Thursday, March 5, 2009

Spring Surprises

We are experiencing lots of rain right now and all kinds of things are popping up so I went out with my camera. Check out these mushroom where an old cherry tree used to be. They are tiny little things, only about 3/4" tall. I loved the way the sun was lighting them up between rainstorms.

click on photos to enlarge


And look at these onion weed flowers. The look beautiful, but smell bad. They tend to grow in wild areas here beneath the oaks. The Latin name is Allium triquetrum. They are not native, but look right at home Amongst The Oaks.


And of course wild mustard, which is so prevalent here in the Central Valley. It doesn't seem to be cultivated here in California, but I remember seeing acres and acres of it in France, obviously a valuable crop there. How do you think they make all that Grey Poupon mustard?

5 comments:

Gypsy aka Tam said...

Oh I love all of your Spring surprises and your photography is just delightful.
Have a wonderful day,
Tam

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Oh I'd forgotten about the onion flowers - they are soooo gorgeous. The first time I discovered some in our CA yard I picked a huge bouquet - and as soon as I got them in the house I KNEW it was a mistake - whewwww those babies stink!!!!

We have fields of mustard up here too - in the PNW - gorgeous. No onion flower though.

Neabear said...

Lots of mustard flowers in our area too. So pretty among the vineyards.

Blondie's Journal said...

I love how those little mushrooms look in your photo. The close up is fantastic!
Thanks for introducing me to the Onion Weed. Never heard of it and it is probably not native to the midwest, however I love it!

Thanks so much!! :-)

tam said...

Hello Laura!
Thank you so much for visiting my blog to check on me-that is so sweet of you! Everything is fine here just trying to get caught up at home. Something about having my husband home for a while kind of puts a crimp in my usual routine. He is back to work and doing well now. I just have to get back into the swing of things.
I loved your photos on todays post! You take great photos~I am sure looking forward to spring here! Hopfully I will have a new post up soon so be watching-take care...Smiles~Tam!