Allerton Garden

Allerton and McBride Gardens are adjacent to one another and now part of the National Botanical Garden Network. We have visited these gardens before, and although you see pretty much the same things each time you take the guided tour, your guide has their own interests, and what you learn can be quite different. You can search this site to see what I had to say in other years. This focuses on the unique insights I picked up this time.

The Allerton Gardens are best understood as interconnected outdoor rooms where the Allertons liked to entertain (their home was small). Many of these rooms contained water features and it was the sophistication of the design of these water features caught my attention.

For example, in the following two water features, you can see the effort to capture reflections of the structures that were also designed by the Allertons. In the second image, the progression of turbulence in the sequence of pools creates images in the tradition of different painters, from more to less realistic. 

In this garden, the water feature's design is intended to encourage relaxation. The sound of running water, meant to mimic the heart, was created to aid relaxation. I tried to capture this sound in the short video.

These areas were largely committed to the raising of sugar cane before the big agricultural companies moved on. The constant demand of this crop so depleted the soil that the open areas have yet to recover and now appear as what might seem might seem pasture land.

I just had to throw this one in. Wild pigs are a menace to agriculture and carefully landscaped areas in Kauai. They trap pigs much the same way as we have seen bears trapped in other areas we have visited.

Mandala

 I often write about the unusual foods and eateries we have encountered. We have spent several winters in Kauai, and it is a small island, so there has not been many opportunities to report on something new. Mandala is new to us. It is located in the strange community of Anahola, which, it seems, is made from metal shipping containers. We had thought Mandala was a coffee truck and intended to stop by someday. When we finally decided it was time, we found it was quite different from what we had anticipated.

Mandala was far from a coffee shop and I am not certain you could get a coffee there. Mandala Living Foods describes itself as a gourmet café, elixir bar, and kombucha brewery. I would say high-end hippie vegetarian.

The dish closest to the camera is pad thai, which is my "go to" when eating at places like this. However, the noodles are not grain-based and was something fashioned from a vegetable - sesame zucchini noodles. Drinks were a golden milk and a coffee fix (not coffee, but something described as healthy - Our coffee alternative blend of dandelion, chicory root, and burdock root that creates an earthy aroma that's delicious warm or over ice). 

Mowing

 I have long been fascinated by the sheer mass of vegetation here and by all the work and workers required to maintain control. Guinea Grass is an invasive plant that grows in such density that a person would find it difficult to walk through an area where it has taken over. You find this vegetation along most of the roads and the equipment deployed to keep it away from roadsides has always been something I wanted to capture in a photograph. I finally had the opportunity yesterday.

Equipment such as this mower cannot always do the job, and the common guard rails that are needed beside the roads are a significant challenge due to the terrain. We used to see laborers with weed whackers clearing the grass that grew close to these barriers. Last year and much more commonly this year, they seem to have resorted to herbicides of some type to deal with this problem. I am not certain if there were environmental or financial issues with this approach in the past, but what looks like RoundUp now seems to be common.

Protect the Turtles

Turtles are a predictable visitor to many of Kauai's beaches and sometimes they show up in large numbers. As I have mentioned in previous posts, Cindy has become very protective of the turtles and seals on the beaches and gets quite irritated when "tourists" ignore the signs in their excitement to get close to the animals for a picture. I heard a lifeguard once yell at tourists and suggested they should learn to use the telephoto lens on their phone and give the animals some space. I would hate to see major portions of some of these beaches closed. 

 The issue has gotten to the point it has prompted accounts in the local paper. I doubt the message will reach those who need to be more self-aware.

Rain Event

 It rains here often, sometimes heavily. The terrain of the island also has an impact with mountains and valleys. From time to time, the combination results in dangerous situations because of flooding and mudslides that can close roads and swamp vehicles left in the wrong places. Roads can become impassible, and it is possible you can get caught on the wrong side of a bridge and be caught for a few hours or overnight.

It rained most of yesterday and through the night. About five this morning, our phones and iPads began screaming, and we were awakened to receive a flood warning. We stay on a cliff over the ocean, safe from sunamies (a different problem) and floods, but it is nice they have this system. I suppose it would be similar to warning of a tornado in the Midwest.