Spring in the San Joaquin Valley

          We've had a rather grand consolation prize after having to cancel our 7-week spring trip to the Southwest: Mother Nature's amazing palette of weather and color.  It's been one of those rare long springs in the San Joaquin Valley, with rain and clouds, cooler temperatures and breezes, sun and blossoming orchards, wildflowers in the foothills, the snow-covered Sierra Nevada, and a yard alive with spring blooms. 

     In February, pansies and dianthus bloomed and the onions, lettuce, and arugula grew like Jack's beanstalk. Doug built a new trapezoidal raised bed for tomatoes and squash. We mounted a kayak paddle on the fence to be at the ready should we get flooded. Flat as it seems, we're at the base of the Sierras, and water is a tricky business in California, with its reliance on snow pack and the dance between snow melt, reservoirs, and canals. 

Hosta bloomed.

We hung new prayer flags near the cyclamen.

Daffodils bloomed...

and violas from my sister's yard in Tahoe that have 

multiplied like crazy.

There were violets and miniature daffodils, 

which the local rubber ducks love.

     Amazing clouds passed overhead and often rained on us....

...while out back to the west clouds and sun shared the sky.

New crops grew and the Sierra Nevadas were gorgeous with snow...

...which we can drive to, snowshoe in for a couple of hours, then return home. We prefer to visit the snow, but my sister and her husband live in it. 

This the view from their upstairs at Lake Tahoe.

     A number of years ago, we threw a few California Poppy seeds, which grow wild all over California, into our front yard. Then two

years ago on Christmas, Doug  gave each of our wonderful grandchildren, then 18 months and 3, their own packet of poppy seeds to throw as they wished. 

This year the plants went crazy, blanketing the yard, which

normally consists of mulched drought tolerant plants and rock sculptures created by Doug and the neighborhood kids. The poppies grew and grew and grew some more, and we began to pull them out by the armful, wondering if they would ever bloom. 

Then, one day, a single poppy bloomed.

Meanwhile, the tulip trees in the back yard blossomed.

We filled the bird baths, now that our freezing mornings were (hopefully) over.

Crops grew, more rain fell in the Valley, more snow fell in the Sierras.

Water flowed in the ditches in our neighborhood.

More plants in our yard bloomed: freesias...

...azaleas...

..nasturtiums...

...calla lilies...

...bearded iris...

..and 3 tulip--they don't really like our climate 

but will try to grow when the winter has been cold. 

And then... 

...the poppies bloomed!

They blanket the yard with orange and 

here and there yellow and white. 

     And now, our spoiling is complete, for on the last day of March, 

the Hmong family who have a a strawberry patch 

just down the street opened their stand...

and on the counter rested mounds of delicious, sweet, 
crimson fruit, which we will savor for the next 8 weeks.

     Ah, spring in the San Joaquin Valley. This year has been one of the best.