We are now in mid-February and finally got some rain on Monday. After three weeks of warm 70’s -80’s, it was a nice break in the pattern. Driving along the freeway, the hills have come to life with yellow mustard and Bush sunflower or encilia californica. I took this picture of the encilia growing in my town during a morning walk as it is impossible to take the shot from the freeway. In spite of having such warm, dry weather for so long, these flowers are blooming earlier than usual. We are set to get another 1.5 inches of rain starting late Sunday night through Thursday. This will for sure set up California for a super bloom next month. Everything is still so green from the rains we already have gotten. It is very unusual for us to get rain in every month. So far it has rained every month since September.
Last week, I added compost to all my growing areas and planted more wildflowers. I also fed all the fruit trees. The good soakings allow the food to go deep into the soil. My freesias are already blooming as are several of my native plants that usually bloom in March of April, so you can see, we are way ahead this year, especially with the warm weather. Most of these storms have been warmer than usual, however, our mountains are at about 55% of normal snow pack for this time of year. We often get winter rains that are quite cold with snow falling on the mountains that are over 3000 feet. It is kind of lovely to see the peaks covered in snow for a few days. So far this year, we have not had any cold storms.
Valentine evening, I stepped outside and saw this display. Starlink had sent up satellites and apparently, did a heart sign with an arrow over our town. I came upon this just a little late and missed the heart. At first I thought what is this phenomenon? I checked out a neighborhood app and Space Ex had posted that they were sending up this Valentine heart.
Earlier in the day we had driven up to the Santa Ynez Valley hoping to see more wildflowers, but there were very few. It is much colder there away from the coast and at a higher elevation. It very much looked like winter, but was lovely still. The Santa Ynez Valley is one of my favorite places. Wide open spaces punctured by vineyards and horse farms. There are so many wineries now, compared to when I first went up there in the late 1980’s early 1990’s. The wine in Santa Ynez is wonderful. Really good quality Pinot Noir. My favorites are the Bordeaux and Rhone style wines and sauvignon blancs in the summer. The vineyards are all still resting and trimmed before their bud break which will probably come next month. Unlike mine, which has already started in spite of the vines being cut back in January. In fact, I saw little tiny grape bunches forming on a few vines.
Hopefully I will be able to post some outrageous flower pictures in the coming month.
Reflections Outside My Window 