Several of us set up yesterday as a day to go up to the slopes of Mauna Kea to gather native greens and mosses for Christmas wreath making...
We gathered early morning at Brenda and Kevan's home, which is on the way up the mountain, had a quick little breakfast provided by Galyn and off we went!
We could not have picked a better day! Although you never know how the weather will turn out up on the mountain and we were all prepared to layer up to make sure we would be able to stand whatever Mother Nature decided to throw our way...The sun was shining and there was not one cloud in the sky. Instead of layering up we had to start layering down!
We went in Galyn's new car...roomy and all 5 of us were quite comfortable. Galyn stopped on side of road so I could take pictures of our glorious mountain.
Following protocol, we asked permission before entering the forest with a beautiful oli (chant) both in Hawaiian and English, composed by Brenda and made an offering of a lā‘ī hilo lei (twisted and woven ti leaf lei)
We scattered afterwards, each carrying bags and clippers to forage and harvest greens, berries, flower pods, ferns and mosses. Top left and right: Liz & Anthony. Center: Sonia. Bottom Left and right: Brenda and Galyn.
About two hours later, we all convened back at the car, where again Galyn surprised us with munchies; three types cheeses (the herbed brie was exquisite!), sausage, smoked turkey rolls and 'Ōhelo berries he had found. He also shared a bag of Chili & Lime corn chips that were to die for... The view of the mountain from our 'picking spot' and the back of the car after we all loaded our bags!
Back at Brenda and Kevan's we set up portable tables on the back lanai and we all went to work with a small break for lunch - fritatta, pimento cheese spread over baguette slices, cheeses, sandwich meats, fruit and delicious iced green tea with cloves.
Liz working on her second wreath, Galyn's wreath in center and Brenda with a wreath she made for a neighbor.
It is so much more fun to work on the wreaths with a group of friends...the time passes quickly and before we knew it, it was 4 pm and we had all completed at least one wreath (except for Liz who made two!)
I will be doing a second blog post on wreath making...stay tuned!
