Colors of Spring

California hills, valleys and mountains are ablaze in colors right now. It seems I just can't have enough of the colors of spring. Here are some pictures of spring colors from recently.

 Whenever I see trail lined with flowers, my heart is filled with glee.

If only I can bring these wildflowers home. :)

Colors near and far.

Multi colored hills from a mix of wildflowers: California poppies, lupines, and purple phacelias.

A carpet of purple phacelia.

North Torrey Pines State Beach to Del Mar Beach

Pink Blooms @ North Torrey Pines State Beach' Marsh Lagoon Area

Spring time, when smiles from heaven pour on Earth, sending field of wildflowers in some places, a sight to behold. A time where our more serious hiking is put on hold in favor of more relaxing walk enjoying the blooms. Thus, pardon me if for a while, I am taking a break from my series of posts about my  Top Ten San Diego Hikes. Maybe, after this post, I will alternate posts from our "Desert Solitaire Spring Break Vacation", "Top Ten San Diego Hikes" and more wildflower updates in and around San Diego. Ahhh, too many to share, to little time. :( I am not complaining since I love that " I am changing the world one day at a time- I TEACH!"- phrase borrowed from http://teacherswithapps.com/im-changing-the-world-one-day-at-a-time-i-teach/

Anyway, let me take you now to this very relaxing walk from North Torrey Pines State Beach to Del Mar Beach.

Where The San Diego Spring Wildflowers Are: 2013

 Wildflowers - growing in the wild without anyone planting or seeding them, without anyone nourishing them but nature. Their blossoms are sending a beautiful message, "we all are in very good hands, taken care of lovingly by our Maker".

The four pictures below are some of my favorite spring wildflower shots around San Diego since 2008.  Spring wildflower blooms are very much dependent on precipitation and weather timing. 

2008 Spring Wildflowers, Tooth Rock Mountain Trail

California Sea Lavender

California Sea Lavender ( Limonium Californicum) Lining the Trail fromTorrey Pines to Del Mar

California Sea lavender is a species of sea lavender that is native to western North America from Oregon to Baja California. This plant thrives on coastal habitat such as beaches, salt marshes, coastal prairie and other sandy and alkaline habitats.

Limonium Californicum or California Sea Lavender, Mission Bay, San Diego

Sea lavender blooms are usually seen with other coastal wildflowers such as coreopsis or sunny flowers.

Tidy Tips and Sea Lavender

Sea lavender and varieties of Coreopsis growing on coastal bluffs

Sea lavender usually display a color of blue-lavender shade, the early bloom is usually more of bluish shade and the color becomes more purple as the blooms mature. 

Blue or Purple? Different Shades of Sea Lavender

Sea lavender blooms last a lot longer than most varieties of other wildflowers seen in the coast. Some bloom as early as late fall, and some others bloom as late as late summer, making it appear like sea lavender blooms all year long. However, the peak bloom of this plant is at spring, it is at this time of the year where about 90% of the sea lavender blooms at the same time making the trail looks like a field of purple dreams, breathing lavender scented air. 

Whenever I walk through the midst of these lavender fields, how I wish I can share my piece of simple joy to some of my friends who loves nature, wildflowers, lavender, and purple. Whenever I think of purple, I think of Icy of Dances and Dreams, and whenever I think of lavender, I think of my The Salitype Society sisters, Tes of The Craftista and Maricar of Flip-flops and Backpack. Lately, I've learned Cher of Sweet Memoirs loves lavender too. Well, who doesn't? I love lavender too, though not as much when these sea lavender turns to pink because it means they are nearing towards the end of their bloom :(

Hmmmm, did some of these lavender turned pink? :)

These are the older blooms of sea lavender, the bluish shade gives way to purple

Mission Bay Wildflowers

Sea Lavender and Field of Tidy Tips, Mission Bay

I am taking a break from my Nevada posts where we spent our spring break 2 weeks ago, instead, I will be more present in this post. I will be sharing here pictures from our relaxing walk today at Mission Bay close to Sea World Drive.

tidy tips lining the shore of Mission Bay (this is near Fiesta Island), with the Sea World Tower in the background

Though this is not a year of great wildflower display for Southern California, nevertheless, some areas in San Diego still awakened this spring and exploded with wildflowers. One of these areas with decent wildflowers display is East Mission Bay close to Sea World Drive. 

Wildflower Lined Trail

Here are some more pictures from our walk today.

it's a joy to see and hear birds singing on these tiny branches amongst the wildflowers

enjoying the field of tidy tips and coreopsis

sea lavender amongst yellow coreopsis

hummingbird

a closer look at tidy tips

If you want to compare my pictures from last year's spring here at Mission Bay, you can go to my last year's post here. 

How to get here? This area is in East Mission Bay right next to Sea World Drive. There are a lot of parking at Fiesta Island, or South Shores Park. From I-5, exit Sea World Drive, go West and you will see these field of wildflowers. 

Hope everybody is having a good weekend. 

Enjoying Spring

Yellow Carpet of Wildflowers

Spring is around almost everywhere, literally. However, the poppy fields at the trails in Blue Sky Ecological Reserve to Ramona Dam and Toothrock Mountain in Poway did not bloom as much this year, I guess because it warmed later, and the chillier winds depressed their growth and invaded by the taller weeds. However, the bloom at Torrey Pines was still as beautiful as the previous years I had been enjoying it. The yellow carpet of wildflowers above is at Mission Bay, by Pacific Highway and Sea World Drive. This field of wildflowers is actually right next to Sea World. We parked at Fiesta Island,

Jetskiing @ Mission Bay

and took the trails from there to enjoy these wildflowers.

Yellow Amongst Yellow

The tower that you can see at the very far back of the picture above is Sea World's Tower, and am so glad that despite thousands of people inside Sea World, only very few would take time to enjoy the outdoors at Mission Bay.

Anyhow, the walk at Mission Bay was too flat for me that I was back to my favorite place to hike in San Diego, which is at Torrey Pines State Reserve.

@ Broken Hill, Torrey Pines State Reserve

Hiker @ Broken Hill

This is my kind of walk, up and down trails right next to the sea.

Beach Trail from Broken Hill

Trail to Yucca Point

and enjoying the fluttering sea dahlias amongst other wildflowers with the sea breeze.

Sea Dahlias

Lilac Mariposa Lily @ Torrey Pines State Reserve

I thank you all for your continued support and visits here despite I can only update this once a week the most :(. Sorry if I had not been commenting often as well, I will try my best to visit when I get the chance again. Meanwhile, just sharing this piece of information from my side of the world today. I am looking forward to my summer break already when I can write here some more and posts more about the simple joys in of simple life out of the doors :)

Hope you had a good weekend.