April 2021 Journal Photos

Easter Weekend

Good Friday was April second and Easter fell on the fourth.


A gif image to advertise a conference on cubesat propulsion. Andrea sent me the link on Good Friday morning.


Friday afternoon we had a Zoom session with Lenore at her care home.


Becky joined us later.


A cartoon from Facebook, Saturday, April 3.


Easter morning we had 0.43 inch of rain in the rain gage.

Andrea's Second Covid Shot

We went to Pier 2 again for Andreas second covid-19 Pfizer vaccination injection on Tuesday morning, April 6.


The Federal building on Ala Moana Blvd. downtown on the way to Pier 2.


Dilbert cartoon from ten years ago, posted in Facebook on Wednesday, April 7, by my friend Matt. Workers do better without a boss sometimes.


The next day Andrea went for a morning walk and took this photo of a rainbow in the Wailupe valley.

Zoom Meeting with Lenore

Andrea went to the care home Sunday morning, April 11, to set up the Zoom session with Lenore.


Earlier Andrea took some cloud photos in Wailupe Valley.


Clockwise: Lenore, Andrea, me, Bill, and Becky.

Conversations in Consciousness

Monday afternoon, April 12, was the final Zoom session in the ten week UH OLLI course.


After lunch, Andrea painted the quarter round molding I installed to replace the termite-eaten ones around the kitchen window.


Just three students and the administrator were present for the final class Mana Trink.


Tuesday Jenny Engle at Manoa Heritage Center sent this photo of Keala Wong's baby boy Wong Prior (name TBD).


Tuesday afternoon we completed the kitchen window.


Tuesday evening I attended the Aina Haina Prepared Zoom board meeting. I reported status on the upcoming stream presentation by the city.

Sans Souci Beach

Wednesday morning, April 14, Andrea and I returned to Sans Souci Beach for the first time in months.


Fortunately I haven't forgotten how to swim. I could do six pullups and four bar dips. Need to work back up to ten each.


It was a beautiful clear day in Waikiki. Click the image to see the full resolution version.


The Hau Tree Lanai has redone their décor with wicker lanterns in the trees and new tables and chairs.


We engaged a tree pruning crew to take on five of our trees.


"Before" shot from behind the kitchen.


While the tree pruning was going on, Andrea went down the the shopping center to get her nails done. Photo by Andrea.


My sons Robert and Tom were in San Francisco visiting Becky who is on temporary assignment from Lockheed and she sent us this picture.

Ko'olua'ula Blooming

Andrea photographed the ko'olua'ula blooming on Sunday morning, April 18.


Ula means red in Hawaiian.

Philosophy Zoom Meetup

The monthly philosophy discussion group met on Sunday afternoon, April 18. Topic for this time was time travel: possibility and logical pardox.


Screen capture from early in the session. We had over 40 participants within half an hour. I was able to speak twice. I gave a design guideline
to all those contemplating building a time machine. I pointed out that although this was neglected by most science fiction writers, the earth
is traveling about ten thousand miles per hour in its orbit about the sun, and the direction of motion changes daily, so in a time jump, the
traveler will likely find himself in vacuum, so a practical time machine will be a pressure vessel with both a life support system and a propulsion
system. The delta-vee capability of the propulsion system will be on the order of earth escape velocity, so it will be a mighty rocket indeed.


Screen shot from later in the session.

Breadfruit Bonsai

Tuesday morning, April 20, Andrea and I went for a swim at the beach, and in the afternoon I worked on my breadfruit (ulu in Hawaiian) bonsai.


April 20, 2021. The tree continued to grow on the bench.


Defoliating reveals the structure of the tree.


After wiring. The tree is ready to go back on the growing bench.

My Breadfruit Bonsai page.

Byaldi for Dinner

Wednesday morning, April 21, Andrea took her Leaf in for its four year service and while she was waiting she saw a cooking show where a French vegetable dish was prepared, so she got the recipe when she got home and cooked it for dinner.


It came out beautifully and was delicious. Photo by Andrea.


Decor suggestion from Facebook.

Sans Souci Beach

Andrea and I went for a swim at Sans Souci Beach on Thursday morning, April 22.


Pruning the hau trees at The Hau Tree. Apparently it's no longer called the Hau Tree Lanai.

Mock Orange Bonsai Demonstration

On Thursday morning, April 22, I worked on a mock orange (philadelphus) tree I had grown from a seedling. I decided to photograph the steps as a bonsai demonstration. We have a mock orange tree, so-called because the blossoms smell like orange blossoms, in our yard, and seedlings sometimes appear in our garden.


The tree is about three years old and has been in this plastic bonsai growing pot for about two years.


Pruning and defoliating reveal the structure of the tree.


After wiring and ready for repotting. The roots need more work than the above ground part of the tree.


The tree will go into the larger sized cement growing pot on the left. I have put some wet sand over a screen covering the hole in the bottom.


John Naka once told me that when one is growing bonsai, one is "really growing roots." After this photo I removed one (unseen) large crossing root.


The tree has been planted in the larger pot in an upright attitude, leaning slightly forward (to the left). I will cover the soil with a layer of
wet sand to temporarily provide firmness for the planted position. It also helps to keep soil from washing away during daily watering.


Pau hana (Hawaiian for "after work"). Now to let it grow for two more years in this pot. Shade for now, then I will move into full sun over the
course of a month. The wire will come off in a month or two as I keep an eye out for wire marks as the tree grows.

I made a separate page for my mock orange demonstration.

Art Framing

Andrea picked up some pictures she had taken in for reframing on Thursday afternoon, April 22.


This is the watercolor Hawaiian beach scene by J. Halley Cox, 1953, we reframed with museum glass.

Premna Root-on-rock Style Bonsai

I worked on one of my premna root-on-rock style bonsai on Thursday afternoon, April 22, and decided to phogograph some of the stages as a demonstration.

Premna is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, first described for modern science in 1771. It is widespread through tropical and subtropical regions in Africa, southern Asia, northern Australia, and various islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. --Wikipedia


I had assembled and painted the dai for my lava rock suiseki the week before and realized it needed photographing.


This is the before shot. The bonsai has been in this plastic growing pot for about a year.


After pruning and wiring.


This is the back side. It actually looks a little better in the photographs.


After potting in a Japanese ceramic bonsai pot.

I made a separate page for my premna demonstration.

Monk Seal Pup at Sans Souci Beach

Andrea and I went to the beach for a swim on Tuesday morning, April 27.


The whole Diamond Head end of the beach has been fenced off, probably due to the bad behavior of a few the last time a seal pup was being nursed.

The weather has been interesting for the last day or two. We missed the rain at the beach, but we had 0.4 in the rain gage when we got home. Andrea did a Mission Houses tour later in the morning.

Sea Grape

My sea grape has been blooming for the first time.


Grown from seed. Another of the unusuals in my bonsai collection.


My friend John Gardner in Louisiana is preparing to do jerk, so I sent him a photo of our book.

Dinner at Hau Tree Restaurant

I made a dinner reservation (for today, Thursday, April 29) for Hau Tree (formerly named Hau Tree Lanai) at the Kaimana Hotel at Sans Souci Beach two weeks ago.


We went for a swim in the morning and I saw chickens at Sans Souci Beach Park, technically part of the Kapiolani Park land grant, but given a
separate name by the city Department of Parks and Recreation.


The reservation was for 6:30 PM so we saw a nice sunset. The place was busy and all the furniture was new.


Kalani English, Senate Majority Leader from Maui, announced his retirement from the Senate due to his post-covid syndrome. Stanley Chang posted
this image in Facebook. I met Kalani at a house warming party in Aina Haina and, of course, I campaigned for Stanley for the Senate.

Email Richard dot J dot Wagner at gmail dot com

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Last updated May 1, 2021 by Dr. Rick Wagner. Text and images Copyright © 2021, unless otherwise attributed, all rights reserved.