A Crossword Puzzle Tip — And Poppies, Millions of Them

Spring bloom of California Golden Poppies on a hillside on California's Grapevine in the Tehachapi Mountains. Photo by Barbara Newhall — There they were, California Golden Poppies, millions of them, blooming on a hillside along California’s Grapevine in the Tehachapi Mountains. Gorgeous enough to distract us — briefly — from our NYT crossword puzzle. Photo by Barbara Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

The trip south to Los Angeles to visit our daughter and son-in-law was good: Six hours and six-hundred-something miles on California’s Interstate Highway 5 — and one more Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle bites the dust. “119 Across. Retro light source.” Why, “lavalamp,” of course. (For your crossword puzzle tip, check out the photo down below.)

But it was the trip north that I most looked forward to. I had warned Jon ahead of time: When he steers us over the Grapevine pass in the Tehachapi Mountains, I’ll stop giving him words from our NYT Sunday crossword puzzle book. Instead I’ll be watching for poppies. It was April, after all, wildflower season in California, and with this year’s heavy rains, the poppy bloom was bound to be extravagant.

When it comes to poppy sighting, the trip north to the Bay Area beats the trip south. California’s south-facing hillsides — the sunny expanses where poppies like to hang out — would be right in our faces

Sure enough. There they were. Poppies. Millions of them. Hope you like them.

California’s Golden Poppies are more orange than golden this year; see for yourself at “California’s Not-So-Golden Poppies.”