California Poppies

California Poppies

California poppies mean Spring!  Combined with purple lupines, the mountainsides are a delight to behold.  These poppies are in the local botanical garden, but they can show up anywhere.  They vary from deep orange to yellow, some with orangey streaks in the center of their golden petals.

Fading

Fading

Roses, this spring, are doing well.  The first round of blooms has begun to fade, but new buds keep appearing to continue the cycle.  I don’t remember the name of this rose, but it has a light, delicate fragrance, and rather loose, floppy petals, much like a wild rose.

… a rose embower’d
In its own green leaves,
By warm winds deflower’d,
Till the scent it gives
Makes faint with too much sweet . . .