Red Dirt

Yesterday a friend, Gloria, stopped by and we were sitting out in the yard enjoying the late afternoon breeze. She lives in Pearl City and we were talking about our yards and the pros and cons of growing different things. I'm not the one she really should be talking to about this, since I'm not the Gardener, only the one who gets to enjoy the Gardener (oopps !) garden.

Anyway, she noticed that we don't have any red dirt in our yard. I'd never really noticed that before. I remember we did at one time because the tile by the front door was stained by it. I got to looking around the street and there really isn't any on the street either. It's up at the end of the main street where the cane fields are, just not here. Wonder why?

I know it's around because I can see it on the dust rag when I dust or clean the windows. Hummm.

I've asked hubby about the red dirt and what makes it "red". "It's because of the volcanic origins of the islands and the iron that's in the soil after millions of years, it's what makes everything so green," he tells me.

I've seen vendors in Waikiki selling "Genuine Red Dirt Dyed" stuff. Can't imagine using dirt to dye something...but from experience it really doesn't come out of clothes!

So one evening we were driving back from somewhere and were coming through the pineapple fields along Kam Hiway and I shot these pics from the car of our famous Red Dirt.

Yup. it's red alright...not the apple sort of red, but a more burnt orange/red sort of hue.

A dust cloud from a truck or something driving in the fields.

I love the contrast between the red of the dirt and the green plants. Not just plain old brown dirt dust, but dust with some character...RED! I'll have to remember that next time I'm cleaning the stuff off the windows and table tops!