On June 10 of this year, sunflower seeds I had planted a few days before sprouted.
I was quite excited given my poor track record with growing anything from seed.
When they got too tall for the tray, my husband transplanted several to an oblong planter in front of our gate, an area that gets lots of direct sunlight.
And they continued to grow …
They got taller and taller and everything so often I’d take a hard look, fingers crossed that buds might appear. And they did.
The bud in the above photo opened the next day, but the photo below was captured today, August 12.
And today, we now have two. More to come!
I feel like it’s been ages since I was here on WordPress. The days just zip by. I have been preoccupied with three things:
- Writing postcards to encourage people to vote. Sometimes I feel I should do more. But the worse things get, the more I keep to myself, only venturing out for my yoga classes or grocery shopping or the gym or (now) my acupuncturist.
- Which brings me to the second thing which is my chronic knee pain. It was getting progressively worse since I last wrote, leading me to think that perhaps I should consider surgery after all. But I had seen an acupuncturist before and got some relief then. Well, let’s give her another try, I thought. It’s now been a month of weekly sessions and I’m starting to experience pain-free moments. There’s more to it than sticking needles in my legs. I’m making changes in my diet and how I exercise and paying more attention to the reality that is my body, my aging body.
- I forgot the third thing. Seriously. I mean, there’s all the knitting and stuff, but I really had something else in mind. Whatever.
This isn’t the third thing but I did vote today. We have early voting in Florida until August 18 which is the official Election Day. I always get a dopamine bump when I vote.
Thank you for reading! If you got this far, here’s your gift …
Marie at 1 Write Way 
7 responses to “There Be Sunflowers”
Oh, Marie. I’m so sorry about your knee. Please keep us posted on what happens next.
Beautiful photos. I love sunflowers. So cheerful and bright. Some are so large! How big are yours? Where I used to live years ago, someone grew sunflowers that were about eight feet tall.
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You know, I probably should have had Greg take a photo of me next to them, for scale. These sunflowers are called Lemon Queen and can get as tall as 7′. The ones in the photo are probably between 4 and 5 feet. I don’t think they will be as spectacular as the giant sunflowers, but seeing them bloom still puts a smile on my face.
Thank you for your kind words about my knee. I’m doing all I can to avoid surgery 😁
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I love sunflowers! How wonderful that you were able to grow these from seed!
Thank you for the postcard writing! I keep thinking I should do that again . . .
Sorry about your knee, but I’m glad you’re seeing some improvement with the acupuncture. (My daughter–and her dog!–have had acupuncture treatments.)
Love the photo of Raj and the caption. 😂
(Our little guys had their annual checkup and rabies shot this morning. )
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I think I overextended myself with the postcard writing. I’ll get it done but it’ll be a rush. But thank you for referring me to them. I really appreciate what they are doing.
I took Wendy in for her annual yesterday and, oh, she was such a bad girl! She even hissed and swatted at me 🙀 I had given her 50 mg of Gabapentin (the vet had recommended that because of an earlier episode of bad behavior) but it didn’t work. And her vet wants us to reduce her diet 🙀🙀 Wish us luck! Wendy can be relentless when she’s hungry.
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The last time I did them, some friends finally helped me finish them.
That’s so funny about Wendy. Our cat Mickey (the white one, if you remember), was so awful at the vet’s–well, he was terrified–but I’m sure they had red flags all over his file. 😂 We finally started giving him Gabapentin, too, and it did work.
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My husband did the same for me with planting sunflowers. He got the tall ones so I can see them from my second-floor study. One of them that bloomed a few days ago is fourteen feet tall! I hope the acupuncturist is able to help with your knee pain.
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Impressed with the sunflower—congratulations!!! And grateful for pain-free moments, even if brief.
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