Thank you for visiting my blog “Life and Random Thinking” today.

This is my third post of the my “eight posts by September 1” challenge and I hope you comment and share your thoughts.

My blog has changed recently – the biggest change is no more ads! I am glad about this as I had no control of the ads shown and sometimes I wasn’t thrilled about what readers were subjected to ad-wise.

Secondly my website has simplified to http://www.dfolstad58.com and so easier for me to share with someone who says – really? what is the website?

Today’s post was inspired by my thoughts from two days ago in my front yard. – David

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At the front edge of my yard my son has cultivated plants that welcome the quail. They love running under the bushes of Oregon Grape which is native to the area. There is also a beautiful red maple and tall grasses and lots of different types of succulent perennial plants.

The deer munch on the soft cacti in the winter but they manage to survive.

But now in August (now) there is probably 50 or so different sunflower plants that range in height from 3 feet high to 12 foot giants are crowding the grasses and succulent flowers. They are the visiting plant tourists, just here for the season.

These sunflowers are like a waving wall of bright yellow flowers that beckon and wave to the people who walk by but also shelter the baby deer that find shade underneath.

I was admiring the sunflowers two days ago and thinking about how none of these sunflowers were here in February. By October they will be done and we will have remove the sinewy stalks. The view change to the street is drastic and we miss them, and the winged visitors they bring.

In spring we used to plant sunflowers but much less so these past years because the sunflowers now drop enough seeds that they don’t much of an assist from us.

Sunflowers take about 120 days to reach full size I believe but along the way, they face obstacles.

The four-footed type in my yard.

I was admiring one sunflower and it had about 9 (nine) flowers on it but it was only about 4 feet tall. I remember wondering in July if it would flower at all because when it was growing, it was often nibbled on by deer. But there it now with all these beautiful flowers.

Just beside that survivor is another sunflower that was knocked down by deer so it was parallel to the ground. Another fighter, it managed to flower and has even added new stocks that reach vertically at a right angle to capture more sun and flower more!

Just behind these fighters are some of the tallest flowers and some of these of just one single flower, and now they have grown so heavy, that they droop down and the face of the flower faces down.

New flowers are still arriving now but many flowers unveiled themselves long ago. First they welcomed the bees who tiptoe in the center and the bees feet turn golden like they are wearing socks!

The flowers change and gradually evolve into seeds and that is the status now of most of this little city. Bees still dart hither and yon but mostly now the plants sway from the tiny birds that seek the seeds. Flapping their wings and hanging at impossible angles they strip the plants of their seeds. Amazing fliers they bob and fly in and amongst the plants fearlessly. Some with yellow corporal stripes on their backs, and some birds with yellow chests – all tiny and seriously cute to admire.

In their short lives these sunflowers bring so much joy.

They face the sun, facing east in the morning and follow the heat and light through out the day ending up facing west.

Bursting from a tiny black seed, they warm up in the spring and reach for the sky. Along the way some will have the best location, and have an early start to reach for the sun. Eventually they flourish and become the tallest of the tall.

Others face the danger of animals who love to chomp on the young plants, but they still manage to flourish and welcome the foraging bees, and the soft chirps of the small birds.

Others still are trodden and removed from vertical to ground adjacent – but they will find a way to flourish regardless.

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Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

– Helen Keller