TEXAS SUNFLOWERS

We have an old barn in the back, back, back part of our yard.  There is a family of red foxes who live there.  And, a deer family.  Not a dear family.  A DEER family.  It's a barn.

I don't go back there, to our back, back, back yard, too often.  Mainly BECAUSE there is a family of red foxes and a family of deer that live there.  We have an agreement.  We don't mess with them.  They don't mess with us.  We love watching them play, though.  I'm sure they love watching us do the same.  Probably not as much as we enjoy them.

There are also a ton of sunflowers that have decided to bless us and grow there.  I love looking at them from my kitchen window. And, yes, I know, from visiting Iowa and Illinois, that what we call sunflowers are just a a tiny, annoying weed comparatively. They are OUR sunflowers though, damn it, and they stay with us from June through September when everything else in this state has dried up and is screaming for water.

During a lull in the rain today, I decided I wanted some of the sunflowers IN the house, so I ventured "out there".  HOWEVER, I realized immediately that it would be a battle of major determination with the swarms of mosquitoes to get there.  I made it, though, fought the mosquitoes fiercely and heroically, and managed to clip a few sunflowers before they won the battle and I ran, screaming, back to home base.  I'm sure I was screaming "truce" or "timeout" while running.  STOP IT wasn't working.

BUT, I made it back with FOUR beautiful, brilliant, bright yellow & brown sunflowers.  Texas Sunflowers!!  I put them above the kitchen sink so I could look at them, and the still blooming sunflowers in the back, back, back yard at the same time.  I'm not going out there again without one of those beekeeper's suits, though.

(I love that you can see my Guardian Cat Angel in this picture.  She has watched over us for about 15 years.  We have some rough spots in our life right now, but who knows how rough they would have been without her.  Thank you Melissa H.)

Or, actually, maybe I'll go back "out there", to the back, back, back yard, once these fade away.  Mosquitoes or not.  I can fight the fight.  It's worth it.

Because how can looking at these things NOT make you feel better.  Just Wow.