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!

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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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 …