Some people get high on poppies. Other people’s poppies get high. Ten feet high to be precise, here in Tilden Park in the Berkeley hills on one of my favorite Wellness Walks.  Known colloquially as the fried egg poppy, for obvious reasons, the name of this California stunner sounds much prettier in its native Chumash: Matilija.

Every summer, on a particular stretch of my Gentle Hike, a thirty or forty foot long stand of poppies reaches up on both sides of the path. With the poppies towering over me in almost mythic proportion, I feel like I’m in a fairytale, wandering through an enchanted queendom.

With only a week or two left before all the petals drop, now is the time for you to schedule a Wellness Walk and enjoy the magic that is summer in Berkeley while we sort out your health and wellness concerns one stride at a time.