So we’d planned to spend a lot of today wandering around Kaimuki with Caitlin, Lucy, and Libby. But the weather was not conducive to wandering this morning.
This morning it was wet.
Wet, wet, wet, wet, wet.
Spring mornings in Kailua aren’t known for monsoon type rains. The rain this morning would more accurately be classified as a persecuting drizzle. But, as I’ve said before, it may be wet but at least it’s warm so fuckit, I’ve got some gardening to do. Andrew is still occupied trying to resurrect a laptop for Libby’s school so he was immured in the computer room and I decided to tackle The Orchid.
The Orchid stands as high as my waist and was so pot bound that bits of it were growing over the edge of the pot. When we were out and about the other day I got a BIGASS planter for it, when we were at the orchid show yesterday I purchased some orchid growing medium for it. So now it’s time.
Just for the sake of it I tried to pull The Orchid out of the pot, but, of course, it wasn’t going to come out.
So I took a variety of sharp instruments to the plastic pot and peeled it away.
Underneath the plastic pot I found……

A blue ceramic pot. It was a very attractive pot so for the sake of trying to preserve the pot for future use I, of course, tried to pull The Orchid out of the blue ceramic pot with, of course, predictable results.
Bugger.

So I went to find the hammer and gave the blue ceramic pot a couple of good whacks. Peeled away the bits of the blue ceramic pot and underneath the blue ceramic pot I found…..
A cement pot!

Many *fragrant* words regarding pots and potbound orchids.

So I took the hammer and gave the cement pot six or eight good whacks and peeled away the bits of the cement pot to find…..
Oh frabdjous day! The orchid! All naked and on it’s own-i-o!

So I put it in the BIGASS planter and dumped the orchid growing medium in, only to find that eight quarts of orchid growing medium wasn’t enough and there’s a gap that still needs to be filled, but the orchid is, without a doubt, a lot happier.

And since I was finished, it was only 1030, and I was already dripping, I decided to attack the plumbago that’s trying to creep into the pool.
I’ll post photos of before, in the middle, and after once we’ve got enough daylight to take additional pictures, but take it for granted that there was a lot of the plumbago that ended up moving. I didn’t really have to prune much of it away. I did have to convince rather a lot of it to grow in a different direction.
Libby says that the pool man will be forever grateful since he’ll now be able to access all sides of the pool without being eaten by the shrubbery.
Andrew still doesn’t understand why I’m having fun.

Came in for lunch, absolutely, literally, dripping wet. Shower, lunch, Angry Birds. I’m playing a lot of Angry Birds.

Then we really did saddle up with Caitlin and Libby to go to Kaimuki. Our goal was Collector Maniacs and Gecko Comics while Libby was aimed straight at the Goodwill.
A wonderful geeky time was had by all on our end and I’m going to have to pack a separate box to contain all the Asterix books I found.

Tomorrow we’re going to be on a search for concrete blocks with which to build a retaining wall to hold the plumbago back. And if we don’t end up finding any, at least we’ll be in Kaneohe and we’ll be able to stop for plate lunch. MMMmmmmm! Island delicacies!

We packed up this morning and went off to the 33rd annual Windward Orchid Society show. I’ve rather got the black thumb of death with orchids, I can’t grow them at home at all….. if for no other reasons than the cats eat houseplants, but I find them fascinating. The mixture of the bright, strange color combinations and the absolutely alien shapes is so cool!

And I got a nice little Cliff Notes tutorial on orchid care which I needed since Joan has a great enormous pot bound orchid that needs to be re-potted and my concept for re-potting things would likely have killed it outright.

We had a lovely time then we dropped Libby, Joan, and half a dozen or more plants back at the house and then Andrew and I went out journeying. We were mainly in search of inexpensive, likely used, bicycles (fail), lunch (NOT fail!) at Rai Rai Ramen, and a few other peculiar errands. Rai Rai Ramen ROCKS! Yummy thick miso broth, nice al dente noodles, crunchy veggies, house made gyoza (they may not be as cohesive as the mass produced ones, but I’m willing to trade in having my gyoza hold together for the flavor). Andrew had a nice spicy multi-seafood ramen that was picante enough to make him sweat…. can you use the word picante to describe Asian food?

Then we went off on a safari looking for ginger-mint body spray. See, I bought a bottle of this stuff when we were here in December 2011 and I found that Flitter goes absolutely batshit for it. I don’t know what it is about the combination of scents, but Flitter will chase me around the house to jump on my shoulder, smear my head, and chew on my hair when I wear it. The first bottle is almost gone, I can’t find the correct scent at home, so I wanted to go back to the store where I got it to see if I could get some more.
We pulled into the parking lot at Down To Earth just as it started to rain. I’m constantly amazed by people’s reaction to the rain here. I mean, it’s drenching and all, but it’s warm!
Anyway, we pulled into the parking lot and found this dude lurking on the enclosure around the dumpster.

See the parking lot backs on the Hamakua wetlands and as I walked around the edge of the dumpster enclosure to get this photo we ran across this dude…

And then this dude…..

It’s really fun to pull into a parking lot at a little strip mall and have interesting birds just hanging out.
I also amazed one of the checkers in the store by getting close enough, although not fast enough, to catch a small dove that had wandered into the store and was enjoying himself cleaning up in front of the bulk bins.

We’re going to adventure around with Libby, Caitlin, and Lucy tomorrow with the plan being to hit at least one collectable and anime store.
I’ve got nothing more left for today, so here’s a couple more cool orchids.