Visiting Maria

Sunday April 1, we visited Maria, Amor's step-grandmother is Sonora California(about an hour and a half drive from Tracy). Mom and Dad Harty visit her often but she was surprise to see that we were also there. We gave her some pictures of our last visit with her. She was so happy to see us. When we got there it was lunch time at her nursing home and all the residents where sitting at their tables in the cafeteria waiting for their lunch to be serve. All Maria's friend wanted to see the pictures too. Amor had fun showing the pictures to Maria's friends. We took her to the patio for a nice visit with her.

Amor, his parents and Grandma Maria

The historic main street of Sonora. Sonora is a historical town in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Foothills in the heart of the California "Gold Country".

Visiting Mom and Dad Harty

Amor and his parents. It is the first time we see Dad Harty after his two knees replacement surgery. He is walking so straight now. We think he is about one inch taller.

Catching up time!

They had planted the same kind of flower we saw last weekend growing in the Flower Fields of Calrsbad.

Mom and Dad Harty have a big back yard. At the end you can see Amor and his Dad looking at the raised bed Dad is rebuilding for this year's vegetable garden.

Traveling Interstate Higway 5

After hours of driving interstate highway 5 (I-5) we stop at a Rest Area to stretch for a bit.

Since highway 5 crosses the San Joaquin Valley, there is always a view of miles of different kinds of farms in all the directions. This Rest Area was by one of the farms. The day was so beautiful so I directed us toward the farm with the desire to take a short walk among the fruit trees of the farm. But when we got closer there was a fence and we could not get in.

There was also a warning sign for snakes so we did not stay log in this area.

The Flower Fields

The Sunday afternoon for us was at The Flower Fields in Carlsbad. An amazing place! Carlsbad Ranch has 50+ acres fields of flowers near the cost. Each spring this ranch turns into a hillside painted rainbow with bright colors made from millions of flowers. They are in full bloom now. It is a great time to go if you like flowers.







There was a Sweet Pea flower Maze there. The flowers had a sweet fragrance. There were purple, pink and white Sweet Pea flowers in the maze. We had fun going through it. There was also tractors available for those that prefered a tractor ride around the field.























There is only one kind of flower grown here. It is called the Tecolote Giant Ranunculus (also known as Persian Buttercup), which is one of the finest strains of ranunculus plants in the world. This flower is native of Asia Minor and is a member of the buttercup family.

Only 1-2% of the flowers here are sold. That's a little over 3 million flowers. They primarily grow these flowers to harvest the bulbs. The goal is to harvest 200,000 bulbs per acre. That would be 12 million bulbs! The bulbs are sold to nurseries and garden centers across the country.

The flowers are left to die and produce seed for replanting in these same fields for the next season. They feel that by allowing the plant to complete its lifecycle, it helps to produce a superior bulb crop.

A close look of the flowers that grows here.



It was fun going in the flower field! We made friends with a Mexican that was working in the field there and he let us go in the flower field and took this picture for us.




A section of the field was being worked on. Here you can see bunches of bulbs being picked and put in containers getting them ready to sent to garden centers.

I am not really driving this tractor

Mission San Luis Rey De Francia

Mission San Luis Rey De Francia

Here is a typical El Camino Real green bell guide post in front of the mission. These posts mark the El Camino Real route, the major high way of the time that connected all the missions. Today, Highway 101 follows the general route of the original trail. Next time you are in Highway 101, look carefully and you will see these green bell post every so many miles.





Sunday morning we visited Mission San Luis Rey De Francia in Oceanside. It is located a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Like all the other missions, this mission is also a historic landmark. This one is called the King of the Mission because it the largest mission. So far we have visited 7 of the 21 mission along California's El Camino Real ("The Royal Highway"). Every mission, all 21 California missions tell a story about the history of California. All have been to some extent restored and can be visited today.

View from the mission.

A fountain inside one of the inner court yards of the mission.

All the missions include a cementary. Behind Amor you can see the long running fountain located in the middle of the commentary. Very peaceful here.

Walking around the cementer.

This carriage arch was the original entrance of the inner building of the mission. Through the arch you can see the first pepper trees in California which were brought by ship from Peru here in 1830.

Statues in one of the garden court yards of the mission.

Sabbath School Class Potluck at the Dawkins

Our Sabbath school class gather for a potluck at the Dawkins' home after church. The Dawkins live in a beautiful home in Bonsall.

Here is the Dawkins family as we get ready to pray before we eat. We had a lot of food and a great lunch.

It was another of the beautiful sunny days we get in this area this time of year, so went out for a walk.

A view of the hills of Bonsall as we walk. It is breath taking!

Yvonne and Gordon as we walk in one of the street of this neighborhood. The view is spectacular!

Flowers we saw as we walked

Gardens we saw as we walked.



Look at the color of this cactus plants

Getting ideas for our garden

The properties in this neighborhood are large, they all include fruit trees.

A Day at the Temecula/Fallbrook Nurseries

Last Sunday we dedicated the day to visit the nurseries in the Temecula, Rainbow and Fallbrook area. Our purpose was learning of choices to plant in our back yard. The first nursery we went had metal structures that people could put in their yards. Could the lion above and the giraffes below be good choices for our small back yard?

Since our back yard is small, maybe this turtle could be better

Then we went to a nursery in Fallbrook. There was a huge variety of trees. All kids of fruit trees. We want to plant at least two fruit trees in our back yard.

The big pots are recommended for replanting trees once you take them home. A wooden pot like one of these could be perfect for replanting a dwarf lemon tree.

Maybe a clay pot could be better. I think this clay ones are beautiful!

So many choices of post of many shapes and sizes

We found the one we both like! But when we looked at the price, it was $450. We decided this one is not for us. :-(

We also looked at decorative plans and flowers.

Our back yard could feel as cozy and beautiful like this, one day. I could stay here all day!

Off we went to another nursery looking for more ideas and we came to this one, another huge one.
We enjoyed walking among all the rows of plants of all kinds.

A grapefruit tree. Very small trees already produce fruit.
We decided we like to have a Kumquat tree...

and also a lemon tree in our back yard. So we will be back here when we are ready to buy our trees.

This small lemon tree is already producing a lot of lemons. This is the tree for us. I love to use lemons in my salad and is great to make fresh lemonade:-)



There was this very loud parrot at this nursery. He was friendly saying "hello" wanting you to come close to him. It wanted attention.

Our only purchase of the day was a box of soil treatment to neutralized the ph and acidity of the soil in our raised bed where we will plant our vegetables garden. We had a great day visiting nurseries. We also learn a lot, but we have soooooo much more to learn about gardening.