A Changing Landscape

My east coast blogger friend, Louise, has shown an interest in this high desert landscape and that gave me inspiration to bring my camera along yesterday. I had to go to the lab on the other side of town for some blood tests. As always, I was struck by the difference in the landscape. It's only 12 miles away, but here there are trees and bushes of all kinds, not just the juniper trees of my area, and lovely fields with horses, sheep, and cows.

As I got in my car to drive back home, I was struck by how pretty this looked -- the branches full of young leaves framing the distant mountain.
                           

I decided to avoid the traffic on the main route and took Cherry Lane back to town. There used to be large cherry orchards there in the past, so this time of the year it's a lovely drive through some pretty farm country with cherry trees in bloom everywhere. Don't ask me why, but I have no pictures of them.

But on my way to Cherry Lane, I saw a couple of poppies and decided to stop. I was really looking for fields of poppies, but didn't find any.

But just one flower can be as magnificient as an entire field. And this is what makes blogging so much fun for me. I become more aware of my surroundings, from birds to plants to dog antics and all the rest in my ordinary life here. Noticing the poppies, stopping the car, getting out, taking a picture. Wow, that's something that would not have happened before I began to blog.

I like these rusty old barbed wire fences. An article in our local paper showed the many different designs and techniques used to make barbed wire in years past. Who would have known? It just goes to show it's never too late to learn about stuff.

I thought this field was lovely. It's empty though and I wonder why I didn't take any pictures of animals. I saw so many of them -- from a most beautiful chocolate-brown horse to a gorgeous rooster with a flock of chickens wandering a bit too close to the road -- for my comfort anyway. I have to blame all these missed opportunities on the lab tests that made me eat my lunch way too late for me. But then this could be another fun project, perhaps: Go back for a farm animal photo shoot.

This is one of only two busy intersections in town. No wonder the brakes on my car has lasted so long! No bumper to bumper traffic here.

And this is how it looks in the canyon where I live, only 12 miles to the east of town. About 1,000 feet below us and 20 miles to the east, lies the vast Mojave Desert. And there the landscape changes again to that of the high desert of California. Before moving here, I had no idea of how absolutely gorgeous the high desert is, particularly in the early morning light. Hopefully, I'll get there again some day soon with my camera, so I can share it with you.

Thanks for visiting with me in the California mountains.