At long last! A blog post! Work took over my life for a very long time but I managed a Hawaiian getaway in the middle of things (but didn’t completely get away from work while I was there). These are a few non-work related things I got up to:

National Tropical Botanical Garden Gift Shop, Kaua’i | March, 2012 | watercolour in Hand•Book trav•e•logue journal, 140 lb, 3.5″x11″

I haven’t painted for ages and it felt like I was starting all over again, but I’ve still got 950 bad paintings in me so I’m not too worried at this point. It was just nice to finally get outside and have a break from creating stuff on screens.

National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kaua’i | March, 2012 | watercolour in Hand•Book trav•e•logue journal, 140 lb, 3.5″x11″

National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kaua’i | March, 2012 | watercolour on Arches cold pressed, 140 lb, 7″x10″

Poipu Beach, Kaua’i | March, 2012 | watercolour on Arches cold pressed, 140 lb, 7″x10″

Poipu Beach, Kaua’i | March, 2012 | watercolour on Arches cold pressed, 140 lb, 7″x10″

The weather was pretty wild while we were there – lots of rain, thunder, lightening, muddy hikes, flooding, and road closures. Lots of warnings on the radio about not walking through brown water (hard to do when the road we hiked in on became a lake on the way out), and the dangers of swimming in the ocean near the outflows of rivers (sewage overflow, confused sharks). But in the few breaks in the weather I managed to get out and do some sketching and photographing.

The National Tropical Botanical Garden is beautiful, and I’m sad I didn’t get to spend more time there, or do more drawing of the plants – there were some really colourful and interesting shaped flowers and foliage.

Torch Ginger, National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kaua’i.

There were lots of common birds and lizards to photograph as well.

Juvenile Night Heron

Red-crested Cardinal

Even though it’s got its head under the water, this is the best photograph I could manage of a sea turtle. There were dozens of them in the little bays just off the road, but the storm had made the water so murky it was really hard to see them. By the time we’d see a head or the back of a shell, they’d have dived again. This one spent a lot of time feeding close to shore.

Grazing Sea Turtle, Poipu Beach

Green Anole, Poipu Beach

Green Anole, National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kaua’i

If I’d realized that the green anoles changed colour, I would have shot this sequence a little differently. But by the time I realized the green lizard I had under my lens had turned brown, it was too late. Apparently my photostalking stressed the poor little thing out. By the time it was finished it was a very dark brown and blended perfectly with the trunk of a tree where it had taken refuge.

…….

The poor weather made for some beautiful clouds and light.