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If you feel more tired, less motivated, or a little “muted” during the winter months, you’re not imagining it, and you’re not broken. Winter asks something different of our nervous system, our hormones, and our expectations of productivity.  Understanding dopamine’s seasonal rhythm can help us move out of self-blame and into more sustainable ways of…

Members of the International Palm Society and Hawaii Island Palm Society are about to embark on an adventure from Vietnam to Thailand studying the palms of those regions. Some members are extending the trip to include some remote islands like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. This is part of a…

Spring flowering trees are on schedule to bloom and most notable are the cherry blossoms of upland Waimea. To celebrate the blooming, check out the Waimea Cherry Blossom Festival next Saturday, February 7th. There will be all kinds of activities to showcase the age old Japanese tradition of hanami. According to Fern Gavelek the free…

When the first Polynesian arrived in the Hawaiian Islands centuries ago, there were no coconut palms here. There were no Mountain Apple, Breadfruit, kalo, olena and many other plants we think of as Hawaiian. If you think that kukui, bananas, and ti are natives and seem to grow easily, then it is time to rethink!…

In the many micro climates of our island, wild orchids bloom year around like Spathoglottis plicata commonly known as the Philippine Ground Orchid and Arundina graminifolia or Bamboo Orchid. However, they like many other orchids tend to respond to the lengthening days. Folks living on the mainland are experiencing the chill of winter but Hawaii’s…

  Winter doesn’t just change the weather—it changes your brain chemistry. Many people assume in winter, low mood means they need more motivation. In reality, what’s often missing isn’t dopamine—it’s serotonin. Understanding the difference can change how you care for yourself this season! Dopamine and Serotonin: A Simple Distinction Dopamine is about drive, novelty, reward,…

Screening plants like good fences, vines and hedges make good neighbors goes the old saying, and maybe in the old days it was the case. They may be used for privacy, to keep animals in or out or to exclude other folks. Stone walls are traditional and impressive, but expensive. Today, we have so many…

Diseases, insects and viruses have plagued humans since before we became human. Unfortunately, history doesn’t always tell much of the story. Civilizations have come and gone and we aren’t sure how much the great plagues impacted humans and food on which we depended had caused collapse. We do know that recent history has shown that…

Every January, the message is loud and relentless: New year. New goals. More discipline. More output. But winter is not the season of acceleration. It is the season of conservation. When we try to force summer-level productivity onto winter bodies, something breaks—not because we are weak, but because we are ignoring the intelligence of the…

  Winter asks us to live differently—but most of us keep using summer tools in a winter body. Shorter days, less light, more time indoors, and colder temperatures all change our nervous system chemistry. Motivation dips. Mood wavers. Energy becomes precious. This isn’t a personal failure—it’s biology meeting season. Winter self-care isn’t about “fixing” yourself….

There is a moment each year when the world exhales. The Winter Solstice—the longest night, the quietest turning—is not a collapse into darkness, but a pause so deep it becomes holy. In a culture that worships momentum, winter arrives as a rebellion, reminding us to descend into what lays beneath the surface and that we…

If you are the kind of person who makes New Years resolutions but never follows through, then maybe they are resolutions just too big to achieve. Start by keeping it manageable like planting one tree. You can do that on the first day of 2026! Since you have achieved your goal, then hopefully you will…