Wildflowers, Hills, And Fence. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A fence runs across wildflower-covered hills in the Temblor Range.
With this photograph I am getting very close to the end of this year’s spring landscapes — but you never can tell. Overall this was a very good spring, at least for those of us in California who look forward to the late winter green and the wildflower displays that follow. Our wet season is almost entirely in the winter — California has been described as a summer desert — and we pay a lot of attention to how each winter plays out. This is especially true in the wake of a recent five-year drought. This season started slowly, and early on we were concerned that we might have another dry year. But the faucet came on full force early in 2019, and it has continued raining until very recently.
This photograph is an example of what can happen when the weather gods cooperate and the rains come. This area of California hills looks dry and brown most of the year. But in exceptionally good wet years abundant displays of wildflowers appear and may literally carpet the hills and pastures. I made this photograph in the evening, as the last light (indirect though it may have been) was producing a softer effect in these hills along the edge of the San Andreas fault.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Ah, yes. :-)
This is so beautiful! it reminds me of this word: “Maeinschein” – the green-gold sunlight that falls through the young leaves of trees & woods in spring/May. (literally “May-light”, “May-shine”; German, poetic).