Home Made Heiau
It has sagged a little with age, but after fourteen and a half years from its completion of a year and a half of construction it is still standing. It has survived numerous floods located at the lowest point in the garden and a direct shot for all the rain water that can pour down my driveway. It survived the big earthquake back in October that caused a lot of minor structural building damage on the Big Island in Kailua-Kona.
After the quake I spent a little time shoring up its base and filling a few holes. Its biggest nemesis is the Torch Ginger which grew close and then began to try and grow through this massive pile of stones. I adjusted the irrigation to reduce the water nearby and cut and sprayed the stalks I could see living inside the stone.
The top of the Pile of Rocks is five feet at least. Next to it is a freakishly large Bird of Paradise at about six foot two. The Bird of Paradise was given to me as a shriveled up half dead cast off with about three leaves. Now it is a giant.
A pile of stones with no mortar still stands for now.
3 comments:
I'm showing my ignorance, I'm sure... but can you explain just what a "heiau" is? (I'm all for a cool pile of rocks, any day, I just want more info!)
Heiau (Hey-ouw) are stone platforms of many shapes and sizes built by the Hawaiians for their spiritual and ceremonial practices.
When I watched it in fullscreen at your YouTube station the video was more digitized(?), but the junctions where one rock meets another show up better. What meticulous stone-fitting work you did! I also like the way you can see through a sort of keyhole in the plants above the Heiau out to the view beyond.
Annie
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