Tall

Behold this year's sunflower crop.

Right as it went on the market, our house's previous owner planted the tallest sunflowers he could find. As to why, I can only speculate. Whimsy, madness, maybe a childhood dream. If he was looking for seeds with growth potential, he succeeded.

When we arrived in town to take possession of the place three years ago, a storm had knocked down the tallest one, which was 14 feet if it was an inch. I dragged it out to the driveway, laid it by the garage and eventually chopped it into manageable pieces. ("Eventually" is a key concept in my approach to yardwork and indeed life.)

The rest remained to round out the season and drop their seeds. The next year the seeds came up and we let a few of them come up again. This is our third go round. The only downside to this annual ascent is the annual chopping. But eventually it gets done.

No liturgical calendar (even a wordless one like ours) is free of a time of reckoning. At the moment we're happily still on the rise.

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Update: The tall guy took a beating in Sunday's storms, but the bungee cord is holding.