Sunday, April 19, 2009

Afield in San Diego: Flower Fields of Carlsbad

First, before I go on with another walkabout account, I must give credit for the "Afoot" and "Afield" phrases to Jerry Schad whose book "Afoot and Afield in San Diego" is the hiker's Bible for walking San Diego's trails.


This weekend, Jennifer and I headed up the coast to The Flower Fields in Carlsbad on our way to the Strawberry Festival. Can you imagine a town whose specialties are flowers and strawberries, and on the ocean to boot!

The spring flower fields are a ritual rite of spring for San Diegans, whether to the desert at Borrego Springs or the ranunculae of Carlsbad. This was Jennifer's first trip, camera in hand, of course. It's great to have a buddy that can talk depth of field, composition, and photography as social commentary, even when she's admonishing her Ouma to stop crossing the yellow tape into the field.

Jennifer brought the same focus, discipline, and unique perspective to the fields that we saw in the Meditation Gardens.


A few of Jennifer's photos:






Jennifer calls this her crime scene photo...


A bed so soft...


Her social commentary...


Her Obama shot...One will rise above the rest.


I took a couple I liked...




...but I was more intrigued by the "flowers" walking around, the Red Hat Ladies.




About now, Jennifer began to talk about my being obsessional. "Stop stalking them, Ouma!" She began muttering about "the attack of the Red Hats" - isn't that Killer Tomatoes?




There must have been a couple hundred of them.


They came with canes and walkers.


This pair looked generational.


About the time Jennifer was groaning and rolling her eyes - "do we have to walk through those old ladies again?"- I figured it was time to head up to the Strawberry Festival.

Here for more Flower Field photos.

8 comments:

Pat said...

Wow, those pics are even better than the ones two years ago! Better rain this year? Love that crime scene shot, Jennifer!

I'm going to have to make a point of visiting in April one of these years...

Kappa no He said...

I love how Americans at any age can dress so vividly and wear such red, red hats. Gorgeous flowers. The Crime Scene Flower, hilarious.

Jhangora said...

Lovely Pics. Wish u a Happy May Day :)

joan said...

What a cool place! Great flower shots.

Pat said...

KNH, Jhangora, and Joan - Kathie asked me to thank you for your comments because she can't - she's traveling in Morocco and the keyboard there is hard to use. Isn't that sad? She'll be back on the 24th with some great stories, I hope - maybe of fields of marijuana flowers, for all we know!

colormekatie said...

I love these pictures!

Pat said...

Welcome, Katie! I love your blog. Kathie's and Jennifer's photos in this post are beautifully colorful, aren't they?

Thanks for stopping by!

Pam said...

Those fields of ranunculus would just stop me in my tracks. Wow!!!!!! Gorgeous images.