California poppies were one of the things I liked right away about the new place I was living in. Many other aspects of nature in Southern California––hills brown unless they were watered, relentless blue skies, summers of hot days varied by very hot days, winters of cooler days varied by very hot days––took me a decade to get used to. The poppies––so gay, so bold––eased the transition and are still one of my favorite sights amid a landscape that I now love.