A couple of weekends ago Jerry and I decided to hop in the car and drive up to the closest local mountains. The small town of Julian has an "apple festival" every year and they sell wonderful cider and apple pie. Here is some of the scenery from the drive.
We had to stop in Santa Ysabel along the way and buy bread from the famous Dudley's bakery. It has been quite a while since we took a "scenic drive", what with the price of gas and all, but we used the small car and didn't feel too guilty about it.
I had been hoping for even a little fall color, but it has been a long, hot DRY summer. Even in a year with rain, we do not have the kind of glorious color seen in other parts of the country. When we were choosing trees for the yard, liquid amber trees were among my choices since I wanted a touch of fall color to remind me of what "real" fall is like. Alas, my little trees are still steadfastly green so far. They will eventually change to a lovely red and the mulberry trees will turn yellow, and that is about the extent of our fall color.
One last interesting bit. On the way up we passed a camel dairy. Yes, camels. I had trouble getting my head around that one, but apparently camel milk is not only nutritious but lactose free. At this point, I don't think there is anything being made for human consumption, but they do sell soap and use the camels for a variety of purposes (living nativities, for example). That first photo I took has camels in the distance.
All in all, it was a lovely day.
4 comments:
Ok, a camel dairy is just too weird to think about. I saw camels in the mid-east, but no dairies!!
I must say that one think I love about Oregon is the riot of fall color.
I can't imagine what the milk from a camel would taste like, but it doesn't sound appetizing...except to a baby camel. I used to love the annual trek to Julian when we lived in San Diego. Thanks for the memories...I was wondering if Dudley's was still there, I'm glad to hear it is.
Gotta love Dudley's...I recognize the views, especially in the last photo =-) My liquid amber trees are turning...I have one that goes deep purple-red much later, though, so we'll have that around the holidays. I need to drive up to Julian, haven't been in a few months...maybe after the "snow flies"...such as it does...
I've been reading your blog since I somehow discovered you are local. It looks like the mountains are a hotbed of soap-making! I have been a fan of Sky Valley Farm soaps http://www.skyvalleyfarm.com/ since I read about the chef who now "cooks" soap!
And I thought liquidamber trees were so called because of their golden (amber) color. Hope you get some beautiful reds from yours!
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