California is known as the Golden State. As a native, I have always loved the golden color of the hills dotted with occasional green live oaks--the fields turn golden due to the ending of the spring rains.

But it's not to everyone's taste. One work colleague, clearly from the east coast where all things remain green in the summer, on his first trip to California asked me what disaster had occurred--expecting me to say that a fire or other bad event had happened!