Spring

Spring is now here. The signs are subtle but there. The na kolea (Golden plovers to non Hawaiians) have now gone into summer plumage and are making the most of the last opportunity to devour anything insect like being that creeps, hops or crawls in the yard. That high protein will be necessary when today or tomorrow they form into flocks and depart for their long flight to Alaska and summer breeding. 

The resident francolin pair that has adopted us is now scouting the yard again looking for a suitable nest site. They must be much better at raising chicks than the chickens from down the road. The chickens will have broods of eight or ten and in about two to three weeks that is down to two or three, whereas the francolins can start with a brood of ten to twelve and finish with eight to ten that survive to adulthood.

The jacaranda trees are in flower. The jacaranda is interesting, the individual blossoms have no real discernible scent, at least not to me, perhaps to my dogs, but when you walk by the tree there is a distinctive scent that, for me, evokes memories of Zambia and South Africa. For me it means dryness and heat if that can be related to odor.

The avocado trees have flowered and are now releafing. They are not deciduous, but there is a definite change in leaves as last season's leaves dry, whither and fall off littering the ground, while now leaves spring forth. The all spice tree has also flowered so later this year there will be berries to gather, while they are still green, and then dried to yield all spice.

The sun, or rather the earth's aspect to the sun, has moved around and the dawn now comes up with the sun shining into Karen's studio while the sunset is now hidden behind trees and no longer directly to the west of the house over the ocean and the hours of daylight have increased slightly. We will never have the long evenings of the high latitudes, but the extra hour of so is nice.