Matilija Poppy

The weather is too beautiful just now for mono, which is a stretch for me at any time. Instead I challenged myself to learn about my 'new' camera which OilMan gave me for Christmas. I'm very good at procrastinating when it comes to reading about things technical....

In an effort at efficiency, I took my camera with me into the garden to see if anything came up while I was hacking back the robustly blooming plants. It wasn't efficient. I had to keep stopping and reading the manual, so nothing moving was likely to wait around until I figured out the correct settings,

 Flowers, however, were perfect until a breeze came up.
I think that any skill involved in taking a picture of this saucy bloom was serendipity, but the movement caused by the breeze produced an interesting result. 

Matilijas, native to Mexico and California are also also called  'fire followers' because they grow in areas that have been burned over by fire...a frequent occurrence in California.