May the Roses Keep Blooming

Roses

                                               and foxglove and strawberries....

These are a few of the roses in my garden .  Roses are blooming all over town and up and down the country roads.  You can click on any of these photos for a larger view...

In the neighboring town of Petaluma, I saw a tree that had such lovely flowers that it distracted me from

looking at its leaves which would have told me instantly it was a  buckeye tree.  The clue of five palmate leaves finally broke through to me. However, in my defense, this is not the native California buckeye that I  have known all my life, but a bright multi-colored showy flowering cultivar.  Once these bright flowers  had my attention I began seeing these trees all over Petaluma.   It might just have been me a having a "frequency illusion" or it may be that once someone sees these trees blooming they have to plant one too.

                                                                     Later that day a quieter smaller flower got my attention...hey look down here at your feet...watch where you are walking.   A friend had thrown open her new rental house to celebrate earning her teaching credential. The landlord mows the grasses, but it isn't exactly a lawn and there they were. Several people asked me if I knew what they were.     Brodiaea came to my mind but not quite to my tongue. The flowers were so close to the ground I wasn't sure.  So I  snapped their picture and later scoured through my wildflower books...and I think that is indeed what they are..a form of Brodiaea, little wild lilies...that can vary  from a few inches in height to sixteen inches depending on conditions.  They tend to bloom as the grasses begin drying...and you know that is what will happen next...the green grasses are going to dry.  Here in California we have had an early fast spring, very little rain, and now  lots of roses and  soon the green rolling hills of the Redwood Empire will turn golden.

There  once was a wild flower of a woman, a local musician named Kate Wolf, who sang sweetly of the golden hills of California; if you like, you could take a listen here:   the Golden Rollin' Hills of California. 

May the roses keep blooming...

~~~