sunflowers

sunny summer days bring big tall beautiful sunflowers to a nearby park in middleton. every year, steadfast and hardworking volunteers plant and maintain rotating crops on a tall hill (or, more specifically, a recessional moraine, left behind when the leading edge of the glaciers began to melt back). there are rows of corn, vast fields of prairie grasses and flowers, a most impressive rock wall, an old homestead site, and a breathtaking ridge of oak savannah. and in august, there is a field of sunflowers to make your heart flutter. it is really breathtaking. we went last year and loved it, so this summer we headed back with some neighbor friends.

these two ran right up that gravel path to reach the sunflowers. they remembered them from last year, and were as excited to see them as i was.

there were bees on every flower, doing their bee thing. 

cuties in the flowers

friends on a picnic table


and friends leaping off a rock

vast sunflowers, turning their faces to the sun

and after the flowers, we drove across the street to our favorite winter time hangout, blackhawk ski club. this time, we picnicked at the bottom of the ski jump run. 

that ski jump is steep. the kids climbed up it (just the soft straw landing pad, no the actual green jump), and couldn't get down. i had to climb up alongside the jump to retrieve them, and the descent was harrowing. i doubt i did my recovering ankle any favors, but we did get all five kids down safely.