Non Flowering Plum Tree

Each year I am newly amazed at how quickly spring comes here in the central valley. Winter is thankfully short for us, while I am hearing news reports of blizzards and storms and rain and tornadoes in other parts of the country we are enjoying the best time of the year here. A few months from now it will start getting hot, but right now the flowers are blooming and the breezes blowing and even if the air may not be all that clean, the windows get opened up and the days are quite enjoyable.

I wanted to get a few pictures of our backyard non flowering plum tree before all the blossoms fall, a name that still confuses me since it does produce beautiful flowers but no plums. I guess that is the non flowering part of it all, no fruit.

The rose vine or whatever this plant is, I've long ago forgotten the name of it, is also in bloom with tiny yellow flowers.

They don't last long either but sure are pretty for a few weeks.

Out front we have a big flower bed that has been taken over by African Daisies and in a few weeks it should have hundreds of flowers blooming. No pictures today but some soon!

Keith has been telling me that the hills that he goes through on the train are covered with California poppies and the purple lupines. We have not had a day when Keith has been home and rested enough  to take a drive outside of town yet, but hopefully this year we will get a chance to do so and see the hills in all their glory. There was a story on the local news about people stopping alongside Hwy 58 on the way to Tehachapi to look at the flowers and take pictures, a highway that is a freeway and you are not supposed to stop along said freeway unless it is an emergency. The Highway Patrol wanted to remind everyone that it is dangerous to stop alongside the road and even more dangerous to cross the road to get a better view, and that wildflowers are not an emergency!

This is a picture I found on the internet of what is making people stop along freeways.

Hopefully we will get a chance to go see them in person sometime soon. We don't have to stop along the freeway since we know the back roads to take to get you right in the middle of the hills.