The Changing of Seasons.
During the middle of each year I decide to rise from the comfort of my bed when the sun climbs over the shoulder of Hualalai Mountain and lights the branches of the Lychee Tree outside my bedroom window. As the cool season comes and the sunrise drifts to the south, the early morning sun is blocked from the Lychee Tree by a giant Podocarpus Tree and a large stand of Blue Bamboo. I lounge in my warm bed a bit longer, knowing that when there is no sun to beckon me that the morning air is cooler. I cherish the extended lounging but eventually rise to greet the clear blue sky. The day is wasting away.
After preparing breakfast for Pua and myself, I go to the front stoop and sit overlooking the orchard. I place Pua’s bowl on the ground below me and whistle for her to join me. We have our meal while enjoying the gentle breeze coming off the mountain and the myriad bird songs. There are few other noises. Pua eats quickly. She is anxious for her morning walk. She stares at me as I finish my breakfast, her tail wagging wildly. I return our dishes to the kitchen and grab a handful of doggie treats. The purpose of the treats is to coax Pua along during our walk. She loves to languish over this smell or that and often falls well behind me. It is always interesting to me that as soon as I place my hand in my pocket for a treat she races to my side, sitting attentively, awaiting her snack. Day after day, year after year we have gone through this same ritual. It has formed an excellent anchor for our lives together.
I arrive outside the front door with the treats where she is waiting for the first offering. She consumes it quickly, then swivels and races down the driveway and onto the street below, tail wagging in giant circles the entire way. I stroll behind her, noticing what new things nature has brought with the coming of the cool season. The fig trees, which are cut to the stump each spring, are now quite large. I don’t see many new fruit. I wonder if the drought of the past two seasons isn’t have an impact. The branches of the lemon trees are bowed under the weight of so many fruit. It’s amazing the branches don’t break. A few of the fruit are beginning to yellow. Hopefully, the drought won’t cause them to not be juicy.
As I reach the bottom of the driveway and turn onto the street I notice my neighbor’s coffee trees, red with ripe coffee beans. Although it is quiet now, soon I will hear the songs of the coffee pickers and the laughter of their children as they race about the coffee field. It always brings a smile to my face when I hear the children’s voices, as they run through what they must think is a coffee forest.
Further along our course I notice the giant Tulip Trees, full of beautiful orange flowers. I reach our halfway point, giving Pua her much expected treat. I turn and notice how beautiful the morning sun is on a distant stand of giant Golden Bamboo. A bit further along our path I stop at my usual place, the place where I have a panoramic view of the ocean. The cool season sky seems to be clearer, the sights below more crisp. Today the ocean looks beautiful and serene. The distant ocean has a few bobbing white dots, fishing boats, and it has lines sculpted across it by the currents, as the ocean is want to do. I don’t know why the lines appear but they vary the water’s tone, always making an interesting montage of blues. As I stand, mellow in the warmth of the morning sun, the enormity of the picture before me comes into view. To the right is the Golden Bamboo, bright in the sun. Across the bottom are the dark green coffee trees peppered with red coffee beans. To the left are a handful of large Tulip Trees, full of orange flower. The middle is the blue of the ocean dotted with fishing boats. But, the most amazing thing of all is the clear, crisp horizon, bending across the sky. I am always awed at seeing the curvature of the earth and there it is, framed in nature’s beauty, spread before me. I take a deep breath and turn to head home. While I could rest here for too long, there is work to do and doggie treats to dispense. After all, with good luck, it’ll be here again tomorrow morning. So, different flowers, different fruits and slightly different temperature signal the changing seasons. Watching nature at work is a wondrous thing.
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