Lupine Madness

Went hiking in the hills of Fort Ord last week.  The countryside's green and mellow and tonight's rain will keep it that way for awhile!  I liked this view of oak branch shadows in the meadow.

Tossed this pic in...on the same file as the Ft Ord pix.  This is the Wallangarra train station on the New South Wales-Queensland border in Australia.  In the 19th century, each present day Australian state was a separate British colony.  And, in an example of bureaucracy at its finest, the colonies had different railroad gauges!  This meant that when traveling by train, you had to stop at each border and change to a different train that could run on that colony's gauge.  Wallangarra was one of those points so although the town is tiny, the train station is large.  After the colonies joined in the Australian federation in 1901, the train tracks were gradually standardized, though this took several decades. 

Lupine field in the Ft Ord hills.

Lupine closeup.  Gorgeous!

Here the lupines are mixing with buttercups.

Lupine empire!  Not bad for a dry year.  What does it look like after a wet winter??