After six months of verdant green, the valley is shifting into the dry golden summer season, so I took a drive this morning to document some of the changes taking place.
The olive groves are in "bloom" right now, which may not appear very spectacular from the highway, but close up the flowers have their own unique beauty.
Winter citrus have been forgotten for the moment, now that we've all eaten our fill and moved on to strawberries and cherries.
But the farmers haven't completely forgotten about them. Spring is a good time to trim up the trees so they're primed for picking again next winter.
Pomegranate bushes happen to have a lot in common with the olive trees. Both are ancient fruits that have been cultivated for thousands of years around the Mediterranean, in a climate very similar to the central valley of California.
Where the olive tree flowers may lack in traditional beauty, the pomegranate blossoms more than make up for it.
Lake Kaweah is on the rise as ample snowpack from the Sierra melts and runs down into the rivers and streams that feed into it. The trees that are slowly being submerged will reappear in the fall as water is used by farmers in the valley for irrigation and the lake level drops. Shortly thereafter, new leaves will appear on the trees as if nothing had ever happened.
Even as everything is drying up, there are still flowers to be found.
This flower's common name happens to be "Farewell to spring". What this says about the discoverer's opinion of the arrival of summer I'm not sure, but it certainly is nice to have such a profusion of beautiful flowers to usher in the season.
I ended my trip at the Sierra Garden Center where I bought a few drought tolerant herbs for the porch. I know from personal experience now that it's going to be a long dry summer, so a little bit of green by the front door will go a long way!
Winter citrus have been forgotten for the moment, now that we've all eaten our fill and moved on to strawberries and cherries.
But the farmers haven't completely forgotten about them. Spring is a good time to trim up the trees so they're primed for picking again next winter.
Pomegranate bushes happen to have a lot in common with the olive trees. Both are ancient fruits that have been cultivated for thousands of years around the Mediterranean, in a climate very similar to the central valley of California.
Where the olive tree flowers may lack in traditional beauty, the pomegranate blossoms more than make up for it.
Lake Kaweah is on the rise as ample snowpack from the Sierra melts and runs down into the rivers and streams that feed into it. The trees that are slowly being submerged will reappear in the fall as water is used by farmers in the valley for irrigation and the lake level drops. Shortly thereafter, new leaves will appear on the trees as if nothing had ever happened.
Even as everything is drying up, there are still flowers to be found.
This flower's common name happens to be "Farewell to spring". What this says about the discoverer's opinion of the arrival of summer I'm not sure, but it certainly is nice to have such a profusion of beautiful flowers to usher in the season.
I ended my trip at the Sierra Garden Center where I bought a few drought tolerant herbs for the porch. I know from personal experience now that it's going to be a long dry summer, so a little bit of green by the front door will go a long way!
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