In search of sunflowers

On of the things I find (annoying? challenging? tricky???) is being able to find somewhere to stop and take photos when driving around Northern California. Often, there's nowhere to stop--especially when you see something from the freeway, or you're on a narrow Delta road with deep ditches on either side. Even some of the designated "scenic routes" are no-stopping-zones! It takes some patience, time, maps and/or GPS, and then bravado (walking onto someone's field), and even-then there are people who hoot because they have to drive past a parked truck and nearly hit an oncoming cyclist on a quiet back-road running parallel to the freeway... (maybe he hadn't had his morning coffee yet, it was after all before 9 a.m.) (Moron.)

So when Sacramento Bee published a photo last week, with an indication of where it had been taken (Mace Rd, Davis, south), I just had to go and find them, knowing that if the Bee could get a photo then so could I. And I woke up early-enough on this heatwave Saturday to drive over there before it was too hot, and before the sun bleached all the colours.

Though I think monochrome sunflowers are wonderfully intense.

Driving around the "county roads" (they don't have names, just numbers... "County Road 65",  "County Road 105"), listening to Beware of Darkness and Marillion,  finding out that some roads end in the middle-of-nowhere (unless you're a farmer, and then it's the middle-of-somewhere); saw many hawks on telegraph poles, squirrels who live in burrows and not trees (there were no trees within sight, but lots of squirrels who disappeared down a giant burrow, fluffy tails like flags behind them), acres of sunflowers and pepper-plants, acres of solar panels, a traffic jam of farm labourers behind a pickup truck carrying two porta-potties; Davis joggers and runners and cyclists; and lots and lots of wide, open, space.

And sunflowers. Huge sunflowers, huge fields. The photos make them look tiny as daisies; they were taller than me, by far.

And, wonderful to see: rows and rows of beehives, in the margins of the fields. And active, busy bees, feeding on the drooping heavy flowerheads, and buzzing around the entrances to the hives.

More photos from the sunflower drive: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisontoon/sets/72157634391058003/

I still have to find the perfect spot to shoot the full moon rising over downtown Sacramento. Well to be precise: the perfect spot to safely shoot the full moon. The perfect spot is in the middle of the Yolo Causeway. Given that it's an interstate freeway, it's a little less than perfect.

A gluten-free-vegetarian's swag bag

Early-morning stop at the Yolo Fruit Stand, just off I-80 between Davis and Sacramento. Picked out a load of gluten-free, vegetarian, natural, local goodies: several types of dried beans, carrot chips, dried cherries, a bulb of fresh fennel, a punnet of fresh strawberries, a bag of sweet small peppers, and two jars of honey. One from bees that had been among the blackberry flowers, and one from those enjoying clover.

Yummy...

Sacramento bloggers!

Had a very nice time yesterday evening, meeting other local (Sacramento) bloggers: this is the group, Sacramento Bloggers (logical really!), in a new downtown hangout, Church Key at Hock Farm. It's a courtyard bar, shaded by the surrounding buildings, just across the street from the state Capitol. (You can find Church Key on Facebook, too.) They are growing hops on the patio, up tall wires, to make a canopy (and I bet by the end of the summer, it will be a heavy, rich-scented canopy).

Made me think of England, and the masses of hops that grew in and over and along the hedgerows at the bottom of High Street in Syston, Leicestershire, when I was a child. And how wonderfully strange they smelled when you rubbed the green flowers between your fingers.

And the bloggers: so many good blogs and so many interesting, and diverse, topics! Check out the list here on the Sacramento Bloggers Blogroll (which is growing all the time).

I really like Cinamon's No Hurry to Get Home (we seem to have similar travel philosophies), Margaret's Nanny Goats in Panties (heck, who can resist a blog with that name), Susi's FiftyTwoChanges (great philosophy--we should all try this!), and Jennifer's The Queen of Dating (heck, people meeting in real life and not on a website? Well that's unique ;-)  Ha.) But these are just a very few of the great blogs in this region--go and see!

Now I need to write more, and more often.

Rainy-day

Third day of rain, here in Northern California. Rain is unusual in June; but the garden is really enjoying it. We'll be back to scorching by the weekend, so this is a good respite for the flowers and the vegetable garden.

Birds are swooping low, catching bugs in mid-flight. I hope they snack on the snails, too.

Dahlias are starting to flower. Just found one, already bowed-down by the weight of its single flower. That one will be in a vase by this evening.

Onions make pretty flowers too... but I don't think it should have flowered before making a nice onion...

Strange summer

Reminds me of the Tourists, "Strange Sky".

Today, it's the end of June, and it's overcast, muggy, damp. In Sacramento. Northern California. Where most often, you don't see a raindrop, or even a cloud, from late April until the very end of October.

There are still oranges clinging to the tree, the white turkey has two sizes of chicks (how did she do that?), and it rained yesterday.

What's going on out there???

Wonderful sight: a swarm of bees

They are resting in a liquidambar tree in the front garden, after swarming around the Japanese-zen-like corner of the back garden. The tree hangs over the fence by the drive way. They may have moved on by tomorrow, but it's a heartening sight to see. We need our bees! Happy there are lots of flowers open for them today; many daylilies, roses, lilies in bloom--and squashes too. Food for hungry bees!

Hollyhocks!

Hollyhocks are such a traditional, English-cottage-garden flower. And they are well worth the two years' patience. They tower to over ten feet tall. I have some in both side gardens, and these wonderful, almost-black ones by the deck near the pool.

Their buds remind me of Iced Gems; tiny unsweet biscuits (cookies), each of which had a different colour swirl of hard sweet icing on the top.

They are very easy to grow. Just throw a packet of seeds out, and wait a couple of years for the show. After that, if you don't disturb them, they'll self-seed and come back year-after-two-years. (Should be flowers every year, it's just each new plant that takes two years to flower.)

A few more here in the garden photo set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisontoon/sets/72157630899045556/