REACHING FOR THE SUN

Finally! The sunflowers planted so long ago have begun to bloom. One reason I like planting them is they usually grow so fast. Since I'm not a patient person by nature, it suits me well to know I'll see some large beautiful sunflowers soon after putting seeds in the ground. This year, they weren't so quick in blooming.

I didn't have much interest in planting sunflowers until the grandkids came along. I'm not a gardener, but when they wanted to plant seeds, we planted seeds. Grandson was probably eight and Granddaughter must have been about three when we planted together for the first time. We had such fun. We'd gone to the Ace Hardware store in town and chosen what we'd plant. While we dug in the dirt, Grandson explained the virtues of worms to his sister. She's never been afraid to touch them - unlike her nana.

Grandkids are busy with school, marching band, soccer, and friends these days, so they don't often come here to plant seeds, but Granddaughter and I did plant the sunflowers and a few other things one weekend, with Granddad's help. In addition to the sunflowers, we have one gourd and a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes. We planted broccoli too, but haven't seen any stalks yet. The pumpkin vines are going wild though, so maybe there's hope for them.

I was sure we'd planted some large traditonal yellow sunflowers, but the ones blooming right now are rust and yellow. They're still beautiful, just smaller than I expected. l'm glad they've finally decided to show their faces. I took the photos a few minutes ago. The sunflowers are growing along the south side of the cabin.