Forty days until we are up in the air flying 10,250 miles from Los Angeles to Mumbai. I am feeling homesick already, but up for the adventure. To enjoy the best of southern California before leaving, last week I went to the Santa Rosa Plateau in Riverside County. This is an amazing place. If you haven’t been there, GO!
Rather than using words to convince you, check out these pictures. We were there on a hot and sunny day last Tuesday. Unfortunately my pictures were washed out by the high, afternoon sun but Lightroom was helpful in adding detail and texture to the grass.
Engelmann oak (Quercus engelmannii) on right, coast live oaks (Q. agrifolia) on left, in a grassland of native purple needlegrass (Stipa pulchra, formerly Stipa pulchra).
Wavy border between purple needlegrass (on left) and taller deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens) on right. The deergrass was found in lower, wetter spots than the needlegrass.
Oaks in native grassland.
Taking a picture of a natural arrangement of the upright vinegarweed (Trichostema lanceolatum) with low-mounding, light gray doveweed (Croton setigerus, formerly Eremocarpus setiger).
Flowering stalk of strongly aromatic – as its common name suggests – vinegar weed.
Similar flower, though not as showy, to our much loved garden native, woolly bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum).
I can feel calmness coming over me just looking at this picture.
Dead plants make amazing photographic subjects.
One of the remarkable Engelmann oaks (Quercus engelmannii) that the Santa Rosa Plateau is famous for.
Notice the lizard on the rock on the right side of the picture.
I have more pictures but have to get ready for our annual, pre-Halloween expedition to Ojai.
