Spring plants in California

Well we have moved on from the heady days of doing interviews to our time in California. Carpinteria Ca to be specific: a great little beach town south of Santa Barbara.
No pictures yet since we’ve been here less than 24 hours and we’re still shopping for food. In that time I’ve seen a seal mucking about in the surf (thought it was a very sleek diver); and a pelican came so close to the building we could hear its wings flap.
Getting here was a snap. Twenty nine minutes to get through security leaving us with a 2 and a half hour wait to get on the plane. I don’t know if we were just lucky or what, but the fear implanted in traveling seemed needless.
We arrived here to a glorious sunset, and plants galore all along the traffic-choked highway.
You can see evidence of mud slides, detritus from fires and still it’s one of the most gorgeous of landscapes anywhere. Like the Tuscan valley in Italy, like the Alpes-Maritimes in the south of France,. and then only like itself.
We adore this little town and absolutely nothing has changed except things are much more lush than last year because of all the rain.
Ernie the bus driver says we’re in for a three-day blow so maybe serious walks on the beach will have to wait for another day.
We spent the afternoon at the farmer’s market loading up on vegetables, olive oil, fruit and though we only live a few blocks away, we took a bus (25cents) home. Though he didn’t have to Ernie the bus driver let us off right in front of our building.
Now to cook what looks like a spectacular chicken.

Here’s the sky our first day: