Paradise Lake, my destination, is hiding behind the ribbon of green trees between the two closest large hills. The low spiky plants in the foreground, vinegar weed, give off a bracing citrus-vinegar-turpentine scent that I enjoy, but is disliked by some.
The Las Pilitas native plant nursery web site jeers that, "[Trichostema lanceolatum] is one of the many native plants that separates the people that should be here from those that shouldn't. I have no idea why city folks move to the country and then complain about the smelly plants that live there."