I was so busy reporting on PIQF that I didn't ever talk about the trip up or back. I DO love road trips and always see interesting things, places and people. And seeing the places in a different season is a special delight. I drive north on I-5, turn west on CA152 and then slight southwest on CA156, which is mostly a two lane road and has lots of big, slow trucks. But it gives me time to look at the crops and and the changes since I drove that way previously. Turning off on San Juan Canyon Road I am on a narrow twisting road that goes up the canyon to the state park at
Fremont Peak.
After turning left San Juan Canyon Road is lined on both sides with Sumac trees (I don't know the variety). Sometime earlier this year many were cut down to allow celery to be planted in the field behind them. I didn't cry too much because they are very resilient with many new trees growing rapidly to take the place of the fallen.
After a bit of a straight stretch I pass this still working farm with its falling apart barn - very picturesque. There are both cattle and sheep, and maybe a few goats! Very old eucalyptus trees grow on the East side of barn - shade and windbreak.
Across the road a gate closes off the track into a pasture which is always occupied by cows, but sometimes also by wild turkeys.
In the Fall it is easy to identify Tree Tobacco (Nicotiana glauca), also known as Indian Tobacco, by its clusters of tubular yellow flowers and grey-green foliage. Native to Peru it has naturalized through Southern California and Western Arizona. Used as an analgesic or poultice it has many medical applications, however it is deadly if taken internally. In the early years of settlement here people fatally mistook the young plant for Poke weed, a wild plant eaten as a fresh green in the Eastern USA. It is thick along the roadway for a mile or so and then diminishes - the rain runoff from the pavement keeps it green and healthy.
Up the winding road until I see the Lombardy Poplar and know that just beyond it on the right side of the road is the turnoff into the gated community where Mary lives.
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