Driving home from SJB 03-12-09

How many pictures are too many for one blog post? I have usually made eight my limit, a number chosen arbitrarily, but today I have nine and thought about posting even more. These were all taken on Sunday when I was driving from San Juan Bautista, CA., to Placentia, CA. It is usually a drive of 5-1/2 to 6 hours, but I stopped so often and spent so much time taking pictures that it took me about 9 hours! It was a lovely day and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I hope you enjoy these pictures.

I have always observed that yellow is the most common color for wild flowers, but some years ago I read an article that said that purple was most common. They may have been talking about the entire world, which I have not seen, so maybe they are right. But I mostly see yellow when I am traveling across the USA. This is a mimosa tree in bloom quite close to SJB. They were blooming all over, but I found it hard to be the right distance away to take a picture, either too close or too far, as is this one.
In the flat valley the fog hung in pads like a layer of batting stretched between ground and sky. And higher up there was a dense layer of fog that blocked the sunlight. But it soon dissipated and was completely gone when I got over the mountains and into the great central valley.


Before I started uphill I passed quite a few cherry orchards which were just starting to blossom. Many fruit trees are cut flat on the top to facilitate picking and I am told they do the trimming with a huge horizontally mounted round blade, just like an old fashioned buzz saw. Hwy 156 joins Hwy 152 at the bottom of the hills.

The highway (152) goes over Pacheco Pass and starts descending in a wide loop around San Luis Reservoir, a man made depository for water to feed the miles of crops in the central valley. It is still very low, despite the more plentiful rains we have had this winter. You can see the distance between the water surface and the high water mark shown by the green grass above and the dirt below.

This picture is even more dramatic in showing how much the lake has receded in recent years. Click on the photos for enlargement.

I stopped at my usual Starbucks in Santa Nella, CA., which has a motel with a tall tower - it has been a landmark along I-5 almost since the highway was opened in the 1970s. I turned south onto I-5 and soon was driving through miles and miles of almond orchards in bloom - when I cracked the window I could smell the fragrance - and I had to stop. So, I took one of the infrequently traveled exits and drove on a rough road to an orchard in full blossom. After parking and getting out my camera I walked through the white-with-a-blush bowers, sniffing the air and listening to the millions of honey bees. Considering the crisis in the bee industry lately it was an absolutely marvelous sound.

How many trillions of petals must there be to cover the trees and the ground - like a light snow fall.

The sky was very clear and blue which makes the blossoms look so white.

The heart of each flower is bright pink with yellow stamens and the petals are a lovely shape.

I was following bees thither and yon trying to catch one collecting pollen and finally took this image. Click to enlarge and you can see the pollen on the bee's body.

You are getting off easy! I took more than 50 pictures in the orchard, then deleted all the really lousy ones and still have 36 left to sort through again. It is sometimes hard to decide which image is the best between several similar shots. But I do love the digital camera for the ease of taking two or three times the number of images I would have taken with a film camera and then sorting out only the very best to keep.

More trip tomorrow. But not so many images - I think.