Spring Equinox

Spring time has arrived in El Portal. Poppies are blooming and most of the time the sun is out. Our Mediterranean climate is still in the wet season, but we are moving towards the sunlight at the end of winter. We have lots of color outside our house--yellow fiddlenecks, purple lupines, and other wildflowers. Just down the river canyon, the poppies are blazing up the hillsides in a bright orange-yellow. I managed to get poison oak already somehow, so I'm now being especially careful when I'm outside walking around. Martijn and I have been taking our bikes out quite a bit in the last week to enjoy the warm sunshine and wildflowers. I rode my bike down from work in the Valley yesterday and enjoyed slowing down to view the waterfalls flowing down into the canyon. We have planted a garden on our terraces. Our peas, spinach, and lettuce are sprouting, and we have some other starters in the house that we are anxious to put out once they have sprouted and grown a bit. In cleaning out and turning over soil in the garden, we found green onions already grown. We have been enjoying incorporating them into our dinners.


Poppies!

 

Blue Dicks

 

 

Martijn and I enjoying the poppies.

 

Harlequin Lupine

 

 

 

Purple Lupine

 

View from our porch