Magnificent photo and description. I can feel the waves of heat reflecting off the soil.

That's absolutely beautiful - is there anything more cheery yet substantial than a sunflower.

I'd give anything to have seen that in person, I'm having some kind of heat withdrawal here. DH pulled out his raingear again this week, and I think I've only been out of a sweatshirt about three times this year :(

wow

Where are you? That is beautiful.

Sammy

very nice - but not cheery to me. The tone of the color is almost ominous...

Gorgeous Michael. I love the composition. Reminds me of all the trips we took to Disneyland through the valley. This one is going on my desktop (if that's ok with you?)
Kathy

nope, but pretty darn close. what a shot. that 100 degrees sounds like hell to me even without the humidity.

Mmmm, looks like HOME to me.

I've lived in Santa Rosa, CA twice (I adore Sonoma County--God's country indeed!) and also Medford, OR for 5 years, until the end of 2000.

I love that country AND that nice, dry heat.

Lucky you! That's a wonderful picture.

California Dreaming

Beautiful!

Reminds me of my dad... One year that I worked for him I picked up sunflower seeds. This was what started me thinking I could garden. The sunflowers grew so tall & beautiful. I can still here my dad talking to me about it. We used to take the heads home to feed the birds.

We were a Sunoco station back then. I think we went maybe 3 or 4 years when Sunoco said to stop planting them and take them out. I ended up doing the Teddy Bear version after that, but had to sneak in a few tall ones lol

Sunoco ended up dumping us. Not sure if it was due to the sunflowers.

Truly AWE-inspiring.

How do you do that? You capture the spirit as well as the image. Incredible...

Betty

Beautiful photograph! Gorgeous country there. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of it.

Also very nostalgic to me even though I've never been to Cally. Make it the Hungarian highway from Baja to Lake Balloton or to Budapest, I forget.

But there were miles and miles of sunflowers and it was my birthday and I remember it well. Also houses with paprika tied up drying in that sun. Maybe drying peppers are to be found in CA too? In my mind's eye, yes.

Thank you!

Great picture!

Wonderful! And just think  no deer damage.

That looks like something out of National Geographic to me!
Awesome Picture Michael. I do find a lot of depth to it. Such different terrain to what I am used to. I have never been to California.
Pauline

MAT-

After seeing this, I made sure to look for the fields when I drove back from SF today.

I found some, but the flowers were not as large as your field. (I was south of 80, my guess is that you were north.)
But beautiful nonetheless.

Also found a great fruit stand with mouth watering peaches. Yum.

Thanks for sharing this.

J

Thanks all! I'm glad you enjoy it!

Jan, this was on a back highway that parallels the 505, just past Winters, about fifteen miles from Vacaville.

Moody, you should come to California immediately for a little vacation or something. No time like the present. I drove with some friends up along the coast to Ft. Bragg yesterday. It just gets prettier and prettier as one drives along. First there was the spectacular coast, then on the way back we turned off the coast at the Navarro River, Hwy. 128, which leads immediately into a redwood forest--which leads immediately into vineyards--which in turn becomes rolling hills dotted with California Oaks--which in turn leads back to the 101 hwy and mountain views--all in ninety minutes. It's quite a drive.

Alisande, I guess the deer don't eat them. I don't know. Deer are everywhere up here. It's amazing to watch them navigate barbed wire fences. Whether they choose to go through them or over them is immaterial. It's as if the fences simply aren't there.

Betty, thank you, I don't know how I capture the "spirit." I just try to give some thought to what I'm doing beforehand and hope for the best. Sometimes it works, often it does not.

Roselvr, Sunoco didn't want sunflowers? Amazing! I love the Teddy Bears (note to self--try and find some)

Patrick, thank you!

Madame Hardy, I was in Santa Rosa yesterday. It's still beautiful. I had a job offer there when I moved out but I didn't get it because they thought I "was too laid back." LOL.

I was telling that to friends yesterday and you could hear a pin drop when they heard the reason why I didn't get the job. Then they all started howling laughing.

Darbardi, it really is comfortable when it gets hot like that--and a welcome change from what I'm beginning to refer to as the "arctic." I guess I lived on the Gulf Coast too long--anything below eighty seems abnormal to me.

Kathy, you're more than welcome to use it on your desktop.

Pagan, thank you. I'll work on the lighting in the next one and see if I can punch it up a little. If the sky overexposes, I'll just photoshop in a better sky. :)

Sammy, this field is near here: Here

Joe, thank you!

Morz8, thanks. I've added more windbreakers and sweatshirts to my clothing since moving out here. It's always windy here but the rain is gone, gone, gone for a few months.

catkim, :) hello!!! and thank you!

MichaelAT

Looks like it's you and me, Hoov ;) Yours was hard to criticize, too! Very nice, I thought so I'll tell you.

My bad!!!

Thank you guyz!!!

MichaelAT

Non, mon mal, je croix [sp?]!

I only bug you cos I wuv you, and you are refreshingly buggable ;] [Direct, I mean]. Heartfelt aplogies if it came off as rude as I just read it now - bad bad day yesterday. I hope you knew it was still no big thang.