The Machinery of Night

Foto Friday:World's Best View

I believe that this -- in the face of some stiff competition -- is my favorite view in the whole wide world:

Pu'u Kukui from Wailea, Maui
Sep. 2003

Pu'u Kukui is the extinct volcano that makes up the western end of the island of Maui. Some web pages say this means "Hill of Light", which I guess is more romantic-sounding that what I thought it meant, which is "Candle Nut Tree Hill". Although I suppose if you burn candle nuts for light, it's the same thing.

Candle nuts are those big black nuts you sometimes get in leis. They are extremely butch, so a modern manly man can wear them instead of a femmy flower lei. Also, they're cheaper and last longer.

This is a mystery photo. For a long time I've had a picture of Pu'u Kukui, ready to post, and then a while back I scanned in this (in some ways) better one.

The aspect ratio was as you see it there, which would be typical of a panoramic camera. Niles's film camera has a panoramic mode, but my antique scorns such modern frippery. I think there was a scanner glitch, but it made a nice picture. The lesson here is that it is possible to have too much contrast (use those polarizers wisely!).

I was transfixed by this view while I was in Maui. I could barely take my eyes off it, even to blog (start at the bottom, scroll up). When I was a girl we lived in hilly Missouri, and I used to sit out on the back porch and look westward over the hills, wondering what was out there, in my future. I used to imagine myself visiting exotic places and seeing exotic sights.

Now I (occasionally) go to exotic places, and the exotic sights only remind me of Missouri. I actually get nostalgic for the back porch and the hills, and wish that I was back there dreaming of the future, rather than here living it.