8-23-02

Needing a change of scenery from my card work and story editing, I hopped in the truck and headed for the coast by the meandering route yesterday... camera in hand, of course.

Farmhouse outside town, not far from the CSUCI campus.  Most often the fields surrounding this house are filled with cabbages, so I was surprised to find corn growing here.  The Santa Monica Mountains rise in the background.

Sod farms spread for acres alongside vegetable fields, adding vibrant shades of green to this view.  CSUCI is located just behind the first (lighter) hills at the rear of the photo.  Camarillo is to the left, the ocean to the right.  It always amazes me how the plain is so very flat, and how abruptly the mountains rise at its border, as if a giant hand had shoved them up from below.

Tightly-packed rows of cabbages bloom like giant green roses in a field not far from town.

An old farm house standing (listing?) on the open Oxnard plain near Port Hueneme

Rows of onions lay ready to be bagged.  My drive included scents as well as sights, mostly notably, in this case, the pungency of drying onions and that of sun-warmed chilis.

Anaheim chilis grow in the hazy air near the coastal town of Port Hueneme (pronounced Wy-Nee-Me) watched over by a sparse row of Monterrey cypress.  A few miles from this open agricultural land is the port where thousands of Japanese cars find their entry into the U.S.

Maybe a silly detail, but I was very impressed by this public rest room at the edge of the Channel Islands harbor in Oxnard.  It was a well-designed building, almost like a house, and very attractively landscaped.

Boat slips with a view of the harbor's mouth in the background.  Both Oxnard and Ventura have harbors.

Drifting sand replaces lawn in the front yards of beachfront communities where those who love living close to the ocean pay well for the privilege of foggy days and the lazy sound of curling surf.  The water is just behind these houses.  Between every third or fourth home is an opening through which level, white sandy beaches lure residents and visitors to the water.

Ormond slough, in one of the undeveloped coastal areas.  Ventura County is a patchwork of vast agricultural lands, rapidly expanding towns and all-too-quickly vanishing open space.