Our gorgeous, golden coastal native, the giant coreopsis, is now flowering on Point Dume. It's deciduous, so other than these few brief weeks, it's a stumpy, lumpy-looking plant. And it's a succulent, which means it can't stand up to frost, but can survive a drought.

Well, maybe not this drought.

If you're a regular visitor to the Point Dume headlands, you'll see the flowers are sparser and the plants are browner than in past years. The bloom came later this year as well, didn't emerge until those last two little rain storms we had.

The plants are still beautiful, of course--

...an unexpected burst of color and frilly green in our naturally sere bit of coastline.

California, still the golden state.

(Be careful -- parking is limited at Point Dume. Law enforcement types patrol often, and hand out pricey tickets.)