Apres le deluge, moi

Sunflowers. Big, jolly, yellow, cheery - I love driving past fields of them in France, all turning their heads to face the sun.


Way back in about March I bought Emily a Sunflower-Growing Kit consisting of a packet of seeds and a tall pot. Plant the seeds, it said in the instructions, and then, when they start to grow, thin them out and keep only the three strongest seedlings.

Well, she planted the seeds and they started to grow, but there was no way Emily was going to take part in the massacre of dozens of tiny sunflower seedlings. So we gave the pot of seedlings to my mother, who thinned them out, left three, and planted all the others in other pots. Because she has very, very green fingers, all the others grew.

So there they are, in pots positioned all over the place where the caravan isn't. We were looking forward to their yellow, happy faces bathed in the warm June sun.

But, of course, of recent weeks there has only been rain, and rain and rain.

So far one bedraggled flower has opened its petals.

I admire its courage and it's good to see, in a summer that doesn't feel like summer should.