There is only one sunflower in the gardens this year. Here he is presiding over all. He's no respecter of privacy either as he can often be seen glowering over the fence. I don't know why I'm calling it a he either. They just look like they should have a personality. Maybe I should give him a posh name like Vincent, but then again I think he looks more like a Frank. Frank is standing in for the real sun this summer so we are making the most of him while he is here.
In other news, the woodpecker was seen again recently. He landed on the lamp-post at the front of the house. I, of course, missed everything. We were also happy to welcome a garden warbler to our front tree this year, though I think he might have just been passing through. After the frenzy of the spring and early summer, the birds seem to have gone very quiet. Barring the odd sparrow and blue tit there is very little bird activity going on this week.
The sun has become an infrequent visitor to our gardens in recent years. If we can't have the real thing then we have decided that we'll grow the sun. Last August I introduced Frank the Sunflower to the world. He was the shining light of the garden for a few weeks but eventually his light waned and we made him into sunflower seed bread so that the last day of August became The Day We Ate Frank. Any Frank fans can still see him by looking at last years August blog Archives or by clicking the highlighted links in this post. We still talk about Frank. He was a legend. But every legend has to step aside one day to let the new kids on the block have their day in the lime-light. This year we grew more sunflowers. We tried to grow different varieties too. One of the top shiners this year is the guy in these pictures. Let me introduce you to Raymondo Sunshine. And guess what? On the day I pointed my camera at him the real sun came barging onto the scene.
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