Monday walk…to the beach

The beach is part of life in much of southern California and as our daughter and her family live just a few blocks from it, every trip there includes a daily walk to the beach. On the way, my heart was gladdened by these golden poppies and the contrast with the bright blue fence behind them.

My plant ID says these are Delosperma bosseranum or, as we normal people call them, iceplants, a succulent. No ice in sight but if ice looked like this, what an interesting world it would be!

I haven’t seen dog droppings, so I’m assuming these bags get used. I love the “Business is picking up”, something I would have liked to have written.

Look this direction and you can see the Palos Verdes pennisula and the city of Palos Verdes, or PV as the locals call it, where the houses are large and expensive and the views are amazing. The flowering succulents on the hill above the beach are in full bloom.

Look the other direction and you can see flowers again as well as quite a distance along the coast. At the bottom of this hill is The Strand. The official name of The Strand bike path in Los Angeles is the Marvin Braude Bike Trail, a fully-paved, 22-mile (35-km) bike path that runs from Will Rogers State Beach in the north to Torrance County Beach in the south. It gets a lot of use. When both my husband and I visit, we stay in an Airbnb in Hermosa Beach and my husband bikes to where our daughter and family live and then back at night.

There’s so much to do at the beach but father-son time is one of the best things!!

It wouldn’t be a Monday walk with Jo or a trip to Redondo Beach without a stop at Sweet Wheat, my favorite French bakery. Today I’ve taken a break from panna cotta to enjoy Paris-Brest, so light and tasty and, important to me, just barely sweet…but SO very delicious. I’m sure I walked off any calories going to, along, and from the beach, right? 🙂

The Paris–Brest is a classic French pastry, featuring a crisp, almond-studded baked ring of pâte à choux that’s split in half horizontally, liberally filled with praline crème mousseline—a heady mixture of vanilla pastry cream, nutty praline paste, and whipped butter—and finished with a dusting of powdered sugar.

This bakery staple was created in 1910 by pastry chef Louis Durand, as an homage to the long-distance Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race (the pastry’s circular shape is meant to evoke that of a bicycle wheel). Pâtisserie Durand, which is still owned and operated by the Durand family, claims to have the original recipe, but fortunately this hasn’t prevented pastry chefs around the world from putting forth their own spins on the dessert. ~ Serious Eats (You can find a recipe there as well.L

Happy May Day! Did any of you make May baskets when you were children? If you live outside the US, is May 1 a special day for you?

Monday walk…Tonto National Forest

To be honest, I did more driving than walking here because I’d pull over to take pictures, then hop back in, drive to another spot, and repeat. In some areas there was fencing, so I couldn’t walk far. In others I found trail access with parking, but you have to have a pass to park and I don’t have one. I didn’t mind. The views could hardly have been bettered.

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.”
― Luther Burbank

Spotting a cactus in full bloom I clambered up the steep slope in loose soil, hoping I wouldn’t slip and fall into anything spiny. If the following quote is true, the desert is full of both love and truth. 🙂

“Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

Then came lupine, beautiful flowers we see in Wyoming if we arrive early enough in the summer or even later if there’s been enough rain and it hasn’t gotten too hot. No matter the color of the flowers, the views of the mountains and the endless sky kept me happy. You’d think a cloudless blue sky would be the best, but for photos you can’t beat some artistically arranged clouds!

In some places there were poppies as well. Jo, I didn’t have any cake or dessert after the three hours or more I spent here, but I was filled with so much joy and contentment that I didn’t need anything else. 🙂

“The earth laughs in flowers” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

I clearly heard earth laughing this day!

Jo’s Monday Walk 4.17.23

Dancing poppies

The combination of rain and warmth has blessed Arizona with wildflowers, some of which we saw on the drive back from our whitewater rafting trip on Saturday. (Yes, I’ll show and tell you about it.) Other blogging friends have mentioned seeing poppies but I haven’t had time to drive anywhere to see them. But while driving along, sated with the tired joy that comes of a long day paddling through whitewater and the adrenaline earned after each section, I was gobsmacked (how I love the word) to see miles of poppies! To the right was a wide swath where a young woman was picking a bouquet and then lying in the flowers to have her picture taken. I hit the brakes and pulled over.

Through the dancing poppies stole A breeze, most softly lulling to my soul. ~John Keats

Poppies are like sunlight distilled to its very golden essence. One is beautiful, hundreds are heart-sqeezingly gorgeous.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below. ~ John McCrae

Or, bide thou where the poppy blows
With windflowers fail and fair. ~William C. Bryant

The amusing thing for me is that all this beauty was right next to the street in Globe, Arizona, not exactly the beauty spot of Arizona. But for some miles, we were dazedly happy.

These too are of a burning color–not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies. ~John Steinbeck

At the edge of the poppies, I spotted a few of these very different charmers, although as far as I’m concerned, toadflax isn’t a name that conveys their true beauty! Their less flamboyant looks also were appreciated.

Never assume you’re somewhere beauty can’t be found. It can be anywhere.

Holding on for dear life

Daughter, grandson, and I walked over to the other grandparents’ house in the afternoon. On the way, I spotted a bush of these large, beautiful flowers which my plant app says are popppies. The wind was blowing at a good rate but I managed to get several shots, this one including a bee which didn’t seem bothered at all by the flowers whipping back and forth. It was a good first day.

Wordless Wednesday…two bees in a pod…er, poppy

Friday Flowers…poppies in the village

Many villages in France have wonderful floral decorations and there’s even a designation for those with the most attractive displays.  But sometimes you find beautiful flowers tucked into corners or off to the side.  I saw these in Mélisey as we walked back to our parking spot after yet another wonderful lunch at Chez Mimi.  What a glorious sight!

If you’d like to read more about the towns awarded the Ville Fleurie designation, go to France This Way by clicking here.  The author says:

The ‘towns and villages in bloom’ award (ville fleurie) is given to French places that make a special effort to create a pleasant natural environment for both residents and visitors by focussing on plants, flowers and open areas within the town.

Even if a town doesn’t have this designation, you’ll find plenty of flowers and arrangements in many places and of course, you can always keep checking on my blog.  🙂

Five Photos, Five Stories: Day 4…seventeen syllables on a poppy

It’s Day 4 of the Challenge and today’s entry is a haiku.  I enjoy writing haiku, seeing how much I can say in the 17 syllables I allow myself, a traditional count, but one to which the writer need not always adhere.  I like the discipline though, so I tend to try to stay within those parameters.

Today I’m nominating Naomi at Writing Between the Lines.  The challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to  “post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge”.  Whether she accepts or not, I hope you take a peek at her blog.  Her most recent trip, at least on the blog, was to Turkey.

Life cycle of a poppy

Flame–a Sunday haiku with photo

Brazen poppy flaunts

Flame-colored wrap carelessly

Luminous beauty

Abuzz for sweet poppy