Sunday Driver

Normally California’s hills are tawny yellow, or golden, or what some people call brown, covered in dry grasses. This winter we’ve had plenty of rain, so the hills are green.

In some spots the grasses have erupted in wildflowers, washing up the side of a hill. I watched for wildflowers around Gorman, where five years ago I drove around a curve and into a stunning patchwork palette that stretched from the highway to the sky, but so far Gorman’s hills are staying green. The lavender hills above were further north.

The purple is probably lupine, and the orange is California’s golden poppies. Notice the darker purple bushes on the nearby hillside. The camera is probably missing a few other shades of purple and blue, along with yellow and white that you’d see if your eyeballs were there instead of a digital chip.