I live in a place where the far Western edge of the greater Mojave Desert bumps up against the coastal mountain range of Southern California. Not quite the saguaro cactuses and endless sea of sand made famous by the Roadrunner cartoons, but the desert nevertheless.
For what it’s worth, we do have both coyotes and roadrunners. And rabbits; lots and lots of jackrabbits.
The thing is right now it doesn’t look much like a desert. The nearly cloudless, cobalt-blue sky is the same, but everything else is green. The normally blue-gray border of mountains that looks more and more brown the closer you get is a awash with color. Fields that spend most of the year as hard-packed dirt are waste-high in grasses. Trees that spent the winter bare are sprouting leaves and blossoms at the same time. The desert valleys look more like Ireland than the arid Southwest.
And flowers; everywhere there are flowers. I snapped this photo this evening — in a vacant field along side a freeway exit.
I know this explosion won’t last. Soon the desert sun will bleach the color out of everything — fading green to gray and brown to tan — but for now it’s amazing.
Roger's View 