Sun in a Basket

Several dozen little heads and a few big ones, too.  These are going back to
the birds (and the squirrels, chipmunks, deer, ground squirrels and mice).

How much sun, sunshine, sunlight, does it take to make a sunflower? How many hours of powerful energy were absorbed in these many seed heads. From their tiny beginnings as seeds from heads like these, the sprouts became plants and grew from April to September. You do the arithmetic. I'll just stand in awe of the Divine Knowing that manifests here. As sunflowers. As sunshine in a basket.

Mystery Plant Unmasked

Feels like a sunflower--can almost see the seeds forming at the base of
each tiny flower.

It gave itself away. If one waits long enough, all is revealed. So I watched.  The petals fell rather quickly from the radiant blossom  And then the tiny flowerettes opened on what looked like seeds. Dahlias do not produce seeds. These seeds were separate and sturdy, sunflower like.

Same veins as a sunflower leaf

The leaves were furry, similar to heart-shaped ones of the sunflower family.  One central leader stem had multiple flowers sprouting from the stalk.

Shouting a vibrant "Mexican" to the sunflower name.

Playing on the hunch from my plant-wise friend, I added Mexican to the sunflower search and found many pictures that looked just like my specimen.  Comments on the previous blog say that it reseeds and grows again year after year. Comments also suggest naming the flower myself and giving starts to all my friends.  Sign up now if you'd like me to send you seeds for this drought-loving pretty.

Stolen Gold

Greenish yellow Dill and little yellow weeds from the
ditch just outside our yard soften and charm this bouquet.

Zip!  Just grabbed that idea and tucked it in my pocket before anyone noticed. I love yellow--yellow anything, so on the way out of our local market, passing the floral section, I snatched the idea of an all-yellow bouquet.  It was sitting on the counter, freshly arranged with large, open umbels.  The whole image smacked my upside the head.  That's when I stole it.

Special guests were coming for dinner all the way from the East Coast, and a bouquet of fresh Western cheer was the greeting I wanted for them. Fortunately, early last spring, a little bird knew this and planted a sunflower seed next to the fence.  Various other golden beauties had self-sewn and were now in bloom.  It took only a moment to gather them up.  Why is everything so easy in the Things I get to do today?

Why is Everything SO delicious and easy?

High-Crime Alley!

Are his paws red?  Caught by the camera

I call it the alley.  It's so small that if it were a high-crime area, the perpetrators would need to make reservations.  Not much room.  But the little criminals don't read and can't tell time.  Dang.  If I knew when they were going to be there,  I'd lie in wait and nab the little buggers.  It would be first of the Things I get to do today.  

In that narrow walkway between us and the neighbors, I found evidence of the crime:  piles of sunflower seeds and well-chewed heads from the sunflowers.  This is where they go to work over their loot.     

Even a fully-stretched squirrel is not long
enough to cut off the flower head and run.

Maybe these guys are just teenage boys doing their little vandalizing thing--you know, having a good prank on the older couple who live in the green house with the white trim.

Broad-daylight thievery 

"Meet ya tonight after dark.  We'll take down Andy's Hop Vines.  You know, cut the twine in chunks and chew up the plants.  That'll be a hoot!"

Didn't notice the twine had gone missing
but spotted it on the roof a few days ago!

"Then tomorrow night we'll hit the pile of stuff the ole lady left on the table.  We'll steal the bean twine she thinks she is so clever to save.  We'll show her who's smart around here."


I think we are in for an early fall:  Trick or Treat is here already.  The joke is on me!

Sunflower Seasons

Takes no detective to see that squirrels did the eating here.
They tend to chew up the whole flower

This year I don't hate him for cutting them down.  Last year a squirrel nipped the blossoms off  nearly all the sunflowers, some before they were even encircled in their sacred halo of golden petals.  To save seeds from a single, slender, pale yellow beauty took extreme vigilance on my part.

Blossom carried to the top of the woodshed
before being demolished 

So I retaliated early this spring.  All the saved seeds were tucked into rich potting soil, nurtured, loved.  As spring made her debut, three dozen seedlings were ready to take on the yard.  And all summer they've been glowing with exuberance and joy, along the street side, next to the neighbors, in the back garden.  There was no indication that the squirrels even saw the flowers--until three days ago.  A side branch on a hefty stalk was pulled off, its flowers all chewed and torn.

Sorry, but you were just too slow to catch the
chickadee feeding on this abundant head of seeds. 

Today the movement of gray fur on the top of the sunflower jerked my attention to it.  It's a strong flower that can support a fat squirrel.  I chuckled to myself.  This year the favorite pale yellow flowers are all over the yard, strong, sturdy, and vibrant, and I've already collected my seeds for next year.  The squirrel can duke it out with the chickadees for who takes the lion's share.  Catching a photo of both of them gobbling up the goodies will not be one of the Things I get to do today.

Empty faces scrubbed clean
by the quick stabs of
chickadee beaks.

Sunflower Sassy

It's a valiant sunflower, at least.  At its best, it's a symbol of determination and hope.  Check out Cup on the Bus by Joanne.  First of the Things I get to do today is pay tribute to this valiant sunflower and to Joanne for her love of the underdog.  Her adopted sunflower certainly has all odds against it.

The pale one that won my heart

All my sunflowers are rooting for the fire station flower.  From a wildflower seed mix last year, a very pale sunflower showed up in my garden.  I saved one small head of seeds and started them in an indoor tray in the spring.  They had all the luxuries of the wealthy--food, housing, water and protective attention.

First bloom--with a little green tongue

Not all the plants have bloomed true to the pale yellow of that first plant.  They are not slender, short and delicate structures either.  Something about having the initial strong, healthy start has allowed them to bloom, robust and tall.

A week later--full, stick-out-your-tongue attitude

They'd like to send their vigor and cheer to that lone flower in the East, growing in the crack of the concrete in front of the fire station door.  Just stick out your tongue at the odds and glow your heart out, little sunflower!

From Nursery to Play Pen

Cucumbers stretching out their second set of leaves

My, my! Don't they grow up fast! Every parent has probably thought their babies matured faster than average at some point.  No exceptions here.

"Galina" tomatoes headed toward 5th & 6th leaves

I was away for the weekend visiting my real baby who is now 27.  And while I was not looking, the plant nursery exploded.  It turns out that the first of the Things I get to do today now that I'm back at home is move the babies from the nursery into the play pen.

Baby pale-yellow sunflower--can you see its shining face?

There is a bit of high overcast sun today so their first day exposed to its light is soft and gentle.  Nervous first-time-this-spring mother that I am, all the rest of the things I get to do today will come between checking and rechecking on how the little ones are liking their baby steps.

Playpen with happy babies airing in the sun

Telling a Better Story

 I'm a straight-facts person.  My husband and his family are story tellers and find most undecorated accounts of an event to have undeveloped potential.  With the right details "enhanced," the whole family may be confused, but at least they are laughing.

Try this quote on for size:  "Telling many good-feeling short stories throughout your day will change your point of attraction.  Just remember that the story you tell is the basis of your life.  So tell it the way you want it to be."*

Today's weather--in my mind

Let's tell more stories to create good health, abundance, and joy. Let's describe graphically the details of our creativity, our talents and the best we have to share. Let's practice looking at our future and creating with our thoughts and words the finest outcome we can imagine.   That really means "decorating" and developing the "potential" of all situations.  Time to let go of the "straight-facts," I guess.  Things I get to do today: learn to be a better story teller and really enhance the "facts."





I'd like warm, sunny weather, so here's my better-feeling story:  I see and feel myself standing outside in the freshness of the morning with the warm, loving sun snuggling me all over.  The birds are alive with the early morning twitters, and the whole garden sparkles with potential.  I breathe in the glory of Divine Energy and bask in the delicious miracle of the earth.  I know that one of these days soon warmth will return to my town, and I'm eager for its coming.  I love knowing that everything is in order and will come about when it is ready.  Right now, I'm going to make something cuddly warm to drink and find a good book.  All is well.

*Abraham-Hicks.  Daily Quote.  March 21, 2012.