Angel Daughter Number Four and I decided to take a little journey the other day, and ended up visiting The Flower Fields in Carlsbad, California. For a better part of the year, these nutrient-rich fields lay dormant, dusty and brown. But if you are lucky enough to come upon them during the months of March through mid-May, you will find a fifty acre rainbow of gorgeous color. This is the time of the year when the Giant Tecolote Ranunculous flowers open their huge blossoms in a spectacular display of beauty. Even driving by the exit where these lovely flowers bloom is like coming into the Poppy fields of Oz. It is an absolutely breathtaking sight.
Out of the millions of flowers that blossom in these fields, only 1-2%(about 3,000,000!) of the flowers are cut and shipped throughout the US and Canada in colorful bouquets. The rest are left to shine for a short while, and then allowed to wither so that their bulbs can be harvested at a rate of approximately 200,000 per acre. The bulbs are then packaged and shipped throughout the world! In the photo above, you can see some of the workers who hand-pluck these beautiful flowers, stem by stem, from the plants. The work is difficult and back-braking and is done mostly by Mexican migrant workers who truly appreciate their jobs. When Angel Daughter Number Four and I were there, there were at least one hundred men bent over in the hot sun harvesting the flowers. 
The colors range anywhere from a vibrant ruby-red to a soft, pure white. Each one is perfect in its own right.
Angel Daughter Number Four was in awe of the vast beauty which was blanketed all around us. She wanted, so badly, to run through the flowers but there are spies everywhere who ride around in little golf-carts and they are very quick to yell at anyone who dare even consider crossing over the yellow caution tape. It's almost like they can read your mind. You can almost feel their eyes following your every step...Like Flying Monkeys ready to pounce at any moment. I can see their point, but maybe out of the 50 acres, there might be one tiny little area that could be set aside for the people who are young and young at heart!
Perfect rows set up by color are everywhere the eye can see.
Shine!!!
AD4 and I loved the white ones. There is something so pure and clean about these stunning blossoms.
Some of the flowers even have double-blossoms which make them puff out like those tissue-paper flowers that many of us created as children. 
If you would like to read more about these gorgeous fields of flowers, click on the photo above to enlarge the print. You can also go to the link which I provided above. 
At the end of the day, all of the blossoms are leaning toward the late-afternoon sun. There is a cool, salty breeze coming in off of the Pacific Ocean which looms in the background. The migrant workers collect their finished bouquets and head off to the trucks that bring them back to the nursery.
Sometimes, there is nothing quite like taking a little journey in your own neighborhood. There is so much around us that we often forget to notice. May you take some time to go on your own little adventure. I would love to hear what you discover or rediscover in your own neighborhood. There are so many places that we take for granted but that many others will never get to see. If there is anything that you would care to share, I would love to link it to my site for others to see!
Have a colorful day, my friends!
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