Living in Pele's Backyard

It is hard to describe what it is like working with Pele’s body.

In all my previous gardening experiences: as a child in Ohio, where I first planted my own flower gardens; for more than 30 years professionally as a landscape designer in New Jersey; and coming to Maui to work on other people's land, first in 2009, and again in 2014 and 2015, I took for granted that the earth was a deep soil place. 

Down the shore on the New Jersey coast I knew the soil was sandy and I might need to amend it with more fertile compost. In Huelo, I don’t recall anything but older revered rocks. In Nahiku, the soil of that food garden had been added to for probably 20 years and I worked barefoot. 

I never once took a spade to any ground before moving here and working this land where I would be hitting a solid black surface that was anywhere between 3 and 12 inches below the dirt and vegetation.

Here you hit bottom pretty fast. That is true not only digging into the soil,  but also scrambling for survival. Maui was easy, close, friendly. Short distances and easily made associations. Oahu, busy and urbanized, but that means lots of options, people and resources. But on Big Island — it’s probably the first time I could imagine what it is to be shipwrecked on a distant island wondering why you are here.

Big Island is so new and also so still-in-formation. That can be awe-inspiring. But it is also challenging.

I am trying like heck to hang onto my rock and keep going,

I would deeply appreciate the moral support of some new subscribers. The main reason I do not write this blog on a regular basis is because it feels like speaking into the air (which I also do daily but no harm since no one is listening). All I wish is for a few more folk to say you will try to listen simply by subscribing to this blog.

I want to thank all my existing supporters, but especially Ann and Carmen, who also help me with an annual or monthly donation. You are listening — and you have not stopped your support for me when I was quiet all these months. It says far more about your character than it does about my own worth and I truly appreciate you. Mahalo!

If I round up a few more subscribers, my next post will have a lot more photos to share with you all about what I've been doing on the land and what inspires me here in Pele's backyard. I only want to send out inspiration in this difficult time on the earth. My own struggles are constant, but I always know there are others in far more difficult and dangerous situations than mine. And I am lucky that Ku'u Pele allows me to live and work on her land.

A few updates:

patriciatratebas.com is now live via Canva and worth a peek. I may add more portfolio pages at some point, but that is what I was able to assemble fairly quickly.

I am not active on twitter right now because of evil, but I have not closed my account there because I was active on that platform since 2009 when Musk was not: It's one small way for him not to win. I took my same handle to Bluesky and I highly recommend you go there for news and information on the state of things beyond our control. @patiswhereitsat.bsky.social