Oh Central Valley, how I love thee.
I fell in love with you for the first time many, many years ago, when your bright green hills of winter grass took my breath away. The green that looks like an enormous carpet draped over the landscape like a miracle. I saw a picture of these rolling green hills in a magazine once, when I was a teenager and my life was inspired by issues of Communication Arts and their annuals. I saw the picture in the Photography Annual. It was a single tree sitting on top of a big green hill, I had no idea where. And when I first got to California all those years ago, I soon realized that I would probably find it here. I have been looking for that tree ever since.
That was when California was still just a dream. Now it is my home. I had the chance last week to take a drive down the 101 to Malibu, passing through all the gorgeous hills that had just gotten a big drink of rain the week before. Everything was breathing with life. The hills were full of bugs and songbirds and happiness. It was winter in California.
