sunflower blossoms

7.24.21 ~ Buttonwood Farm, Griswold, Connecticut

So, last year we visited the sunflower field at the end of the harvest and I got a lot of pictures of blossoms past their peak, all still beautiful in their own way. This year we changed things up and went on the first day day of the gathering in and at a different time of day, evening instead of morning. Also unlike last year we’ve had plenty of rain while last summer we were dealing with a drought.

not much of a sunset…

Each year we plant over 14 acres of sunflowers and harvest approximately 300,000 blooms for your viewing pleasure and to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Connecticut, a non-profit organization dedicated to granting wishes to children with critical illnesses. Sunflowers are available while supplies last. We offer cut your sunflowers with a $2 per flower donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Connecticut.
~ Buttonwood Farm website

There’s a small hill to climb to get a pretty view over a large field and then several paths to follow through the sea of sunflowers. This year I became fascinated with all the blossoms getting ready to bloom and wound up taking more pictures of them than the ones at their peaks!

feeling like we were behind people in a theater looking at the stage!

The crop must drink; we move the pipe
To draw the water back in time
To fall again upon the field,
So that the harvest may grow ripe,
The year complete its ancient rhyme
With other years, and a good yield
Complete our human hope.

~ Wendell Berry
(This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems)

head and shoulders above the rest
view from one of the paths
busy bee

When celebrating, always take your cue from nature and adapt your rituals to circumstances. … Adapting to circumstances, like actively observing on your walks, brings you into rhythm with the natural world. And soon, checking in to a festival becomes second nature, as you remember past experience. … May the spiral of our seasonal journey be blessed.
~ Penny Billington
(The Path of Druidry: Walking the Ancient Green Way)

more and more clouds
vapor trails ~ photo by Tim

Can you tell we’re under the flight path from New York to Europe?

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed and we’re still struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, in spite of being fully vaccinated. The delta variant is running rampant through the stubbornly unvaccinated population, but the concerning part is that even the vaccinated are at risk now. Here in Connecticut we’ve had 854 vaccinated people with breakthrough COVID cases, and 150 of them are hospitalized. We’re back to wearing masks in the grocery store and many indoor places, like our doctors, are still requiring them. So much for eating inside our favorite restaurant for a while… It’s a good thing we’ve gotten used to finding things to do outside!

14 thoughts on “sunflower blossoms”

  1. I like sunflowers very much. I try to grow them here, but it never works. I like your photos and will gaze upon their beauty through the screen.

    I’m worried about the Delta variant, too. We live in an area where being unvaccinated is, from what I can tell, a kind of badge of honor. We’re back to wearing masks, too. Not thrilled about it.

    1. I remember from last summer you commenting about how sunflowers won’t grow for you. Same here, but I gave up trying years ago. A neighbor across the parking lot seems to have some luck, she has a south-facing garden, but they sure don’t last too long.

      I’ll never understand how being unvaccinated can be regarded as a badge of honor. A contractor showed up at our condo last week to give us a quote and when asked he said of course he wasn’t vaccinated. He didn’t get our business. We could all be vaccinated for free by now in this country and people in the rest of the world are begging for what some of us are rejecting. I just don’t get it.

    1. Thank you! Cheerful they are, Eliza! 🙂 I enjoyed these so much that I’m tempted to make another trip out there later this week to see how they’re coming along.

  2. Loved seeing these happy sunflowers, Barbara! Yes, it’s frightening about COVID, isn’t it? I’d have thought things would be back to some semblance of normalcy by now, but instead, we’re still suffering. I’ve had my vaccines, but wearing a mask indoors is small price to pay to keep from getting that virus.

    1. So happy you enjoyed the sunflowers, Debbie! It’s a comfort that the natural world still gives us some beauty and wonder to contemplate and appreciate even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to plague the world. Now I wonder if we will be taking any of our newly planned trips this autumn. 🙁

    1. Thank you, Donna! It felt so good getting out and about after hunkering down avoiding the awful humidity. I think the sunflowers are appreciating this weather more than we are! 🙂

  3. I like that you captured the sunflowers in all stages Barbara. I always think when sunflowers begin to unfurl they look like someone waking up from a nap. I’ve not seen any sunflowers, at a farm nor in the neighborhood, but I imagine we’ll have a healthy crop of them given all the heat, humidity and torrential rains. As you know, the CDC as of today, is now recommending masks in public places in some states. Our state is not considered having a low vaccination rate (63% with a first dose). Our Governor is not making masks a mandate as of today, perhaps since she was just slapped by the courts recently for her strict governing and mandates during 2020. I thought she handled the pandemic well, but then again, I don’t own a business or a restaurant which caused the biggest beefs, but she was strict and we went from horrible stats to admirable stats and she pushed for PPE for our first responders and when the Trump administration refused, she recruited dentists to donate their surplus since they were closed anyway … she was pretty gutsy.

    1. Thank you, Linda! Sorry I’m so far behind with blogging responses… The unfurling sunflowers do look like they could be waking up from a long nap. Good morning, sunshine!
      Your governor is really taking an unjust beating. I keep shaking my head at how stubborn some people can be about taking sensible precautions. I think she handled the pandemic well, too. I saw her several times being interviewed on CNN and other networks. (We even have a couple in our extended family who refuse to get vaccinated and we have refused to let them come for a visit.)
      We had some really nice weather yesterday and today so we’re getting outside while we have the chance! Keeping our distance from others…

      1. That’s exactly how those beautiful flowers look Barbara. I just did my posts for this week and am finally here and am four or five days behind in Reader. Winter will be here and I will likely keep up then. We had a beautiful weather weekend – it rained early today,but was out of here by 8:00 a.m. Yesterday I had a long walk and saw and photographed a fawn! You know I was over the moon about that. Took about 15-20 pictures, but didn’t use even half in the post (though it was difficult not to) as they looked so similar. 🙂
        I never stopped wearing the mask and now will resort to the heavier mask again for the grocery store or errands. I had switched to a lighter fabric mask for Summer. I resent what people have done to our Governor too … the name calling, the threats – the fact that they wanted to kidnap her and set her afloat somewhere … who does these things Barbara? The Detroit Chief of Police resigned on June 1st and will run against her as a Republican. The people protesting the use of masks or getting vaccines is beyond my comprehension. And now in Missouri, pretending that you’re not vaccinated, but getting vaccinated on the sly leaves me shaking my head. I don’t blame you at all for restricting extended family members who’ve not had the vaccine. I hope that both you and Tim are able to get a third vaccine, if and when the CDC decides that is a good course of action to take, as the pandemic rages on with this Delta variant. Sigh.

        1. For sure, winter is a good time to catch up with many things. 😉 Can’t wait to see the fawn! Lucky you! 🦌 I’ve been thinking of doubling up on the masks again, too. Tim ordered some N95s. Sigh…. The vitriol some people express against mask requirements baffles me and scares me because so many of them get violent over it. We had protestors here with signs saying “Unmask our children!” and “Let our children breathe!” as if masks were harming rather than protecting the little ones. And on it goes…

          1. I was so excited Barbara … my little fawn will “debut” Wednesday. Such a cutie pie and I felt lucky to see it. I wonder if I should use my N-95 mask for the eye doctor on 08/31. My dentist appointment is 10/18 – not sure I want to wait that long as it will be worse by then … they said peak for the Delta variant at mid-September. I bought the masks when doing a silicone caulking project and they are still good (they expire in 2022 I believe). That might be better than double masking. As of today, the US has the coveted 70% but not all are two shots and the stats are as bad (if not worse) than at peak with the original COVID virus. I have heard the protesters for children to be unmasked and it makes me shake my head. The kids are not vaccinated so highly susceptible to the virus. I heard an elderly woman on the national news saying a mask was not for her as it cramped her style and takes away her identity. That is just crazy talk.

          2. Crazy talk, indeed. Oh no, mid-September, just when we want to go to North Carolina. It’s not looking too promising for our trip… 🙁 This little homebody doesn’t want to go anywhere anymore, at least until cabin fever sets in, and then a little walk on the beach cures that… I have a sinking feeling this virus and its variants will be with us for quite some time. I know the vaccine is supposed to make the illness milder if we do catch it, but I was listening to a vaccinated woman on TV who caught it in that Provincetown cluster and she said she was terribly ill for four days, couldn’t catch her breath and had had a wicked headache, unrelenting cough, fever and sore throat. She was a doctor. And that would be the mild version of the virus… Keeping our fingers crossed that all our precautionary measures will keep us safe. Wishing you safe visits to your doctor and dentist, Linda!

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