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Sunflowers and Marigolds in November
I found a sunflower field nearby. I’d heard rumors of wildflowers earlier in the summer but I never managed to make time to go see them. So when I got an email saying it was the last week to see them, I made a reservation and got my butt over there! And I’m so glad I did.
Of course, it did happen to be the hottest, dryest, sweatiest day ever that Bug and I visited but no matter, you gotta do what you gotta do when you are a self-proclaimed flower expert.
Flowers, flowers, flowers! You know how I love flowers. I keep trying to talk my girls into opening a flower stand but sadly, they are not interested. I’d open my own but I hate working holidays.
Bug and I dressed up in our flowy white dresses and pranced around the dry dusty fields, posing like silly fools next to every kind of sunflower we could find. Big ones, little ones, yellow ones, brown ones, even a few white ones!
They are so sunny and happy.
I’m so happy that I have a kid who is just as crazy about dressing up and posing as I am. I mean, I did kind of start her early.
She definitely has her own look and flaunts it proudly.
We made a friend of one of the staff guys working there and he happily followed us around taking photos. I think it gave him something to do on an otherwise slow day. I’m sure we entertained him with my crazy ideas of running through the field like farm girls back in time. I didn’t care. It made a great photo and we got a laugh.
I was partial to the marigolds since orange is my favorite color. Aren’t they pretty? Yes, they stink and aren’t the prettiest-smelling flower but I don’t care because they are bombs of orange happiness!
Besides taking photos, we also got to cut our own flowers to take home. We brought our own trusty clippers and went to town. They only allow you to cut 15 flowers per cup which was actually plenty but it was a bit tricky finding stems that weren’t loaded with flowers. If you weren’t careful you could cut a stem with fifteen flowers on its stalk and that would be your bouquet, one big tree of flowers. Not that that is terrible but I had more of a full rounded bouquet in mind. Sunflowers are known for looking sideways and making bouquets very difficult to style.
Obviously, we managed. I look just like my mom in the top left corner. I think I might have to illustrate that for my Sue Bea calendar I’m working on. Flowers for the win!
I’m definitely in a better place in these photos than I was in the ones in my last post. Things have been getting better inside my head. Working out and eating less AND not drinking is a pretty winning combination. I do feel great. I’m scared I’ll give in and fall back in my old ways but so far so good. Temptation is a very real part of everyday life and I can’t set myself up for failure. I just have to keep on keeping on. Slow and steady can attain great things.
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Starring in the Brenda Show
It’s that time again. Time to do some catchity-catch-upping. I feel like a million years has past since my last post. New York seems like a lifetime ago. But what has happened in between? I don’t know! A whole lotta work and stuff and stuff. The stuff and stuff is the stuff I can’t talk about. Nothing to worry about just the usual “not my story, not my privilege to tell” kind of thing. Boring, I know. If I could talk I could fill up novels! But I can’t so let’s talk about the weather.
Summer has slowly morphed into fall and I couldn’t be happier about it. My arms are mystified by these things called “sleeves” that they have suddenly found themselves enveloped in. My arms hate sleeves. You know how some kids get used to wearing shorts and then when their parents force them to wear pants in the winter, their legs feel like they are suffocating in cloth? That’s me and my arms. They like to be free like a bee. But! It has been chilly in my air conditioned office and sometimes on my early morning dog walks so I have braved a sweatshirt now and then. Crazy talk!
I made some fig tarts, school has been in full swing and I’m starting to have a regular balance between work and home life. It’s been a long time coming but getting an office has finally formed a truce over who gets to have more of my time. It’s really nice. But I do miss my family.
I’m still going to the Sticks weekly to hang with my mom. My dad is gone for a month or so to drive a truck for the potato and beet harvest in Idaho. We miss him dreadfully but my mom is a trooper! She walks Spreckles, the dog, by herself up to the park with her new knees and we are so proud of her.
Bug and I are up to our usual mother-daughter dates in fun coffee shops. The rest of the family is not into food like we are so they miss out. How cool is The Den looking these days? It’s a pretty special spot. Amazing food too.
In other news Bug and Joon went to their first Homecoming Dance! It was big news in our house. Bug tried to pretend it wasn’t a big deal at all but she was the one that forced me to take her shopping for the perfect dress that didn’t exist. We went to the mall, we went to a boutique thrift store and finally in the end she found her dress for $20 at a regular thriftstore. She didn’t even try it on, because they don’t have fitting rooms. We just eyeballed it and it fit perfectly! Well… after I took in the top by two sizes and cut off the dusty hem from some bride who must have worn it dancing the night away. I say that’s a perfect fit.
It was so cute to see them with their “dates” aka the guys they played Minecraft with the whole year everyone was forced to stay home during the pandemic. I’m thankful for their group of gamer friends. They kept them sane. I can’t say I know what goes on while they are gaming (other than a lot shouting and laughter echoing from the girl’s rooms) but they seem to all be good students and basically a good influence on our kids.
How cute are they all dressed up? How awkward am I trying to insert myself into the middle of everything?
They had a great time and danced the night away in their tennis shoes.
Also in big news: Suki had a baby and she’s been living with my mom! The baby’s name is Blair and she’s the best baby ever. Very even tempered and pretty sweet. So of course I had to do a photoshoot.
Suki is a great mama. I hope she gets to stay with my mom for a long time so we can all be part of Baby Blair’s life. I’ve missed my nieces and it’s so good to have at least one of them back here for a while.
I think that’s it for now! Hopefully I get back here again before November with more news because this once-a-month blogging is pathetic!
