TROUTS
LATEST PHOTOS
August,
2001 – Issue #3
BOB
AND CAMILLE AT HOME ON MAUI
BETTER HOME AND GARDENS –
BEFORE AND AFTER
We’ve come a long way in a
year. Bob took this picture of the house from the garden and then
another just 20 feet over where the weed bank still grows strong and thick,
like a great wave of destruction, smothering everything in it’s path.
Last August, every view looked like this one. That pretty little tree
in the middle of the garden is a ylang ylang that had been buried under the
wave. Bob nearly ended it’s life with a machete stroke. He also
uncovered artichokes, peppers, oregano, tarragon and lemon grass. All
have come back to flourish in our great, fertile climate. After mowing
the weeds for a few months, it all turned into lawn.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HOUSE
The removal of a weed hedge
between our garden and Duke’s opened things up and send us around to the
other side of the property. We have since created this new parking
spot for the BioPod. The advantage is that it is level and not beneath
any sap-yielding trees. The Secret Garden is hiding just beyond the
car.
We spent several hours
reclaiming space in our laundry shed after Theresa’s boys removed the last
of their wood pile. Now Bob has a work bench and we were able to get
out our tool dresser and fill it with tools from the house. It is
great to have the extra space in the house and a nice place to work outside.
CYNTHIA RIDES AGAIN
Behind every good rider is a
good groom or two. Bob and I took turns this August 25th babysitting
Pele while she adjusted to the grounds at Pi’iholo Stables. She still
managed to booger at the far end of the arena and it cost Cynthia her usual
good score. Cynthia tells us that we are responsible for her earning
the high point at three shows in a row. We do it because it is
relaxing and fun to spend a few hours palling around with our horse buddies.
This stable is only a 15
minute walk from our house and the owner, Jillian is a very nice lady.
She has 65 students and gives 125 lessons a week out of her barn in
everything from vaulting to dressage to polo. She also offers Summer
Horsemanship Day Camp for kids on summer vacation.
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE – GIANTS
IN THE GARDEN
Bob set the camera on the
ground and took these pictures just for fun. Most of our days end
right here in the garden at sunset. What a great life! (August 19)
Evening in the garden –
August 14
HOME IMPROVEMENTS
On the weekend of Aug 12, we
worked around the grounds as usual and uncovered a nice, new staging place
for our compost pile. It took us hours. Camille is pointing out
her “Fern River” which pours from the house through the vinca.
OUR LAST HURRAH BEFORE AMY
HEADED HOME WAS A TRIP TO KAUAI
We stayed at the Hyatt for two
nights (August 8 and 9) and made good use of the Regency Club’s breakfast and
5:00 pupus.
The hotel is beautifully
landscaped with ponds, pools, lagoons and gardens. Here, Camille and Amy
are dressed in their welcome leis to go to the Regency Club and have
“dinner.” It was wonderful to relax and not worry about the
dishes!
The next morning, we went for a
hike along the nearby cliffs. This part of Kauai was used in the filming
of the movie “The Lost World” which was the sequel to “Jurassic
Park.” It DOES have a prehistoric feel to it; but not to the degree I
felt in Hana. It rained during our hike but we had a lovely time
anyway. Amy was trying to demonstrate the degree to which these cliffs
hung out into thin air but it didn’t come across in this photo. We had
been standing on the ledge behind Amy and feeling very safe until we walked
further down and saw just how thin it looked from 50 feet away.
A sunset stroll along the beach in
front of the hotel was our after dinner treat. We watched locals jump off
this rock into the water during the day. They had to time it just right in
order to catch a wave coming in to make the water deep enough. The surf
here was a bit too much for body surfing but we enjoyed watching the surfers
tackle it.
Most of our time was spent in the
pools. We made this little cove our home base. There were all kinds
of caves and waterfalls connected by a long system of pools and lagoons.
We enjoyed the water slide and played Volleyball and Basketball.
A TRIP TO THE GREENHOUSE
On Your Mark, Get Ready, GO!
Gentlemen, grab your machetes! We decided to share the experience of
making it to the greenhouse with Amy on August 5th. There it is in the
background, hidden behind cane grass and other noxious weeds. The first
challenge is to find the door. The next challenge is to get up to
it. Fortunately, we knew where the door was already.
Amy shows just how tight the
passage is. One must kneel, reach up and push in order to break on through
to the other side. And what do we find inside this cleverly disguised
building? More cane grass, old plastic pots and wasps.
THE BEGINNINGS OF A SECRET GARDEN
It doesn’t look like much but,
this will be a little place to plant things or sit and read some day soon.
To the left is a long path winding back around the cane grass behind the laundry
shed which Bob spent hours making. The buckets are temporary seating in
the garden itself which stopped growing in square footage when Bob ran into yet,
another pile of rubbish.
Yes, this is the man I love.
Here he has been captured at Amy’s eye level.