Tiny Flowers

The first of the the spring wildflowers are beginning to appear. It was almost balmy this morning and I noticed that a few buttercups were beginning to poke their heads up through the grass. A little further along, I was amused by the little purple flower growing quite vigorously out of a crack in the road. It's out of focus because I didn't want to kneel down on the asphalt to get a better look. I went back in the evening to attempt. a better shot, walking in a seriously blustery wind. The flower had more sense than I had, because it had closed up tight as a fist. There were several more plants like it with handsome reddish leaves but none of them had a flower.The tiny daisy like flower is chamomile and will soon be carpeting our upper terrace and growing out of the rock walls. I did kneel down to get its picture and my jeans now have seriously soggy knees....

I went for a long walk at Spring Lake with my friend Tobi, and was shocked to see the state of the inlet lagoon where the Santa Rosa Creek, which runs by our house, empties into the lake.* They have cleaned off all the paved paths which are still lined with deep mud and put up signs saying 'flooded' on all the unpaved ones.

We're told that a high pressure ridge is moving in and the temperatures will be warmer and drier. It will certainly be most welcome. I'm feeling distinctly soggy, and not just at the knees....

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