hitting my stride

 Here's octopus #1 and the Rock Mover Wrasse that drew me to see it. I actually had to pause and think: Is that an octopus?!

Against the gray rocks and from further away than this picture, I was really unsure if it was a rock or an octopus. But it was an octopus. And I saw 6 more, too! As always, God was supportive of my efforts.
Guess I'm making up for having those weekends healing, when I couldn't swim...

And a couple of Rock Movers...twins?

A nice Bluefin Trevally. Love that blue!

 Blue of another kind, mixed with orange and green and sunlight.

The Leaf Fish. They have scorpion fish eyes. And you can see the "legs" resting on the rocks.

 Little white shell.

Cone Shell. A really nice green:

 Male Trunk Fish.

Needles and goats!

 Nudibranch.

I am not sure if it was a Spanish Dancer. Not as red as I'm used to, but that's not proof.

I didn't want you to think I'm a one trick octo-pony..
But yes, there were more octopuses. Of course.

 You can see the siphon on this one. Harder to see is its eye, just to the right of the siphon.

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Siphon again and this time, the eye is to the left. Their eyes are not round like human eyes, but more like a dark slit.

 Yes, there's an octopus in there. Pretty smart, right? hiding with the rock in front of the hole. Unfortunately, that's also how tako-hunters look for them.

This one had a red rock to hide it.

 This one was near the island. Quite surprised to see me, too. It immediately retracted to hide.
You can see some of its skin to the left of the rock in the middle.

 I think this one below is kinda spooky-looking. But you can see its head, eye, skin and siphon. Oh yeah, and a bit of rainbow..

It is now time to get the eels out of the way.

 With the Snowflake Moray below, I had to try to see where the head was, as I wanted to pick up that bit of plastic trash. Succeeded too.

Very nice Orange Shoulder surgeon fish. 

Pinktail Durgon and also a yellow phase Cigar wrasse. I was happy to catch them both in the same shot.

 Nice Wrasse.

Cute sleeping seal. A friend asked how I could tell it was sleeping...the snoring? HA.

 Another, as Alex calls them, Lump Seal. Snoozing on the island.

 I think these is a basket shell.

 A sun on the water shot for my pal, Perry. He passed away just before my birthday last year, but he's in Heaven, so maybe he can see this. I would like to think so.

I think some animal makes these round things.  I'm thinking it's poop, but don't really know. Nice design though.

 The Urchin with its protective odds and ends.

Hawkfish. It is amazing how similar, yet different, they are to Scorpion Fish. Resting on their fins that way. But do not think they have poison, which the Scorps do.

 And speaking of poison, another Cone Shell, hiding in the rocks. About 2 feet from the octopus.

Thoroughly enjoyable swim. Thanks, God! I am planning to take a break from swimming twice on the weekend, until I'm all healed totally. But it will be tough. I love that water! and it was pretty calm today. Thanks for reading.
Oops! Almost forgot the cool clouds and palms photo:

There you are, sweet patootie!

First swim in a while...3 he'e!

Armed with antibiotic salve and a waterproof bandage, I ventured out into Poipu Beach to see if the octopuses had missed me. Apparently, they had, as they let me see 3 of them!

 Yes, they are cool animals!

I really enjoyed seeing them and was surprised to see 3. The water wasn't the best and there was an amazing rip. They had closed the deep part, so half of my territory was unavailable.

I also took a movie, but the water was bashing me about, so I'm not planning to upload it...Don't want to make anyone seasick.

A total of 3 turtles, two of which are shown here.

 Abudefduf. Yes, it was turning to avoid me.

Trunk or box fish. You can see the water wasn't pristine. But not bad enough to make me not want to swim.

 Plenty of Brighteye Chromis around. They are very cute and quick, too.

Cowry shell hiding in the rocks.

 God's Glory shining through.

Another shot of the octopus. This was #2, I think.

 Palms and clouds near where we live. You can see the fog around the mountain behind that building.

I tell ya: it's either buildings or phone lines in the way!

 Nice scene.

 I love the palm tree, especially when in front of the clouds.

I work at a garden, and this photo is the first time it occurred to me that some palms have branches without leaves, until the end. My co-workers would be aghast that I didn't know that...

 You can't really see it well, but in the middle of the pond was one of the frolicking seals. And of course wonderful scenery, too...

Rainbow. 

 Here's the seal, caught while it was turning. They appear chubby on land, but in the water, they are great athletes! And below, it was trying to see where it could come up on the beach. The people didn't think to get out of the way, so it eventually swam off to the island to rest.

This one was resting, totally asleep. This was taken after I got out.

Can you see the Spotfin Scorpion Fish?

And the Christmas Wrasse, with super male colors.

 This is what my computer monitor looked like one day last week. Oh yeah, it was not great! But my brilliant hubby figured out it was the HDMI cable and not the t.v., so that was great. He just had to change the cable to another hdmi outlet. Voila! And didn't cost a thing, thank God!

 I told these people that they were too close to the turtle. And they moved right away! I saw them later at the shower and thanked them again for doing so. 

Totally asleep.

 I think the light on this sleeping turtle was quite pretty. I best thing was that people were pretty much leaving them alone.

So after three weeks of no ocean swimming, quite glad to get back in. Thanks to God for showing me all my faves! 

More from the coloring book...and the beach!

So, nothing in my doctor's orders precluded me from going to the beach and getting my feet wet, so my sweetheart and I braved the heat to venture to Kalapaki Beach on Kauai.
And we found a surprise:

 This nice little shell, balanced on my slipper, had the animal inside.

So Alex, a better pitcher than I, tossed it back in the water. You can see in the photo above a bit of the animal. He said, as he prepared to throw it, that the animal had come out a bit more.  Glad it didn't die. And I have looked in my shell book for it and once again noted that I am not great at identifying shells! I'll look again and let you know what I find.
And more from the coloring book:

It is fun to choose colors for these pictures...nothing like the real ones, of course, but still a good stress reducer. 

And I found out what my hubby didn't buy me for Christmas, as well as what he did:

This is the one he did buy me...other than the eyes, quite a good representation.

 Now, I have never seen an octopus with a top hat, nor one with spectacles, but Creme Brulee is the true way you can see that this isn't a real ocean photo.  But we enjoy it all anyway! This is the pillow he didn't buy me. Yes, it is possible to have too many octopuses! Can't believe I said that....

I may have posted this photo before, but this is the coffee I found for Alex in New Orleans...I smile to see it, while not condoning the language. 

If you pray, please pray I am able to get in the water next weekend to see the "real deal" in their natural habitat! 

I am not completely octopus-less!

Just so you know, the surgery went well. But since I'm not completely healed yet, I've been told to stay out of the water. Imagine how much fun that is. I have found, surprisingly, that there are many more hours in the weekend now..no swimming for 3 hours, looking at photos for 2 hours and then writing the blog post! But even with that great benefit, I am hoping that by next weekend, I'll be able to dunk myself again. 
In the meantime, I have been coloring...octopus, of course!

Of course, none of these are exactly like the real octopuses, but who knows? They might be able to do green if they needed to...
Very few of the drawings to color has the correct eyes...they aren't like human eyes.

recent

nice

scenery

After all, we do live in Hawaii! 

For those of you readers who pray, thank you! I'll keep you "post"ed on my progress.

Many blessings!