TheQueen

Friday, April 4 - Flowers and Flowers

We are having a good wildflower year, and in the last couple of days, we have explored some beautiful spots, starting with a colorful variety of blooms glimpsed on the side of the Kernville road. Indian Wells Canyon is also beautiful. I think I'll just let the photographs speak for themselves.

Sunday, March 30 - Hunting for Charlotte's ...

Today we rise with the sun (well, sort of), and Ja makes Orange French Toast - cinnamon-raisin bread bathed in a mixture of orange juice and milk and toasted on the comal. Well-breakfasted, we climb into the Wrangler and, literally, head for the hills to look at wildflowers. We begin in Sand Canyon, where, a local paper tells us, a rare Charlotte's Phaecelia has been sighted. We drive up into the canyon and take the aqueduct road up, up to where the flowers paint the south-facing hillsides - yellow, a hint of blue here, a wash of white there. We park at the high point on the road, and enjoy the vista.

Saturday, March 29 - Acres of Poppies and a Shopping Trip

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.

Friday, March 14 - Flowers and Vegetables

Earlier this week we found a surprise near Onyx. Here, in a canyon off of Kelso Creek Road, the hills re painted with orange and blue and yellow. The air quality was terrible, but the colors were bright enough to shine through. We hiked across a field dotted with goatheads and many small flowers to the hillside resplendent with poppies.