The "Fever" has come early this year...

Last year I wrote about the "illness" that strikes me usually some time in January. This year, it has come early. I've got Hawaii Fever.

Since I can't spend the next 2 months sitting here (can't afford that by any stretch of the imagination)...

...I have to improvise as best I can. I have a chaise lounge out in the back garden. On days when there's sun, I bundle up in as many layers as is necessary to keep the cold out (sometimes more than less) and I go out to the chaise. I position it to face the sun fully, and stretch out. I close my eyes. If there isn't any wind, the warmth of the sun builds up on my face and it feels like I'm really there in Hawaii. I've got the sound of the pond waterfall to even help with the ambiance.

I was chatting with a friend today at church about my having Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Hubby has filled the entire house with full spectrum light bulbs and bought me a SAD light box. There are evenings when I will sit on the couch with the shade of a reading lamp positioned right over my head like I'm the life of the party with a lampshade on my head. I sit there drinking in the warmth of the full spectrum bulb. Still, there is really nothing better than good ole' sunshine.

As the days gets shorter and shorter, I can feel the yearning for sun increasing. I count down the days until the shortest day of the year, and am so glad when it finally arrives because I can gleefully anticipate that each day from that point on will get longer.

Some may think that living here in Northern California should make SAD a piece of cake, but it really doesn't. It just makes it better than living somewhere farther north where the days are even shorter. We still live far from the equator, and we still get our form of winter (yesterday's high was 45F, and it was a humid nippy 45F at that). I know some colder climates that get snow but have much more winter sun than we do because the air is crisp and clear. Our Christmases are foggy ones with the night air coming in like a dense cold blanket. Looking at Christmas lights through fog is the quintessential image of a Bay Area Christmas for me.

Over 20 years ago, I lived in Hawaii for 3 1/2 months while going to school on the island of O'ahu at the campus of BYU-Hawaii. The days don't fluctuate all that much in length during the year--not as much as here. My fondest December memory was sitting on Temple Beach on North Shore under a full moon with my feet buried in the sand, while a group of us were gathered singing Christmas carols to the accompaniment of a guitar. It was wonderful... and strange too. When I came home halfway through December, I stepped off the plane into the cool reality of San Francisco--and promptly contracted a case of laryngitis.

Since that time, I get Hawaii Fever every winter. This year it has come earlier than usual, but I know to expect it nonetheless. "Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say..." man, do I wish I was there.

New Plants and More of the Spirit of Aloha in the Garden

Above: The "beach" of the pond where I already have touches of the spirit of Aloha
in the canna lilies and potted palms (squirrel-planted seedlings now in pots)

Yesterday, I was left with the instruction from Hubby that I should do something that "feeds my spirit". I thought long and hard about what to do to achieve that. Then I realized that I probably should go to WalMart and see if they had any of their planting pots at super-low discount prices like they always do in August. I knew I needed to buy bags of soil anyway, so it was a good excuse to go and "play" in WalMart's nursery center.

Although I usually prefer to buy my plants from local nurseries, WalMart is a great place for me to find inexpensive bagged soil, pots, and sometimes an interesting plant or two. I wasn't in a hurry, so I decided to slowly browse through their plants. Most looked very healthy (our WalMart's nursery center is very well managed), and I was intrigued by all the sub-tropicals they had in stock.

When I came upon a fairly mature plumeria (no blossoms on it yet), my heart leapt. I have a great love for Hawaii because I spent a semester of college on the North Shore of Oahu at BYU-Hawaii way back oh-so-many years ago. Plumeria is the quintessential Hawaiian plant. To be able to grow it in my own garden would be a dream come true. I carefully reviewed the tag. Interestingly, it is hardy to 30 degrees and if given a place outside of intense heat or intense cold, it will thrive in our climate! Hallelujah!

In my head, a garden design began to form for the corner where I've already planted the brugmansia--a garden design for a "Hawaii Garden". It already had a water feature with a red canna lily growing in it. It already had the tropical looking brugmansia and white oleander, it had the necessary shelter... it was perfect!

Then I browsed around the other sub-tropicals and settled on a new plant that I'd never seen before--a "Golden Shrimp Plant" (Pachystachys lutea). I also decided to finally buy two Bird-of-Paradise plants (one orange and the other a giant white with blue throats), as I've always wanted them in my garden.

I came home and started to work on getting the planters built out of recycle concrete blocks and rocks left over from my shed demolition. Once I had the planters constructed, I dumped the new bagged soil in each and then planted the new arrivals. The final step was to make sure each one was properly irrigated with the drip-mist system that waters the entire garden. Just one new connection needed to be made for the plumeria. The others were adequately watered by increasing the spray on an existing full circle sprayer for the brugmansia.

I am so pleased with the result. It is so tranquil in the "Hawaii Garden". Hubby and I sat out there as the sun went down last night simply enjoying the space. It is our own little piece of Hawaii and the spirit of Aloha in our own garden.

Above: The "Hawaii Garden" after installation.

Above left: Plumeria
Above right: Bird-of-Paradise plants

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Introducing "Hawaiian Rose"

Lately, I've been hard at work in the studio working on some mixed media art pieces that are taking a great deal of patience and concentration. This evening, I decided that I needed to take a bit of a break and begin to play around with Adobe Illustrator--a nemesis from my past that I am determined to conquer now once and for all.

I found a sketch of a graphic design that I'd done years ago--the motif of a craftsman-style rose. I had scanned in the sketch years ago and it had stayed in its sketched state until now.

Braving Illustrator and its "scary" vector drawing tools, I managed to convert the sketch into a clean and smooth one.

I then imported the graphic into Photoshop. Again, being brave, I started playing around with some of the techniques I've been learning with the Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book that I've been doing. I turned the crisp new rose graphic into a mask that I could apply to a recent photo I took of the "Raspberry Ice" bougainvillea.

Voile! The "Hawaiian Rose" was born!

It reminds me so much of a Hawaiian quilt block that I decided to feature the new design on some home accessories at the Rosehaven Cottage CafePress store. If you want to see what it looks like on the different home accessories currently available just click here.

That was a fun AND productive "break"... but I think I'll truly take a break now because my eyes are beginning to ache.

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January's "illness"

It's happening like it always does.

January rolls in with its short days that still aren't long enough for my taste. The fog and marine layer of clouds hang like a grey blanket that doesn't leave for days on end. The air is heavy with humidity making the 50 degree high for the day just not warm enough at all and leaving a chill in my bones. The annual rains come to make our hills their lovely winter green that tempts and teases the sun-loving gardener's soul even though I know that more frosty nights are on the way.

And that's when it happens.

I get Hawaii Fever.

It's a sickness that one only gets if one has been to Hawaii. So those who haven't been "exposed" need not fear.

Symptoms of Hawaii Fever include but are not limited to:

Repeated Hawaiian music playing in one's head throughout the day.

Nightdreams or daydreams about being in Hawaii, laying in a hammock in the warm tropical sun, breathing in the heavenly scented mixture of plumeria and sunscreen, with the sound of waves crashing onto a coral-lined shore.

Sitting in front of a computer screen staring at photos from past visit(s) to Hawaii that "exposed" one to the sickness in the first place.

Frantic late-night searching of the internet for airfare deals to a major Hawaiian airport.

Repeated calculation of frequent flier miles against the airline reward chart.

Bargaining with one's spouse to try and justify the expense of a trip to Hawaii as "business".

Symptoms of advanced stages of Hawaii Fever include but are not limited to:

Giving up on bargaining and secretly plotting to pack one's bags and just head to the airport with credit card in hand.

Mentally rearranging one's calendar in order to accomodate spending the entire month of January in Hawaii.

Writing a blog post about having Hawaii Fever and directing others to look at one's photos from past visit(s) to Hawaii.

Yup, I've got Hawaii Fever--just like I do this time every year.

Don't worry.

It isn't fatal... even though it feels like it sometimes. ;)

Where I imagine I am on days that are tough...

Click here for more photos of my "personal paradise"