FOTD, October 10, ?

This spring I planted one of those little foam strips embedded with flower seeds. Don’t know what most of them were but I enjoyed their flowers. I think this is in the mum or daisy family and its quite striking.

It has double layered petals that unfold as it opens. Maybe its in the coreopsis family as its center looks similar. Regardless its lovely.

Enjoy your flowers for just a few more weeks here in the midwest. Forecast say two more weeks of 60 to 70 and them it will drop to 40 or lower at nights. Time for them all to sleep and we will see them next year.

Here in the midwest, late fall and winter can really be dreary and gray, so try to be someone’s sunshine in being kind to them. We could all use a little extra sunshine.

FOTD, October 4, Coreopsis

Cee’s challenge of Flower of the Day always keeps me looking for the floral beauty around me. This beauty is in one of the raised flower beds at the church. We put in 4 raised beds by the community garden for people who have trouble bending over but still want to play in the dirt. Then we put two more between two parking lots for those on walkers who still want to plant or just enjoy flowers with easy access. These coreopsis are large and beautiful.

This one bloom evidently got some extra fertilizer as he was a good 4-5 inches across and shows who is boss of the flower box.

Flowers have a personality too as they share their beauty with us. They seem to smile at us as they sway in the breeze. Take a note from their beauty and smile at others. It shows amazing kindness when you do.

FOTD – October 3, Portulaca

Cee’s FOTD challenge reminds us of the beauty we see in the little things around us. Today the raised boxes outside the church with the portulaca, moss roses, was very colorful. These are very hardy plants that bloom all summer well into the fall and are very drought tolerant. That means they can withstand careless care taking.

They are small blooms only about 2″ in diameter but they create multiple blooms of varying colors; rosy reds, oranges, pinks, yellows and whites.

As we zoom around being busy, let’s not forget the small beauty around us. It can be in flowers, birds or the smile of a child. And as we enjoy this beauty, let’s not forget to be kind. The tiniest bit of kindness we share can sometimes break through the tremendous cloud of misery that may surround someone.

FOTD, August 27

Cee’s Flower of the Day is always a favorite and I am being a bit of a broken record as its Sunflowers…again. This will probably be the last picture of them in my yard for this season because the seeds are forming and the blooms are getting HEAVY. When you have a single bloom that is easily 24 inches across, that is huge, especially when its a good 10-12 feet in the air.

***The bloom is so heavy, the stalk has arched over to keep from breaking.***

I have square “working” hands like my dad but you can still see I could not get the entire leaf in the photo. It measures 16 inches at its widest point.

I still have one stalk left of the multiple blooms variety. They too are dwindling, not only from the storm last week but their seeds make them heavy as well. These blooms are only 6-8 inches across but when you have well over 25 blooms on one stalk, that’s a lot of weight.

But the bees still love them. These multiple blooms brought in a lot of bees this year as well as goldfinches and sparrows.

I close as always with a reminder to be kind. If we as creation from the maker above could show the kindness to others as he has always shown us, what a different world this would be.