Koko Crater Garden Walk

Our second in a series of visits to Honolulu County’s five Botanical Gardens took us to Koko Crater in February. We were joined JASNA British Columbia friend Marigayle and Ken Paterson and once again called on the botanical expertise of member Donna Lum’s husband Larry. We took cover under a tree when our pleasant morning gave way to rain, then made a dash for lunch with additional members in Hawai‘i Kai.

The 60-acre garden on the inner slopes of a volcanic crater focuses on the cultivation of rare and endangered dryland plants. We wound through baobab, mesqujite and myrrh trees. It was too early for the plumeria collection to be in bloom, but we’re sure Jane Austen would have enjoyed the colorful marveled at Hawaiian ma‘o flowers and xeriscape favorite desert rose.

Next, we head up and inland to visit Wahiawa Botanical Garden.

Podcast Participants

JASNA Hawai‘i members were guests during season 5 of JAS New Zealand’s Frances Duncan Amateur Austenite podcast, which discussed Lady Susan letter by letter.

In Letter 27, Gretchen Savage discussed Frederica’s childhood and the disappearing Vernon fortune.
In Letter 41, Cheryl Ernst read the final letter before the expository wrap-up .
Bob Newell has also been a podcast guest.

The current season looks at Rational Creatures, a contemporary webseries based on Persuasion. Find out how to listen

At the 2023 AGM

Hawai‘i Regional Coordinator Cheryl Ernst (in back row) attended the JASNA’s 2023 Annual General Meeting in Denver. She joined fellow regional coordinators at a reception hosted by JASNA President Mary Mintz (far right) and had a ball with frequent Hawai‘i Zoom attendees Jeanne Talbot and Kirk Companion.

Entertainment included a Q&A session with Adrian Lukis following a showing of his recorded one-man show Being Mr. Wickham (which imagines the handsome Pride and Prejudice rogue at 60); a marvelous musical performance of songs from Jane Austen’s personal music collection performed and enacted in period costume; and a comic drama distilling romantic highlights from the six major novels in 48 minutes narrated by author Syrie James as a cheeky Jane Austen.

Breakout sessions covered topics ranging from Regency etiquette, attire, carriages and divorce, to screen adaptations and modern translations. Discussions included:

• the difference between reading as escape versus escapism. (Escape is about the possibility of something better; P&P is utopian in that it is about a possible world, argued Princeton’s Claudia Johnson).

• influences of Samuel Richardson and Mary Wolstencroft.

• use of idiolect to define characters (e.g., expressions like “Lord” “lah” and even “fun” were quite the slang terms of the day, hence their use by Lydia Bennet).

• the number of times language of the (legal) court appear in P&P (e.g., deliberation, acquit, suspicion, justice, motive, offense, judgement, pardon, revenge, just, impartial, malicious, condemn, and Elizabeth’s challenge of “why was he to be the judge?”).

Recordings of many sessions will be available to members on the JASNA once speaker permissions are secured.

What We’ve Read

The JASNA Hawai‘i Region Reading Group has explored all six Austen novels as well as Sanditon and Teenage Writings. And we’re always willing to revisit them!

Member and region founder Bob Newell good-naturedly answered questions and endured critique of his first novel, Courting Jane, which features an infatuated time traveler and a fictional JASNA Annual General Meeting set in Honolulu.

We have also discussed spinoffs, retellings and other fan fiction, including:
 • Ayesha at Last
• Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman (trilogy and prequel)
• The Jane Austen Project
• The Jane Austen Society
• A Life of Her Own: The Story of Margaret Dashwood
• Longbourn
• The Other Bennet Sister

Whatever Happened to Margaret?

A Life of Her Own: The Story of Margaret Dashwood got mixed reviews from participants in October’s reading group. The positive: fascinating, well researched historical facts and personages (as befits a journalist author), some interesting development of minor characters and the description of Edward’s pastoral duties. The negative: some implausible plot twists (surely even a mature Marianne wouldn’t turn into such a snob!) and woeful lack of dialogue.

Our California friend Jeanne Talbot won the door prize drawing — a used copy of Julia Barrett’s 1966 Sense and Sensibility continuation, The Third Sister.

Next up: Jane Austen’s Persuasion, date to be determined.

High Time for Tea

JASNA Hawai‘i members enjoyed Tea at 1024 in Honolulu so much that we returned with friends and family.

The tea not only provided welcome refreshment for those who had strolled Foster Botanical Garden earlier in the day and featured a great deal of lively conversation and easy camaraderie, but it served as a decadal celebration – marking the 10-year anniversary of the founding of JASNA Hawai‘i Region. (That’s founder and first regional coordinator Bob Newell at the head of the table).

Botanical Bliss

We think Jane Austen would have enjoyed strolling through Honolulu’s Foster Botanical Garden as much as we did, marveling at it’s amazing specimens from around the world — Indonesian black pepper vine growing on a Gold Tree and the waxy flowers of the Cannonball Tree from the Guianas (pictured), not to mention the largest, sticky-sapped Chicle (as in Chicklets) in the United State; Sausage Trees from Africa, an offspring from an ancient Sri Lankan Bo Tree; Macadamia from Australia; and Hawaiian Candlenut, Breadfruit, Loulu and Hala. Watch our Instagram for more photos.

The agrarian Knightly brothers certainly would have followed with interest the rearing of endangered Double Coconut (Coco-de-Mer) trees using pollen sent from the Singapore Botanical Garden. And surely Marianne wouldn’t have objected to hothouse flowers as marvelous as these orchids the size of a teacup saucer. Take your own virtual tour of the garden which dates from 1853.

We had so much fun, we plan to visit the other four botanical gardens on O‘ahu in the coming year. Watch the coming events or email JASNAHawaiiNei@gmail.com if you’d like to join us.

Maui Member Helps Humane Society After Wildfire

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In the wake of the deadly and devastating wildfires on Maui in August, Hawai‘i JASNA member Stacey Gomez Chaleff (pictured with niece Stacia Arnold, of California) is busier than ever at the Maui Humane Society, where she has been a volunteer since 2022.

Fortunately, both the Pu‘unene Humane Society facility in central Maui and Stacey’s home in Wailea to the south were outside the fire zones.

As surgical intake ambassador, Stacey normally helps with the spay/neuter program for pets and feral cats and does “not very glamorous” but necessary support tasks. Since the fires, it’s been all hands on deck with the facility accepting and distributing pet food and supplies, tending injured animals and trying to reunite lost pets with their families. In addition to generous donations from the community, hundreds of volunteers—many of them first-timers—have shown up each day to help, she reports. “In addition, the community heeded the call to clear the shelter, immediately fostering the animals, to make room for the injured and lost animals that turn up each day since the fires.”

It’s just part of a broader effort to assist in recovery from the fires, which killed at least 115 people, left hundreds unaccounted for and leveled the historic waterfront town of Lahaina. “The outpouring of love and support for all of those affected has been overwhelming in the best way,” Stacey says. “Everyone is doing whatever they can and it’s beautiful to see.” (See the Honolulu Star-Advertiser for ways to help.)

Continued support is needed to help affected families care for their pets. Make monetary donations to the Maui Humane Society, or check out its Amazon wishlist. “And if you are on island, you can support our animals by taking a shelter dog out for the day through our Beach Buddies program or visiting with kitties in our Cat ‘Ohana,” Stacey added.

Lack of pet housing is a major reason animals end up in shelters or cannot be adopted, Stacey says. She cannot have pets where she lives now, but previously had a rescued poodle mix “an older gal, who was my very best friend. I look forward to seeing her again at Rainbow Bridge some day.” In the meantime, she treasures the volunteer shifts when she gets to help socialize puppies, playing with them, holding them, letting them know human hands are friendly.”