Sep03
Fall
Sunflowers are the only flowers that seem to me like they have faces. This one with its dinner-plate-sized face was my favorite, the very picture of gracious good cheer:
But now it slumps in dejection.
Poor thing. Yet it’s pleasing to see (and hear) the goldfinches enjoying the sunflowers — finches and juncos, pecking at the flowers, and chipmunks and doves scurrying on the ground for dropped seeds. It’s at this drooping, dead phase that the sunflower becomes most influential, and useful, and nourishing.
Spiritual metaphors abound in a garden. But this morning, I’m thinking merely of how it ushers in the spirit of autumn: things dying, but generously, and somehow beautifully.
I wish I could get closer, and get some better pictures. I’ll keep trying.
Edited to add: one more, this one of Mr. Chipmunk.
(The focus is poor on these because I had to use the zoom from quite a distance.)
Sunflowers always lead me to spiritual thoughts, too, Janet. Maybe it’s the SON.
We’ve had a small flock of goldfinches take up residence in the past week. I love to see the bright yellow as they flit around the yard. I also love sunflowers, but haven’t had much luck with them in the past.
Sunflowers seem like such happy flowers. I hadn’t thought about the end of them, though. It’s similar to fall on that the dying of the leaves brings such beauty and refreshment. I hadn’t thought about the nourishment aspect of a flower like this. Love the pictures.
I grew sunflowers in my yard for the first time this year. I loved their cheerful faces, but the droopy ones look so sad, now! I’m glad you reminded me how useful they still are to the garden visitors- although I haven’t seen any birds around mine…