Beyond Here

As promised in the last post, here is a glimpse into one corner of our garden. Its looking beautiful with all these small little flowers cropping us in abundant profusion. The surprising thing is that at the onset of winter, our gardener insisted that we need to cut down everything to the ground for it to regrow in spring. I will admit I was a nervous believer then. But this whole area was subsequently cut down, and it sprang back up over the last couple of months with tiny-tiny flowers and this tall shrub.

Yes, looks like we will have a small mini-vacation later next week. Travelling with Master S in tow has definitely been a learning in its own right, but summer is here and we are hoping that we can get back into the travel spirit. Lot more planning and preparation goes into a trip now and so trips are fewer and farer in between. But for now, I am happy and looking forward to next week. Some more flowers from the hill behind the house: P.S. Oh and some lovely flowers have sprung up in the garden in our backyard - it looks like a small English garden now :) But thats for the next post.

... the old man is snoring :) It had been raining today all day and I kept humming this rhyme to Master S. Its pretty dull outside, except for the flowers on the hillside and the ones that are coming up in our own garden. Yes, we have our very own garden now. And its springing up new things every now and then. We were handed down a pretty well maintained garden by the previous owner. And we are trying our best to keep it that way. Since this is our first spring here, every new bloom is a new surprise. The latest is a lavendar bush - it just started blooming.

I have been in love with the hill behind our house ever since we moved in last year. The first night I had woken up to a beautiful sunrise behind this very same hill. Then there is this quaint tree on the hillside on seeing which both Mr. S and I had remarked almost together - "I like that tree". On occasion I have also seen a fox, a turkey and lately a baby deer on the same hill. So it is no wonder that I waited with baited breath to see what surprise this hill would have in store for us this spring. And lo behold! It covered itself with all sorts of wild flowers. There are california poppies scattered here and there, some lupine and some pink and red/maroon flowers whose name I don't even know. The hill is covered and I have been looking out to it day and night. I had been bugging Mr. S to go back to the hill to take some pictures for a few days now and he finally obliged last weekend. He went right when the sun was beginning to go down and came back with this. I love m...

July in Alaska is a wonderful time to see wildflowers. And we did not have to make an effort to see them - they were all around - lining the roads, along our hikes, near lakes, even the grass had a pink hue to it. Below are some of the shots of wildflowers - lupines, campunalas, irises, grass etc.

Being in the bay area puts us in close proximity to Yosemite National Park. We both absolutely love the place. Infact our trips to the place have always been special. The very first time we went there, we hit the park during perfect weather and full waterfalls. And since we did venture on one of the less frequented hikes, we also had a not-so-desired bear encounter that left us a little bit unsettled. Our second trip to the place was during fall and the fall colors had us going ga-ga over the place. Fall in Yosemite was definitely beautiful. So it was no wonder that when we set off friday evening for another trip we were absolutely impatient with excitement and what the place had in store for us. It was an uneventful drive for the first couple of hours except for a long stretch when there were loads of white and purple wildflowers along the road. Till we were closer to the park and suddenly S hit the brakes - there were 4 deer on the road. And when it comes to wildlife the rule here is...

In the end though, it is always the California poppy that rules! While driving back on Highway 1 we chanced upon a number of patches of these, but this one particular patch was especially bright orange.

Coming back to the weekend trip to see wildflowers.... While travelling down from our place we drove on Highway 101. All along the highway, after every mile were these markers reminding us that 101 is the historic El Camino Real. Since we could not stop the car just anywhere, (and I was hell bent upon taking a picture of this marker,) it took some time and effort before I could take a shot of this marker from the moving car. I was very pleased myself. Till yesterday, when I was walking to a nearby grocery store on El Camino Real near our home (its a slow driving street instead of a fast moving highway when it runs through any city) and what should I see but the same markers. So much for putting in all that extra effort. In any case, I actually found the whole 101 route to be very scenic, especially this time of the year since it was all green and colorful with flowers. On our way back we drove back on Highway 1 along the coast. We decided to stretch our legs at the Fiscalini Ranch Pres...

While there was a lot of lavendar and blue wildflowers around this season, this is definitely the year of yellow. And the star attraction of our trip was a drive to Cottonwood Canyon Road off Highway 166. Since this was basically wide open space, we could park anywhere, climb the hills, walk among the flowers (of course on foot paths so as not to trample on the flowers). Here are some pictures from the time spent there. P.S. BTW the credit for alerting me to the wildflowers in Cottonwood Canyon goes to the author of the following blog . I came across his posts when looking for wildflower locations near our place and that is how we reached Cottonwood Canyon. Thanks kmw. It was a weekend well spent, all thanks to your tip.

The central California coast is looking magnificent this wildflower season. We went searching for them last weekend and once we were in the area, did not have to search much. They were pretty much everywhere. Lining the highways were yellow, lavendar and blue flowers (lupine) along with lots of california poppies. At times it was difficult to keep the eye on the road. The following pictures were taken on Shell Creek Road, off CA-58, right before reaching the Carrizo Plain National Monument. Since it was not a freeway, there was plenty of time to walk around and observe the flowers at length.

These days there are california poppies blooming all around this place. They reminded me of these poppy fields growing in the wild that we came across outside Lausanne in Switzerland last year. We were having a hard time figuring our way out of the city in the car, when we came across these. Getting lost can be fun sometimes.

A picnic at Golden Gate State Park.... And the flowers were in full bloom after the long winter. Spring is definitely here! P.S. Mridula, this one is for you :-)

Here are some random close-up shots of the fall colors at Yosemite. It was only last weekend that we went but it already seems like it was ages ago :-( The first one is my favorite.

Last weekend we travelled to Yosemite to see the fall colors. My online research showed that the peak fall color in the valley was likely to be for that particular weekend. And so I was all excited about the trip. To add to the fun, a couple of friends decided to join in too - the more the merrier. Before we go into the actual description of the trip, some background is essential. When I came to the US it was to the east coast which is home to some of the best fall colors. While I do not miss all the cold and snow from the east coast, the 2 things I do miss here in California are the spring flowers and the fall colors. So when my husband went back to school on the east coast, I would travel every fall to meet him in the hope of seeing some color. But of course he was always busy and so we never made the trip. To cut a long story short, it was after a span of 7 years that I was hoping to see fall again. We set off early morning (5 am - I absolutely insisted we leave early) and were insi...

Spring was wonderful last year around our apartment. There had been plenty of rain, and flowers were in plenty all around. The hill opposite our apartment driveway was covered with big purple flowers. There were bright pink flowers along the sidewalk too. But the flowers that most caught my fancy were a little way down the hill. Everyday as I would drive to work, I would pass this beautiful patch of orange california poppies and reddish-pink flowers. And I would think I have to walk down there someday. So one of the weekends, we decided to take a walk down the hill and look at them closely. Here are the pictures from that walk - as you can see we were wonderfully rewarded. The rains weren't all that good this year. I waited for the patch to bloom this year, but there were very few flowers :-(

I am sitting at the Chicago airport, gate L2A, waiting for my connection to Detroit. And loads of time to kill. And since there is no wireless hotspot here, I thought might as well catch up on some of the blogging. I can type up the posts and then post them when I reach Ann Arbor. versus So I searched my computer for recent pictures and found some from our recent trip to Orlando. They were all taken at the Disney's Epcot Centre. (As a side note, I am a big fan of Disney parks, I have been to the LA Disneyland atleast 5-6 times in the last 6 years that I have been in San Diego). versus It being spring time there were flowers in abundance. Now I am a big fan of flowers growing just as they are vs. flowers that are made to look like something else. I remember commenting the same on one of Sigma's post too. In any case, when I found the latter mixed with my all time favorite Disney characters, it became hard to make the same choice. Here are the pictures of both kind. versus