Hello everyone.  I know it has been quite some time, but I am back.  The past few weeks were spent roaming around Southern California trying to capture the beautiful spring-time wildflower blooms. 

The spring wildflower bloom is a relatively new phenomenon for me. I will try to explain the obsession among photographers and our relentless pursuits.  Growing up on the east coast, when the snow began to melt and the weather started to turn you would see flowers start to pop in peoples gardens, in the front of their houses and other places where you feel they 'should' be.  Things in coastal Southern California are a bit different.  We don't get snow, so gardens and flower beds are blooming all year around; the only way you know it is going from winter to spring is that the temperatures rises from 65 degrees to 75 degrees.  But the beautiful thing is that in late March and early April you will be driving down the freeway and see things like this...



This photo was taken off the the I-5 freeway on our way to San Diego a few weeks ago.  We could not believe how beautiful the bloom was...and it only lasts for a few weeks and disappears.  So every year around this time, you see a feeding frenzy of photographers heading east and south to the desert and valley areas trying to capture all of California's beautiful wildflowers in bloom, because if you wait, they will be gone.  Below are some beautiful poppies...


These amazing golden blooms below are called 'popcorn flowers'...they cover the hillsides of the area where we live.


Below are some more random wildflowers that I've found...





There are beautiful poppy fields just about an hour south of us in the quaint town of Carlsbad, CA.  We visited 2 weeks ago, and let me tell you, it was a site to see.  I don't know if pictures will do it justice, but I will certainly try.  Imagine acres upon acres of poppies...as far as the eye can see; poppies of every color of the rainbow...






 

I hope you all enjoyed the visual treat.  In the coming month or two I hope to have more updates.  Steph, my parents and I are off to Yosemite for 3 days on Monday...wish us luck for some nice weather.

We've had some much needed rain the past few days in Southern California.  It seems that the rain has a way of clearing the layer of smog that usually covers the area.  While driving Steph to work this morning, we were treated to a view of the snow-capped mountains that we usually don't see...

 

This photo was taken from the golf course of the hotel we work at.  This is a very rare (and beautiful) view that only occurs a handful of times each year.