#42: The Flower Fields

The blog posts have been (sadly) slowing down, because my real life has been speeding up! I am working more than ever, my little side crafting business has started to take off, and I hardly have had free time to myself!

I am still determined to get as close as possible to finishing this list, but sometimes nature just won't let me.   For two years, I have wanted to drive up to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, with promises of views like this:

Cue the zoom-in shot of me twirling in circles ala Julie Andrews

But of course, California has had two of its driest winters on record, and for the last two years they've gotten hardly any wildflower blooms.  Even after checking the Wildflower Hotline weekly (yes, I did) they never reported anything more than brown grasses and small patches of poppies.

Womp, womp.

But luckily for me, California has quite the growing climate, and when not relying on natural water resources, pretty much anything will grow here.  While sitting at home on a weekend crafting to blisters, I was watching some old reruns of The Millionaire Matchmaker (don't judge) and on one of the "dates," a matched couple went to this glorious place called The Flower Fields.  I was on my phone looking this place up faster than Patti Stanger could say "no sex before monogamy!!"

Turns out The Flower Fields is a ranunculus farm in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego.  A bit of a drive for me, but one of my best friends Nicole lives down in SD, and we made a plan to meet up.  I would drive, and she would bring lunch.

We went on the last weekend the fields were open to the public for the 2012 season.  We got there right around noon, and the weather couldn't have been better.  Sunny and warm, not a cloud in the sky, with a nice ocean breeze.  We were, after all, in San Diego.  Nicole and I enjoyed lunch at the picnic tables right by the entrance, before slowly strolling through the Munchkinland-esque fields of ranunculus.   At the bottom of the hill the colors were all mixed together, but further up the hill they were separated by color, looking like a big floral rainbow.

Even my Nikon doesn't do the colors justice... but it gets close!

We skipped on the tractor ride, which was mostly filled with kids.

Right off the entrance was a wide path that was filled with people, so instead we went to the left and down a few fields to get away from the crowds.  We also realized that we were away from any park personnel, thus giving us the bravery to venture into the fields themselves for some great photo ops.  I made sure to take a picture in the orange section, as an homage to how I hope the poppy fields will be someday!

Today: Ranunculus, someday, POPPIES!

Nicole wanted to do a bunch of complex yoga poses, but sometimes you can't beat simplicity!

After we did a big loop around all the fields, we attempted the Sweet Pea maze (and failed), tried a lavender/strawberry sundae from the strawberry stand, and bought bunches of fresh cut ranunculus before heading back.  It was an incredible afternoon.  Flower fields on that scale are inspiring to say the least!

My fresh-cut flowers the next day!