The Adventures of Sunsette -- Texas Travels, Part II— Apr. 12

[Alliecat]

"Mahalo nui for reading, you guys!  We're having fun sharing our adventures with you.  Offgenemi and Greys...  Mum says it was just like sitting in your living room with surround video.... smoooooooth as you can imagine.  
"davidd... nope, no swimming.... Mum says we probably float better than she does.  Last time Mum was in Hawaii, you were not allowed to take rental cars on the Saddle Road at all.  Or to Hana.  (I'm not sure how they'd find out...?)  And the downpour was between Waimea and Kona, and it was horrible.  Mum had to pull over several times because on top of the rain, the windshield was dangerously smeary inside, and she literally couldn't see anything beyond it."

"After our week of touristing, Mum went to a women's retreat, on a multimillion-dollar estate on a hillside near Hilo, off the grid; and that's why we disappeared for a week.  We have to say we thought this was the most perfect spot on earth.  No bugs, a February that's never colder than 52F (Mum thought it was funny that the others were cold)... and flowers... so many flowers, and growing things, everywhere.  And, a magic garden."


"Mum's lei made our room smell nice for the whole week."



"This is the magic garden...."






"...and here it is at night, when it was utterly peaceful, except for the palm fronds gently clacking and the little frogs calling across the garden, asking each other, 'ko-KEEE?'"



"Flowers... flowers everywhere..."



"...and many little corners to ex-plore..."



"...with we-sized trees."












"We found a sleeping fairy."






"There was sunrise meditation overlooking the Pacific in the distance."



"Checking out the paper-bark eucalyptus."



"It was soft and spongy!"



"This little guy came out for a drink..."



"...but he was much too shy to pose with us."



"Ex-ploring the grounds, we found this swing."



"Well this is pretty perfect."
"Uh huh."
"You suppose Mum would let us stay for ever...?"
"...."


"Now, those who don't like a lot of text can scroll on through the pretty pictures, but for those who like talk story, we've got a good one for you.
"We already thought this garden might be the most perfect spot on earth, but then something quite magical happened. Not at first though…
"First, Aloalo earned her certification for stunt falls, as many of the PrettyTiny Film Company crew do -- not always on purpose. She fell out of this tree -- a good 5 feet."



"Mum had fits, but fortunately she landed on the soft moss around the tree and not the lava rock border.  Mum dusted her off and straightened her hair and determined she was OK, so we moved on to our next spot.  But, one of Alo's kupe'e came off.  Mum didn't notice until she set up for our next shot, but you can see in this picture that the left wrist one is missing."



"Mum hadn't seen it where Alo fell, and now her whole outfit was completely unbalanced.  Mum went back and looked for it.  Our photo session fizzled as she spent the rest of the free time crawling around on the moss and looking in all the plants.  She looked in the axils of the tree (which were VERY sharp); she looked around under the tree; she looked under the plants; she looked in the leaf clusters of the plants, and she looked out to the lava rock border.  Nothing.  Mum was so mad!  Now she was going to have to ask the community whether anyone would give up their Aloalo's garlands, and who would do that unless they'd rebodied her?, and maybe not even then...  Or, she was going to have to look for matching fabric and try to make one.  (Remember, Mum does not sew.)  Unlikely she'd find a match, so she'd have to find some similar fabric in a very tiny quantity and make FOUR of them.
"She crawled around for ages, got right down with her head on the moss looking along the ground to see if anything stuck up.  No luck.  She even went back out that night with a flashlight, and spent more time poking around, hoping a bit of glitter on the fabric would catch the light. Aside from it being so small, the biggest problem is that the kupe'e is exactly the same colour as the moss. Finally, she gave up, thoroughly annoyed, and went to bed.  It was very windy. Mum gave the garland up for lost.

...

"Then, the magic thing happened.  Next day, Mum was walking back to her room; she happened to glance down completely at random as she turned onto the lanai, and Alo's garland was right there at the entrance on the lava rock border.  That tiny green thing stood out on the black rock like a little beacon.  Mum couldn't believe it.  The garden gave it back to us!
"Mum says, maybe it's cos we trod lightly there and respect da aina; or maybe it's because she asked Pele, whose home we were near (...I'm not sure whether Pele is a reliable person to ask for favours or not?)…  But, that garland was absolutely not there and then it was. The wind blew exactly the right way in the right direction and then it didn't blow any farther.
"Mum put the garlands away in her suitcase so we didn't lose any more, but now Aloalo can dance again in her complete outfit."



"Make of it what you will.
Love, Sunsette"