Today on our way down south to shop, we decided to stop at the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve. The preserve's website says this is just about peak season. We arrived at 9 a.m. - sunny, very windy, and cold - and the poppies were still furled shut, protecting themselves from the wind.
And I discovered, as we exited the car, that I had forgotten my camera. Horrors! Luckily friend Ja had her camera, so you can thank her for these wonderful pictures. It proved too cold to do much walking around, so after lingering a while in the new visitor's center, we continued on our way to our shopping destinations.
We stopped by the Preserve again on our way home, in the early afternoon. It was still windy, but the poppies had loosened up and flooded the hillsides with patches of bright orange. It's a good year, although not a great one. But the preserve, with acres and acres and hillsides of poppies and coreopsis, never disappoints. We walked in the blustery afternoon to several viewpoints. The air quality was pretty poor, but the flowers were wonderful. We called it quits when the wind strengthened and began to blow sand at us.
We drove home via state route 138, where the hills and fields are liberally decorated with yellow and orange and pastures are carpeted with goldfield. Along the way we passed a huge flock of sheep ... eating poppies!
Home once again, we unloaded the copious goodies (mostly food and wine) netted from the day's shopping. We felt like successful hunter gatherers, stowing away the bounty of our bold forays into Trader Joe's and Costco.
Once everything was put away (my new freezer is full of lamb leg and lamb chops and lamb racks and pork loin), we turned to dinner. Lentil soup from Vegetable Love and Sweet Potato Quesadillas from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. The soup is so-so, but the quesadillas are tremendous. I made them with Ancho chile powder and pepper jack cheese, and skipped the cayenne. Still spicy, and absolutely yummy with salsa and sour cream.
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