Well, rain yes, but also warming temperatures. This is how the golden hills of California look after a good water year. Like a green velvet carpet. Isn’t it just gorgeous? This is a fleeting event here, as usually by May, everything is brown again. But boy it’s spectacular when we’ve got it.

This picture and the next were taken at a State Park called Black Diamond Mines. This area is east of Mt. Diablo and by the delta, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet in the furthest reaches of the San Francisco Bay. We used to live out here, by the water, but it added 45 minutes to Tom’s commute and the schools weren’t fabulous, which is why we moved closer to the Bay Area proper. However this park is really wonderful and celebrates the miners who lived here in the 1800’s. They mined both coal and sand here. This picture was taken at the graveyard, full of history, which is up high on one hill surrounding this valley, looking across towards the mines (which were on the right under those trees). I was here for a Geology field trip. A couple of times of year you can go into the mines, where down at the bottom, you can stand inside an active fault!

This was the hill above the cemetery, where a local farmer was grazing sheep (a win-win situation - good food for the sheep, fire control for the rest of us). Aren’t those colors glorious? No filters on that picture. It was a perfect day for a walk, albeit a muddy one.

Some sun sure feels good after all the gloomy skies and precipitation. And in the garden, I’ve noticed lots of things waking up. So I thought I”d post some pictures of what’s blooming these very late days of winter.

true geranium - get a load of the pollen on those stamens!

Our roof is being redone today, and it’s crazy and loud and chaotic, but we’re happy it’s getting done, as we had lots of rot. The funny thing is that I signed up for this job back at Christmas. It’s taken this long to get to it, with nearly every day being rainy! So it’s a testimony to some clearer weather. I spent some time outdoors transplanting some precocious tomatoes into bigger soil blocks - once they germinate, they don’t need as much heat or water, so they can move out to the greenhouse which is quite warm at night after absorbing a lot of insolation during the day. The bees are extremely busy bringing in pollen, which means babies are being rapidly born in the hive, increasing the work force for the spring flowers to come. We’ve added room in the hive and will add more this weekend, plus maybe take a bar of honey.

What’s blooming in your garden?