Nikon Df – Page 22 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Friday Morning

Spring Break ends today. I go back to work tomorrow. Friday, a friend came over around sunrise, and we headed out to the local open space, Wildwood, which encircles the city where I live. It’s a wonderful place, especially in spring when the flowers bloom. As I have said before, California has had a drought for the past 6 years, but this year our rainy season was phenomenal (by desert standards). The result is that things are green and growing, instead of the dreary brown, brown, brown. The fields and hills are covered with a lot of wildflowers, in yellow and purples primarily, with so many different ones it is hard to remember all their names. Some, though, include wild morning glory, mountain sunflower, allium, fiddleneck, red stem filaree, lupine, lacey phacelia, and blue dicks.

Dividing Line

The California Poppy Reserve borders on private property, separated by that classical western fence of barbed wire. On the other side – but cropped out for aesthetics – was a jeep and a couple of guys, no doubt admiring the view, as were we tourists on this side of the fence!

Yellow & Orange

It’s amazing to see colors splashed across the hillsides surrounding the California Poppy Reserve! Fields of yellow and orange, meadows of purple.

Against the Sky

Today we went out to the California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster, California. In Los Angeles County, this is in the middle of nowhere, and here is where you see the beauty that was California before Los Angeles and urban sprawl took over. The rains of the past winter have produced an abundance of flowers – more than in many years. Here is the first of a series I took today.

It’s funny how weather can change from one place to another. We drove 70 miles, through canyons and back roads to get here. From our 71 F city we came into a cold (50 F) and very, very windy environment (30-50 mph winds). All I had for cold weather was a vest and a short-sleeved T-shirt. Brrrr!

This is a panorama of about 5 images.

Corner

Buildings with ivy and plants climbing over their walls always fascinated me. Haunted castles, romantic villas . . . certainly far from my quoitidian life!