Glorious Color

The only other time we traveled in California, it was mid-summer. Now it is spring. So, as we drove down the road Monday, we wondered what the bunches of bright orange flowers were that we saw in nearby fields. Finally, there were flowers close enough to the roadway we could pull over and look at them. They were the California poppies that we were on our way to see at the California Poppy Reserve, but didn't expect to see the flowers so soon and didn't realize that is what they looked like.

At first, there were small bunches of flowers. Then they started to line the edge of the road and the edges of farmers' fields. Next, we came to whole fields full of the gold-orange flowers. In places they grew between the sage brush, providing wonderful contrast to the gray-green bushes.

At the Reserve, run by the California State Parks Division, there were ribbons of orange down the valleys, poppies growing with other purple flowers, a whole landscape of gold and orange. We are so glad we were able to see the poppies this week. They are at their height of bloom. The annual Poppy Festival will be this coming weekend.

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