Prairie Garden...

It's as if my flowers know...  Friday the 21st is the first day of Summer... surely that is why my gardens are coming alive with more beautiful blooms, butterflies stopping in for a sip of nectar...  bees humming a peaceful little buzz here and there...  content with the choices they have here in my gardens...

Although my Roses are still beautiful, they sense the hot, hot days of Summer are almost upon us...  the forecast is calling for 100 degrees  in several days...  now, the heat lovers take over... I have a special part of my garden for these ladies of Summer...  they are mostly Prairie flowers... (maybe that's why I call it my Prairie garden???)... they thrive in the warmth of the sun after a drenching of cool water each morning... I seem to do the same... after I water them, I spray the fresh, cool water all over me...  lovin' every minute of this wonderful season called Summer...  are you?...  xoxo...  Julie Marie 

Take one vintage French enamel pitcher... add Sunflowers...

And... voilà!... instant happiness...

Every Summer at about this time, I fill our home with Sunflowers...  these are faux for now...  but soon the fields that surround me in our little countryside will be full of glorious happy sunflowers... and I will come back from my walk with my arms full of them...  and place them everywhere in our home...  Sunflowers just seem to say "hey!... it's Summer... be happy!"... I love their beautiful colors and their nodding heads that sway in the breeze and lean whichever way their little faces can get the most sunlight... I've told you before, our home is very eclectic... full of family heirlooms and tresors I love...  Sunflowers just seem to go with the flow... like on our kitchen table...  in the warm glow of the early morning sunshine coming through my breakfast nook windows along with the early morning breeze...   we cool the house down each morning this way, then close the windows and blinds until almost evening...  it keeps it so comfortable inside, without our air conditioner on even most of the time...

Sunflowers in a galvanized bucket sitting on a ledge on the way downstairs...  the morning sun from our open front door shines there as well...

I love a big basketful of them on top of my kitchen cabinets...  soon I will replace these with the real ones I gather... 

And as if my magic...  out beneath our back deck, where I have planted marigolds...  our resident birdies have "planted" sunflower seeds for me...  they are spaced so perfectly, it's almost like they planned it all out and took their time doing so...  perhaps it is their way of thanking us for the seeds and berries and such we provide for them year round?...  so of course, these will be the most lovely Sunflowers of all...  Merci sweet birdies!...

In a previous post, I told you I was going to France for the weekend...  kinda...  sorta... through my wonderful book "Summers in France"...  how I loved seeing the photos once more of the abundant fields of Sunflowers in the countryside in the south of France where my ancestors came from...  love this photo of author Kathryn M. Ireland riding her horse through the fields there...by her home in Toulouse...  near Soual where my family is from...

As I walk through my own fields of Sunflowers, perhaps I shall daydream that I am riding my horse through that same field of Sunflowers in the French countryside... and my horse's name would be Sunshine... and... and...  sigh... xoxo...  Julie Marie