After a regular bombardment upon my few dear readers with all manner of sunflower posts these last couple months, things stopped rather abruptly more than a week ago in part because the prize of the patch finally fell victim to some ratzafratzin’ arboreal rodent. I closed the book a few days later on this year’s sunflower stuff the day before we went on vacation last week when I made the decision to clear Coyote Corner of the few admirable flowers that still stood despite poor soil conditions and being pretty beaten up by the unstoppable force of ravenous squirrels who think they own everything (and perhaps they do).
So in the interest of closure both to my sunflowery escapades and the summer season, allow me one final picture posted  of the last (and thankfully so far squirrel-ignored) sunflower to bloom — brought to you in part by this being the first morning since Susan and I got back from Kings Canyon/Sequioa it’s actually been sunny and blue-skied (click it for the really big picture):
This bloom (replete awesomely with a busy bee who flew in perfectly just for the occasion) resulted from one of four afterthought seeds poked last June into the dirt of an unused pot that I plopped by the backdoor next to the rogue mint and suddenly runaway jasmine.
As it stands I’m drying the blooms of several flowers I was able to keep out of the clutches of the squirrel gang, so I should have a nice cache of seeds for next year, but don’t think documentation of my green thumbage has come to a close… not with our pumpkin plants (fingers crossed; clickable at right) doing so well.
UPDATED (5:52 p.m.): And just like that, the bloom’s gone. I went outside and found it beheaded… a trail of petals its only remains. I’ll again take consolation in that the cursed squirrel waited until I’d properly photographed the flower before commencing to devour it. Small favors.
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