I am participating in Random Hearts Thursday today, so I’m sharing this sunflower that I cut from Ava’s garden.
Sunflower heart
Alas, the sunflowers are no more and a good deal of the seeds were stolen by squirrels, but this special stem endures in pictures.
As an extra treat, here’s a glimpse of my favorite sweetheart:
Have a super day!
How do you know when a sunflower is ready to harvest?
The bees won’t tell you.
The ladybugs won’t tell you.
The passion vine masquerading as a tree won’t tell you.
The grubs don’t know.
The four o’clocks don’t care.
Sahara’s not talking.
The silk floss stumps might know, but who can understand their accent?
The marigolds think you should figure it out for yourself.
The branching sunflowers, they’re too pretty to be bothered.
The cut sunflowers have more important problems.
Sahara still isn’t talking.
The ripe sunflowers themselves might give you a hint, but…
…it’s the squirrels. The squirrels will let you know.
How do they get the shells onto the TOP of the flower?!
So several of the sunflowers that Jess planted in Ava’s garden have been harvested and laid out to dry. She didn’t get much into the garden before she got too big to dig anymore. The sunflowers and a smattering of marigolds, that was it. We tried spreading a wildflower seed mix but nothing took. I started some new seeds in peat pots this week, so hopefully those will give us a little color before the summer is over.
Speaking of seeds and color, I harvested a ton of hollyhock seeds. I started to put them into packs of 40 seeds each, which worked alright for these
The purply ones
and these
The whitish ones
since their seed heads took longer to mature. However I had literally over a thousand seeds from this one:
The pretty pink one
Instead of counting out seeds I just threw about 100 seeds into each pack, and stopped after 12 packs. I went through the plants yesterday and collected roughly another thousand seeds (pink and some white). Please, if you’d like some hollyhock seeds email me your address and I will give you more than you can use. Bees love love love them.
And in a month or so I’ll have some sunflower seeds to share, too. Giant Greystripe, I think.
And last but not least, a gratuitous pic of Ava looking like the sweet babydoll she is.
On Tuesday morning, Dr. Preema made it happen.
Introducing Ava Grace
Here she is! 6 pounds 11 ounces, 21 inches long. A far cry from the 8+ pounds Dr. Preema predicted, but a very healthy size for a newborn.
Sleeping angel.
She is so very precious. Of course we have to think our children are precious; otherwise we’d wise up and eat them while they’re young and tender, before they get smart mouths and body odor, before they even think about repeatedly making poor decisions from which we must repeatedly bail them out, only letting a select few rise to adulthood for the sole purpose of perpetuating the species.
Not that I ever thought about it.
Jess and Ava
Still, my first grandchild is a terribly wondrous, beautiful little human. I think we’ll forgo the barbecue and let this tiny girl perpetuate.
Jess is doing great. She’s glad she had a cesarean; the epidural was the worst part, and if you’ve ever experienced or witnessed childbirth you know that in a regular delivery the epidural is the BEST part! She is still restricted for a couple weeks but she is up and about, trying to deal with hormones that flip-flop like a slinky descending stairs. Daddy has been doing a great job of taking care of them. He’s clueless, of course, and so is Jess for that matter, but they are doing well so I bite my tongue. Ava is in good hands.
Ava and Oma
I have been an Oma for four whole days, and so far I love it! I knew stuff I didn’t even know I knew, ya know? Like how to calm our little Ava down even when she’s in the throes of a hot red anger. Or how to keep her awake to eat. Or how to keep my Jessie from becoming a panicked mama wolf pacing the room whenever her baby cries out of reach. And how to do these things in the middle of the night with no sleep.
The new family
The new family went home last night, to Daddy’s house since this house is a madhouse and, with this horrid weather, a hot house. I thought it best, since he has been doing such a good job, that she spend the weekend there in the A/C. I’ll take care of them Monday when Daddy goes to work.
And so will Uncle Andrew.
And Great-Aunt Shelly
And Papa Joe
And Grandpa will visit.
And Great-Grammy
And Godparents
And lots of other people I don’t have pictures of. Jessie and Ava will be well cared for.
Being born is hard work!
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J9 in L.A. 