On the Horizon

Well it's starting to look like summer in the gorge! I don't get to photograph Mt. Adams very often. It's barely visible from my town, and even then only from the higher elevations. Of the three volcanoes near the Columbia Gorge, Mt. Hood and Mount St. Helens are mainly what we see. But on Saturday we were in Trout Lake, gateway town to Mt. Adams, and the weather was 'picture perfect'! So of course I made time for some photography as we drove through. As an added bonus we had so much snow in the mountains this year, Mt. Adams is still almost completely covered, with summer only days away.

Canola, or Maybe Mustard

I have to admit, I can't really identify any of the plants that grow in the Palouse.  It's not like the Midwest where I grew up, corn and soybeans are pretty easy to tell apart.  I don't know wheat from lentils.  I initially assumed that this yellow flowering crop was canola, but I read online that canola and mustard are hard to tell apart to the untrained eye.  I also read that if you plant one of these crops in a field than you can never plant the other, because they cross to form a plant known as rapeseed, which is evidently a very unwelcome crop.  When I was in the Palouse last week I wandered through the Moscow Farmer's Market, and there was a vendor selling something I believe he called Canolina Oil, which was made from a mustard seed, but not the same as the mustard oil you would find at an ethnic grocery.  I tried some and thought it tasted delicious!  He had a lot of statistics and data worked up by the WSU campus to show all the health benefits, but I was a little skeptical on how well it would store given that he compared it against flax oil which oxidizes so quickly.  Anyway, that's my wishy-washy experience with this yellow flowering crop, whatever it is.  Not exactly my most definitive post!  :)

Alameda Farmscape

I was surprised to see such a large patch of wild mustard still blooming in front of this farm in Alameda County earlier this week.  It made for a cheery late-spring look with the nice shade of blue and high clouds. 

Spring is in the Air

I just can't get enough of the almost spring look around here.  What a change for me from this time last year when I was so impatient with spring's gentle pace.  I'm learning to savor the sense of anticipating.  Bundle up in my warm coat and gloves each morning, but feel that spring is in the air.  Appreciate the little daily changes that signal the turn of season.  And let me tell you, there's nothing like change of season for a daily photo blogger!  Hooray for a new color palette!

And the Mustard...

It was extensive!  It's got to be one of the first things to bloom around here in the almost-spring, and it really will be everywhere soon.  Painting every roadside in a cheery spring green.  I can't account for the blue in the sky here. We are getting a stronger blue these days, but not this rich.  I wasn't using my polarizer, so I'm not sure why the sky is so deep, but I really do like it.  The sun was hot, even though it was only in the 60s, and I had to go back to the car and get a hat!  So maybe it just comes from the heat?  Beyond this extensive patch of wildflowers the pervasive brownness is still visible.  It makes this photo deceptive.  It's not really spring, but you can feel it coming.