Poppy Power

Stalking the wily California poppy in the western Antelope Valley. We knew the bloom was at its peak earlier in the week, so we took off after I finished with work around 4 o’clock on Thursday.

We found this dirt track off of Lancaster Road. That’s just how brilliant the poppies are!

The track turned at a fence. Pretty sure that’s the California Aqueduct between us and the hills because we encountered some water gates.

Yes, I lay down in the weeds to get this shot. And earned a pants-load of little stickery things in my jeggings. (I need some hiking pants!)

I love the silky look of the petals. You can see it on the upper petal of the far right flower.

Fences. I took lots of shots of this one.

Another view of the flowers with the aqueduct between us and the hills. You can see how the trees burned in a wild fire a few years ago.

Wonderful time to be in the desert. This will all be a lovely sepia before too long.

Looking north, I think, toward Tehachapi. You can just make out a congregation of modern wind mills at the base of the mountains, to the right.

 

Wind power has been a thing out here for quite some time.  We also saw new banks of solar panels along our way.

 

 

Last poppy stop, a little ridge Hydra noted on the way out.

For the geologically inclined amongst you, the blue ridge to the right is, I  think, Ritter Ridge. separates the beautiful Leona Valley from the Antelope Valley, and it’s also known as the San Andreas fault ridge. The Leona Valley is basically ground zero for the the plate boundry between the North American and Pacific plates. It’s gorgeous, with lots of grazing land, fruit orchards, vineyards and lakes (aka sag ponds, where the fault meets an aquifer and viola! water!)

Who’d have thougt I’d end up living on a different tectonic plate than I grew up on? Not me!

 

 

 

 

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Vinca peeking through a shrub.

To our place!  When we arrived here, there were so many weeds on the slope and so many of them were prickery, that I thought of it as Thistlehaven Gardens.  That has slowly changed over the 13 1/2 years we’ve been here.

There is so much going on in our yard right now, I thought I’d take pictures of everything that’s blooming right now.  As I type this up, I realize that I am missing photos of the thyme, which has tiny white blossoms, and our big euonymus shrub, which has wonderful smelling flowers that you don’t really notice because they’re the same color as the variegated leaves. We’ll see if I’m enough of a completionist to go take the photos and update this later.

If you know the names of any of the plants I haven’t named or if you see anything labeled wrong, I’d  love to hear it!

If you click on the first photo in the gallery below, you’ll see a bigger image and hopefully be able to use the arrow to move through the gallery.

 

This desert native was a gift from Diane & Roberto when we moved here. It’s one of my favorites and I want more! It’s huge now, and blooms over and over without needing deadheading.

This miniature rose is truly spectacular. It was a little neglected when we arrived, but if I deadhead it regularly I can get 5 or 6 rounds of blooms in a season.

Chives in bloom. Growing herbs and having them to use when I want is one of the best things about having a yard.

I know I planted these, but I’m not sure what they are called. Iberius, maybe?

The rosemary blossoms are a little long in the tooth. We have about 4 varieties blooming, ranging from this dark to white.

It’s apple blossom time! Granny Smiths in their youth.

Planted this. Not sure what it is!

Verbena! I am pretty sure this is verbena.

Another of the first things I planted here. This is the only one of three English lavendars that survived a very cold winter a few years back.

Don’t know the name of these. All I know is they are doing better in Janice & Andy’s yard than in mine!

African daisies. These love it here, but they require some deadheading to keep blooming.

The sage is about to bloom. I’ve never had flowering sage before, but I love it.

This was also here when we bought the house. It gets dark blue/black berries on it later.

Taken fairly early in the morning, the brilliant ice plant flowers aren’t quite open yet.

Gazania! These were more plentiful when we arrived. Love these blooms, but the plants are kind of scraggly the rest of the year.

Too Blooming Early

Beautiful buds on the peach tree, but it’s so very early in the season!  Can they survive the next few months?

Sunny days are hard to complain about, but I do worry about the crop at Blum Ranch, across the valley from us.  These are on our dwarf peach tree.

Apricot blossoms.