It's a miracle!

It's a miracle...Miracle fruit, that is! This plant produces berries which when eaten alter the taste of other foods. A couple of months ago, two of my friends came into possession of some berries which they shared with me. Adam and I ingested them, and then went on a spree of drinking vinegars, spoiled wine, lemon juice and sour oranges all evening -- which tasted like sugar! Despite the stomachache the next morning, it really is a pretty nifty little party trick.

Of course, being who I am, I kept several of the seeds and planted them. Just a week ago, we got three sprouts. I am a little nervous about their survival, as I have successfully sprouted miracle fruit before and they tend to die soon afterwards. But my friend Dan had a huge, thriving plant, with tons of berries, so I know it is possible to succeed in this climate.

Norfolk Island Pine-Again

Just a little while after moving back to Honolulu, we went hiking at Lanipo. The hike is quite long, and we had started too late in the day, so we had to turn around after only getting halfway there. The place that marks the halfway point is a shaded grove of Norfolk Island Pine trees. I saw quite a few small ones, and decided to pull one and risk bringing it home. Although it turned a little bit brown at first, and it grows quite slowly, the tree is now healthy and prospering.

Buoyed by the experience with the first Norfolk Island Pine, I tried something even riskier recently. This time we were doing the Aiea Loop Hike. Well, actually, we were doing a variant of the hike that required us to slide straight down a mountain and walk down the middle of a stream, but that's a whole other story. While doing this hike, we came across several tiny Norfolk Island Pine sprouts. Feeling confident, I took one home and planted it in with the larger sprout. Although the baby was quite delicate, having only four small straight leaves at first, it has started to grow and even to look like a proper pine sprout! One Christmas, many years from now, we will have trees to decorate!

Many Mangroves

A while back, Adam and I tried to check out a new boating spot behind Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately for us, we arrived to a parking lot full of "no boating" signs. We decided to take a walk around the park, since we had driven all the way out there. It was a nice walk along the water, though that park houses mongooses possessing the least fear of human beings I've ever seen. While we were on the lake, we saw several mangrove plants; we noticed that their seeds had washed up on the shore.

 

I took a few of them and planted them in beer bottles with salt water taken from the beach. I have slowly been adding freshwater to the bottles as the water level lowers. Eventually they will be in entirely fresh water, which I fear may be harmful, but for now they are sprouting and happy as ever!