Eat your heart out, Mr Wordsworth!

I wandered lonely as a cloud

[If a cloud wore a windcheater and carried a pocket-camera]

That floats on high o’er vales and hills

[Cole Valley and Twin Peaks, I guess]

When all at once I saw a crowd/ A host of golden daffodils;

[Or Bermuda Buttercups, alias oxalis]

Beside the lake

[Or above the reservoir, anyway]

Beneath the trees,

[Nope, no trees]

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

[Oh, yes. That.]

It’s a wonderful feature of our neighborhood, having the iconic lookout point of Twin Peaks so close by. But at this time of the year, Twin Peaks is worth not just looking from, it’s worth looking at. Today, Sunday 28 February 2010, it’s particularly splendid. Twin Peaks is glorious with oxalis now, and scented with sweet alyssum.

I know oxalis is a weed, but it’s an extraordinarily lovely one. My take on it is, you can despise it and try to exterminate it; or you can enjoy it and try to photograph it.

There are a host of other flowers, native and not: Mustard, California poppy, wild iris, calendula, lupine. All set against the bright green of lush growing grass.

Go now, if you want to see it. (Sunny mornings are the best.) From March 2-16, they will start spraying Garlon, a toxic herbicide. You wouldn’t want to be there then, and by the time it’s done, the flowers will be gone.