May 22 Where I had been enjoying homemade tiramisu in Hawaii just after the last new moon, this new lunation brought me to the Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, CA, the largest Buddhist temple in the Western Hemisphere. The next day I visited the Kali Temple, and after brief stops in New Mexico and Texas reached New York City in time to catch the penultimate day of the big Vermeer exhibit there. Where light is concerned, few are Vermeer's peers. Then on to England, where I took a walk on the night of May 28/29 around 1 am. A clear sky displayed to me the brilliant orange planet Mars, at almost the same latitude as Antares, the "heart of the Scorpion." Five houses away lounged the beadworked, gaudy-veiled moon, low and plump, a bit more than one degree away from and applying toward a trine with Mars. A very fetching scene. Off tomorrow to Turkey, where new adventures, and a full moon, await. Onward and upward!

May 6, 2001 This latest full moon found me on the Big Island of Hawaii, that magical land where Nature is fresh and sassy, where the currently blooming jacaranda trees covered the roads in some spots with their lilac-colored blossoms. My first weekend here I accompanied a local hiking club out onto 4000+ acres of hillside at 4500 feet at Kapu'a, near Honomalino, newly purchased by the Nature Conservancy. Forest land grazed by cattle for several decades, it is now to be returned to native forest. Welcome steps toward preserving rapidly dwindling biodiversity by fine people who deserve more support. Two nights after the full moon I proceeded to the Kilauea Volcano, the home of the Hawaiian goddess Pele. Kilauea has been erupting more or less continuously for nearly two decades now, during which time I have visited it repeatedly. This time I went with Dan Rogers, whose house was the first to be buried by molten lava when Kilauea elected to consume the Kalapana subdivision 16 years ago. We hiked in about 3 hours from the road to get to large flows of red lava, and made joyous offerings there into the intensely golden glowing molten rock. In the east, the moon; before us, the fiery lava; to the south, the boundless ocean; all around us, a peaceable breeze; above us, the vastness of space. The five elements in starkly pristine form, a vision nearly beyond belief. A unique location for a unique experience. E Pele a!