The Fair

One of my best childhood memories was our annual trip to the Puyallup fair. Scones, horses, ice cream dips, hobby hall, rides, people watching, oh yeah did I mention the food? Here are a few fair images to share my day with you

Budding Young Talent ~ Hey Jude

There is something about this baby's ability to get into this song that touches my heartstrings! Just click on the link and enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgrrQwLdME8

Little Treasures

It is such a pleasure to have little gems show up in your very own yard to delight you. Enjoy!

Heartfelt Relationships

One of the most powerful examples to heartful seeing is to carry an awareness of the inevitability of everyone’s death. You and everyone you meet will die at some point in time and remembering this fact can be a strong wake-up call to feel differently about how we relate to one another. Given that our time on earth is precious and limited, how can we afford not to see through our hearts? Is there time to waste on heartless observation when our time with one another is so brief? Open your heart to others so they may learn to see you through their heart. When two hearts see one another, each is given a spiritual blessing. This is the closest we get to seeing through the eyes of our Creator. As you learn to see this way, you will find yourself falling in love with the world.



The purest and most honest spiritual life begins with accepting everything that comes to you as a gift and teaching. As Mother Teresa reminds us, this includes illness and all possible misfortunes. The most difficult times sometimes bring the most important teachings. Each lesson is another step toward learning how to accept what comes to us as material to be transformed into the grace of spiritual light, and love.



Everything in life is a teacher with a lesson that is perfectly made for you during the time in which it is received. We are never given more than we can bear. Grace, the divine presence and generosity of spirit, befalls those whose hands are open to receive it. The work of spirit is toward making graceful outcomes and blessing all that we receive in life. It steps away from seeing problems that need to be solved and difficulties that must be surmounted. Spirituality embraces all of life, its upsides and downsides, and does so with the serenity and calmness of a still but powerful compassion for the whole creation.


Spirit touches and moves our lives through the mystery of love and relationship. Holding both ecstasy and suffering, a spirited soul embraces all the longings of the heart.

progress at wainiha

Thought it was time to post a few more pictures of the progress. We built granite tile countertops in the main house. Laid sisal and trimmed out the stairs. Gutted the cottage. Whew that's enough for this trip

What can we do about high oil prices?

M.I.A.

Thank you Leah

manu chow

some more great international music

Tuvan throat singers

a hui ho

a day in the life

The beauty of an 80 degree day

Yesterday was an unusual day for us here at Keelerkai. It actually got above 69 degrees! 82 to be exact. The heat went off in the greenhouse and the shade cloth went up, the screens on the windows were installed, and the hot tub was cleaned out, and filled to capacity. ALL plants were watered, both inside and out of the house, and in the greenhouse. Items were readied for the next trip to Kauai. Shorts were worn! Amazing warm day.

One of my pleasures in life is fragrant flowers. Right now at Keelerkai there is fragrant tree peonies, lily of the valley, and my akeba sending out the most intoxicating fragrances. The akeba also acts as a lovers playground for all the little birds who want to hang out in it and play kissy face!

We even have sweet furry helpers in the garden. Ruby loves to get inside of the golden chain cedar and dig. She's inside of this bush growling and shaking the bush like there is something in there to chase!

More 4851 pictures

And here are a few more kauai pictures. The house is taking shape. Leah & Corin are really putting their heart and soul into the place.

Roaches, rats, vows, silk bunting, and attitudes?

Mt Baker

Early Morning

Jason's Hero his Grandpa Don

Hmmm you wonder what all those items in the title line have in common? No, it has nothing to do with the Kauai project, Or life in Bellingham, even though rats and attitudes do show up here from time to time. It actually has to do with Jason's new job (our son). Now do I have your attention? Jason's new job involves transferring HD video tape (from reality televison show filming) into a digital format, and is a part of the editing process that happens to produce a televison show. We here at Keelerkai are very excited for Jason, as this is a natural fit for him. He is extremely natural and talented when it comes to anything with a camera, video camera, and computers. Some of my all time favorite photos and video have been captured by Jason. So what does that have to do with Rats, roaches, vows, silk bunting and vows you ask? The two main shows that he is working on is Bridezilla, and Billy the Exterminator (which he will get editing credits for). Both shows sound very extreme, and I guess that is what these reality shows are looking for. Naturally Jason is way more interested in the exterminator show! And we are hoping the Bridezilla footage will not turn him off to getting married and a wedding! The photos in this post were all shot by Jason, and are a few of his favorite things. We Love you Jason and are so proud of you

Pictures of inside the house

Here are a few pictures inside the main house, and one sweet happy little Wainiha wild mountain doggy. My grandpuppy Zoe is living life pretty large these days. She is loving kauai and has gone to the land of Gecko's!!!

Why do we go through all of this work?

Many people have asked us "Why are you doing all this work?" The picture in this blog entry is one good reason. This sweet spot is 2 minutes from our place. Our pot of gold, at the end of the rainbow is 4851 Wainiha Powerhouse Road.

And then there is the yard!!!!

It was a challenge to focus on unpacking boxes when the yard is a calling my name. We have 1/3rd of an acre of exotic tropicals. Take a look at a few of our gems. The shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) is a member of the ginger family. Native to Indonesia, it is now grown throughout the world as an ornamental. We are blessed to have a huge hedge that our neighbor has grown on his oasis next door. So one side of our property has this hedge of fragrant ginger.

The Container Has Landed

The contractors finished their jobs. Ross was the camping trooper, but on 2/20/08 the Matson container was delivered at the base station in Hanalei, which is right across the street from the Waioli Church (a famous Hanalei landmark). This was the very day we arrived in town. Leah got a Uhaul and started making trips from Hanalei to 4851 WPHR, Imagine this; a boxed stack washer dryer on a skateboard, being pushed along a 4 x 2 to the stairs of the house, then all hands on deck to hump it up the stairs into the house!!!!! It was a trip. We had to take out a window (the following morning) to get the sofa in the living room. Leah and I did not even think about items fitting through the door at 4851 WPHR when we had three days to shop for the household in Los Angeles. Oh Well chalk it up to experience!! Everything is in the house. Hey a little sawing here, remove a window or stairway there and you've got everything in the house!

And the work continues

Ross Cleaned all the windows and screens
Downstairs bathroom in progress

The work inside continues

Now the after pictures

The kitchen cabinets came from Oahu
Upstairs bathroom. You can see the giant mango tree from the shower window

Upstairs bathroom sink

Ross was able to get a few pictures of what the main house looks like since the contractors applied their skills to the place. The contractors were not completely finished when these pictures were taken. Thank you again Ross for the tease. Can't wait to see the place on Feb 20th

More before shots

One of the downstairs bedrooms. Both of the downstairs bedrooms have a sliding glass door
Downstairs bathroom
Kitchen sink window

Here are a few more before shots. The plastic covering the big opening is the upstair bedroom window seat