Spring in Eden

We arrived at the Ranch on Sunday, via the Antelope Valley. There was some strange weather going on -- a storm front moving southeast -- with dark clouds shifting the light over the high desert and even snow or hail up through the Tejon Pass. But it's spring and even the desert was abloom with wildflowers.

At the ranch, it's just outrageous. Everything is growing in a mad rush, as if the plants are afraid they'll be left behind. The famous poppies of the Antelope Valley are dainty orange truffles but here on the Central Coast, they are the super-sized globes. It's the earliest we've been here and I'm enjoying flowers I'm seeing here for the first time. Crocuses and daffodils, peach and nectarine blossoms which are a gorgeous deep pink. Usually, by the time we get here, the only blossoming fruit trees are the apples. Right now, they are bare.

It is good to be here. Nature is a healing mother and with all the emotional upheaval of the past few weeks, I need Mommy! Although I am stiff and sore, bruised and blistered from a full day of weeding and gardening (and slipping and hitting my tailbone) my soul feels like it's in intensive care.