Learning from Blogger Buddies and Regular Buddies

There are so many wonderful things about blogging. 

1. For one thing, it keeps my mind active to come up with posts to write and I NEED to keep my brain active because I'm getting more and more forgetful. 

2. I really feel that special friendship with so many long time bloggers from all around the US, Canada, and England. There were even more from Australia, India and Japan but I don't see them as much now.

3. I love sharing and knowing about everyone's happy and fun times as well as sharing our difficulties and getting advice. Sharing and connection is a very valuable thing.

3. I also learn so much from everybody... which actually brings me to today. John in Canada has a blog called The AC in On. He did a post recently titled: 

Phone Portraits. https://anvilcloud.blogspot.com/2025/09/phone-portraits.html

John took a photo with his iPhone on the Portrait mode of his friend with a darkened background. I thought that was the coolest thing. But I just couldn't figure it out.

OK, well... luckily we do have a SUPER photographer friend who we walk with every Friday. Dave just happens to be married to my childhood friend, Diane since kindergarten. 

I mentioned this cool thing I'd seen on John's blog site and of course, Dave would know how to do it too.

As the four of us sat in the food court of the mall one Friday, Dave took this photo of me using that feature and showed me how to do it.

So I went home and promptly forgot how he did it. 🙄

I told you I'm getting forgetful. 

But I didn't give up.

One morning, Art told me to check out the orchids that were now blooming.

They were so pretty that I took a photo of it.

Then... I wondered.

Dave said in order to do that darkened background, I had to take the photo in Portrait mode.

So I did.

And through trial and error, I did get this effect.

And then I forgot how I did it.

However, being able to look things up online is really helpful for forgetful people so I found this.

OK... this must be how I did it.

And that's another reason why it's great to blog. If I forget (which I will) and want to know how to do this again, I can just look it up on my blog. 😁

The Almost Immortal Orchid

My nephew, Cody stopped by last year to give us an orchid plant. He said he really couldn't take care of it at their apartment and he knew grandma liked orchids. She does and has loved watching the flowers bloom.

It was just a small pot with a few orchid leaves and I was dubious about whether it would produce any flowers.

What a surprise when it produced not one, but TWO spikes of buds! When they started to bloom I sent them back to him so they could enjoy it.

After a few weeks, one of the spikes was in full bloom so my sister-in-law cut off a spike and sent the plant back to us so we could enjoy the other blooms.

And yes, they bloomed a long time. When some of the early blooms started to die, the spike sent out more buds!!!

I could not believe how long that spike of orchids continued to bloom, even after the early flowers died and fell off.

And then... in June, the orchid plant sent up another spike!!!

Wow!  I was figuring on seeing orchid blooms till the end of the year.

And in July that tender spike was showing a lot of promise. That last orchid on the original spike just refused to give up though.

And then early last month...!!!

A bulbul stopped by and decided to eat just that teeny little tip. And without that little tip, it looks like the rest of the spike will not produce any buds. What the heck!!!

Sigh...

Popping Popcorn Orchids

Art and I are not good with orchids. We really aren't. A lot of the orchids we have growing here in Hawaii were not done by either of us. We had a non-blooming orchid plant in Chicago that one of our daughter, Tiffany's guy friends then had given her. I think we had it for about 10 years. We finally gave it to one of Tif's friends who was an orchid expert. She had that plant blooming in a year. 🙄

Well... for many years, mom's popcorn orchid plants grew in profusion with myriad flowers for her to bring to grave sites she visited and prayed over.

However, I noticed one day that they were really overgrown and popping out of the pots.

In fact, one day two of the orchid plants fell out of the pot. I'm not kidding! They actually popped out of the pot! 

Then I realized that the plants weren't even growing in the soil, but above it. 😲

So what to do... what to do?

I called my brother, of course. He's the photoshop/gardening wizard.

Mom loved watching Dennis take the plants apart and replant them. He didn't stick them in the soil, but more on it. He also added a lot of hapuu (Hawaiian fern tree shreds) and pebbles to the soil and chose the best stalks to replant.

Art took this photo before going for his Meals on Wheels run. He's thrilled that he has a brother-in-law who is willing to come and take over this rather tricky job.

When Dennis was done, he warned that they would/could probably die.

It's been a couple of weeks now and they look quite happy and breathing easier now that they are not crowded with weeds and choked on top of the pot.

Well he did get mom's other orchid plants to bloom. 🤞 Fingers crossed, he's done his magic again.

Pruning the Orchids

I wrote earlier that mom's orchid plants were getting crowded and overgrown. I figured I'd tell my brother to separate and transplant them. 

However, we 've been so busy that we just didn't have time to get to it. Eventually the plants started to tip over because they were top heavy.

I noticed that once an orchid bloomed, nothing else came from the same stalk. I was wondering if we could just chop off those heavy extra stalks.

I looked online and found advice that you should cut it off on the second node of the stem.  Okeedokee. We did it. It was kind of spooky.

A few days later, we noticed that there were more stalks we didn't see that were ready to sprout out some blooms.

Woo hoo!

I hope we did the right thing and didn't kill the plants.

A Son's Gift to His Mom

I wrote a post about three years ago called Transplanting Orchids with Help From a Son. Mom kept telling me that her orchid plants needed to be repotted. Well... I wasn't sure how to do that so I told my brother that his mother wanted his help.

So of course, he came right over and began working on it.

He had to split apart the overgrown plants and repot them with hapuu (Hawaiian tree fern).

He did an excellent job and eventually they began flowering a little at a time.

And then the other morning, four of the plants started sending out shoots and flowering at the same time.

There was a little morning shower the other day and the orchids were startlingly beautiful. It makes us smile whenever we look at them and they bloom for such a long time.

Uuummm... I am noticing though that those orchid plants are now overgrown for their small pots and need to be repotted again. 😁

Just in case my brother is reading this...

Oh Dennis.... Mom needs you again.

POSTSCRIPT:

By the way, thank you for caring about me and my health worry these past few weeks. I've been to my doctor who said the liver ultrasound turned out normal and I don't have to worry about it anymore. The blood tests also showed improvement so I'm getting better. However... the stomach upset. Sigh... He says I'll have to get poop tested. He wasn't sure how it would be done. I'm not liking the sound of that.

Monday: TeamLab Planets

We took mom for her last trip to Japan in 2019 for a Princess Cruise. We went several days early so she could spend time with her sister, brother and families. On one of those days, we took her to TeamLab Borderless which is a digital art museum. 

To say that mom did not like it would be putting it mildly. All the digitally changing lights and a few uneven surfaces had her discombobulated. On the other hand, Art and I thought it was amazing and super fun! So we recommended doing it with our kids and grandkids. Unfortunately, TeamLab Borderless was moving to Azabudai Hills and in the process of rehabbing it's digital rooms.

We were disappointed, but looked forward to seeing TeamLab Planets instead which was still open. 

Tiffany had ordered tickets ahead of time and warned Keola and Sarah to make sure the boys had a change of clothes (and for none of us to wear a dress).

It's a good thing she warned us. You had to remove your shoes and socks and place them in lockers before moving to a tunnel of rushing water.

Friends had gone to TeamLab Planets the week before our trip and warned me to avoid going through the beginning experience. She texted a blurry video that I SHOULD have paid more attention to. (She'd told me there was an alternate route, but it was too late. I hadn't paid attention to where that might be.) There was even a sign in ENGLISH that I SHOULD have paid better attention to. It was something about elderly people avoiding this experience. Ummm.... Who's elderly anyway?

It was AWFUL! I mean AWFUL! You had this DEEP squishy area that you had to climb through (over?) to get to the other side. I'll bet it would be like climbing over quicksand. There was nothing like this at TeamLab Borderless! 

OK, this was similar to what we saw at TeamLab Borderless and much MUCH better. The colors changed every few seconds and it was mesmerizing. You can see why you shouldn't wear a skirt.

I'll bet the boys would tell you this was their favorite room. They went absolutely nuts chasing and splashing at digital fish that swam under the waters. (And yes, it was a good thing Keola and Sarah brought extra clothes for the boys.)

And this was my favorite experience. It was a mirrored room with lots of live orchids all around us. 

On the way back to the hotel, we saw this gigantic Gundam statue. I read a little about it doing this blog post and think we probably should have gotten off the train for a closer look as Tiffany had suggested. Ah well... it's something we can save for next time.

Back at the hotel, we rested for a bit. I thought I would show you that even though it has a fancy name, our hotel room was super tiny.

There wasn't a good area to hang your clothes, just three hooks by the doorway and one giant drawer below the suitcases to store belongings.

However... the convenient location and breakfast area made up for it. (Uuuummm... you did have to pay extra for the breakfast tickets, but it was reasonable.)

Later that evening, Keola and Sarah put the boys to sleep and Art and I crept into their room to babysit while they, Tiffany and KC went out to see the nightlights of Shinjuku in Tokyo. I spent that time getting a head-start on documenting a few days of the trip on my blog. 

I'd made sure to turn off the sound on my iPad and was as quiet as could be. Art even dozed a little after catching up on his text and email messages.

The next morning, JK chuckled and said, "Grandma, I heard you in our room last night. I could see you and I heard you turning pages." (That's because I had to look at my notes in my journal.) He had thoughtfully stayed quiet so he wouldn't wake his little brother.)

As for the rest of our family, they had a wonderful time out seeing Tokyo at night. We were all a little bleary eyed the following morning but we woke up in time to see more of the city from up high.

Pigeon War II

Friends have suggested all kinds of things to get rid of those pigeons on our roof. Our good friend, Dave sent us a YouTube video of a fellow with the exact same pigeon poop/debris problem as us on and under his solar panels. This fellow showed how he'd rigged a hose and camera system on his roof so that whenever he spotted the pigeons on his video he could turn on the water from below. 

Ummm... he'd only had it up for a week, so I'm dubious.

Other friends suggested CDs and owl balloons.

We had those set up to scare the bulbuls and mynahs who attacked mom's orchids. It worked for maybe... maybe a week before mom said she could swear the birds were laughing at her.

Well, Art has been spraying the pigeons for a week and they keep coming back.

In fact, we really think they're so smart they're just landing on a part of the roof that he can't see from the ground. Yes, it's true. Birds can learn and figure out how to outwit you.

So OK... Art is now climbing to a lower part of the roof that is relatively safe. And Dave loaned him a stronger hose sprayer that can reach farther.

I also came up with an excellent idea (if I do say so myself). Uuummm... I am taking credit for spraying the birds too, by the way.

Ice pellet ammunition! 

Our daughter had bought these trays to make tiny ice pieces for her slim neck thermos which couldn't fit big ice cubes. 

I figured these little pellets wouldn't hurt the solar panels but would startle the pigeons.

We have studied those pigeons and know they now like to come at dawn or dusk so Art got up on the lower roof and threw a few of those ice pellets in an area he thought they might be.

Good grief!

We had no idea there were THAT MANY pigeons on the roof. Where were they hiding? 

Sheesh!

Art will be varying his startle weapons each morning and dusk to keep those birds on their toes... or wings, that is.

We're keeping our fingers crossed. 

POSTSCRIPT: 

After about a week of the ice pellet/water spray surprise attacks we didn't see as many pigeons in the evening. We'd counted about 28 pigeons who were calling our rooftop their home before. 

HOWEVER: This morning we happened to look at our neighbor's roof and saw this.

Arrrgghhh...

And then.... about an hour later, guess where they went?

Arrrgghhhhhhh....

Making more ice pellets now.

A Day of Comfort

After a very long illness filled with suffering, my mother's sister, Dorothy passed away last week. She was bed-ridden for much of it and it pained us all to see her that way.  We would visit her once a week and mom would try to massage auntie's legs to provide more circulation and read letters to her from their sister in Japan. When the end seemed imminent I was able to thank auntie for all her kindnesses toward me and my baby brother throughout our childhood and when Art and I returned to Hawaii. I'll always remember her smiling. I can almost remember her laughter. Mom couldn't say goodbye. She couldn't find the words.

When my cousin texted to let me know that auntie had passed away a few days later, mom was relieved for her sister. She knew her sister's suffering was at an end.

But then... there was sadness. She said she'd lost all her friends and her sisters (here in Hawaii). And yes, at almost 93, most of her close friends had passed away. 

She then felt forgotten... and I realized the pandemic had made it seem as though a lot of our family had forgotten her. The fact that she doesn't speak English makes things hard too and we haven't had any family gatherings for 3 years in order to protect her from COVID.

So.... first things first... we decided to take mom to a garden. We gave her choices and that's what she wanted to do.

We took her to Foster Gardens in Honolulu. It has been a long, long time since we'd been there. In fact, the last time was with Auntie Dorothy and with Auntie Grace who passed away seven years ago. Everyone was full of health and energy back then.

We were captivated by this palmetto palm.

There were baby palmettos growing alongside its bigger companions.

It was the leaves that caught our eyes.

They're split half way down the middle forming a little V.  We'd never noticed anything like that before.

Art went back and asked for a leaflet written in Japanese for mom which she really enjoyed looking at.

We love this cannonball tree and always look for it. It's branches make it look like there are vines growing on its trunk. The flowers are beautiful, but we are careful to stay away from any falling cannonball fruit.

There were a lot of trees, shrubs, flowers to look at before we headed for the orchid house. Mom loves to look at orchids.

We had one surprise in the orchid house though. I don't recall ever seeing this pitcher plant before. Flies must fall into the pitcher flower, be digested and have the nutrients go up that stem that is dangling from the midrib of each leaf.

We were walking through Foster Gardens for quite a while so mom was ready for a big lunch. We went to Zippy's where our favorite server, Nora was happy to see us. Goodness! She remembered what we liked to order even after 3 years. Granted we pretty much order the same thing all the time. Mom LOVES their wun tun min noodles (with extra vegetables).

A few days later, I gave mom a haircut.

AND.... we've decided to have a family Thanksgiving this year. I will ask everyone to test themselves before coming. I'll open all the windows and turn on all the ceiling fans.

And cross our fingers. 🤞

Mom's Orchids

Mom loves her orchid plants. One of them that my brother transplanted for her earlier bloomed recently. With the sun streaming down on the flowers and looking so pretty I took some photos of it with my iPhone XR.

A week later, I showed those photos to mom and she asked, "Are those your friends' orchids? Where did you see them?"

And then it occurred to her and she laughed saying, "Oh, they're mine. They look even nicer on your phone."

When I told Art about it, he asked, "Would you like to see my photos?" Yes, it's true he got the upgraded iPhone 12 last year with the better camera. 🙄

I have reduced the file size of both photos before posting them here so perhaps it's affected the clarity, but yes... the photos with his upgraded phone is sharper.

Well... some day I will upgrade my phone and show him my photos too. Then again he'll probably say, it's not the phone, it's the photographer. 🙄🙄🙄

Transplanting Orchids With Help From a Son

Mom had mentioned to us a long time ago that she needed hapuu which is a Hawaiian tree fern. She needed its bark to transplant orchids that were outgrowing their pots. I decided to forget about it since she already had four or five pots of it and the bulbuls often come to dine on the buds anyway.

Therefore, when we saw a rather pricey bag of hapuu at the store, I tried to discourage Art from buying it. He insisted that we should get it for mom. I told him that she already said she can't do it anymore and someone else would have to do it. 

Art said he would do it.

Riiiight.... 🙄  He's got a bunch of bonsai plants that are no longer bonsai.

Art bought it anyway and the big bag of hapuu languished on our patio for months and months and months. When I passed by it the other day I saw weeds growing in the bag. 

I told mom and she said she'd completely forgotten how to repot orchids anyway.

"What?!?" 

I told my brother that his mother would love to have his help with the orchids. He'd been too busy with babysitting his grandchildren for a long while, but had some free time now, so he was happy to come over. Granted, he said it's something he's never done although he'd seen our father do it decades ago.

Mom was thrilled to be able to spend quality time with her son again. And here's what mom (who repeated that she no longer has any idea how to repot orchids anymore) said.

When we went out to the patio, she immediately said, "Wait! You need 20-20-20 orchid fertilizer."

"What?!? You never mentioned fertilizer." I showed her other kinds of fertilizer we'd bought her before, but she said it had to be orchid fertilizer.

I finally showed her the 16-16-16 which I told her had the same ratio. 

"No," she said. 

"The ratio is the same," said Dennis. "It should work I would think."

"OK," said mom. Do you see who she believes the most?

Art set up a chair for her so she could supervise and put a drop cloth on the ground to contain the debris.

"Wait," she said. "You have to get the smaller pots. You need gravel at the bottom."

Dennis complied and then started to add the hapuu.

"Wait, you have to put fertilizer at the bottom and mix it." Mom continued.

"You have to clean off the pots well and separate the orchids." Mom instructed. 

"OK, now add more hapuu," mom continued, "and put some rocks on the top."

And so it went. Dennis, ever the loving and wonderful son that he is, followed her advice (which she no longer insisted she couldn’t remember how to do) while also doing what he thought was best and managed to complete all the repotting.

Here are some of the freshly potted orchids.

WORD OF CAUTION: Please don't follow what mom said because it's not exactly what we've seen online. However, we'll see what happens. Dennis says he just hopes they don't all die at once.

In the end, the most important part, the best of the best part was that mom had her son's complete attention for a whole hour and that was golden!

A Gift of Heart

My son sent me the book Heart of Fire written by Mazie Hirono. She is our U.S. senator from Hawaii since 2013 and yes, we did vote for her. Lately, I've really admired how outspoken she's become and showing up in national news voicing her vision for reforms she'd like to see.

Mom told me she's always voted for Mazie ever since she met her mother. That took me aback. I asked her how that could be. I'm not always 100% sure about mom's recollections. 

She told me that Mazie's mom, Chieko (Laura) worked as a typesetter for the competing Japanese language newspaper, Hawaii Hochi. Mom worked as a typesetter for the Hawaii Times. (The photo to the right is of mom taken at the Hawaii Times.) Apparently one of Laura's friends from Hawaii Hochi moved over to the Hawaii Times and told mom about Laura's many orchids that she kept in a hothouse. This was puzzling to me. 

"How did you get there? Where was the house? Who went with you? Why would she invite you in particular?"

Mom said she didn't know but suspected it was so that Laura could convince her to vote for Mazie.

Hmmm.... strange. Mazie is only two years older than me. When could this have happened?

As I read more of the book things fell logically into place. I know that though mom worked as a typesetter, she also often edited the articles written by one of the reporters who wrote her a very lovely thank you note when he retired. So it's possible, that mom was invited with the possibility that she might have a bit of influence. Maybe. 

The mutual friend had driven mom to Laura's house in Hawaii Kai where she got to enjoy all the beautiful orchids. Laura also secured mom's vote.

I guess I shouldn't have doubted what mom said even though that was a long time ago.

Laura was also born in Hawaii just like mom though she along with her family moved back to Japan when she was 15. Mom was 6 when her Buddhist priest father took his family back to Japan after ministering to patients at Kalaupapa. Laura was born in Waipahu where I actually grew up.

I was born when we lived in an isolated sugar cane field plantation home speaking only Japanese until I was 5 years old. Mazie, her mother and brother moved back to Hawaii when she was 8 years old. We both went into 1st grade barely able to speak English.

Mazie writes about her Japanese household and how we were raised to gaman (endure and persevere) and not show a lot of emotion in public. We were also raised not to show a lot of physical affection which we became accustomed to after moving to the mainland. 

She describes playing with paper dolls and marbles in the dirt. My brother and I played with what we called "eggets." I looked that up and realize now it's probably supposed to be a Hawaiian pidgin type translation of agates. I think. There was so much we didn't think about. One of the funny ones I still laugh about is not knowing "Porogee" was Portuguese. I never knew the porogee kids we played with were actually Caucasian. I thought they were just local like everybody else. 

One part of her book that really grabbed me was how she and her brother would wait at the bus stop for their mom to return home from the newspaper.

Oh my gosh! That's what my brother, Dennis and I often did. We'd walk the mile or so to the bus stop and sit on that bench outside this store, keeping an eye out for the bus to come down the street.

Sometimes, we would splurge and sit there eating an ice cake (frozen strawberry juice in a small cup for 5 cents). Store owner, Mr. Takenaka used to call us "Ishkaboo." I have no idea what that meant, but it was said in a laughing, friendly way.

One thing that I was wondering about were the stories Mazie tells about some of the people (the guys) in her life. They don't come out looking very stellar in the book. I imagine they have got to feel.... hmmmm... not great?

Trump? She thinks he's one of the worst presidents... EVER, but most people know that.

I'm not done with the book yet, but I've got several people waiting in line to read it after me.

Hmmmm... Perhaps when the pandemic is over, I can bring this book to Maryland with me so my son can read it too.

Mom's Orchids

Mom has been staring at her budless orchid plants for a while and thinking they are just too much work to keep up.

"They have to be transplanted," she sighed. "It's too hard for me to do anymore. The fertilizer is too expensive. And I would need more fern fiber...."

"Sure," I said. "You should just give them away." I was rather relieved.

The orchids must have heard that she would be giving up on them.

All of a sudden, one day, they decided to show their colors.

You can see new spikes shooting out of those dormant plants.

"Could you get me more orchid fertilizer and fern (Hapuu, Hawaiian tree fern) fiber?" Mom asked.

Sigh...

"And can you help me repot them?" she asked Art.

Notice she didn't ask my brown thumb. She knows me better.