| Green, Poppies, Lupine, & Mustard |
| These flowers tend to be very exclusive and don’t mix. So, a roadside or hillside may be highlighted with the yellow of the mustard but not the gold of the poppies.
The mustard is said to not be indigenous to California but to have been brought by the early Spanish explorers. The explorers needed a way to mark their trail. Mustard seeds are very small. A bag could be easily carried and the seeds cast as the riders traveled. The flowers would sprout and lead the adventurers home. Mustard has adapted to our environment so completely that they give not hint of a passageway. No all praise belongs to the wildflowers. The products of the local gardeners warrant applause. Everything is in bloom: the bulb plants, the bedding flowers, the bushes and even the hedgerows. I must confess that I can’t even name most of the flowers that I’m seeing, but I do appreciate. (insert hedgerow & camilia) |
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| December and January were sunny, beautiful and nearly rainless. This brought increased dour forecasts of droughts. In February it rained. Not record amounts, but enough to remove most of the dire warnings of impending doom. The reward for the rain was that all the surrounding hills turned from gold (brown and dead) to a brilliant green. The whole of the center of California is carpeted with a short grass making the place look like a giant golf course. What a treat to the eyes to travel the roads with each new vista providing renewed inspiration.
The green of the hills around Morro Bay are speckled with moving black dots. The black dots are cattle, gorging themselves on the new grass. The cows aren’t residents but are transients brought into this area by the truckloads to harvest the new grass and then move to other areas. Actually the cows are brought in December pregnant. They calve shortly after arrival. The mother and calves then fatten on the new grass. |
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| It is hard with mere words to describe the brilliant emerald green that the hillsides take on during this season. The pictures below show the same hillside taken from nearly the same spot showing the hills in the fall and then again after the rains. The photographs still can only give a hint as to what the world looks like. |
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| Once you get past the awe of the green and wait a bit, it gets better. The same rain that performs such miracles on the grass also brings on the wild flowers. The green of the grass becomes accented with gold California poppies, yellow Mustard blossoms, and the blue and sometime white of Lupine. |
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