The mornings are getting cooler.

Now that it isn't as hot and humid when I first open my eyes, I'm actually eager to weed some patches I've subjected to benign neglect while getting my daughter off to college and son into a new school.

There's something deeply satisfying about clearing away the tall grasses invading a corner planted with native Hawaiian hapu'u (tree fern), kupukupu (sword fern), 'ohia lehua. For my efforts I was treated to a pleasant surprise: the deep green glossy foliage of a handsome naio had begun to wind up and around a hapu'u, hugging it like an old friend, offering hundreds of white berries with seeds to replant. I discovered I had orchids and a "Kaumana" anthurium in bloom, too. I'd like to think I'm doing the world a favor, but things grow in spite of my "help," it seems.