A highlight day

Kalapaki Bay, Kauai, July 2009

Kauai, July 29th, 2009

Today we went on a lovely little day trip. We arrived at Kilohana Plantation for a train ride at 10 a.m. and rode around the old plantation, one of the last working sugar plantations on the island. They are currently using most of the land that still remains as part of the Plantation to grow crops to see what grows best, which they will then sell at a Farmer's Market that will be run from the Plantation. Sounds like a good use of the land to me.

In the middle of the trip we stopped to feed some wild pigs and goats and one sheep. Some of the train riders continued on their ride while a small group of us stayed with our guide, Kai, who had us spray down with bug spray (wish I'd brought my own!), grab a walking stick made from mango wood and head down a rainforest path to the valley of the island. Along the way we saw several lovely kinds of ginger. One was a honeycomb ginger that when you rubbed your hand on, made your skin smell of ginger...sweet! 

There was beautiful plantlife but Kai said 95% of the growth on the island was non-native, and he pointed out one example, a huge mango tree that was becoming strangled by a banyan tree. Despite the sadness surrounding the idea that much of what we were looking at was not Hawaii but more an idea of Hawaii, and that native plants are going extinct, it was a lovely, lovely hike. Along they way there was fruit on the ground that I'd never seen...orange in color, the shape of a papaya but smaller. I asked Kai about it and he said it was called a papaya passionfruit. He was able to pick a ripe one hanging from a tree for me. When I opened it it looked just like a passionfruit (which is like a watery, jello-y orange mass with dark seeds all in it, kind of just sitting in the middle of the cavity of its shell...it looks a little strange but it is delicious) and tasted slightly different but had the same texture.

We ended our hike where it began, where the train left us, and had a picnic lunch provided by the tour. Kai then took us across a meadow into the orchard, where we got to sample several exotic fruits: lychee, longan and fresh pineapple. We also saw many mango trees, sugar cane, some citrus (which I was surprised to see...doesn't it need to be cold sometimes in order for citrus to grow well?? And when we sampled it, it didn't have the right texture...too hard) and cashews...which you cannot eat until you boil because it is in the same family as poison oak and ivy. It is attached to a red fruit that is edible, but we didn't get a chance to sample it. We foraged for ourselves and came home with several of these, including a contraband pineapple that Hoss snuck into my backpack...we'll eat it before we leave here though! 

After this little adventure we headed to the big Farmer's Market of the week in Kapa'a. Fueled and inspired by our orchard visit, we stocked up on mango, papaya, passionfruit, limes, basil, greens, small purple onions, tomatoes, puree (like a mango), figs (!), finger bananas, apple bananas, coconut fresh from the shell (drinken with a straw straight from the shell and then chopped up for eating)and finally bread from a local bakery. All the produce is Kauai grown and very fresh. We will be eating from our room for the last few days of our trip. We go a little nuts around fresh fruits and veggies. Especially my hubby...mainly my hubby.

Any leftovers will go to our taxi driver, Bill, who has been carting us around and telling us about the island since just after we arrived. He is a New York native and moved here with his wife recently after having visited Kauai many times since their honeymoon here in the early '70's.

For me at least, today was the highlight of our trip. Tristan did great on our little hike (out of three children on the hike, he was the youngest and the only one who didn't cry!)

This was a great trip. Something about being in Hawaii, or at least Kauai, loosens your muscles and relaxes you.  The hunched shoulders I get at home disappear, as though the ocean, wind and beautiful views just massage them right out.

-genny

I posted several more pictures to my flickr account...if you want to see them.

(there were no leftovers save a few yet to ripen passionfruit! I can't believe how much produce we consumed in such a short period of time. Especially mangoes. Counteracted by lots of bread ; )

Feeling guilty in paradise

It has been quite a few days since I have posted...I am out of town. I somewhat guiltily left town, on a planned vacation, without mentioning it to anyone but my family and a couple of friends. But two of my friends called me while I was here and I felt awful trying to hide it from them so I told them, as I'll tell you...Kauai. I am here in Kauai, HI with my hubby and son.

Two important people in my life were really down in the dumps last week and I couldn't bring myself to tell them where I was going. Ugh. Guilt, bad economy, more guilt. Both of my friends were adamant that I should have told them so they could share in my good news, so I think I should just count my blessings for the moment and enjoy the beauty.

We are trying to enjoy this place without spending too much so we didn't rent a car and today we went to the local farmer's market to avoid eating in too many restaurants. Wow! I took great pictures that I'll post when we return. Lots of lovely, tropical fruit and flowers. Our little fridge is overflowing with mangos and bananas and passionfruit!

Summer is a wonderful time of year. I'm thinking about putting in a very small garden for cold weather veggies...is August a time to plant? I have so much to learn. What can be planted in August in California? It's so darn hot it seems like it would burn upon contact with the ground! We've got some good compost to start a garden though. Any suggestions?

Green mountains, Portland, listlessness

Tristan at farmer's market

Back from Portland, I am listless...literally - I need to write out a "to-do" list. But also pittering around listless and trying to get back into the groove of being home. On the drive home Tuesday, there was a rare two-hour period of time that I drove. Usually my hubby drives the whole trip, but he hadn't slept well the night before so he and Tristan were sleeping in the backseat. I couldn't take a picture since I had a wheel in hand, but picture verdant pastures surrounded by equally green and gray mountains, covered with a slight mist and occasional sprinkles...it was heaven to me. Oregon is such a lovely place. California ain't bad either.

Portland was great - we didn't do anything extraordinary...took a lot of walks - to the river, around the neighborhood (near PSU), in downtown. We went to the zoo one day. We got a parking ticket one day. Saturdays are the Portland Farmer's market and I go mainly for breakfast and a show. They have scrumptious breakfast burritos and always a great band playing. Tristan made some friends and they danced to the music while I feasted on scrambled eggs, melted cheese and salsa. It is always so festive on Saturday morning. The farmer's market is why I fell head over heels for Portland. That, and the accessible river, the walkable city, a central place downtown called Pioneer Courthouse square where lots of events happen (but it is called "Portland's living room" so no smoking is allowed!!), and the courtesy drivers show you when crossing the street. Pedestrian-ability is my litmus test for livability in a city. 

Anyhoo, I will hopefully get my head screwed on straight over the next few days and get organized. Thank you for this brief hiatus. I post much better when my head is on so my heart can think...

You're not swine, you're bovine! A break from mainstream media

All this talk about swine flu is making me antsy. I hate to think about staying indoors, but I've got a toddler and sometimes, even though you don't want to panic or be extreme, sometimes hand washing is not enough. Especially the way my boy puts his hands in his mouth. I think he must be growing some molars or something because he's got his little hands in there more than usual. And the last two days I haven't been making sure he's getting a lot of walking in, so last night trying to get him to go to sleep was useless until 11pm when he just konked out. The little guy needs to be outside. And trains. The public transportation system here in Portland is great, those crowded, germ breeding little cans of tin. He LOVES the trains. I think if I weren't holding his hand when the little streetcar trains passed by he'd walk right into one of them. We'll see how this whole swine flu thing plays out. Whenever we talk about the "swine" flu he informs me, "You're not swine, you're bovine," a line he loved out of one of our library books.


Take a break from mainstream media and look at the Americana photo blog I just posted on my sidebar. These photos are gorgeous. Just makes you think about real. simple. things.

Lemonade, Road Travel and Billboards

I always just assumed lemons ripened in the summer - why else would lemonade be such a summertime drink? Now that I've owned a house with a lovely Meyer lemon tree, I see how much work it takes to give away all the lemons that actually ripen in the winter. This is despite the fact that I have three in-laws who love them and eat them by the bagfuls, and a mom who also appreciates a bagful now and then. So even though we give bags and bags away, as we approach May, our tree still has tons of lemons. Well, only one thing to do with lemons - make lemonade. We just squeeze 'em, boil up some water with agave syrup and crushed dried mint, wait for it to cool, add to the lemon potion, let it sit for a few days in the fridge, then pour into ice cube trays and freeze it. When frozen we throw them in a baggy and use them to make little glasses of lemonade. Yummy.

This morning we are headed on up the road to Portland. First trip in a while. Portland is our home away from home. Several years ago we decided we would eventually move there, now that's a little up in the air - but we still love the place. Usually we fly but since we last visited our son passed the two-year mark and you all know what that means for airline prices. I thought 2-year olds flew half price but apparently I thought wrong. That means we're driving. My son is looking forward to it because it's the only time he gets to watch t.v. - on long car trips. We have a Caillou and Elmo video for him to watch - I know, I know. I'm a hypocrite - but lordy what else to do to keep him in his car-seat for 10 or more hours? I suppose it would be less of an issue if car-seats were not the law, if it were 1950 and he just went sliding about on the pleather bench seat and dvd's were non-existent. Oh how I wax nostalgic for a time when people could drive without being bombarded by media, advertisements and billboards. I think there are some scenic byways where billboards can't be found, but be sure the billboard lobbyists are looking for ways to change that. Besides, what would it matter that there were no billboards if I'm listening to Elmo's computer say, "Elmo has mail, Elmo has mail." Ugh.

Have a great weekend!

Clear windows and Crafty Mamas

clothesline

This past week at Esalen in Big Sur, my hubby, son and I got a chance to rest and play. Tristan enjoyed the meadow, the ocean, the expansive organic garden and the Gazebo school while I got a chance to hang out all by myself for the first time since before he was born. One day I volunteered to work in the garden (not a selfless act, I love to garden occasionally, especially now that I don't have my own)! Two of the days had morning pranayama (breath) and yoga classes, which I thankfully took part in. Thomas was the teacher and at one point in the class he talked about how conscious breathing was like a window, and if you paid attention you could really see things - everything around you - clearly. I'm paraphrasing there, so it might not be exactly what he said, but it was very clear in that moment, and I was breathing consciously and seeing everything quite clearly at that moment. What a wonderful moment! Nothing in front of me, nothing behind me, just right there. I love being a mom but it does make for a very busy mind!

A week or so before leaving for Big Sur I got my new copy of Mothering magazine where I read a great article about crafty mamas! I began to look at these women's blogs and was hit again with inspiration...and a little envy! How I wished I could whip up something as quick as the Soule Mama and Angry Chicken moms can! Anyway, it inspired me to make a little wrap-around-skirt with a great fabric of colorful umbrellas hemmed with a forest green grosgrain ribbon. My first effort - not bad. I'm lucky to have been raised by a mom who grew up sewing her own clothes (even her own wedding dress!) and spent some time with me during my youth teaching me a little about how to use a sewing machine. I got my own machine while I was pregnant hoping to finish a quilt I started working on. I finished all the cutting but by the time I was done, I was 6 months pregnant and my hands were crippled with pregnancy carpal-tunnel, and I just couldn't finish...someday though! Looking at these women's blogs daily though, gives me further inspiration for what may someday become a master's project, or at least somehow incorporated: the history of women's handwork (in the United States). Lots of women bringing this back into vogue - through expression of creativity and sometimes necessity these days, I am so excited to research this topic. Someday soon hopefully...

On your mark...

well, I guess I should start by saying how excited I was to come up with "gennysent page" - it's my first name, middle initial and first 3 letters of my last name "genny s. ent" and "page,"which is obvious. Rhymes with "the innocent age." Innocent being this time in life where my son Tristan, 27 months, is and hopefully will remain for quite some time! "The Innocent Age" also refers to Edith Wharton's book of same title, a nod to fiction, which I love to read, and also a nod to history, which I can't get enough of. I will hopefully start school again in the fall to finish a masters in Public History. Part of the reason I've started this blog is because of the ideas I am coming up with in the areas of history I am most interested in, mainly material history: the history of things - that which you can lay your hands on, the physical evidence of time past/passed. At the moment I am in the middle of a creative explosion which came upon suddenly in the form of one of those materials: paper.

I've always loved paper, to touch fine paper, write on it with a good pen and now, as this creative endeavor has been going, to draw on it and cut it out and paste it onto cardstock in the form of something. A couch and lamp, a vase of flowers upon a table over a persian carpet, a dining room table and chairs, zoo animals, clothes hanging from a clothesline, and on and on...Initially this started because my friend Felicia sent out postcards of collage art every Chinese New Year with that year's animal. During a trip to Amsterdam last May at a sweet little brunch cafe there was some wall art of a cut-out tree with many leaves, each leaf separate and placed individually onto the wall like wallpaper. These two things started the idea, as well as falling in love with the chiyogami paper at the art store...

I have one son whom I love more than words can say, as all mothers love their children. I'm also crazy about my hubby who I've been with for 9 years. We had/have a mutual love of travel, which hasn't seemed to dissipate even with a young child. I find myself in the unique?, lucky?, position of traveling often and occasionally far, as my husband follows his teacher, Gangaji, from place to place. This took us to Amsterdam in May, took him to Vancouver, B.C. in July, and we took an East Coast trip to Boston, Berkshires and NYC last September when Gangaji was at the Kripalu Institute in Lenox, Massachusetts. Yesterday, we returned from Esalen in Big Sur, California, where Gangaji had satsang that my hubby attended. Tristan had his first hours away from mom (or, I should say, mom had her first hours away from Tristan) as he played intently with other children and teachers at the Gazebo school. And mom, yes, yo, got to have some serious down time. The first in over 2 and a half years. You are doing the math with the 27 months there, I can tell, so let me just ask, is it really possible to relax when you are past 6 months pregnant?