Flower of the sun...

"Bring me the sunflower crazed with the love of life."

-Eugenio Montale

Driving through the country, there were miles of fields of finished sunflowers. 

Some had been cut already. many looked like this. 

They were captivating. We stopped.

It was like landing in another world.

The giant stalks hardened by the summer sun, still holding wilted heads.

Each flower is a world in itself. It is not one flower, 

but a flower head which contains hundreds of tiny flowers. 

 little flowers each contain a seed. 

We broke them open and ate the soft nutty centres, before the birds.

The fields would have been amazing sights in full golden bloom. 

This time it was not to be.

To imagine yellow as far as the eye can see would be something.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. 

But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. "

-Winston Churchhill

Velvety & oh so detailed.

A new golden. 

An autumn hue different from the summer.

This did not disappoint. In its own way it was spectacular. 

Containing a beauty richer for the destiny these flowers fulfilled.

They will become  oil, animal feed, mulch. 

I wish we had thought to run through the field.

Heads bowed with quiet reverence.

"I experience a period of frightening clarity 

in those moments when nature is so beautiful. 

I am no longer sure of myself, 

and the paintings appear as in a dream. "

-Vincent Van Gogh

It was a funny little stop on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

It certainly recharged me and made me smile all day.

We shall not cease from exploration, 

and the end of all our exploring will be

 to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. 

T.S. Elliot

sparkle & twirL *