! 

We’re getting our feet wet again so I think we need to get a little bit of elevation before our toes wrinkle up too much!

Andrew Cooper shares a schedule of Sky Events for 2010 posted at A Darker View.  I still like that name.  This schedule is something new to me.  I didn’t know events such as these could be predicted with such accuracy!  Cool stuff for those of us who are astronomically inclined.

Too much elevation?  Are you dizzy yet?  Too high?  How about a clean, clear glass of cool water?

Aloha Tony tells us how to get America’s top 10 best tap water - Honolulu is #6 posted at Hawaii real estate. I think Honolulu should be #1.  I’m not biased or anything you understand.  If you want to live with all of this beauty and clean water, Tony might be able to help you with that too!  Maybe he can find you an awesome place to live.

Concerned about the community and the neighborhoods?

Evelyn (that’s me) right here at Homespun Honolulu looks at not only the beauty of the island but at the concern and camaraderie of its community members while talking about the Magic of Community and the Majesty of Nu’uanu.

Now, while your feet may be really dry, we may have wet your appetite for a vacation in the sun.  If so, be sure to start thinking about planning your 2010 vacation very soon!

Pua blogs all about that at her Hawaii Vacation Blog.  Pua wants to know if you’re Planning a Hawaii Vacation in 2010 as she tells us about things on land and on the sea that can be part of your vacation’s agenda.

If you’re not here now, what are you waiting for?  Happy New Year everyone!

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NOTE: I got so excited about getting this published that I forgot to include information for everyone to join us for the Carnival of Aloha next month!   Submit your blog article for the next chapter using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.  It has been brought to my attention, more than once, that people have been having some difficulty with the submission form.  If this happens, feel free to send the link for your article directly to me via email.  Don’t worry, we’ll throw a lei around you and pull you in! 

Happy New Year Everyone! 

Two Carnival Announcements:

Carnival of Aloha - If you’re still thinking about submitting your article and you’re worried about the deadline, I’ve changed the deadline to tomorrow (Sunday) at noon.  So, send your posts in you guys!

Carnival of Cities - The Carnival of Cities was the guide by which the Carnival of Aloha was set up.  When Homespun Honolulu began, the Carnival of Cities started at the same time by the same organization.  Every once in a while I think about the Carnival of Cities and send in an article that means a lot to me, which I just did recently.

Oh my!  I got nervous when I saw this!  Twenty-three (23) entries in this particular edition of the Carnival of Cities.  Kudos to the host of the Carnival this time!  Roaming Tales — I like that name!

While acknowledging that I have been just a bit out of the loop on a lot of things recently, I decided that my poor, neglected, little blog was in need of something festive!

So, I’m publishing a special Carnival of Aloha with the assistance of some of our previous Hawai’i visitors!

Some I begged and some I just “forced” to join us.  I didn’t really think they would mind. Besides, there isn’t a blogger or a writer that I know who doesn’t appreciate a little link love from time to time!

By invitation, or my begging, please join me and our Hawai’i visitors for a special carnival and help me bring everybody back into the loop for the next Carnival scheduled to go live on January 4th!  Come with me and let’s go visit them all!

Now, those who are familiar with our usual Carnival journey know we always have to have at least one contributor who feeds us.  Most people know how much we all love our food!  This time, we’re in very good shape!  In fact, we’ve got us a real live chef!

Chef Mark Tafoya over at the Culinary Media Network (I love that name) always makes sure his readers have sustenance!  Chef Mark said I could take my pick.  I tried but I couldn’t!  So, you have to choose your favorite!  There were a couple that stood out for me.  I love the products from Alii Kula Lavender so that one struck a chord.  The other one was about a place that, while thinking about it for a long time, I have been a little apprehensive to cover.  The Honolulu Fish Auction!  Thank you, Mark, for covering that while you were here!

Shira, one of the editor/contributors at Jaunted, was kind enough to also share her stories with us.  Of course I had to be partial to anything that says Honolulu Me Please!

I wanted to share this one too!  Shira also shares a video about how they went Dipping Into the Queen’s Bath on Kauai.

Still thinking about our visitors, I knew where I wanted to go!

I went to Sheila over at Go Visit Hawaii and asked for something to include.  I couldn’t forget mine and the Carnival of Aloha’s own Hawai’i-loving, travel darling!  Now that my brain seems back on track, I have to pay attention when Sheila says, Don’t Miss the Nuuanu Pali Lookout on Oahu.

Everything Sheila says is true and, depending on the weather, the wind up there can be very, very strong!

Jim Turner, who doesn’t know I’m doing this, needs to get some extra credit for his blog.   In case you’re still hungry, Jim shares his visit to Macadamia Nut Heave at the Mauna Loa Factory.

I’ve never seen this before and thought it was so cute!  Obviously their commercial is working because I started singing their jingle, “Maunaloa macadamias…”

I owe a huge apology to two bloggers who just missed the time cutoff for the last Carnival published here.  It’s amazing to me how these two posts remain timely even six months later!

Ryan over at Uncommon Cents asks his readers, “Fourteen Percent — Could You Cut Your Budget That Much?” as he shares the story of our State’s furloughs.  It remains timely as we still struggle with it and the battle continues between the Governor and the Hawaii State Teachers Association.

No wonder that our finances are in a mess!  Can any of us handle it?  Well, we can tell by other parts of the economy as we can see with our next blogger.

Pua over at Best Hawaii Vacation with Hawaii Vacation Blog asks, Will Hawaii foreclosures help your dream of living in Hawaii?  I’m not sure how many are willing to brave our economy right now but this is certainly indicative of how well a lot of us are doing.

It’s interesting to note that even with the financial crunch that so many of us are feeling right now, many individuals and companies, while nipping their holiday spending, have opted to give their funds to the Hawaii Food Bank, the Lokahi Giving Project, and other charities like these.  The joy of giving is still there and, finances be damned, we’re still sharing the Aloha!

Mahalo to all of the bloggers/writers in this special edition!  Heartfelt gratitude goes out to those who waited forever and to those who answered my plea to let me bring them back to the islands, virtually.  Please share with your fellow travelers and blogger buddies!  If you’re on Facebook, please come back here to leave comments so the other participants can see your reactions!

Merry Christmas everyone!  ALL bloggers, please be sure to join us for the first Carnival of Aloha of 2010 — it is scheduled to go live on January 4th!  The deadline for submissions is this coming Wednesday, December 30th.  Hope to see you all there!

There is no event quite like this one to light a fire under me to start “talking” again.  I miss writing, I miss talking, and I so miss sharing!  We’ll talk about the New Year and early resolutions in a bit.  Right now, let’s talk about Christmas and one of the landmark events that signal that it is upon us.

Street Bikers United Hawaii joined forces with the United States Marine Corps Reserve, just as they do every year.  The fun part is that there are always new surprises and fun things to see.

Every year I wait for this event, just because.

Phenomenons like this one happen across the country.  Hawai’i is not the only State to see this happen.  Yes, I call it a phenomenon because our bikers just show up with little provocation.  I’m obviously not the only one who looks forward to this!

There is just something so delightful about a bunch of toy-carting bikers that is enough to make people’s hearts all warm and fuzzy.  Of course that’s after they’re done scratching their heads.

It’s an awesome sight; let me show you!

Since I need to get rid of my wheels (since I have four instead of only 2) before I venture out with my camera, I find a safe spot to get rid of them and go the rest of the way on foot to Magic Island where the event begins.

Many bikers get close to Magic Island but some stop for breakfast before continuing — including Santa and some of his elves.

When I first got there the parking lot was already starting to fill up.

It was amazing to watch the lot fill up and get more and more crowded.  Who would have thought that there were even that many bikes on Oahu?

The lot was filling with more bikes, more Santas, more toys, and more enthusiasm.  When all was said and done, there were over 6,500 bikes!

As they continued to file in, I kept thinking about just how perfect the weather was for a day like this.  It wasn’t too hot but the sun was out and being its usual bright self.  

It was a good thing that it wasn’t too hot because the volunteers directing the influx of bikers were being kept very busy!  The bikers dressed in Santa suits must have been baking up pretty nicely as well.

There were more people than bikes because a lot of the bikers had their ladies with them.

Here is Ralph and Wanda — these two go everywhere together!  I was looking for them because I really don’t know anybody else personally.  I found them!  These two are inseparable and theirs is a heartwarming relationship to watch.

Here’s a dad with his little lady.  This cutie got a lot of attention from those of us with cameras — you can tell by the shadows off to the right.  You can also tell that she was a little embarrassed by all of the attention.

There were a variety of other kinds of passengers too!

All of these characters riding with these ferocious bikers. Terrible, terrible! :)

Here is a favorite group of characters!  GEICO was there walking around and handing out bandannas.  In a feeble attempt to score a gecko scarf I said, “I don’t have a bike but my car is GEICO-insured!”

“It’s all good!” was the response.  Hmmm, that was not so feeble after all.  I ended up with a couple of crisply-folded bandannas tucked in at my waist — I was a walking advertisement!  Trust me, they didn’t mind.

The run/parade was supposed to start at 10:00 am but at 10:30 bikers were still filing into the park.

At the ultimate destination, Kapiolani Community College, the Marines collected the cargo from the bikers and still the smiles of participants and spectators continued to appear on faces old and young.

Here, Santa had the Grinch all tied up!

This Grinch was on the loose.

Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!

At the end of the line the bikes are more spread out so you can see all of the polishing that went on before this event.

You can also see a few more oddities that we missed at the beginning of all this.  I’m guessing those are moose antlers but they do quite nicely as reindeer antlers.  It’s Christmas time and these “reindeer” can fly!  As always, they should fly safely.

Now that I’ve shared all of that, I have to say how happy I am to be sharing this fun event with everyone and I’m sorry that I have not been writing and sharing more recently.  The fire has been lit — thanks to Street Bikers United and our Marines!  I’m starting early with my resolutions.  I hereby resolve to post more often and try not to let a down time like this happen again!

I’ve got two weeks to whip this baby into shape!  

This month, we’re flying high as visiting bloggers from across the country come riding in on the surf for a visit!  I got so excited when I saw this!

Ryan opens things for us this month by letting us know that The Bloggers are Coming posted over at his Hawaii Blog.  Ryan describes it as “an experiment by the Hawaii Tourism Authority and Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau to reach beyond the traditional media and professional travel agents to see if bloggers and vloggers can help spread the appeal of the Aloha State to a new audience.” If you’re on Twitter, search for the hashtag #hawaiihta to see what they’re up to and you can follow what they’ve been up to that way too!

Once we get through Ryan’s post we’re going to need some sustenance to keep our energy up.  As much as “I’m lovin’ it,” we’re going to drive right on passed McDonalds and follow one of our seasoned Hawaii visitors and Carnival bloggers to see what she’s got waiting for us.

Sheila takes care of our hunger this month with Liliha Bakery Coco Puffs: A Must Try On Your Oahu Vacation posted at Hawaii Vacation Blog - GoVisitHawaii.com, saying, “Mahalo Evelyn for putting Liliha Bakery’s coco puffs onto my radar. We did get to try them and they ‘broke da mouth’!”

Before you eat too many of those I have to say, first of all, that it’s not my fault, and then suggest that you follow the advice of our next blogger before you eat too many of those!  Did I tell you it’s not my fault?

Kris Nelson strongly suggests Having Vacation Portraits Taken – Creating Personalized Memories posted at Ka’anapali Dreamin’ Blog, saying, “Hoping this post helps encourage people to consider having vacation portraits taken while in paradise as we did earlier this year. I’ve been hard pressed to find a more special way to leave the islands with such a personalized memento of Hawaii, and one that will have people talking about (and missing) the islands every time they see those photos.”

That part — talking about and missing the islands — that is our fault!  :)  Memories, history, and traditions are important to us too. Read on and see!

Neenz rejoins us this month and shares a piece of that history  with a post written by a guest blogger called “Talking Story with Hawai’i’s Living Hisotry”: Helen Hiroko Hongo posted over at a blog that’s new to me called Hawaii Traditions.  I love that title!

I’ve missed Neenz recently but I’m left scratching my head as I’m wondering how and why we have felt such a very strong push to visit and embrace the history and culture of our home — simultaneously it seems.  Separate and apart from each other.

Evelyn (that’s me) has been concerned more and more with Preserving Hawaiian Language and Culture and has been talking about related topics here at Homespun Honolulu quite a bit recently.  I’m not complaining about this rekindling of the aloha for our history and culture, far from it!  :)  I’m just pleased and intrigued that I’m not alone in this.   

Are you still thinking about your next vacation?

Pua can give you 3 Reasons to Visit Hawaii this Summer.  She posted them over at Best Hawaii Vacation with Hawaii Vacation Blog and explains that “as the Economic Slowdown is challenging the Mainland and Hawaii, a trip to Hawaii has actually never been as affordable during the recent years as NOW. A vacation in Hawaii may help visitors to leave worries behind, to rejuvenate and replenish their energy.”

That’s it!  Whew!  A huge “Mahalo!” goes out to our visiting bloggers with hopes that they will join us for next month’s Carnival of Aloha with their favorite stories from their visit!   Submit your blog article for the next chapter using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: carnival of aloha, blog carnival.