"Uncle"

Today, Farmer MacGregor begged, "Uncle" and suggested a day off.  I took the wheel and we headed up into the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.  The climb starts out fairly gentle through the Kern River Oilfield.  No photo of that stretch of the drive.  It's brown and bumpy with horsehead pumps working to bring you petroleum (Yes, I consider petroleum "natural".) products for your convenience.  Once the elevation starts to climb, the grass gets greener and oak trees dot the landscape.  There were a few skiffs of wildflowers in the pastures.

The scenery was out of a "Come to California" brochure.  The intensity of the colors where not captured in these photographs...probably because I had polarized sunglasses on that made everything more intense.

Only a few California poppies were showing along with Fiddlenecks.  One wildflower I did notice a lot of were thistles.   They dotted the roadside along a cattle trail.  I feel like having artichokes!

After our good lunch and tour of the countryside, we headed back down to the San Joaquin Valley.  Farmer MacGregor couldn't sit still too long and headed out to the garden to do a little pruning on his Red Flame Grapevine.

Hope everyone enjoys a great Easter weekend.

Wisteria and Wildflowers

This morning started out with fresh, cool air that had pushed out the heat from yesterday.  Skiffs of clouds passed over the sun for a few hours until they moved on to leave a blue, blue sky.  One wisteria is doing great.  The other is yet to be determined; but is showing signs of life.  Later in the morning during a hike in Hart Park, I was surprised to see that there were still some wildflowers.  I have no idea what they are; but here they are:

Fiddle Neck?

 Lupine?

 No Flippin’ Idea

 Fiddleneck Purple?

Sure wildflowers are pretty; but I must be a true pessimist.  I see nasty foxtails and other seeds sticking to my socks and scratching me.  I see it in everyone of those pictures. I prefer to think of myself as a realist.

Good day.

Wildflowers

The wildflowers are going buzzerk in the foothills. Wonderful. They really look great. Everything about this time of year is fairly pleasant. One problem...summer is on the way. These wildflowers will soon be stickers and fuel for wildfires when the heat of hell arrives.

Until then, I'll enjoy what so many others are wishing for.

Happy Friday the 13th!