Warm Memories

January 25th, 2012. Published under Uncategorized. No Comments.

It had rained the night before. The fog was thick and the air was cold against my face when I walked my kids to school this morning, but I was comfy in my fake leather jacket.  I opened my computer when I got home and found myself perusing the photos I had taken last summer. Cheerful images chased the gloom away from the corners of my mind.

My favorite picture. Isn’t she pretty? My lemonqueen sunflower. Last spring was the first time I ever planted a sunflower.  When summer came I was rewarded with not just one, but lots of golden beauties. My neighbors were drawn to it. Some of them stole a flower or two, which infuriated and delighted me at the same time. The product of my hardwork was simply irresistible. Jesus, my nextdoor neighbor,  always complimented them. They were my pride and joy.

The resident grasshopper. I sprayed him with a solution of water and detergent. It wasn’t good enough. Next I sprayed him with a water and chili pepper solution. Didn’t work. So I said, “OK, you can stay. Just don’t eat too much or i’ll squash you with a rock.”

Almost as big as a plate in diameter, mammoth sunflowers don’t last as long as the smaller lemonqueen variety. Their petals curl up just after two days of being fully unfurled. They start drooping. It’s probably because they’re heavy with seeds. They’re not the best variety to plant if you want to attract birds to your garden. Nobody even bothered to snack on their seeds. They must have been too tough and too big for tiny mouths.

By September my neighbor no longer said, “O, they’re so beautiful!” He just asked me, “What’s wrong with them? ” Autumn was coming and their time was up. I was feeling a bit sad to see them waste away. On a particularly hot day, as a sat by my daughter’s bedroom window, I heard a distinctly different bird sound. Not the usual house sparrow bird call. They seemed to be coming from my dying sunflowers. Six birds were hanging upside down, feasting on the seeds of my wilted lemonqueens. It was a feeding frenzy! They were not just house sparrows or house finches. They were American Goldfinches! But wait? I was puzzled why they were gray instead of  bright yellow green. I found out that the American Goldfinch starts molting in the late summer. Their bright yellow green feathers start turning gray. Wouldn’t it be nice to have watched them in their more colorful attire?

It warms my heart to know that I have given God’s tiny creatures some moments of excitement and satiety. I’ll be planting lemonqueens again this coming spring.