Sunflowers on the Front Porch and Thinking About Last Summer

Part 1 Cut Flower Garden

Cold rainy weather has finally arrived here in the Pacific Northwest, which makes me think back fondly of summer and the little cut flower business Erica grew and I helped with all summer long.

Together we dug up the back yard lawn to turn it into a winding grassy path lined with flowerbeds.

When the flowers bloomed we arranged them into centerpieces, then made bouquets for sale at our little roadside flower stand out by the entrance to the farm.

On warm summer mornings I painted watercolor sketches of sunflowers and zinnias...even took time to close my eyes, quiet my mind then breathed in deeply their floral beautiful freshness. Then just for a moment the whole world is a beautiful place with peace and harmony all around....zen. That's what flowers can do for the soul, do you know what I mean?

In the summertime I like to wake up early when the bright orange sun is still low in the sky, when the air is thicker and crisper. Shimmery dew drops cover the lawn dance in the sparkling sunlight. The horses yawn and stamp their feet with impatience as they hang out by the garden fence waiting like they they do every morning for me to come out to feed them.

And now the flowers have faded away with the summer. There's next spring to look forward to and planting time again. Did you plant a garden this last summer? If so tell me about yours in the comments below...

A Picture and A Thousand Words

A little side note here...Nina Boyd, a fellow artist blogger, wrote a nice little review of my art on her blog A Picture and A Thousand Words.