Someday I Will Get Fired!
Good thing I have the option to work on this whenever I can otherwise I would get fired for my inability to commit to a deadline. But, like most of my time-rich things in my life, journalism is something I prefer to leave to the professionals.
… I’m Poppy Montage, who said anything about me being a professional?!
Unfortunately, due to an illness, I couldn't get to see the Carlsbad Flower Fields. That has been put off for the next peaked rainy season (which is probably the next election year). But this week I travel to the far corners of Los Angeles County to observe one of the most spectacular things a city dweller (like myself) can see. No the photo above you is not a product of Photoshop. There are many reasons why California is nicknamed “The Golden State.” There are two main reasons. The first is the discovery of gold in Northern California Mountains which sparked the Gold Rush. The California Poppy, evident from the picture above, is the second reason.
Botanically speaking the California Poppy wasn’t the only plant to make the landscapes of California golden; many of the state’s native perennial population aided. However, when Europeans settled in North America, much of the landscape was changed by invasive species. Brightly hued flora was replaced with golden brown. Unprotected hills to this day still turn gold, but they’re not as vivid and they are usually from grasses.
The area you are looking at now is a protected land in the Antelope Valley called the California Poppy Reserve. From downtown Los Angeles you’re looking at an hour and a half car ride, while the nearest city is Lancaster. If you’re into nature this is surely one event worth seeing!
Poppies bloom roughly from March through late May. The best time I would recommend is going to the reserve around mid to late April, as blooming is at peak and you will see the golden carpet of poppies as far as the eye can see. There are other plants that also bloom there such as an endangered fiddleneck that Gay Henchman almost stepped on. Occasionally as you walk around you will spot a white flower blooming in incongruity, usually a dahlia or a dandelion.
We arrived late in the afternoon. The reason why we left so late is because we wanted to avoid the deadly desert heat. Much to our surprise the temperature was actually very comfortable, offering gentle breezes and cloud filled skies. Now there are both a good side and a bad side to arriving at 5:15 in the afternoon. On the bad side we were unfortunate enough to arrive and find that the reserve had just closed for the day (Weekend hours are 10AM-5PM) Contrary to that, we were free to stop on the side of the road and venture off into the fields outside of the reserve.
It’s really breathtaking when you get there. Looking at this picture and enjoying it is one thing, but having to actually be physically there is another. No camera, no matter how well it is adjusted to a panoramic setting, will ever compare to actually being there.
Okay, just because we took the less taken paths to the poppies, it wasn’t necessarily legal. The Golden Poppy is protected by three governments and if you were caught I understood you could be facing heavy fines and possible jail time. (It’s weird because what will the other inmates think of you when you went to jail for stepping on flowers?! You’ll become someone’s bitch by the end of that hour!) Local authorities do periodically patrol outside of the reserve for people who do get out of their cars and take pictures. Fortunately we had already finished looking around and was about to leave when they passed by us. After some brief discussion about how delicate this ecosystem was, we managed to convince them that we barely arrived.
But Gay Henchman did some frolicking. I think that’s allowed. After all he is a homosexual. I think it’s a requirement for them to frolic when they come across this certain landscape. It would violate all laws of homosexuality if he didn’t.
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