The Sun Shines at the Darkest Hour

Storm clouds over Mission Gorge. The sun has a funny way of breaking through the darkest clouds! Of course, for those days when it does not seem like the sun will ever shine, there are also photo editors!

To GIF or to JPEG

The picture is of the dark slope of a hill at Mission Gorge with the sun backlighting some red monkey flower so that they glow like fireflies in waning light. I fought with this image in JPEG, losing the flowers at most smaller resolutions but, when I converted to GIF, found that they stayed. Ah what a difference a few KB makes. Again, it's the little things in life...

Wild Roses

The wild roses are blooming. It always amazes me how they get around. They had them in Colorado. They had them back East and they have them here in sunny San Diego. Always a harbinger of Spring in simple pinks on long graceful branches.

Wild Peas Blowing in the Wind

Besides daisies, there were also many varieties of plants from the pea family in shades of yellow, white and purple. This one was obviously popular with the pollinators, having a stem full of seed pods. The really cool things was that, once dry, the pods made a gentle clacking percussion sound when the wind blew. I suppose it is the little things that make life special.

Catch the Monkey

Monkey Flower is a small shrub that grows in Southern California in the dry canyons. The flowers come in various shades of bright orange and red. I found this particular monkey flower in a shaded area with the sun backlighting the flowers so they just glowed. Sometimes it is the little things that make us happy.

Something Furry

The sun was shining brightly this morning with barely a hint of clouds. There was just enough cool ocean breeze to keep it from getting hot without getting chilly. Not being ones to waste good weather, we decided to hike the Mission Gorge trail and check on the Spring wildflowers. There were a host of flowers, mostly daisies in various shades and sizes, various plants in the pea family as well as big swathes of mustard that turned the hillsides bright yellow. I also found this odd vine with these strange furry seedpods or perhaps flowers, I'm not sure which. In any case, the sun was shining on them, highlighting the white translucent hairs in a delicate way so here they are in all their glory.