Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday started out rather rainy - not like this winter, just normal tradewind rains - but has since turned into a lovely day with sunshine, clouds, and light breezes. I got a bit more weeding done after breakfast. Mike's been working on the studio. And now I'm trying to catch up pictures on Picasa and news on this blog. New pictures have been posted: "More Studio Views".

Last night we had our good friends (from Idaho who moved here before us) over for a 'sneak preview' of the studio, dinner, and games. Even the little ones seemed to have fun exploring and climbing the furniture. Kerry, Pohaku and Cedar got out the giant frisbee to throw around on the front lawn. I gave Molly and Willow a tour of my garden plantings. And Mike and David finally got a chance to catch up with eachother a bit. We all enjoyed some lively discussions using the Socratic method of questioning that Kerry, Willow, Molly and I had been reading about in our Literature Club. A good time was had by all.

Much of my time of late has been spent with wedding planning. It is, shall we say, an 'interesting' process trying to coordinate info and ideas between Hawaii and Philadelphia. Thank goodness Julie has joined in, bridging the gap from her home in Bonners. It's been a real blessing.

The big news item from the Big Island is, of course, the volcano. Yes, the eruption has resumed. Yes, there was an explosion up at Halema'uma'u (the crater where Pele lives), inside Kilauea Crater. And no, they have never seen anything quite like that before. And no again, no one seems to know why it happened or what it means. The town of Volcano has not been evacuated as some news is reporting, but there are evacuation plans forming, just in case. The lava is flowing again and it's a bit closer than the old flow field, but still on the other side of the rift zone from us. The reason this is considered safe (a relative term, we all know) is that it has found a clear path to the sea, so it should keep going that way. We'll see... And, no, we still have not gone out to see it but plan to soon, maybe this afternoon.

We have 1 more week before our first guests arrive, and April is getting pretty booked up already! It's nice to have the inquiries and reservations trickling in again. Our new driveway gets pushed in tomorrow and then we can clear out the carport, etc on this side. We'll have our own entry to the studio to maintain privacy for our guests and for ourselves. I'm pretty sure we'll be 'camping in' for a bit before we can actually move in. All part of the adventure!

Mahalo nui loa to those who wrote to me and called recently. It gets kinda lonely here sometimes out on this rock in the middle of the Pacific. Love and aloha, Liz