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Slug blending in with the newly stained sidewalk.

MELLOW YELLOW

We are still out of our blooming minds here on Maui and today want to share with you SOME of the yellow flowering plants that are brightening up our world.

Two indigenous trees Ma'o or Hawaiian Cotton and
Milo.

The small yellow flowers here on the Banana plant will one day be full grown bananas.

Yellow Alder or Sundrops are an obnoxious weed that can get about 8 feet wide and 5 feet high. We just pulled about 100 of them, but left about 50 in the gulch because the bee's love them.

The Cup of Gold is a large flower that smells like coconut suntan lotion.

The plumeria here are indeed white, but we identify them by the color of the center. Some have more pink, some more yellow some all white,

Plumeria.

We think this is called
Chenopodium Oahuense or Hawaiian Goosefoot.

Trimeza Lily.

This is called a Yellow Canna Lily, but it's not a lily at all. The seed pods to the left dry up and inside are small black seeds that drop to the ground which produce more and more cannas. The seeds are used for jewelry as well as 'uli'uli.

Allamanda

This Silver Trumpet Tree or Tree Of Gold, is not really silver at all as it boasts yellow flowers. Perhaps it's mainly called a Silver Trumpet  because of it's somewhat silvery leaves and bark.

This Silver Trumpet Tree or Tree Of Gold was on it's last leg when we arrived here 3 years ago. It was nearly on it's side and we had it staked for over a year bring it back to it's full glory and has actually gotten about 4-5 feet of new growth.

Silver Trumpet Tree or Tree Of Gold and
Pink Trumpet Or Pink Tecoma side by side in the gulch. More on the pink coming up in a the Pink post.

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Coconut fiber from the trunk of a young Coconut Palm.

HOT PLANTS

Here are a few, ok a lot, of orange flowers blooming now. I'm sad to say that none of them really have a fragrance. But who needs to smell good when you look this hot? More colors soon.

Bird of Paradise

Hibiscus and Cosmos

African Tulip Tree We would love a yellow version of the African tulip tree.
Hibiscus kokio is an endemic species here in Hawai'i. We have 3 other Hawaiian Hibiscus that are not blooming right now.
We would love a yellow version of the African tulip tree.

I think this is aHeliconia Wagneriana.

I originally thought this was a Kafir Lily but recently found out that it is in fact a Barbados Lily.

Still looking for what these 2 Hibiscus are called.

Oleander and Ixora

Heliconia Latispatha and Parrot Heliconia

WHITE NOW 2.0

Guava

Yesterday's white flower post was just half of the whites we have blooming around here right now. I tried to narrow it down, but there are too many beauties to not share as many as possible. So here are some more...

Female Papaya Flower

Male Papaya Flowers and Male flowers used on a cake. As you can see the males grow in clusters and the females grow as single flowers. I like to use the male flowers because 1, they smell amazing and 2, it's ok to pick the males as they do not produce fruit.

Asparagus Fern. These little buggers are not really a fern and full of thorns that are like splinters. The smell early in the morning when the sun warms them is like hot buttered popcorn.

Madagascar Periwinkle. We have this in about 3 other colors as well.

Now we have been told this is a number of things, but we are pretty sure it's a Yellow Lemon Guava. It bears small pear shaped fruits about 1 1/2" long and tastes like a combo of bananas and grapes.

Spider Lilies

WHITE NOW

Gardenia

Even though it's green here 365 days a year, we don't always have an abundance of flowers that spring forth. Some are seasonal like the gardenia, stephanotis, orange blossom, mac nut blossom and kukui. Here is a selection of what's White Hot right now. I have not gotten a descent shot of the night blooming jasmine though, so these will have to do. Stay tuned for more flowers by color soon.

Shell Ginger

Nandina

Orange Blossoms

Two natives - Naupaka & Kukui

Macadamia Nut Blossoms

Monstera Deliciosa

Stephanotis

Gardenia

PHAMILIAR PHACE?

Many of you might remember Kekoa, the ring neck pheasant we took under our wing in 2008. It's been a little over a year now since we had to send Kekoa upcountry, but we have another pheasant that is almost as good. This is his dad or as we call him, BIG DADDY or Limpy because he has a bum right leg. He has always had a bad leg, but this April we noticed it had gotten worse. He still manages to come all the way across the yard with no problem when I call him for dinner though. Here are a few pics from yesterdays feeding. He has been living in the pine trees next door for at least the last 5 years... maybe longer. As of few months ago he was not so into us. Lately all I have to do is call for him and here he comes... within about 12 feet I'd say. I toss the seed down, take a few steps back and sit in the grass while he eats. Little by little we are getting closer, but we won't be petting or hand feeding him anytime soon. And no Mac Nuts either.  It's just nice to be this close to nature and have them know you mean them no harm.

You can see his right foot is twice the size of his left. This is a new injury.  The 2x4's are braces we made to hold up the banana plants heavy with fruit.

Sharing breakfast with the male Grey Francolin also known as Franky and a slew of Zebra Doves. More on them soon.

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Caldium are also known as elephant ear. I don't know what made me buy these bulbs other than we didn't have any and needed a low growing plant near the water tanks. I've never really been a fan of red and green together, but I have to say these are something else.

BUY THE BOOK

A selection of paintings from the opening.

For those of you that are in or might find yourself in San Francisco, please join our friends Lauren and Derek this Friday,  May 14th (...OH THAT'S TODAY) to celebrate the opening of "Ideal Bookshelves" featuring paintings, prints, and postcards by the talented Jane Mount. Many of the pieces in the show represent Ideal Bookshelves submitted by their friends, both from San Francisco and around the country. Lauren says "It's an amazing and beautiful collection, and it's been endlessly fascinating to check out all the great books people are into these days."

If you can't make the opening. Stop by when you can and buy a book painting.

WHAT: Ideal Bookshelves, works by Jane Mount

WHEN: Opening Party Friday, May 14, 6-8pm.

WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia St.

You can see all the pieces and the amazing sculptures here

We submitted a selection of books and here is the painting of it.
Before anyone gets any ideas and pulls out their checkbook, sorry, but we already bought this one. WE HAD TO. It's the perfect addition to the new office.

The photo we submitted.

And the final painting of our books.

FREEZE!

Orange Ice Cream topped with surinam cherry.

Last week we FINALLY broke down and bought a KitchenAid Mixer with ice cream making bowl attachment. Macy's had a super sale so how could we resist? The colors stocked were not what we hoped, so we settled on the Architect Series which only comes in a stainless steel color. Of course we would have loved the Persimmon or Tangerine, but it works out to be the best color as it matches the other appliances and pretty much disappears on the counter.

(p.s. - while searching out the link on KitchenAid.com, I discovered a special promotion and looks like we will now be the proud owners of a Roto Slicer / Shredder. I never knew that you could go online and get rebates and offers even if you bought at Macy's.)

I made this delicious orange ice cream with oranges from our tree and I might go so far as to say it's knocking my socks off. The process to make ice cream is not quite as simple as one would think. It's pretty easy, but he bowl attachment must be frozen for at least 15 hours to start with. Then you need to make the batter and chill that for up to 4 hours before pouring into the bowl and stirring away. Once in the bowl and the machine is on, you only need to allow it to stir for 20 minutes until it reaches a sort of soft serve consistency. Once that is done you pour it into containers and freeze for at least four hours to finish the process. So much for instant gratification. But it was money well spent considering we can spend $9 on a gallon of Roselani... in our opinion the best ice cream on the planet... well the best in the islands anyway. We will still buy Roselani because it's so freakin' good and we do want to support local business.

The recipe I made up is based on 3 different recipes:

1 1/4 cups fresh orange juice  
(concentrate or packaged would work just as well, but you need the zest anyway, so go with fresh.)
Zest of 4 medium oranges
1 cup sugar
2 cups sour cream
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 inch chunk of fresh or frozen ginger sliced 1/8 inch thick or grated.

After zesting the oranges with a microplane I like to give it a few passes with a mezzaluna to really release the oils.

I placed the ginger and zest in tea strainers and simmer with the orange juice, honey and sugar. While that simmers on low, prepare your sour cream, milk and vanilla. Our favorite cooking honey is by Royal Hawaiian Honey. The one we have right now is the Organic Christmas Berry. It's really smooth and does not burn your throat like some honey can. We are looking forward to trying the Lehua and Mac Nut Blossom soon.

Remove zest and ginger from the orange juice. Allow juice to cool to room temperature. Slowly add to sour cream, milk and vanilla. Whisk vigorously to make sure the sour cream is smooth. Chill the batter for 4 hours.

Turn on the mixer and slowly add the batter to the bowl. Allow to stir for 20 minutes.

Detail of texture when ready.

Pour ice cream into containers suitable for freezing and allow to set for at least 4 hours. When the center is solid, your ice cream is ready. Enjoy.