The Elusive Poppy

Sara — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:40:02 +0000

Sunday morning found Chris and I in the car heading south to El Paso. Our destination; the Franklin Mountains. We had been told that there was usually a great display of poppies there in the Spring. We missed the little festival that they had the weekend before celebrating the Spring poppies. So we figured there must be some if they had a festival. El Paso is about 45 minutes south of Las Cruces. We had packed the car with my new French easel, a bag full of different media including a box of pastels and my new “artcomber” chair/cart that held the easel. Well we got to the mountain and after turning around because we had missed the exit to the State Park there, we found it and proceeded in. So far we hadn’t seen a single poppy which had me wondering if they were there at all. We pulled up to the pay booth and asked the “Ranger” if there were many wildflowers out yet and he told us a few verbena and some others, but not many. We asked about the poppies and he said that they were on the other side of the mountain. ugh. I forgot to mention that it was a very windy day which would have made painting outside unpleasant at best. The wind would have been directly on us on the other side of the mountain. We decided to turn around and maybe come back on a nice day. So we headed down from the mountain and stopped for lunch at a DQ that was right near the highway. Ah, Easter dinner at DQ, not exactly following tradition but I guess in the scheme of things it was ok. I got to have my lemon-lime mister misty freeze although they did neglect to put extra ice cream on top as I had requested. sigh. So few DQ’s know how to make them right. We then got back on the highway heading north and when we got home we were so tired that we both ended up taking a nap. It was a gray, chilly, windy day and our arthritis and other ailments were making themselves known. So, it ended up being a good day for rest. I have photo’s of poppies, some that I have taken. I want more close-ups though. sigh. If we were still in Arivaca we would be seeing them. Oh well, maybe next year.

Sara Mathewson » en plein air

The Elusive Poppy