How I Spent My Spring Break, Part 6

The final day of my Spring Break was spent either hiking in the hills around the house or driving (and taking small hikes) around Julian and the surrounding area. The first stop in the morning was a hilltop referred to as "Steve's Lot." (It's not *actually* Steve's actual lot, but...) Anyway, here's one of the several views from "Steve's Lot."

The tail of the creased mountain in the foreground is, I believe, Volcan Mountain. The straight line reaching to the distance behind the tail of the mountain is highway 78 heading for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

You may have heard of Julian in the news in years when the wildfires in southern CA are particularly bad. The view in the photo above burned at least once (tho' I think it was twice) in the last 10 years. I saw one lovely lot with a beautiful view and a daffodil-line driveway sitting vacant with new chaparral shrubs growing, but the concrete foundation was vacant. We found out later that the folks who own the place built a house, then fire took the house and hillside, then they rebuilt the house, then fire took the house and hillside, then they gave up.

That's the problem with living in a chaparral plant community. It's a place that has been shaped by fire for millennia. It burned before and it will burn again. The homeowners' insurance rules for the area are rather draconian. Insurance inspectors cruise the back roads without notice to make sure that all the buildings are in compliance with landscaping codes. (If you're not, your insurance policy can be cancelled without notice.)

As a result, people are having to create utterly unnatural landscapes. There's also a lot of conflicting data and conflicting opinion as to what to plant and what not to plant. Most folks are advised not to plant area natives because they burn so very well. Instead they are advised to plant form a list of non-natives because, when kept watered, they inhibit fire. A-hem. The natives, when kept watered, would do the same. And the non-natives, when not watered, would burn just as rampantly as the natives.

OK. I'll get off my soapbox now.

We were favored on our walk by the presence of a Yucca known as Our Lord's Candle:

I think of it more as a Great Willie, but then I've watched far too many episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The flowers are just beginning to open around the base of the flower head. When in full bloom, the flower head will be nearly as large as the plant base and will be a glowing, creamy white. (Hence, the candle reference.)

We also got to see the early show of color of one of the local "Paintbrushes" -- Felt Paintbrush, I think.

The paintbrush plant is the one with the little, narrow, gray-white leaves that have a touch of red showing on the bracts (that look like they might be flowers). The thick, wide, gray-white leaves are White Sage which will bloom much later in the year. (You can just make out some White Sage in the foreground from the yucca photo above.)